Long-term, shared experiences: the experience of collective musical improvisation
Temps long, vécus partagés : l’expérience de l’improvisation musicale collective
"Filigrane" Journal #31/2026
Revue « Filigrane » n°31 (2026)
Published on Friday, July 25, 2025
Abstract
Free collective improvisation is commonly presented as a practice that seeks to create a musical performance spontaneously by deliberately avoiding the use of an "explicit referent". In its absence, improvisers rely heavily on their experience to act and react in a performance context, constituted by different socialities, the acoustics of the venue and, more generally, the environment. In the context of a given ensemble that has been practicing regularly over a long period of time, this experience acquired through the events encountered is enriching, both individually and collectively. This experience can be described as leading to a state of "having lived a sufficiently rich life not to be surprised by an unexpected event". In the context of this call for papers, our aim is to carry out an in-depth exploration of the multiple facets of the notion of musical experience, based primarily on observation of the daily practice of improvisers, in public performance but also in rehearsal or in experimental laboratories.
Announcement
Argument
Free collective improvisation[1] is commonly presented as a practice that seeks to create a musical performance spontaneously by deliberately avoiding the use of an "explicit referent" (Pressing 1984). In its absence, improvisers rely heavily on their experience to act and react in a performance context (Savouret 2010), constituted by different socialities, the acoustics of the venue and, more generally, the environment. In the context of a given ensemble that has been practicing regularly over a long period of time, this experience acquired through the events encountered is enriching, both individually and collectively. This experience can be described as leading to a state of "having lived a sufficiently rich life not to be surprised by an unexpected event" (Barberousse 2015, p.11) or, in other cases, to the point of being able to welcome such an unexpected event and integrate it into the creative process. We can therefore postulate that experience is a fundamental element in ensuring the success of performance. It also plays a crucial role in the development and transformation of an ensemble, as well as in the construction of the human-machine relationship within a technological environment.
In the light of these elements, it can be argued that an experienced music ensemble is a group with the appropriate tools, constructed and adapted in real time to respond to the musical situations that arise for the musicians. We are thinking here, for example, of ways of co-constructing form and, in particular, negotiating the end of an improvisation (Parker 1997).
In the context of this call for papers, our aim is to carry out an in-depth exploration of the multiple facets of the notion of musical experience, based primarily on observation of the daily practice of improvisers, in public performance but also in rehearsal or in experimental laboratories.
Tracks for reflection / Topics of research
Research methodologies and research-creation
In order to study collective musical improvisation in its evolutionary dimension, it is essential to use research and research-creation methods that allow processes to be observed over a long period. How can we measure and analyse the phenomena of evolution and sedimentation of aesthetics and practices? For example, what are the potential contributions of a genetic approach to improvisation (Canonne & Guerpin 2018), as a musicological analysis of the different performances, public or otherwise, of a given ensemble? Which (auto)ethnographies can be implemented?
Collective experience in improvised musical practice
Based on the above definitions of the concept of experience, our aim is to understand how collective experience is constructed in an ensemble of improvisers. Although it is well established that musicians who play together frequently tend to think about improvisation in a similar way (Canonne & Aucouturier, 2015), what about, for example, the familiarity they develop and the verbal exchanges that take place during rehearsals and informal moments? And how does individual experience feed into collective experience?
Experimentation and the construction of musical experience
An experiment can also be understood, through the scientific process, as the establishment of specific conditions that allow for experimentation (Saladin 2015) and the observation of phenomena that would not be perceptible in the context of public performances. It can thus be seen as an amplification of ordinary experience, on which it is ultimately based. What strategies for collective work and training are implemented during rehearsals in preparation for public performance? What are the criteria for selecting or excluding results of these strategies, and how do they contribute to the ensemble’s experience? How does this influence the creation of the musical ensemble's sound identity?
Musical renewal strategies
In the case of ensembles working over a long period of time, what means do they adopt to prevent habits from becoming fixed and to hinder the creation of a sound identity? How do they manage to produce new music over a long period of time?
Conversely, some players in the field of free musical improvisation adopt a radically different approach to those with a rehearsal-based approach (cf. previous paragraph). They stand out by creating improvisational situations in which the unexpected is maximised, for example through ephemeral encounters between musicians (Borgo 2002), which are a means of avoiding the sedimentation of relationships between them and the emergence of a collective sound identity (Bailey 1993). Does this incessant search for the unexpected lead musicians to establish strategies for succeeding in this type of ephemeral performance? If so, how do these strategies unfold and develop over time?
Experience, technologies and the human-machine relationship
Finally, we seek to question the possible roles of new technologies in creating new experiences. If we postulate that "improvised musical encounter is modeled as a negotiation between improvising musicians, some of whom are people, others not" (Lewis 2007, p.23), then the above questions can be extended to the human-machine relationship. We know that this relationship can evolve, through long-term practice, from an understanding of the machine as a tool to a conception of the machine as a co-creator (Assayag 2021, Thelle & Waerstad 2023). How does the development of improvisational computer environments unfold in the long term? How can the experience of playing and familiarisation lead humans to better understand the agency of machines?
In 2008, at a time when publications on this theme were still rare in France, Filigrane published an issue devoted to improvised music. Since then, interest in this practice has grown, as evidenced by the increasing number of books on the subject.
The aim of issue 31 of the journal is to provide a new overview of research on improvisation focusing this time on free improvisation and long-term experience.
We are inviting researchers to submit research, and research-creation or artistic research articles, but we also want to give voice to ensemble musicians so that we can hear their stories, through interviews for example, and learn about their collective experience of different improvisation practices.
Submission guidelines
Proposals must include:
- Title
- Name and affiliation of the author(s)
- Text up to a maximum of 1000 words
- 5 keywords
- Short biography up to 350 words
The linguistic revision of the text will be the responsibility of the authors.
For any questions, please contact filigrane@gmail.com
Timeline
-
Submission of proposals/abstracts: September 15th, 2025
- Selection of contributions: October 20, 2025
- Receipt of complete articles: January 15, 2026
- Sending to reviewers and feedback to authors: February to April 2026
- Sending of final version after revision: June 1, 2026
- Publication: Fall 2026
Proposal submission and contact
- Caroline Boë : s.filigrane@gmail.com
- João Fernandes : joao.diasfernandes@univ-lille.fr
- Nicolas Souchal : nicolas.souchal@ircam.fr
Editors
- João Fernandes (CEAC, Université de Lille)
- Nicolas Souchal (Musidanse, Université Paris 8 ; équipe Analyse des Pratiques Musicales, IRCAM)
[1] In the context of this call for papers, the term ‘free improvisation’ seems justified given its common usage among contemporary improvisers. Nevertheless, it has been and continues to be questioned and contested. The expression ‘free collective improvisation’ therefore refers here to practices resulting from the development and hybridisation of a multitude of stylistic currents ranging from free jazz to noise music, including European free music, post-cagean indeterminacy, electroacoustic music and drone music. This designation attempts to encompass sometimes contested, even contradictory, terms such as open improvisation, non-idiomatic improvisation, absolute improvisation, and total improvisation, including their sub-aesthetics and sub-genres.
Subjects
Date(s)
- Monday, September 15, 2025
Attached files
Keywords
- musique, musicologie, improvisation musicale, expérience, temps long
Contact(s)
- Joao Fernandes
courriel : joao [dot] diasfernandes [at] univ-lille [dot] fr - Nicolas Souchal
courriel : nicolas [dot] souchal [at] ircam [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Joao Fernandes
courriel : joao [dot] diasfernandes [at] univ-lille [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .
To cite this announcement
João Fernandes, Nicolas Souchal, « Long-term, shared experiences: the experience of collective musical improvisation », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, July 25, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14flw
Author(s)
João Fernandes
-
IDREF : https://idref.fr/254568181 -
ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8244-8583 -
VIAF : http://viaf.org/viaf/40162060515551402497
Nicolas Souchal
