Pierre-Yves Macé’s music stands at the nexus of contemporary classical, electroacoustic composition and sound art.

Born in 1980, France, Pierre-Yves Macé studies music (piano, classical percussion) eventually turning to self-taught composition.
 His first recording, Faux-Jumeaux, was released on Tzadik, John Zorn’s label, in 2002. It was followed by several records on Sub Rosa, Orkhêstra and Brocoli. An important part of his work is based on recorded sound, document or archive, used as a prime material. His work-in-progress Song Recycle for piano and loudspeaker, first composed in 2010, deals with a selection recordings of amateur vocal performances pilfered on YouTube.

His music has been performed by Ictus, Ensemble Intercontemporain (under Matthias Pintscher, Enno Poppe), Cairn, l’Instant Donné, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Hong Kong Sinfonietta under Gábor Káli, Les Cris de Paris under Geoffroy Jourdain, pianist Denis Chouillet, british soprano singer Natalie Raybould, reed player Sylvain Kassap, Amôn string quartet, collectif 0 (“zero”), EIE (Ensemble of European Improvisers, dir. Jean-Marc Montera). Macé has been invited and/or commisionned new pieces by the Festival d’Automne à Paris (monographic concert in 2012, at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris), Villette Sonique (Paris), Ars Musica (Bruxelles), Les Musiques, MIMI (Marseille), AngelicA (Bologna), Santarcangelo (Rimini), Akousma (Montreal)… He opened for Matmos, Richard Chartier, Andrew Bird, among others.


He has collaborated with artists Hippolyte Hentgen, writers Mathieu Larnaudie, Philippe Vasset, Pierre Senges, Julien d’Abrigeon, Christophe Fiat, directors Sylvain Creuzevault, Joris Lacoste, dancers Anne Collod, Fabrice Ramalingom, Marinette Dozeville and Marianne Baillot.
 In 2013-2014, he wrote short miniature pieces for Gérard Pesson’s radio program, “Boudoirs et autres” on France Musique.

He has won the 2014 “hors les murs” grant (French Institute) for the Contreflux project (deconstructing Muzak archive), which involved a one-month residency in the US.

In 2016-2017, he is guest composer for the Orchestre de chambre de Paris

In 2017, he co-writes the show Suite no3 of L’Encyclopédie de la parole with stage director Joris Lacoste

As an accomplished scholar of musicology (University of Paris VIII), Macé has published the book Musique et document sonore (“Music and Sonic Documents”) which describes his studies of the relationships between documentary sounds and musical composition.