Strasbourg is a family affair.

Yérri-Gaspar Hummel' s grandparents had a bakery in the city centre, opposite the cathedral. The future creator grew up in the town of Nordheimm in a bilingual French-German family. His parents, musicians, travelled the world but defended the Alsatian repertoire. The Franco-German border runs in the veins of the musician, who studied in both countries.

When they think of Strasbourg, music lovers immediately think of Musica. But it is not the only festival in the city dedicated to creation! You created Exhibitronic, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year...

These two projects go back a long way... When I was in high school, in 1997, I was hooked on techno and electro music. I created a first collective, Utop. The association was renamed UT in 2004: at the time, I wanted to create an alternative cultural centre in an 800m2, four-storey building in the centre of town! One month later we realized that it was far too ambitious: too many logistics, not enough support, finances ... Finally, I launched the Exhibitronic festival in 2010 with a program of concerts, installations, performances and workshops with a focus on electronic music. The aesthetics are very varied, from psychedelic guitar to prepared piano, but the common point is that the festival has been bringing together, for the past 10 years, artists who, through gesture, define another way of creating music, proposing another concert experience. One of my great memories is the 2012 edition where we gave the very first electronic guitar concert in the Strasbourg cathedral, with Duncan Pinhas!

And then you created another structure that promotes musical creation in Strasbourg. Lab'Ut, a laboratory, a branch of your festival. What happens there?

Strasbourg did not have a residency laboratory for musical artists. Lab' ut was born in the wake of Exhibitronic. We needed a permanent place, to host artists in residence, over the long term. In 2017, I bought an apartment in the city center and started major renovations. Three years later, the studio is ready and fully equipped. We can record two to three people and make demos for artists. It is also a place of residence, a space of experimental composition specialized in multichannel music, which welcomes all musicians: ensembles from Strasbourg as well as students from the Rhine High School of Arts. Multichannel and space music are exploding: it is a new method of spatializing sound, which reproduces the physical sensation of sound. It's like walking through a forest and hearing the sounds of nature all around you. Except that you are sitting on your couch, with headphones on your ears. This requires special recording tools. Lab'Ut is on social networks and the 2021 program is online: we regularly organize online round tables on art and technology. *

How do you make an already busy audience want to come and discover the experimental music you defend?

We must not hesitate to break the codes and vary the formats. For example, in September 2019, we organised a workshop with the alternative club Kalt, which is to Strasbourg what Bergain is to Berlin! We set up three multichannel studios and ten artists participated: Hear students and techno enthusiasts. The concert lasted all night, from 11pm to 7am... and 800 people came to dance!

I think artists should be given opportunities to explore. For the past two years, I have been a beekeeper. I have an apiary in the heart of Strasbourg, on the quays of Saint-Jean. I record my bees a lot and I offer artists - musicians, but also visual artists - the opportunity to come and observe the hives, for their work. The functioning of a beehive has a lot to offer artists. I plan to install harmless microphones in the hives soon, to further my work on bee music.

How are you experiencing the pandemic?

As you can see, she is not stopping her projects: Lab'Ut has still released its programming, even if the meetings have been held online for the time being. For me, as a composer, the Covid crisis has even been beneficial. I locked myself up in a studio and looked back over all my creations over the past 20 years. Thanks to this retrospective, five albums will be released by 2021-2022. With the Lab'ut team, we're even thinking of launching our own label. I'm particularly interested in creating music videos, to make our music circulate more...

Interview by Suzanne Gervais