Shaping Sound Collective
Within AMAC works a constantly evolving group of artists: "Shaping Sound," which means creating the sound, but also of "giving it a form" through other, more tangible or visible, artistic expressions.
The group experiments a brand new approach to contemporary performing arts creation, bringing together different artists around an initial project, so that, through a profound artistic dialogue, they can bring to life a performance composed of their works, all interdependent, but which can also be presented in different forms or compositions.
Thus, the show can become an installation, a book, a concert, an exhibition, a film, or a performance, reflecting a society where the boundaries between genres and forms are increasingly blurred and unnecessary, and artistic exchanges are increasingly transversal. A new way of experiencing artistic creation in a world that is now interconnected and multimedia.
The Shaping Sound Ensemble is a flexible ensemble made up of great professional musicians who, under the direction of Matthieu Mantanus, participate in the collective's projects.
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Shaping Sound's projects
Music | visuals
2025
This is (no) Mozart offers a completely new take on one of the most iconic classical works. During this performance concert, Mozart's Symphony in G minor will be performed in its entirety (in a version for nine instruments), but between each of its four movements... will be slipped a work for electronics and acoustic ensemble, mixing violins and oboes with percussion and digital sounds! A contemporary composition that draws inspiration from Mozart, takes up some of his themes and motifs, but at the same time offers a striking contrast to the listener. A perspective that, instead of transporting the audience to the world of the 18th century, instead immerses (with love) the venerable symphony in a contemporary and scathing context. An unexpected point of view, which above all demonstrates the timelessness and modernity of the great Austrian composer. Like our times, the concert combines light and sound, and projects the audience into a visual universe which symbolizes the journey of each artist: an attraction, mixed with a profound respect, for an immensity whose contours he tries, in vain, to probe.
This is (no) Mozart
Music | dance | video
2024
BreakBachDance is six dancers, one visual artist, and two musicians. Nine artists take to the stage to reinvent J.S. Bach's first suite in an urban, rhythmic, and powerful soundscape.
The Baroque suite reconnects with dance, its primary characteristic, and three hundred years later, its Gavotte, Guigue, and Menuet inspire both the contemporary dance of the artists of KFM Crew and the original, electronic, and uninhibited music of Swiss musician Matthieu Mantanus, with Guillaume Bouillon on cello, against a backdrop of a red world shaped by the videos of Swiss artist Philippe Berbier.
//NEW// A solo Sax & electronics + video version is also available, with the name RED BACH. In collaboration with the saxophonist Jacopo Taddei.
BreakBachDance
Wolfgang's Dream
Music | theatre | visuals
2023
The group's first production, Wolfgang's Dream, recounts a night that could have been the one when Mozart imagined his 41st symphony. Through the dreamlike world of Philippe Berbier's drawings, Matthieu Mantanus's live music with electronic overtones gradually weaves together all the musical motifs of this symphony, delving into their influences, from Johann Sebastian Bach to the rain hitting the windowsill. In this whirlwind of images and sounds, thanks to the lyrics by Claire Wenger and Clément Reber, a voice rises: that of Mozart's sister, another musical prodigy whose talent—as she was a woman—was sacrificed to marriage. Or perhaps these are the words of Anna-Maria, Wolfgang's mother, so involved in her son's musical education? That of Constance, his wife, or that of Aloysia Weber, his first love, a talented soprano?
Shaping Sound Ensemble
The Shaping Sound Ensemble enriches our production project. Designed with a flexible approach, the ensemble embodies the Shaping Sound spirit season after season, under the direction of conductor, composer, and pianist Matthieu Mantanus: building bridges between the contemporary classical world, exploring new concert formats, new sounds... in short, experimenting 360°. Our first challenge: the production of This is (no) Mozart!
For more information, write to hello@shapingsound.org - to request to join the ensemble, fill out the form.
Eléonore Giroud, violon | Nina Ramousse, violon | Priscille Oheninger, alto | Fanny Balestro, violoncelle | Sylvia Minkova, contrebasse
Yu-Hsuan Kuo, flûte| Eva Cecere, hautbois | Gabriel Cadas, basson | Félicien Fauquert, cor
