The MegaOctet, directed by Andy Emler since 1989, is a laboratory of the most beautiful audacities and is never on the musical terrain where one expects it. Andy Emler is a drummer of multiple aesthetics, coupled with a singular, surprising and playful composer. The first meeting between the MegaOctet and the Percussions de Strasbourg gave rise to the creation, in 2007, of Childhood Journeys, an invitation to a journey into childhood, in games of tracks, inspirations, breath, improvisations. An unclassifiable concerto where timbre alliances and rhythmic impromptus collide, it is an immense musical journey, a space of freedom where the shadows of Stravinsky, Varèse, Ravel, Miles Davis or Zappa pass by. Models of collective creation in the long run, the two entities question relentlessly and each in their own way the contemporary musical language, making emotion a matter of intelligence as much as of sensitivity. Their common adventure takes on a new dimension today, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Les Percussions de Strasbourg. A new piece, “Obsisens”, specially composed by Andy Emler for the six virtuoso percussionists, enriches a program placed under the sign of artistic exigency, of the pleasure to play and to give.