With “Echoes”, the ‘Bureau Des Arts’ puts participative music in the spotlight
04/13/2021
In 2020, during the first lockdown, the members of the IÉSEG ‘Bureau des Arts’ had already struck hard by launching their first album (Blackwaters), entirely recorded remotely and in only 10 days. They did it once again in 2021, but this time opening this musical adventure to all the students of the School. The result is Echoes.
Making art accessible to all students
“We wanted to show that, despite the lockdown, despite the current context, we could continue to play music… Rather than making a second album among ourselves, we wanted to open it up to all IÉSEG students, even non-musicians, and give them the opportunity to create, write or record their sounds. From this adventure, our collaborative album, Echoes, was born”, explain Céleste BRAUN, in charge of this project, and Océane TOMIETTO, coordinator of the album.
For 3 months, the 7 members of the BDA* accompanied 20 young artists remotely, working in a project mode, as if in a company. They met remotely to set up the project, had individual interviews with each participant to define their expectations, their skills and their musical style, set up sound groups according to each participant’s desires, held regular meetings to keep in touch, motivate and relaunch the project… and finally, during the final sprint, they coached all the participants in singing and mixing, once again remotely, before recording and mixing the entire album.
An album listened to more than 16,000 times!
For the launch of Echoes, in March, a home-concert was recorded and filmed as if live. On this occasion, the artists met for the first time and even played some songs alltogether for the first time! To this day, the album counts more than 16,000 streams on all platforms (Deezer, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music), a real success!
Echoes (“an ambitious, surprising and diversified album”, according to Céleste BRAUN), a heterogeneous mix of styles and inspiration, is the very symbol of the richness of all the students who took part in this realization. “We didn’t want to impose any style or theme, we wanted it to please as many people as possible and for everyone to have fun with the project,” says Océane TOMIETTO.
With Echoes, the BDA has shown that, despite the current complex context, IÉSEG students know how to undertake and lead large-scale projects, and above all… that one should never stop playing music!
*2020-2021 Bureau des Arts: Céleste Braun (in charge of the project), Océane Tomietto (coordinator and communications), Paul Matthieu-Colin (mix), Henri Laurence (mix), Lola Baron, Guillaume Debril, Laurent Aubry.