Musique concrete or concrete music refers to sounds (objects, discrete sounds) derived from the world and from synthesis brought together into a collage or sound sculpture as a structure to be experienced through listening.

In a piece I call "Korean Vocalude," I use the techniques of breaking down Korean language into discrete sounds which are then recombined or "sculpted" into a new context.  For a step-by step review of this process, visit this page on creating music concrete or a sound collage with a multi-track recording program.

A search on the web brings up many references to concrete music, both from the historical perspective when it was founded by Pierre Schaeffer in France and today as a creative field still creatively vital and alive.

Some links of interest:

http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/schaef.html

http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/mc.html

http://www.music.columbia.edu/~cathy/BEaesthetics/musconcret.htm

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/music/teaching/lisa/4summary2002.html

This last link is an impressive website. Go back to the homepage of this site. I have chosen to link to its desciption of electroacoustic music. Follow some of the categories. Check out the "audio" samples. These are excerpts of concrete music---a very impressive collection. These samples give you a sense of the composers and their music and the full versions can been ordered from this website. But importantly, it illustrates how techniques and sounds of music conrete have continued to impact on creative artists today.