Acousmatic: a rare word

Derived from the Greek: adjective, indicating a sound that one hears without seeing what causes it.

It describes an experience which is very common today but whose consequences are more or less unrecognized, consisting of hearing sounds with no visible cause on the radio, records, telephone, tape recorder, etc.

Acousmatic listening is the opposite of direct listening, which is the “natural” situation where sound sources are present and visible. The acousmatic situation changes the way we hear. By isolating the sound from the “audiovisual complex” to which it initially belonged, it creates favorable conditions for reduced listening which concentrates on the sound for its own sake, as sound object, independently of its causes or its meaning (although reduced listening can also take place, but with greater difficulty, in a direct listening situation).