Digipack CD including a 24-page booklet in French and English. INA grm is pleased to present Le Projet « Ouïr » by François Bayle, a 62’ minute piece composed between 2015 and 2019, published for the first time on CD digipak. The French language can hear (entendre), listen (écouter), grasp (comprendre). “Comprendre” aims too far. What is grasped has already been digested by the mind, away from the ear. “Entendre” is poorly distinguished from it—mainly because of “en- tendement”, which is virtually the same as “raison” (reason). That leaves us with “écouter”: the only one amongst the three that exclusively refers to the ear. Whoever listens stretches out his or her ear and expects to hear something and understand its ins and outs. However, this is still too nice, too urban. The idea is to break out of these customary dimensions and enter more dif- ficult and risky territories. This is the “Ouïr” Project (Le Projet « Ouïr »).

This archaic verb, which is now obsolete and that we can’t conjugate properly anymore, invites us to exercise a proto-liste- ning, awkward, uncomfortable and unsure of its aims—yet with the promise of new horizons.