Nicolas Bernier, Jacques Poulin-Denis: Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies: reviews

<<
Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies
CD 25.00 CA$ [?]

to add to your cart, click the price (price always includes handling + shipping)

top

Critique

by Gilles Boisclair in SOCAN, Paroles & Musique #14:3 (Canada), September 1, 2007 |6340|

“… ambiance complètement surréaliste et par moments aquatique.”

Conçue pour une chorégraphie de Ginette Laurin pour O Vertigo, Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies, cette œuvre électroacoustique est un constant mouvement sonore qui élabore une ambiance complètement surréaliste et par moments aquatique. Ces musiques quasi chuchotées nous entraînent dans un flôt sonore envoûtant et irrésistible comme la pièce Cor. Le travail de Nicolas Bernier et Jacques Poulin-Denis n’est pas sans nous rappeler les expériences de l’étiquette empreintes DIGITALes.


top

Review

by Eric Hill in Exclaim! (Canada), June 1, 2007 |6309|

“… music that has the precision, inner life and depth of field inherent to accomplished electroacoustic work…”

Created as a sonic accompaniment for the dance troupe O Vertigo, Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies is a recording that steps lightly on its own two feet. Creators Bernier and Poulin-Denis are multidisciplinary artists who crossed paths via their studies of electroacoustic composition at the University of Montreal. Poulin-Denis’s previous training as a dancer and actor doubtlessly led to this specific collaboration. The two have achieved something rare and wonderful: music that has the precision, inner life and depth of field inherent to accomplished electroacoustic work but with a ghostly breath of melody giving it lift and lightness. The electronic elements elicit comparisons to the detailed works of Alva Noto or Ryoji Ikeda but they are only the gears and hinges of a much larger and more delicate machine. Nothing is ever still. Brushed drums shoot right-to-left like chain lightning, voices pop out like snippets of captured radio broadcasts while ticks and chimes well up like a wall of music boxes yet nothing ever seems overwrought or crowded. Bernier’s website / label / micro-community Ekumen is one to keep an eye and/or ear on in the nights to come.


top

Critique

by Réjean Beaucage in La Scena Musicale #5:3 (Québec), May 1, 2007 |6312|

“…la musique rappelle par moments la vastitude des ambiances fabriquées d’un Luc Ferrari…”

Composée pour une chorégraphie de Ginette Laurin (compagnie O Vertigo), l’Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies de Nicolas Bernier et Jacques Poulin-Denis se présente comme une suite de 10 courtes pièces électroacoustiques. Comme les auteurs n’ont pas cru bon de joindre la moindre information sur la musique, il ne nous reste que nos oreilles pour en juger. Manifestement faite de sons échantillonnés de provenances diverses, la musique rappelle par moments la vastitude des ambiances fabriquées d’un Luc Ferrari, auxquelles se mêlent ici ou là des bribes de musique instrumentale, le tout baignant presque de bout en bout dans un ballet de grincements (les cordes et les poulies, sans doute) qui donne l’impression d’être sur un immense navire en perdition. Quelques pièces, en particulier Cor, s’abandonnent au diktat du rythme électro, ce qui, il est vrai, rappelle que l’on est quand même dans une musique composée pour la danse.


top

Review

by Frans de Waard in Vital #572 (The Netherlands), April 16, 2007 |6268|

“… the music is very vibrant and lively.”

Back in Vital Weekly 559 I introduced the Ekumen label, through a bunch of highly limited CDr releases. Much surprised I am now by seeing their first real CD release, by Nicolas Bernier and Jacques Poulin-Denis, who also made their mark on a compilation MP3 by the label. Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies was created for a choreography by Ginette Laurin. Although there is no such indication, I think the two are laptop boys, despite the fact that we hear acoustic instruments such as a cello. Maybe of them plays it, but in all the digital processing that goes on it's hard to believe that it's just one laptop. So me thinks its sound file playback from a computer. Not that it really matters I think, since the music is very vibrant and lively. Things are in constant flux and movement in a live improvised acousmatic manner. The processing as such sound very much like that of the composers on empreintes DIGITALes but at the same time there is also a lot of improvised stuff going on. Occasionally they reach for the beat such as in Cor, in which everything falls into rhythmic groove of minimalist electronica. Throughout this is a very vibrant CD, with lots of ideas thrown about, but that makes perfect listening sense. We could now wonder what they dance looked like.


Nicolas Bernier, Jacques Poulin-Denis: Étude no 3 pour cordes et poulies: reviews

>>
<< >>

Prices are in Canadian dollars — 1.00 CA$ ~ 0.99 US$ ~ 0.62 € ~ 0.50 £ ~ 1.3 AU$ ~ 105.40 ¥ — and include handling, shipping and applicable taxes.


news  |  shop  |  artists  |  works  |  radio  |  links  |  about  |  etc.  |  how to order  |  français

Page cat@ek_006.critiques generated in Montréal by litk 0.550 on Saturday, July 12, 2008
Development & maintenance: DIM.

Suggestions box

Got an idea? A comment? Found an error or a bug on this page? Let us know!

Email:

Ideas, comments, errors, bugs:

Mailing list

Type in your email address to subscribe to our mailing list and stay up to date!