Blog // Archive // By Date // 1998 // December

31 December 1998
By Canary Burton in Alternate Music Press (USA), December 31, 1998

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“Sound Paintings.”

Now this space music album (or ambient if you wish) is more like the old musique concrète but more understandable. Schryer uses real sounds, on cut one, which is short, this time the ocean, a train and a voice calling. Cut two, called Cloches which means [bells] in French, he’s got church bells, distorted car horns, metal sounds… Envol, which is a plane taking off over the surf… up to 7 short pieces.

These are part of Musique de l’Odyssée sonore Then we’re onto El medio ambiente acústico de México. Very obviously “things” Schryer picked up on a trip to Mexico. Ocean, voices, a little this a little that. More ocean on Vancouver Soundscape Revisited boat horns, some Spanish, birds, far away music… industrial sounds. This is totally a collection of the odd and mundane. Laughter, drunken singing. What do I say?? this section seems to build into something. I really don’t know what to say about this. It is not confusing, the sounds are in good order… they make sense. But I still don’t know what to say. I like it better than early 20th century “musique concrète.” But then, I only liked that for its ground breaking ideas. This is ok. I guess it’s places that picture themselves in bits of sound. Sound Paintings.

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31 December 1998
By Canary Burton in Alternate Music Press (USA), December 31, 1998

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This album of 24 short electroacoustic pieces is compiled by Jean-François Denis as the 37th in the empreintes DIGITALes collection and in celebration of the 50th anniversay of musique concrète.

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31 December 1998
By Canary Burton in Alternate Music Press (USA), December 31, 1998

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“I hope you will support this artist and buy his album!”

This album has one cut… the whole album. Starting with silence… then gradually letting the listener in on what is happening… Calon DOES explore space. Les corps éblouis was commisssioned by the Ina-GRM and the French state. On a formal level,Les corps éblouis is a work in which, through the development of the principle of metamorphosis, the result is that the Form is only legible superficially, and that it grows on the listener according to an irrational process.

And music itself is heard using an “irrational process.” Oh yes, composers and other music professionals can use their “rational mind”… to take things apart, and sometimes to enjoy, but basically music is visceral. You either like it, it touches you somewhere… or it doesn’t. Lots of times one can hear a piece for the first, second or third times and dislike or be indifferent to it. And then the fourth time, love it! I have found that I didn’t like certain music in a period of my life and then heard it again years later and either understood or enjoyed it.

This “underwater” … uh… “outer space” … “inner space?” … oh, whatever! IS enjoyable to me on the first hearing, but then, I LIKE space music. I like the listening rather than knowing the HOW of creation.

Les corps éblouis is sanity making for me. It almost sounds like what I imagine my blood coursing through my veins would sound like it if I was in one of those “no reflection” sound chambers. Especially part way in to the “music”… a rushing sound like blood in the ears. We ALL like to “hear” ourselves… this is sorta like that.

Now I hear the ocean, a tinkle of glass wind chimes, a glitter of bugs. Of course that’s what I hear… you may hear other things in it. A towing of whales… a metallic sound next. since I hear ocean, I hear the rigging of sailboats. But maybe tomorrow I will hear it different. There is alot here to hear! And it grows and grows!

The now familier “computer” sounds… things played backwards… maybe. Eeks and Awks, but all in soft, interesting combinations… nothing to upset the listener from reverie. You must be able to tell by now that I hope you will support this artist and buy his album!

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7 December 1998
By George Zahora in Splendid E-Zine (USA), December 7, 1998

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“It’s French, it’s acousmatic… what more could you ask for?”

Requiem contains three classic musique concrète compositions from Michel Chion. All were produced at the GRM in Paris (the acousmatic headquarters of the world). The Requiem itself is an electronic take on the traditional form. Variations is a ‘technical study’ which takes an original waltz theme and fragments it. Nuit noire is considered a ‘monodrama’ — that is, a drama centering around one ‘character.’ In this case what we hear are the detached reactions of this ‘character’ to a nightmare. It’s French, it’s acousmatic… what more could you ask for?

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3 December 1998
By Dominique Olivier in Voir (Québec), December 3, 1998

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“La perfection technique et la «musicalité» intrinsèque de ses œuvres le placent d’emblée parmi les plus grands…”

L’art acousmatique trouve en Robert Normandeau, l’un de ses représentants les plus admirables. La perfection technique et la «musicalité» intrinsèque de ses œuvres le placent d’emblée parmi les plus grands, ce qui n’a cessé de se confirmer ces dernières années. Les plus grands prix internationaux couronnent son travail minutieux, presque maniaque. À preuve, cette version «remixée» de Lieux inouïs, un disque paru en 1990. L’art de Normandeau y est accompli, nous ouvrant la porte sur des mondes inconnus, entièrement issus de l’imaginaire du compositeur. Un voyage.

AVIS: Le texte reproduit ici est extrait du site de Voir et est protégé par la Loi sur le droit d’auteur du Canada. © Communications Voir Inc, 1999

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1 December 1998
By Peter Wullen in Gonzo Circus (Belgium), December 1, 1998

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Het Canadese empreintes DIGITALes heeft een neus voor fijn Belgisch talent dat elders niet aan de bak komt.

Annette Vande Gorne is de stichtster en de bezielster van het centrum voor elektroakoestische muziek Musiques & Recherches en de studio Métamorphoses d’Orphée in Ohain, de Waalse tegenhanger van het Gentse Logos. Ze is uitgeefster van het gespecialiseerde tijdschrift Lien en doceert elektroakoestische compositie aan het Brusselse en Bergense muziekconservatorium. Vande Gorne kent vooral bijval in Frankrijk en Canada en bracht zopas een cd uit bij empreintes DIGITALes. De cd bundelt drie lange composities (Le gingko, Architecture nuit en Noces noires) die ze schreef tussen ’86 en ’94 op basis van teksten van de Waalse auteur Werner Lambersy.

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