This space presents works of sound art broadcast by a multi-channel sound system (eight loudspeakers installed in the ceiling) providing an immersive and collective listening experience. The works, broadcast in turn over a period of several months, are compositions specially created for the Sound Gallery, addressing contemporary themes. What they all have in common is that they incorporate extracts from recordings from the four corners of the world, produced at different times and preserved in the MEG's sound archives (Archives internationales de musique populaire). "Luwe tom - The flutes" is a sound tale based on a collective project initiated eight years ago, centred on recordings made in the 1980s by ethnologist Daniel Schoepf among the Aparai-Wayana people of Amazonia.

These recordings are at the heart of a network of connections between humans, animals, plants, spirits and even various Western institutions (the MEG, the Musée des Confluences, and research teams in Paris and Basel). In this way, these recorded sounds can be seen as entities endowed with a power: that of bringing together, exchanging and transmitting the importance of sound and hearing in Amazonia. The sound tale features Dondon, the main voice of the recordings, and her brother, who take part in an initiation ritual involving physical, spiritual and musical tests linked to animals. It explores their dreams, memories and the deep connection between initiates, animal spirits and ancestral rituals.

"Luwe tom - The flutes", 2024
Original composition by Matthias Lewy and Axiwae Apalai Wayana
Octophonic sound installation Mixing by Matthias Lewy
MEG Inv. RE21-120'55