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1. Francis Dhomont: Espace / Escape (1989) 2m50s imed_0050-1.1 | 14272 | ISRC CAD500013870Commission: Claude Schryer / The Banff Centre for the Arts, with support from the CCA Premiere: November 11, 1989, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada) To Jean-François Denis and Claude Schryer
Space. Open, intimate, confused spaces. Broken spaces, whirling. Indecisive edges of the space. Space-refuge, enclosed, maternal, space of reminiscence and of associations. Tumult or murmur in the space of a thousand reflections. Escape. The flight engenders a vertigo of multiple elsewheres. Here… There… Attempted encounter of heterogeneous elements related by two criteria: one is sonic and denotative (the place of sound in space), the other symbolic and connotative (referring to the theme of wandering), both alluding to movement. These criteria determine the form and are its cement. The multiplicity of materials embody the ideas of ‘space’ and ‘mobility.’ This work integrates into its structure active elements of spatialization which have a semantic value. [ix-91] [Excerpt taken from the disc Cycle de l’errance, IMED 9607] 2. Louis Dufort: Zénith (1999) 1m55s imed_0050-1.2 | 13796 | ISRC CAD500013880Premiere: November 6, 1999, Usine C (Montréal, Québec) The formal expansion of form
[Excerpt taken from the disc Connexion, IMED 0051] 3. Robert Normandeau: Le renard et la rose (1995) 3m17s imed_0050-1.3 | 14461 | ISRC CAD500013890Commission: The Banff Centre for the Arts, with support from the CCA Premiere: September 6, 1995, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada) Babillage et rythme [Babbling and Rhythm]; Nostalgie et timbre [Nostalgia and Tone]; Colère et dynamique [Anger and Dynamics]; Lassitude et espace [Weariness and Space]; Sérénité et texture [Serenity and Texture] To Odile Magnan Le renard et la rose (The Fox and the Rose) is a concert suite composed from two sound sources: the music commissioned for an adaptation for radio of the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (produced by Odile Magnan for Radio-Canada in 1994) and whose principal themes are found in it, and the voices of the actors who collaborated in the recording of the radio adaptation. It is the third work in a cycle begun in 1991 (Éclats de voix and Spleen [recorded on the album Tangram, empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9419/20, and IMED 9920] were the first two) and is based exclusively on the use of the voice; more specifically on onomatopoeia, which is the only form in human language that corresponds directly to the designated objects, gestures or feelings as sounds, rather than as the abstract representations that are words. In each of the work’s five parts a state or feeling experienced in adulthood is associated with a sonic framework: Babillage et rythme (Babbling and Rhythm), Nostalgie et timbre (Nostalgia and Tone), Colère et dynamique (Anger and Dynamics), Lassitude et espace (Weariness and Space), Sérénité et texture (Serenity and Texture). In them the musical themes associated with the different characters in the book are arranged chronologically: the King, the Businessman, the Conceited Man, the Flock of Wild Birds, the Well in the Desert, the Rose, the Baobabs, the Lamplighter, the Little Flower, the Merchant Who Sold Thirst-Quenching Pills, the Fox and the Geographer. The voices of the different characters are those of Pierre Bourgault, Françoise Davoine, Cynthia Dubois, Michel Dumont, Gilles Dupuis, Luc Durand, Monique Giroux, Jacques Languirand, Jean Marchand, Jean-Louis Millette, Guy Nadon, Martin Pensa, Gérard Poirier, Claude Préfontaine and Christine Séguin. [Excerpt taken from the disc Figures, IMED 9944] 4. Hildegard Westerkamp: Breathing Room (1990) 2m33s imed_0050-1.4 | 14254 | ISRC CAD500013900Premiere: November 2, 1990, Montréal musiques actuelles/New Music America, Théâtre Les Loges (Montréal, Québec) This is the second in a series of Breathing Room pieces. Music as breath-like nourishment. Breathing as nourishing musical space. The breath — my breath — is heard throughout the three minutes. All sorts of musical/acoustic things happen as I breathe in and out. Each breath makes its own, unique statement, creates a specific place in time. Meanwhile the heart beats on, propelling time from one breath to the next. Hildegard Westerkamp [xi-90] [Excerpt taken from the disc Électro clips, IMED 9604] 5. Natasha Barrett: Racing Through, Racing Unseen (1996) 2m57s imed_0050-1.5 | 14388 | ISRC CAD500013910Commission: empreintes DIGITALes Racing Through, Racing Unseen contains, in condensed form, the impetus behind its 20-minute long parent work, Racing Unseen. / Racing through, / Racing amongst, / Into new spaces, / Away from old emotions, / Racing high, racing low, / to escape, to seek, / racing into eddy… racing forever… racing unseen. This sonic postcard takes a snapshot from the south side of Blackfriar’s Bridge, a stone’s throw along the footpath to the Royal Festival Hall. This clip can be coupled as a epilogue to St Paul’s Descending into the Autumn Mist. It embodies an impressionistic and personal development of the sound-world, listening towards the distant image of St Paul’s Cathedral. It attempts to capture the bare essence behind the original sound-world: thoughts and emotions as they are washed up onto the score of the River Thames. [ii-98] [Excerpt taken from the disc Miniatures concrètes, IMED 9837] 6. Paul Dolden: L’ivresse de la vitesse (1992-93) 2m10s imed_0050-1.6 | 13899 | ISRC CAD500013920Premiere: May 28, 1994, (London, England, UK) The title L’ivresse de la vitesse (Intoxication by Speed) is an allusion towards my current artistic intentions which involve the speeding up of an excess of musical ideas so that the composition and its materials exhaust themselves in the shortest time possible. The intoxicating aspect of speed is evoked by using primarily fast tempo markings and rapid changes in orchestration, density and dynamics. These elements can be particularly sped up to the point of exhaustion and intoxication in the digital audio studio which is limitless or ‘virtual’ in its colour and density possibilities. To increase the sensation of exhaustion and intoxication, hundreds of musical parts occur simultaneously that are organized by numerous musical systems which unfold concurrently. A few of these musical systems originate in different styles of popular music. These musical styles are organized by an overall compositional language and style in order to diffuse their direct effect or reference point, and to create an internally coherent music. This overall compositional language is intended to make the different musical styles and compositional systems implode inwards, creating new identities beyond their worn-out historical reference points, and to produce what I hope is like seduction: undeniably attractive and yet simultaneously unexplainable. Indeed any work that is totally complicit in its own absorption, so that it no longer makes apparent sense on the surface, will exercise a remarkable fascination. In short, an art work fascinates by its esotericism which preserves it from external logic. [Excerpt taken from the disc L’ivresse de la vitesse, IMED 9917/18] 7. Annette Vande Gorne: Tao: Bois (1986) 2m09s imed_0050-1.7 | 14149 | ISRC CAD500013930Premiere: August 14, 1986, (Arles, France)
Each movement starts with an image-model whose energy flow system will later be expanded: repeated blows of a tree being felled, endless rotation of a mill, swinging/swaying of a ping pong game. •• Symbol: The felling and the death of a tree as a symbol of the forest, of Nature being truly murdered. “Miller, you are asleep…” and the world is turning crazily in Your absence. •• Form: While the first part maintains and directs listening in a linear fashion, the second opens the space and the third superimposes a polyphonic proliferation of oscillating materials in all fields of perception (registers, durations, matters, movements, spaces), and ends after a moment of stillness by taking up again the two other energy models, again in a polyphonic fashion. The whole is an attempt to transpose the tree morphology in time. •• Anecdote: The door (an electroacoustic cliché since Pierre Henry) opens and closes the book of Bois whose story is told between the cutting down and the fall of the tree. •• Spatialization: This piece is played in fast, rich, abundant, and ‘stirred up’ movements. Everything moves, except the images. A relatively complex multiphonic device, with a minimum of twelve loudspeakers, is therefore essential. [xii-93] [Excerpt taken from the disc Tao, IMED 9311] 8. Gilles Gobeil: Associations libres (1990) 1m48s imed_0050-1.8 | 14250 | ISRC CAD500013940Commission: René Lussier, with support from the CCA , empreintes DIGITALes Premiere: November 2, 1990, Montréal musiques actuelles/New Music America, Théâtre Les Loges (Montréal, Québec) electric guitar, and tape This piece was born of the desire after fifteen years, to collaborate with the guitarist René Lussier. Using his talent for improvisation, I have employed the wide variety of timbres and sound matter from his interpretation. The tape consists of a succession of very dense and expressive scenes onto which the guitar’s living and playful gestures are placed. Gilles Gobeil [xi-90] [Excerpt taken from the disc Électro clips, IMED 9604, and from the disc La mécanique des ruptures, IMED 9421] 9. Claude Schryer: Musique de l’Odyssée sonore: Eau (1996-97) 1m21s imed_0050-1.9 | 14359 | ISRC CAD500013950The multiple voices of liquid "At the time of the shaking of the earth, the city emerged from the bottom of the ocean and was always surrounded by water. No two drops of water sing the same note and every river has its own melody. In the winter season, the ice and snow bring to it a particular tonality." 1 Transformed water: streams and creeks, Montmorency falls, Saint-Laurent river, summer rain and winter ice. 1 Excerpts from the narration of the film written by Georgette Duchaîne [ix-97] [Excerpt taken from the disc Autour, IMED 9736] 10. Kristoff K.Roll: Aquí en Yucatán: Justicia (1993) 2m07s imed_0050-1.10 | 21164 | ISRC CAD500013960[Excerpt taken from the disc Corazón Road, IMED 9946] 11. Marc Tremblay: Vroum (1997) 1m35s imed_0050-1.11 | 14532 | ISRC CAD500013970Premiere: May 1, 1997, Usine C (Montréal, Québec) We are surrounded by objects whose importance is directly related to their utility. To one degree or another these object all have their own sounds, but as they become commonplace we tend to lose our ability to hear them. They become a part of the blurring of the sounds of everyday life. The automobile is unquestionably one of the most important inventions of our century. They have changed our perception of time and space, and have come to dominate most of the soundscapes of our towns and our countryside. Deliberately anecdotal, Vroum suggests a new way to hear that apotheosis of our age, the automobile. [xii-99] [Excerpt taken from the disc Bruit-graffiti, IMED 9949] 12. Philippe Le Goff: La guerre (1995) 2m11s imed_0050-1.12 | 14230 | ISRC CAD500013980La guerre (War) which follows is a dream-like war between appearance and that within, of which the weapon is vocal sound, that of the breath, of laughter and of words. The chants which I arranged, perforemed by Élise Caron and Valérie Joly, evolve towards a trance; they attempt to lose themselves in the sounds of the aurora borealis. The general atmosphere of this study is dominated by the variations of Arctic light. With Élise Caron, Valérie Joly, voice; Patrick Rouch, Yves Stocker, Paul Tanguy, horn. And with the participation of: Luc Candardjis, tympani; Louis Chretiennot, electric guitar; Jean-Jacques Cornillon, shanaï; Pascal Dusapin, Hammond organ; Philippe Foch, percussion; Gilles Grand, saxophone; Schyamal Maïtra, tabla; Anna & Margaux, Olivier Cadiot, Eeleesapee Ishulutak, Mary Ann Issarkiark, Maaki Kakkik, Malaia Papatsi, Martha Sivuarapik, Laina Tullaugak, Eeeleesapee Tulugak & Tapisaq, voice. And with the farewells of the ornithological team of Tony Gaston on deserted Coat Island (Hudson Bay). [i-95] [Excerpt taken from the disc Titakti, IMED 9524] 13. Christian Calon: Portrait d’un visiteur (1985) 3m09s imed_0050-1.13 | 14052 | ISRC CAD500013990Premiere: September 26, 1985, Salle Pollack — Université McGill (Montréal, Québec) in four fragments A metaphor. Take this person I used to know quite well. I haven’t seen her for a very long time; say I unexpectedly meet her. During our brief meeting I stubbornly try to connect her familiar elements with the stream of new signs being displayed. Unsatisfying effort; polished surfaces, unforeseen iridescences, darkened areas meet one’s eye. Beyond certain points the paths lead nowhere. Thickets, bushes. The despair of recognizing something. And on the other hand, that stranger standing there, resembling me so much. All I know of my nature and that of the universe is incomplete: it is exactly as if I knew nothing. [i-90] [Excerpt taken from the disc Ligne de vie: récits électriques, IMED 9001] 14. Javier Álvarez: Mambo à la Braque (1990) 2m05s imed_0050-1.14 | 14261 | ISRC CAD500014000Commission: empreintes DIGITALes Premiere: November 2, 1990, Montréal musiques actuelles/New Music America, Théâtre Les Loges (Montréal, Québec) Like words made out of cutting letters from a newspaper, I have used in Mambo à la Braque (Braque-style Mambo) short musical segments which come from the well known mambo Caballo Negro by composer Dámaso Perez Prado to whom this short piece pays homage. I have reassembled them into a sound mosaic and used a few other sounds to ‘glue’ them together. My aim was to create a sort of cubist music, or put in other words, a mambo of my own invention made out of mambo cuttings. Javier Álvarez [xi-90] [Excerpt taken from the disc Électro clips, IMED 9604] 15. Yves Daoust: Suite Baroque: L’Extase (1989) 2m29s imed_0050-1.15 | 14108 | ISRC CAD500014010Love scene between the harpsichordist and her instrument. [ix-91] [Excerpt taken from the disc Anecdotes, IMED 9106] 16. Kim Hedås: Princess Bat with the Underground Stars (1996) 1m19s imed_0050-1.16 | 14403 | ISRC CAD500014020Commission: empreintes DIGITALes Why these three sounds, why three minutes, why one part of 15 seconds and one of 2 minutes 45? For me, these rules didn’t make any sense. I began to invent my own explanations, trying different techniques to connect material and form in order to give them musical significance. The sound material I added was, together with the three given sounds, divided into six classes and in the piece used as parts of the polyphonic structure. The form can be described as a slowly changing wave or, as the title implies, as a flying bat with the stars beneath. It was produced in the electroacoustic studio at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm. [Excerpt taken from the disc Miniatures concrètes, IMED 9837] 17. Jonty Harrison: … et ainsi de suite… (1992) 1m34s imed_0050-1.17 | 14290 | ISRC CAD500014030Premiere: February 27, 1992, Sounds like Birmingham — UK City of Music 1992, Pebble Mill Studios — BBC (Birmingham, England, UK) à propos; (parenthèse 1); commentaire 1; (parenthèse 2); réflexion; commentaire 2; souffle d’insectes (parenthèse 3); résonance (parenthèse 4); résumé; (parenthèse 5); commentaire 3 I had wanted for some time to compose a ‘French Suite,’ rather in the manner of the musique concrète tradition. Sounds from some rough-textured wine glasses, which had been transformed in the Studio numérique (digital studio) of the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM, Paris, France) using predominantly time-domain manipulation (etir), brassage (brage and bragge) and spatialization programs, provided a promising starting point. These individual sounds were onwardly transformed using a variety of digital signal processors in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of The University of Birmingham (UK), combined with a number of other sound sources, further transformed, recombined… and so on… I ventured into this pool of material from time to time in order to compose short, essentially self-contained movements. The reassembling of new, specific musical utterances from the same source material led to the idea that, by analogy, complete movements (which would inevitably contain a plethora of cross-references) could be assembled in various ways to create pieces of different lengths and pacings for different occasions, spaces… and so on… Over a dozen movements have been composed to date. Their different functions are characterized, to continue the link with the musique concrète suite, by French titles: à propos and résumé are, respectively, expository and recapitulatory statements of the basic array of sound-types found in the work, and the longest and most elaborate movements are designated commentaire; the first version of the work (Version Bourges 1990) contained only these movement categories. From 1991, with access to the digital audio editing environment Sound Tools, I was able to achieve the seamless continuity of material needed for the family of gentler, more reflective and static movements which offset them. These interspersed movements are grouped under the general heading of (parenthèse), though some carry additional, descriptive titles such as réflexion, résonance and souffle d’insectes. The CD version — itself a revision of the Birmingham Version 1992 — has eleven movements, whose durations range from 40 seconds to nearly 4 minutes. A characteristic of this version is the overlapping of movements (movements 6 to 9 form a continuous whole, as do the final two movements), emphasizing the more dramatic potential of the material. Overall, however, the work is not a vehicle for a dynamic or dramatic musical argument; I am more concerned to create a network of connections within a sound-world more conducive to dalliance than discourse. [Excerpt taken from the disc Articles indéfinis, IMED 9627] 18. Randall Smith: The Unmoved Centre (1997) 1m28s imed_0050-1.18 | 14529 | ISRC CAD500014040Commission: Réseaux des arts médiatiques, with support from the CCA Premiere: February 19, 1997, Rien à voir (1), Réseaux, La Chapelle (Montréal, Québec) The Unmoved Centre is a sonic realization of the poetics of spiritual mobility, a journey into the center of the imaginative image. This invitation into the imagination is a gentle push into the unknown which throws us off balance and sets in motion a dynamic reverie towards ambiguity and metaphor. Rather than represent exterior realities and actions, this piece analogizes them to trace the process of its own making. The title refers to that informed pool of possibilities which seeks shaping, and whose structure lies finally beyond the bounds of the individual. The dramatic focus of The Unmoved Centre is the transformation from outer to inner existence. It is a play of forces that map the body’s spiritual struggles as it searches for its tunings within the manageable and imaginable. It is found in a sphere of connected, conflicting and harmonious sounds.
[xii-99] [Excerpt taken from the disc Sondes, IMED 9948] 19. Ned Bouhalassa: Jets (1996-98) 1m53s imed_0050-1.19 | 14417 | ISRC CAD500014050Jets was originally conceived for the sound projection system of San Francisco’s Sound Traffic Control (STC). I wanted to write a piece that could demonstrate the potential of automated sound projection. In order to make a dynamic and energetic piece, I chose to use jet-shaped materials. Water, air and dust jets that leave a trace as they move through space would serve as models for the creation of my sonic materials. There are objects in this piece which move freely, in an almost intuitive manner; others flee quickly, like hunted animals; finally, there are those that hurl themselves against the edges of the stereo field, as if they were in a cage. There is also a kind of nostalgia that is found in the more ‘musical’ passages that serves as a setting, as ambience. [Excerpt taken from the disc Aérosol, IMED 9840] 20. Adrian Moore: Study in Ink (1997) 1m14s imed_0050-1.20 | 13807 | ISRC CAD500014060Premiere: 1997, (Aberdeen, Scotland, UK) Study in Ink is a single-source piece: a recording of a marker pen on a whiteboard. Whilst writing on a whiteboard I noticed how, as the pen became dry, it began to make very interesting noises that could be used musically. (For many people this class of sounds is simply ‘noise’ to be avoided since the majority of the sounds of the marker pen lies within the 1,000 to 4,000 hertz frequency range; one of the more sensitive regions of hearing.) After the initial source-recording process, the combination of tones and noises and their movement within the stereo field gave rise to quite complex material. With further equalization and sound treatment I obtained relationships of pitch, dynamics, speed and gesture. The pen moved from a wispy air-like sound through screeching tones and finally to a slip-grip grating sound. In developing this material, I turned to frequency-shifting to provide longer gestures over a wider frequency bandwidth. This hierarchy of gestures formed the basis of the work: long tones underpinning or overhanging smaller combinations of gestures. The form of the work is centered upon moments of tension and relaxation, moments of joy and moments of sadness, but always tinged with a little humor. The fleeting gestures of the pen are contrasted with sections of imposed rigidity which include pulsed structures. The natural pitch-contour of the pen gives rise to some very human qualities such as sighing (descending gestures) and questioning (quick ascending gestures). [ix-00] [Excerpt taken from the disc Traces, IMED 0053] 21. Michel Chion: Requiem: Dies Iræ (1973) 1m00s imed_0050-1.21 | 14158 | ISRC CAD500014070“On this day of wrath, what will I say?” [Excerpt taken from the disc Requiem, IMED 9312] 22. Antonio Bueno Tubia, Hans Tutschku: … erinnerung… (1996) 2m33s imed_0050-1.22 | 14520 | ISRC CAD500014080Premiere: November 26, 1996, École supérieure de musique Franz Liszt (Weimar, Germany) Writer: Antonio Bueno Tubia
[Mini-collage of mini-excerpts of the 22 excerpts from the sampler disc eXcitations, IMED 0050] electrocd.com [va]: eXcitations: track detail |
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•• Imitation/development: Based on proliferation and brassage
[‘stirring up’ in French, is a sound processing function of the
SYTER
system],