The cross : As an artist, what are your sound requirements?
Thomas Dutronc: I am not hurt ! In music, I am sensitive to compressed sound. When you take a file and remove data from it and overwrite it in MP3 format, I really realize that. I had worked on my music to put it in this format, and I couldn’t find its warmth, especially on the bass… It’s very annoying!
Fortunately, with platforms like Qobuz, we return to super sound quality, we regain depth. But listening to music without nuances has done so much damage that the ear has become accustomed to the impoverished sounds, it cries out for them. It has become a genre.
The bad compression used excessively causes intense fatigue in the ear. I thought we could rest in silence, but the hearing damage is irreversible. And more and more in music, it’s war on volume, on sound impact.
Does this attention to natural sound condition your creations?
T. D. : The main thing in music is to keep the nuances. Everyone knows it when listening: sometimes the song starts out soft and the temptation is to crank up the volume, when all of a sudden, it bursts forth fortissimo! In jazz, as in classical, we don’t have this overwhelming sound compression. We can go through all the nuances, from the softest to the most intense. The beauty of the timbre is very important. It is necessary to make hear the sensuality of the sound, the wood until the screeching of the instruments, the power of the brass, the soul of a voice…
I love music ! And in particular, the sound of vinyl. It’s amazing what you can discover on an old, well-pressed, thick vinyl, listened to on a tube amp and good speakers. You feel like you’re in the room with the musicians. For example, I have a vinyl of one of the very first Quincy Jones albums, Go West, Man ! It sounds almost better than if we were in the room. I listened to it on CD, it wasn’t too bad, then streamed it to my phone, and there, it was downright horrible…
How to make this difference heard by the public?
T. D. : My record company, Universal, is making an effort. When we give it back a “master”, they ask for a lot more data than for a CD, they ask for 96 kilohertz. This requirement can improve quality. With fiber, 5G, or 4G, we can have good streaming, we can win the battle of the ear. We can find music that swings, that grooves… And we can stop destroying our ears!
“Knowing how to listen, knowing how to talk to each other”, what does the theme of the UNESCO Sound Week that you sponsor inspire you?
T. D. : For me, the need for silence comes before the need for music. We can only listen well if we know where to put our ears and brains. Listening is the minimum of politeness and respect for human beings. It should be natural, but modern society creates all kinds of aggressive stress-inducing sounds. The map of real estate prices and that of decibels are modeled on each other! Luxury is peace, calm and silence.
Noise creates violence that reflects on our behavior. A calmer soundtrack can only do good. This is why I am very honored to lead this fight with Unesco’s Sound Week. It seems obvious that you have to meet the other, question their certainties and listen to the person opposite. However, it must be reaffirmed, because too many debates take place in violence and cacophony.