The main reason we travelled to Paris was to attend a series of talks and workshops at the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM). The program covered a wide range of topics. Most of the talks I attended were given either by practitioners developing tools for sound design, music production, or performance, or by researchers working within specific disciplines. This created a productive balance between technical innovation and theoretical inquiry, and provided insight into current developments in the field.
In addition to the talks, several workshops were offered, one of which I found particularly memorable. It was led by the artist Stegonaute. His workshop focused on the use of tape loops as both a physical and musical practice. He works primarily with compact audio cassettes, not just as carriers of sound, but as instruments in their own right. Starting from commercially produced tapes, he repurposes and transforms them, shifting their function from storage media into tools for composition and performance.
A central part of the workshop involved physically manipulating the cassette tapes. By dismantling, cutting, and reassembling them, participants were able to create continuous tape loops. These loops introduce elements such as repetition, phase shifting, instability, and gradual degradation, all of which become defining musical parameters rather than imperfections. This approach reframes what might traditionally be considered technical limitations as creative opportunities.
He also demonstrated how recording onto these loops produces unpredictable results. Because there is no precise synchronization, timing drifts naturally, and the resulting textures evolve in ways that are difficult to control. This unpredictability is one of the reasons why the method is particularly well suited to ambient music, where strict rhythmic structures are less important and sonic layers tend to blend into one another.
Another important aspect of the workshop was the exploration of analog recording technologies, specifically vintage 4-track cassette recorders such as those produced by Tascam and Fostex. These machines introduce characteristics such as noise, saturation, dropouts, and fluctuations in pitch (commonly referred to as wow and flutter). Rather than attempting to eliminate these artifacts, Stegonaute emphasized their expressive potential and encouraged participants to incorporate them into their compositions.
He also introduced simple but effective modifications to the recording process. For example, placing a small piece of aluminum foil over the erase head prevents previously recorded material from being removed, allowing for continuous overdubbing and the creation of dense, layered textures. Additionally, because these machines operate in a single direction, reversing the tape physically enables reverse playback without any digital processing, resulting in altered envelopes and unfamiliar temporal structures.
Beyond the technical aspects, the workshop also addressed broader conceptual ideas. The reuse of old and often discarded cassettes raises ecological and historical questions, challenging more linear narratives of technological progress. Tape loops, in this context, can be understood as carriers of memory, where fragments of previous recordings are preserved, transformed, and recontextualized over time.
The workshop was structured as a combination of hands-on experimentation, collective listening, and improvisation. Participants created their own loops, shared them with the group, and explored layering and live manipulation techniques. The emphasis was not on technical precision, but rather on developing a more attentive and sensitive relationship to sound, material, and time. Prior to attending this workshop, I had very little knowledge of cassettes or looping techniques, so I learned a great deal from the experience. One aspect that particularly surprised me was the fact that a cassette can contain multiple independent tracks, which further expands its potential as a compositional tool.
