Blasé - Forum Session

With his generous pop style, irresistible groove, and transatlantic influences, Blasé takes to the stage with his debut album BLABLABLA and its reissue. His conscious and daring inspirations are revealed in tracks such as “I Need It (from You),” recorded with the late Cola Boyy and a nod to the Bee Gees, and “Not Now,” where filtered house meets a disco-blues guitar riff and rap by Jwles and Valee. Author, composer, producer, and singer, Romain Hainaut aka Blasé is a French-American artist who navigates with disconcerting ease between old-school hip-hop, R&B, funk, jazz, and new wave. A languid voice that is never jaded, melodies that hit hard: 27 tracks — 27 slaps. (cf.Caramba)

The performance will be followed by a presentation of Soundworks technology developed at Ircam by the ISSM team.

Rhythm Roulette is a modular musical environment for algorithmic composition and real-time performance, developed in HTML and web technologies. It allows users to instantly generate complete musical structures—rhythm, harmony, bass, and melody—and then gradually transform them through parametric adjustment.

The software can be used standalone as an autonomous instrument, or integrated with computer-assisted composition software. Its MIDI output can be routed to a DAW, hardware or analog instruments, or any device that accepts the MIDI protocol, making it suitable for both studio and live performance. The architecture is based on independent modules synchronized by a high-resolution central clock (tick system), operating internally or slaved to an external source via Web MIDI/MIDI, ensuring reliable time synchronization.

Rhythm Roulette offers a reversal of the traditional composition process: rather than building a piece by accumulation, the user immediately generates an overall musical form, which they then refine in real time by modifying parameters such as rhythmic density and style, event probabilities, temporal placement, register, legato, or harmonic complexity.

The generation strategies are directly derived from my composition process and formalize fundamental musical parameters aimed at achieving simple and effective results. The rhythmic module is based on probability tables organized into style presets, which can be modified in real time, producing coherent variations without freezing the patterns. The harmonic and melodic modules are musically constrained: the notes generated respect tonality and chords, ensuring overall consistency while allowing for controlled variation. The interface, deliberately minimalist, is designed as an instrumental control surface, encouraging listening, improvisation, and performance.