André Almuró (3 June 1927 – 17 June 2009) was a French radio producer, composer, and film director.

Early years

Almuró was born in Paris in 1927 and studied piano from an early age. In 1946, influenced by

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and

René Daumal René Daumal (; 16 March 1908 – 21 May 1944) was a French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic and poet, best known for his posthumously published novel ''Mount Analogue'' (1952) as well as for being an early, outspoken practitioner of ...

, he founded a literary journal titled ''Les Cahiers Sensationnistes''. In 1947, he joined Pierre Schaeffer's ''

Club d'Essai The ''Studio d'Essai'', later ''Club d'Essai'', was founded in 1942 by Pierre Schaeffer, played a role in the activities of the French resistance during World War II, and later became a center of musical activity. In 1942 the French composer and th ...

'' on RTF (Radio Télévision Française) as a radio producer. During the 1950s, he produced many radio plays based on French writers, with a preference for Surrealists like

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

René Char René Émile Char (; 14 June 1907 – 19 February 1988) was a French poet and member of the French Resistance. Biography Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of the four children of Emile ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007; born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French ''département'' of Maine-et-Loire) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were note ...

1950s

Almuró used increasingly difficult and provocative texts for his radio plays, like

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...

's homoerotic poem ''Le Condamné à Mort'', for which Almuró created electroacoustic music in 1952, or

's ''Van Gogh, Le Suicidé De La Société'' in 1958, a text written 1947, the same year as ''Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu'' o Have Done With the Judgment of God written for radio but withheld from broadcast by directors in 1948. In 1957, his meeting with 15-year-old Pierre Clémenti influenced Almuró to start recording Clémenti's poetry readings and make him his assistant. Clémenti, born 1942, later became actor and film director, collaborating with Almuró on several films. When Schaeffer founded his

Groupe de Recherches Musicales A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...

in 1958, Almuró joined as a member for several years, but soon launched his own, independent recording studio in the early 1960s. Here he produced incidental music and collaborations with other artists, like singer

Colette Magny Colette Magny (31 October 1926 – 12 June 1997) was a French singer and songwriter. A charismatic performer who did not record until her thirties, her work encompassed blues, jazz, protest songs, experimental music and spoken word recordin ...

, with whom he published two LPs, ''Avec'', 1966 and ''Bura Bura'', 1967.

Teacher and filmmaker

In 1973, Almuró became a teacher at Paris' Sorbonne University (UFR d’Arts Plastiques, Faculté Paris I Sorbonne). Other teachers included writer

Dominique Noguez Dominique Noguez, (12 September 1942 – 15 March 2019) was a French writer. He won the Prix Femina in 1997, for ''Amour noir''. He taught the history of film at the Sorbonne. He was an early defender of Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq ...

and contemporary artist

Michel Journiac Michel Journiac (1935–1995) was one of the founders of the 1960s and 1970s body art movement in France, called "Art corporel". During these years, many artists started to use the human body as their material. Accordingly, this artist used his ow ...

. Students included film maker Stéphane Marti and musicians Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric Cordier. In 1976, he created a live performance titled ''Partition'' with French contemporary artist

Ange Leccia Ange Leccia (born 19 April 1952) is a contemporary French painter, photographer and film-maker. He works in Paris primarily with photography and video. Life and career Leccia was born in Minerbio, Barrettali commune, in Corsica, and studied fin ...

, and founded the Son-Images-Corps performance group with students. His opera ''Close Up'' was premiered in Poitiers, France. In 1978 he directed his first film, ''Cortège'', with music by electroacoustic music composer and Almuró student, Philippe Jubard. Almuró's cinema is overtly homoerotic and has been described as ''"un cinéma d’orgasme et de désir entre deux hommes"'' (pleasure and desire between two men) by French film director Christian Lebrat.From French film distributor Le Peuple Qui Manque Almur�
retrospective
2007. From this date, Almuró directed more than 30 films, including ''Alliage'', 1985, ''Point Vélique'', 1986 and ''Corps Intérieur'', 1988.

Selected works

Radio plays

*1952 ''Le Condamné à Mort'', by Jean Genet *1955 ''Nadja Etoilée'', after André Breton with Maria Casarès and Roger Blin *1958 ''Van Gogh, Le Suicidé De La Société'', by Antonin Artaud

Electroacoustic music

* 1958 ''Croquis aux Percussions'' * 1958 ''Erostrauss'' * 1966 ''Phonolithe'' * 1966 ''Poésie de Cruauté'' LP (EMZ 13514) * 1966 ''Avec'', LP with

* 1967 ''Bura Bura'', LP with Colette Magny * 1967 ''Va-Et-Vient'' * 1968 ''Mantra 107'' * 1969 ''Prolégosphère'' * 1978 ''Terrae Incognitae'' (oratorio) * 1979 ''Boomerang, Prelude'' * 1991 ''Le Troisième Oeil''

Films

* 1958 ''Les Enfants de Misère'', with Pierre Clémenti * 1959 ''Le Deuxième Monde'', with Pierre Clémenti * 1960 ''Poèmes'', with Pierre Clémenti * 1973 ''Pièce de Musique'', with Pierre Clémenti * 1978 ''Cortège'', music by Philippe Jubard * 1985 ''Alliage'' * 1986 ''Point Vélique'' * 1987 ''L'inopiné'' * 1988 ''Corps intérieur'' * 1989 ''Le Troisième Oeil'' * 1990 ''Clones'', with Yves Pélissier * 1991 ''Continuum'', with Denis Le Rue * 1992 ''Rumeur'', with Jean-Luc Guionnet * 1994 ''Littérale'', with Jean-Luc Guionnet * 1996 ''Tropes'', with Jean-Luc Guionnet * 1998 ''Entéléchie'' * 2002 ''Chaos''

Books

*2002 ''L'Oeil Pinéal : Pour Une Cinégraphie'', Éd. Paris Expérimental

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Almuro, Andre French classical composers French male classical composers French experimental musicians Musique concrète French radio presenters 1927 births 2009 deaths 20th-century French male musicians