“Le Tombeau de Freddie / L’Internationale” consists of two components: one is a concept text entitled “Six Perspectives in Digital Music”. In this text we present our theoretical conclusion concerning “presence via apparatus” in today’s digital technology. The name “Rokugaku” proposed here is historically the first term for “recorded music”, which distinguishes it from music in general.
Another component is the acoustic realization of “Roku-gaku” in “L’Internationale” based on the well-known revolutionary song to the music composed by Pierre C. Degeyter in 1888. It is sung in Japanese by a computer-generated voice of wellknown rock star Freddie-M.
The voice is synthesized in real time by the original software programmed with Max/MSP, not using any sampling techniques but a perfectly rule-based formant of synthesis techniques alone. The brothers’ interest is in creating an acoustic reproduction of the real world. The challenge of “Le Tombeau de Freddie / L’Internationale” is to bring an origin of sounds “which-has-been-there” into existence through synthesized sounds alone.
“Le Tombeau de Freddie / L’Internationale” asserts the “fact” that Freddie-M has actually sung “The Internationale” in Japanese.

Concept by the Formant Brothers (Nobuyasu Sakonda & Masahiro Miwa). Acoustic Realization: Nobuyasu Sakonda (based on a song composed by Pierre C. Degeyter in 1888). Music Video: Hiromitsu Murakami

Masahiro Miwa (JP), born 1958. Composer. In 1995 he was appointed as a lecturer at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and since 2000 he has been a professor at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences) in Gifu, Japan

Nobuyasu Sakonda (JP), born 1961, musician / media artist. Associate professor (Computer music /sound media art / media theory) at the Department of Visual Media, Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, http://web.mac.com/nsakonda/