Chœur tac-til was spurred on in 2012 by Natacha Muslera (musician, improviser, composer) and continues to be a collective research in process, which has been hosted since 2013 by GMEM, a national center for musical creation, located in Marseille. During these residencies, Natacha develops experimental writings distanced from the visual field, in companionship with the choir, to which is integrated times of free improvisation practice and care through breath-voices.

"Our acoustic vocal performances take place indoors in the dark. Voices, voice doors, plant and plastic materials, participate in this cinema experience for the ear. Outside, the public's eyes are closed. We try different contexts of listening, of perception. 

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Japan, Kyoto, Kansai Forests, Kobe, Osaka

Chœur tac-til began imagining this journey and creation after discovering the many resonances with vocal and musical practices in Japan. In particular, the story of the "Goze", the itinerant blind women musicians who roamed Japan from the Middle Ages until the 90s.

These women played the shamisen, and their partly improvised songs were infused with the sounds of the environments through which they passed (insects, wind, snowflakes...). They were also a kind of nomadic radio, telling the political and social stories of their country, and their songs are on the verge of disappearing.

In a rare and revolutionary move, they had managed to turn their disability into a powerful social tool, thanks to a solidarity fund that protected them and gave them the opportunity to help each other.

In 2022, Lionel Marchetti is invited to join the choir with his electronic device for the new sound creation (France-Japan), and two residencies are held at the GMEM. They begin to elaborate a delicate research between acoustic voices and amplification, spatialization.

"At the edge, voices and electronics reflect each other, disturbing spaces, putting each other in abyss, electronics chisels the inaudible of voices, under bass, ultra highs and poses its ethereal layers in ruptures with the organicity of the sounds of mouth.

Two residencies will take place in 2023, prior to their departure for Japan in May. The sound creation is nourished by walks in the forests of Kansaï, listening to sound ecosystems whose biodiversity is exceptional, meetings with ethnomusicologists specializing in Gozé, a shamisen player...

This creation for voices and electronics will be performed at the end of 2023 at the GMEM. It will be a great celebration because even if Chœur tac-til continues its life, this evening closes ten extraordinary years of residency at the GMEM, a decade of trust and freedom.

A film is shown in the first half, revealing the choir's years of vocal practice and human and sonic complicity, in an unfamiliar place whose story is interwoven with that of the Gozes.

Natacha Muslera invited filmmaker Stefano Canapa to make the film with Lionel Marchetti (sound recording) and Chœur tac-til, in Japan. Lionel and Stefano have a sensitive, spontaneous approach to filming and improvisation, which suits the choir perfectly.

Du ciel dans les oreilles, Drop of ear, will be a polyphonic film for blind and sighted people, in 16 mm, black and white, shot in Japan.