Encyclopédie de la parole / Lacoste, Macé, Roux, Ictus

For the final instalment in its series of suites, Encyclopédie de la parole has chosen to let you hear directly the recorded voices from its sound collection. No longer is it actors that give life to lost voices, but the speakers themselves who return from the past to speak with their own voices, their unique tones. As in an opera, they are supported by live music in order to shift our listening and reveal hidden textures. A kind of theatre of spirits, but with well-alive ghosts.


Encyclopédie de la parole is an artistic project exploring the spoken word in all its forms. Since September 2007, Encyclopédie de la parole has been collecting various recordings and indexing them according to specific phenomena. From this collection, including more than a 1300 documents freely available on its website, Encyclopédie de la parole makes use of these recordings to produce works of sound art, performances, shows, conferences, concerts and installations.

Ensemble Ictus is the major Brussels-based contemporary music ensemble. Founded at a time when ensembles saw themselves as mini-orchestras made up of highly technical soloists, Ictus mutated into a multifaceted collective of creative musicians, dedicated to experimental music in the broadest sense. More infos, audio and texts on

Sébastien Roux imagines new listening situations. He uses algorithms, games, movement, spatialisation, and diagrams to articulate two complementary notions: the perception of form and the forms of perception. His work takes various aspects: guided listening sessions using speaker systems, concerts with projection of graphical scores, sound installations, and site specific performances. He has a multidisciplinary master’s degree in sciences and technologies for music.

Pierre-Yves Macé’s music stands at the nexus of contemporary classical, electroacoustic composition and sound art. An important part of his work is based on recorded sounds, documents or archives, used as a prime material for instrumental writing. His music is published by Tzadik, Sub Rosa and Brocoli labels. Monographic concerts of his works were programmed by the Festival d’Automne à Paris in 2012, 2016 and 2020. He has written many scores for theater and dance shows.

Joris Lacoste has been writing for theater and radio since 1996 and has been directing his own performances and shows since 2003. In 2007, he founded the collective Encyclopédie de la parole, within the framework of which seven shows were created. Joris Lacoste has also created numerous performances and participated in several exhibitions in museums and art centers. He has also translated three plays by Shakespeare for the director Gwénaël Morin.


Co-presentation with:
Culturgest, February 1, 2023