L’adieu au s.o.s.

A Farewell to S.O.S.
IMED 0366
2003

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Radio // L’adieu au s.o.s.
L’adieu au s.o.s.
13'13 pour voix défigurées (1997), 13m13s [excerpt]
Track 1 from L’adieu au s.o.s.
CD: empreintes DIGITALes (2003) IMED 0366
  • piste@imed_0366-1
    • 1
      • Premiere: September 25, 1997, Manifestation vidéo et art électronique de Montréal (Montréal, Québec)

      A work about helplessness and confusion in the face of destruction: that of the individual, that of the individual’s points of reference.

      We hear voices that cross temporalities, that appear suddenly like interferences, and that intrude to a greater and greater extent until they become omnipresent.

      “In the City everything is as it was in the time of the destruction of Byzantium, as it was in the time of the destruction of the Temple.
      Everything is desecrated, pillaged, ruined. Little girls tremble, the children and men have their hands sliced off, the inferno devours the living and dead alike,
      as it was in the religious wars, as it was in the pogroms, as it is in time.” — Hélène Cixous

      Texts by Hélène Cixous, in “Beethoven à jamais” (Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque, Paris, 1993) and by Alejo Carpentier, in “Varèse vivant” (Le nouveau commerce, Paris, 1980). With the processed voices of Sylvio Archambault, Emmanuel Madan, Pascale Malaterre, Marie-France Marcotte, and Alain Pelletier.

      [English translation: Sean Ferguson, Traçantes]

      13'13 pour voix défigurées (13'13 for Disfigured Voices) was realized in 1997 at the PRIM Studio — with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the PRIM Media Arts Centre — and premiered September 25, 1997, in its original version for tape and three-channel video as part of the third Manifestation vidéo et art électronique de Montréal. The texts are © 1993, Cixous / Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque; © 1980, Carpentier / Le nouveau commerce.

      piste@imed_0366-1.1 oeuvre@13922 ISRC CAD500316040
    • 2
      • Commission: Réseaux des arts médiatiques
      • Premiere: February 17, 1999, Rien à voir (5) — Réseaux, La Chapelle (Montréal, Québec)

      To M. Bertrand

      The form of this work develops around the idea of the stoppage of time, or, more precisely, its suspension. These suspended states are of two types. That of “I’ve lost my footing,” thus of falling, of a lack of air, of being engulfed in an unknown substance. And also that of a momentary pause on a sound, as much filled with tension as are points of suspension, inconclusive.

      [English translation: Sean Ferguson, Traçantes]

      Danse de l’enfant esseulée (Dance of the Forsaken Child) was realized in 1999 in the composer’s personal studio and premiered February 17, 1999, during a solo concert as part of the Rien à voir (5) concert series presented by Réseaux in Montréal. Many thanks to Réseaux for its persistence and the quality of its concerts. Danse de l’enfant esseulée was a finalist in the Musica Nova 2001 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music (Prague, Czech Republic), and in the Ciber@rt International Competition of Electroacoustic Creation in Valencia (Spain, 1999).

      piste@imed_0366-1.2 oeuvre@13923 ISRC CAD500316050
    • 3
      Figures du temps (1998-99), 23m15s
      • un haut-parleur dans le désert [a loudspeaker in the desert]
      • … et les déchets qu’on brûle [… and the refuse we burn]
      • a farewell to S.O.S.
      • Premiere: February 17, 1999, Rien à voir (5) — Réseaux, La Chapelle (Montréal, Québec)

      What to do with the real? How to create an aesthetic space that rejects amnesia?

      Crossroads and collisions of individual events and of public events. A suite that attempts to deal with “the individual human life, small, poor, defenseless but magnificent” as Tadeusz Kantor said. “It is only in this human life that truth, sanctity and grandeur are maintained today. We must save them from destruction and oblivion. Save them from all the powers of this world.”

      Media flow, poetry/resistance, disappearance of Morse code: February 1999.

      In … et les déchets qu’on brûle (… and the refuse we burn), the texts are by Denise Desautels, taken from Cimetières: la rage muette (Éditions Dazibao, Montréal, 1995). With the processed voices of Marie-France Marcotte, Angèle Laberge, Marc Mercier. And contrabass improvisations by Joëlle Léandre.

      [English translation: Sean Ferguson, Traçantes]

      Figures du temps (Figures of Time) was realized with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Media Arts Section, and of the PRIM Media Arts Centre in 1998-99 in the composer’s personal studio. The first two movements were premiered on February 17, 1999, during a solo concert as part of the Rien à voir (5) concert series presented by Réseaux in Montréal, and the third movement was premiered May 5, 2001, on the program L’espace du son produced by Mario Gauthier at Radio-Canada’s Chaîne culturelle.

      piste@imed_0366-1.3 oeuvre@13924 ISRC CAD500316060
    • 6
      low memory #2 (2001), 10m23s
      bass flute, piccolo, and 4-track tape
      • Commission: Claire Marchand, with support from the CALQ
      • Premiere: April 8, 2001, Claire MarchandFlûte! un concert… — Réseaux, Studio 12 — Maison de Radio-Canada (Montréal, Québec)

      An encounter between instrumental sound as immediacy and individuality, with voluntarily restrained sonorities, and electroacoustic sounds, with dense and profound sonorities and movement, as an overture to the otherness at the very heart of sonic structure.

      [English translation: Sean Ferguson, Traçantes]

      low memory #2, a mixed work for bass flute, piccolo and four-track tape, was realized during 2001 in the composer’s personal studio and premiered April 8, 2001, by Claire Marchand at Studio 12 of the Maison de Radio-Canada in Montréal for the program Résonances, produced by Laurent Major. The current stereo version was realized in 2002 at the composer’s personal studio. This piece is a commission of Claire Marchand, with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. My thanks to Claire Marchand. low memory #2 was a finalist in the 29th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2002) and received a special mention at the Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition, Métamorphoses 2002 (Brussels, Belgium) and was recorded in 2003 on the disc Métamorphoses 2002, Musiques & Recherches (MR 2002).

      piste@imed_0366-1.6 oeuvre@13928 ISRC CAD500316090

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