François Parra usually uses sound as a structural material ofdevices and interactive installations. Thus he’s more familiar with relations between sound and space than with composition.

This time for Radia listeners, he conceived a trajectory-piece whose title, ma[Marseille], sounds as a series of singular points of views on the city where he lives – and maybe as an ironic reference to MySpace?… This stammering title also calls into question what one means with that word: Marseille has become a product as well, a trademark, that local decision-makers are selling – some would add ‘cheaply’.

ma[Marseille] is a work on the meaning of the words through how they sound. François captured melody, phrasing and accent in inhabitants’ voices and returned them into a musical form. In counterpoint he processed disembodied synthesis voices. His composition questions the words that have been pinned on his city. Actually, Marseille has for ages and from all sides been covered with words, images and legends, always contradictory and continually renewed.