First collaboration KYOTOGRAPHIE x N’SO KYOTO
Yannick Paget composed an immersive soundscape for the exhibition of Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre : « The Shape of What Remains »
The presence of the absence
Yannick Paget deeply shares Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre’s fascination with ruins.
Creating individual soundtracks for each floors of the Jushin Kaikan Building and for each pictures of the series, Yannick Paget explores the ghostly memories inhabiting these abandoned spaces.
Ruins are time made visible: they bear witness to what once was while revealing the fragility of all human constructions. They remind us that reality is never stable, but is shaped by layers, erasures, and survivals.
In this spirit, Paget conceives a sound creation that explores the ghostly memories inhabiting these abandoned spaces. Rather than providing an illustrative accompaniment, he imagines an almost invisible sonic material that subtly and immersively shapes the visitor’s perception. The sound unfolds as a delicate presence, difficult to localize, a diffuse trace emerging from the walls themselves.
Recording
The soundtrack consists of field recordings—captures of real spaces, natural reverberations, urban breaths, and acoustic fragments—transformed and spatialized to create a unique sonic environment for each image. These textures are complemented by brief instrumental phrases recorded by the musicians of N’SO KYOTO: suspended motifs, fragile timbres, and stretched resonances that embody echoes of the past.
Together, these elements form a shifting sonic architecture in close dialogue with the photographs, inviting the audience to experience the ruin not only as an image, but as a sensitive space inhabited by invisible presences.
Technical Installation
Each image in the exhibition is paired with its own individual sound using Spat Revolution, a spatial audio software platform. The installation uses 36 individual speakers to create an immersive soundscape.
“Spat Revolution changed the way I work with live sound and sound installations. Immersive sound reflects the way we naturally experience the world around us. My goal is to create the most natural listening experience possible—to forget the sound system and simply feel that the music is alive. Spat Revolution made this possible through its exceptional sound quality and its versatile approach to immersive audio. The possibilities are endless.”
— Yannick Paget
The musicians of N’SO KYOTO were recorded within the building itself to capture its unique acoustics and to create a deeper connection between the images and the music.
N’SO KYOTO
Cello : William Prunkl
Clarinet : Mami Nakamura
Euphonium : Mikio Kawahara
Soprano : Yumiko Tanimura
Date April 18th – May 17th
Venue : Jushin Kaikan Building
The soundscape is supported by Fondation France-Japan Sasakawa
Press coverage:
Kyoto Journal
The entire exhibition is held together by the subtle presence of a soundscape created by composer Yannick Paget. Each section of the building and corresponding series has its own instrumentation and theme. Original music, recorded in the building itself by N’SO, the Kyoto-based ensemble led by Paget, is blended with field recordings and plays throughout the exhibition: in the theater space, a euphonium and the faint whir of a vintage film projector; the staccato of a plucked cello for Gunkanjima; romantic clarinets in Paris; the chimes and bells of the Gion Festival ring out in abandoned Kyoto; all accompanied by haunting vocals.
Fisheye
Une bande-son propre à chaque salle, imaginée par Yannick Paget, apporte de la profondeur aux images. Réels ou non, ces paysages dépeuplés laissent l’esprit songeur. Plus que jamais, le futur semble incertain tandis que la nature reprenant ses droits s’impose en toute sérénité.
Travel and leisure Asia
The exhibition is elevated even further by a sound installation from Yannick Paget. Each track has been created specifically for the photographs, with ambient sounds of Kyoto live recorded and played back on the rooftop. For sure, one of the festival’s most immersive experiences.
WWD
The sound design by Yannick Paget enhances the immersive experience of the exhibition’s world.
Time out
The exhibition has been sound-designed by Yannick Paget in a new collaboration with the artists, adding an immersive sonic layer that makes the imagined decay feel all the more visceral.
