OWO - The Open Women Orchestra was formed as part of an artistic residency in the  digital creation centre "Le Cube" in Issy-les-Moulineaux - France in June 2018 on a proposal of Polyphones. This network created in 2015 for and by women, aims to raise awareness and facilitate exchanges and creations between composers in the field of sound and musical experimentation.

 

Initially conceived as a collective composition laboratory, OWO proposed to fuse the singular energies of seven female composers: 

 

Sabina Covarrubias, Alice Guerlot-Kourouklis, Emmanuelle de Héricourt, Marieheüln, Gaël Segalen, Emma Souharce, Christine Webster. Each one coming from different horizons and sensibilities (experimental, noise, pop, field recordings...), but sharing the same creative requirement of electronic music. It is at the end of three days of residence, lived as an evidence, that the orchestra took shape, forging its own identity and a specific way of understanding sound and space.

 

OWO produces improvised music based on a structure, a musical framework, and a work of previously defined sound textures. The scenic restitution offers an immersive experience where the audience is invited to walk around the room during the performance to appreciate the sound spatialization. The musicians are placed in the centre of the room, allowing the audience to move around and observe the ongoing processes.