Gray noise in the Book Club, not white noise, the hum of the world as we hear it, but gray. This strange buzzing color gives its title to Gilles Amalvi’s new book. A collection of poems, if one wants to use these words, that questions the sound regime under which we live. Short texts, a sort of score, written, among other places, in the folds of another text: “The Coming Insurrection,” a political essay published in 2007. In his book, Gilles Amalvi first examines language, in pieces, both literally and figuratively, for a clarification, a sort of overall assessment, before voices and bodies, newly organized, now in motion, can enter, perhaps forcefully, into a space that initially rejected them. Gray noise or manifesto for turbine voices. “Gray Noise” by Gilles Almavi was published by Editions du Bunker.
Gilles Amalvi: “To make a voice heard capable of piercing background noise”
Gilles Amalvi reflects on the Genesis of “Gray Noise,” a book of poetry whose origin stems from an abandoned novel – “a failed novel” – as was the case for his previous work “Hooray! : Boom: fiction-poetry” (2008, Le Quartanier). Far from a linear construction, “Gray Noise” is above all a text shaped by sound, the rumor of the world, bodies in motion, and the need to find a poetic form capable of responding to contemporary violence.
Gilles Amalvi also wrote large parts of the book in bars, notebook and beer in hand, while listening to experimental music: “During the concert, I was with my notebook, my hand scribbling something that was trying to capture the energy of this music.”
Poetry: a tool of measurement and action
For him, poetry is not a refuge: it is a tool. “I use poetry as one would use a dial.” He advocates for a plastic poetry, capable of absorbing media, political, and advertising discourses, of confronting the speed and mutations of contemporary capitalism. “Poetry is undoubtedly the best way to respond to what AI is doing to language.”
The question of the listener
The question from Eloane from the bookshop-bar @lelieujaune_ to Gilles Amalvi: “I read ‘Gray Noise,’ and I had a very interesting time. I think it’s a kind of great contemporary baroque opera. There are many evocations of musical and referenced, many different senses and cultures. I found it quite powerful in this text that speaks of resistance, but also of a state of reality. I wondered if, for you, poetry is the most appropriate way to address all these things today, or if it is just one means among others?”
News
On April 10 and 11, 2026, Gilles Amalvi performs at the Palais de Tokyo in the show “After Hannibal” (CNd/Plan D).
Musical references
– Fred Nevche, “I was sailing towards my dream” – Martin Arnold, excerpt from the film “Piece Touched” – Chicago Underground Duo, “Micro Exit” – Alexandre Scriabin, “Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6: Funérailles”
