Laetitia Sonami

Laetitia Sonami is a pioneering French sound artist and performer known for her innovative use of technology. After studying with Eliane Radigue in France, she moved to the United States in 1977 to continue her studies of electronic music at SUNY-Albany and the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills college.

Sonami’s sound performances, live-film collaborations and sound installations focus on issues of presence and participation. She applies new technologies and appropriated media to achieve an expression of immediacy and intimacy through sounds, places and objects.

A pioneer in wearable technologies, Sonami devised new gestural controllers for performance and created several unique instruments for live performance. In 1991 she created her first "lady’s glove", an arm-length tailored interface fitted with movement sensors that allowed for fluid, gestural control of sound, visual and mechanical parameters. This invention embodied Sonami's vision of electronic music as a fully embodied experience. It became her primary instrument for the next 25 years and is credited for inspiring many offshoots.

In 2013 she created the Spring Spyre which applies Machine Learning to real time control of audio synthesis.  The "lady’s ball(s)" conceived recently, is the simplest instrument she can imagine.

Sonami has collaborated with  film makers and musicians, such as Paul DeMarinis, SUE-C, James Fei and Zeena Parkins. She has exhibited and performed at major international festivals and venues and is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Awards in the Arts, and the Foundation for Contemporary Music Award. Sonami has mentored many young artists in the field and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills, and Bard College MFA program.

She currently shares her time between Oakland, US and Dangu, France.

Black Truffle recently released an LP with two recent works by Sonami and Eliane Radigue, and Lovely Music just released a solo double CD »Dangerous Women«.