La Symphonie has a story: it began in December 2020 in Burgundy, at the Château de Monthelon. I hosted a celebration around music — nearly all the invited friends were musicians — and within 48 hours we had transformed the gathering into an impromptu, intimate festival.

In just a few hours, the castle became a musical playground full of surprises — a concert in the dovecote, a dance party in the chapel…

The name Symphonie stuck, along with the idea of an improvised, collective creation, though the place and means evolved. Since 2021, this symphonic spirit has taken root at the Monastery of Ségriès, envisioned as a playground for musician friends. The encounter with the Bhandari family - Ilikaa, Noé, and their parents Annemarie and Dhruv - was like a magic wand - they opened the doors of the monastery wide, allowing us the freedom to invent a hybrid format— something slightly outside the world's usual hustle.

A space for exploration, for trial and error, for breakthroughs — a place to reconnect with the very essence of “play,” to reaffirm our poetic and collective desires, to learn from one another. With no financial motives, just for the joy of planting seeds.

Originally developed with Priscilla Telmon, then joined by Julien Colardelle and later Julie Henoch, La Symphonie has always been filled with kindred souls — mostly people that I previously filmed during various sonic journeys. It’s composed like a sonic soup with wildly diverse ingredients. Some have even called it an exploration of “imaginary folklores.”

Within just a few days, encounters take place, hearts open, bodies begin to move, all culminating in a day created together — the Symphonie proper. It’s the public opening for an afternoon and evening of shared performances born from the week’s collaboration.

This is probably not a residency like any you’ve known — it’s as much a playground as an improvised research lab, a space for encounters with fellow makers and transmitters, mainly musical (about twenty), but occasionally reaching into other forms — dance, photography, writing…

Creating this kind of space outside the demands of touring or recording gives profound meaning to our poetic lives. So welcome, one and all, to the wonders yet to come, the sparks we will summon. And to the next adventures, to invent together.