Gilles Gobeil, René Lussier: Le contrat: track detail

<<
Le contrat

Gilles Gobeil, René Lussier

Le contrat

[The Contract]

empreintes DIGITALes | IMED 0372 | 2003

CD 25.00 CA$ [?]

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

Le contrat (1996-2003) 66m27s imed_0372-1.1 | 13966 | ISRC CAD500317310

Les remparts [The Ramparts]; La gageure [The Bet]; Le chapelet [The Rosary]; La nuit la plus longue [The Longest Night]; La forêt [The Forest]; Le cabinet d’étude [The Study]; Rats et contrat [Rats and Contract]; Le premier baiser [The First Kiss]; L’amour pointe [Love Arises]; Le lavoir [The Wash House]; Le flagorneur [The Sycophant]; La chambre de Marguerite [Marguerite’s Room]; Le duel [The Duel]; Les bijoux [The Jewels]; La caverne [The Cavern]; Le jardin [The Garden]; Les chevaux noirs [The Black Horses]; L’entremetteuse [The Go-between]; La cathédrale [The Cathedral]; L’écolier [The Schoolboy]

Commission: Jean-François Denis / empreintes DIGITALes, with support from the CCA

Premiere: October 15, 2003, Rien à voir (14), Réseaux, Espace GO (Montréal, Québec)

First of all, it must be said that we are friends: 28 years ago we were frantically collaborating on our first “works.” We chose different paths afterwards, but we regularly helped out each other and our interest in making music together remains intact.

So we responded enthusiastically to a commission to create a collaborative work and to do so we light-heartedly cashed a first installment from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Our project? To compose a work inspired by Goethe’s Faust and to build it according to the very architecture of the poem. Quite a contract! A glance at our diaries should have been enough to bring us back to our senses, but we had already put the cogs in motion. It took us a few years to understand that the project would require much more time than expected, and a few more to admit that we would never make it to the end! Why? First, we are two remorseless maniacs and we just kept on (happily) tripping over every single crack this masterpiece laid down in front of us; second, life played its part, tossing us from crest to trough, each year bringing its load of surprises. It took Goethe more than 30 years to write his Faust. Should we sell our souls in order to meet the terms of our “Contract”?

We preferred to give ourselves a more realistic timeline (i.e. unbearably slow) and this snail pace allowed us to honor our common obligations seven years straight. However, the project changed along the way. Many chapters were dropped; others were combined. We took all kinds of liberties and even drew from other sources, since Faust’s tale has inspired many authors before us and we simply could not resist the urge to acknowledge them with a few nods. The chronology of the original poem also got defaced: in the end, the music determined the final sequence.

Along the way, we presented three unfinished versions: in November of 1999 at the Théâtre La Chapelle in Montréal as part of the concert Plein la vue presented by Réseaux; in March 2000 at the Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio France in Paris as part of a concert presented by the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM); and in May 2000 at the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV).

We could have spent thousands more hours on this project, because, let’s admit it, we grew fond of the slow pace, but everything must come to an end. And here’s the final version.

Clauses of Le contrat [The Contract]: • Composition and realization: Gilles Gobeil, René Lussier • Original idea, research, editing, spatialization, voice, noises, synthesis and sound transformation, travel reminiscences: Gilles Gobeil • Editing, guitars, daxophone, voice, noises, sensitive platform, luminous Achille, foot tapping, percussion: René Lussier • Text excerpts read by: Benoît Fauteux, Jean-Antonin Billard • Recording engineers: Gilles Gobeil, Pierre Léger, Claude Beaugrand, Martin Messier, anonymous. • Mixing: Martin Messier, Gilles Gobeil, René Lussier • Mastering: Denis Frenette, Studio 30, Société Radio-Canada • Illustration: Louis-Pierre Bougie • Production: empreintes DIGITALes

Le contrat was realized between 1996 and 2003 at the composers’ studios, mixed at Martin Messier’s studio and premiered on 15 October 2003 as part of the Rien à voir (14) concert series presented by Réseaux at Espace GO, in Montreal. This version was masterised on 29 August, 15 and 19 September 2003 by Denis Frenette, Studio 30, Société Radio-Canada, Montréal. It was commissioned by Jean-François Denis for empreintes DIGITALes with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Thanks to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Liszt, Maurice Ravel, Charles Gounod, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, René Clair, Herman Melville, Giovanni Papini, August Strindberg, Maxime Gorki, Martin Messier, Paule Marier, Mario Rodrigue, Audrey Limoges-Gobeil, François Gauthier, Pierre Labbé, Réseaux des arts médiatiques, Michel Levasseur and the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM).

1. Les remparts (1996-2003) 2m17s imed_0372-1.1.1 | 13967 |

2. La gageure (1996-2003) 5m27s imed_0372-1.1.2 | 13976 | ISRC CAD500317320

MP3 Real

3. Le chapelet (1996-2003) 2m58s imed_0372-1.1.3 | 13977 | ISRC CAD500317330

4. La nuit la plus longue (1996-2003) 11m54s imed_0372-1.1.4 | 13978 | ISRC CAD500317340

MP3 Real

5. La forêt (1996-2003) 3m36s imed_0372-1.1.5 | 13979 | ISRC CAD500317350

6. Le cabinet d’étude (1996-2003) 6m11s imed_0372-1.1.6 | 13980 | ISRC CAD500317360

7. Rats et contrat (1996-2003) 3m28s imed_0372-1.1.7 | 13981 | ISRC CAD500317370

8a. Le premier baiser (1996-2003) 18s imed_0372-1.1.8a | 13982 | ISRC CAD500317380

8b. L’amour pointe (1996-2003) 1m56s imed_0372-1.1.8b | 21169 |

9. Le lavoir (1996-2003) 3m09s imed_0372-1.1.9 | 13983 | ISRC CAD500317390

10. Le flagorneur (1996-2003) 3m05s imed_0372-1.1.10 | 13968 | ISRC CAD500317400

11. La chambre de Marguerite (1996-2003) 2m43s imed_0372-1.1.11 | 13969 | ISRC CAD500317410

12. Le duel (1996-2003) 2m59s imed_0372-1.1.12 | 13970 | ISRC CAD500317420

MP3 Real

13. Les bijoux (1996-2003) 2m15s imed_0372-1.1.13 | 13971 | ISRC CAD500317430

14. La caverne (1996-2003) 1m37s imed_0372-1.1.14 | 13972 | ISRC CAD500317440

15a. Le jardin (1996-2003) 1m13s imed_0372-1.1.15a | 13973 | ISRC CAD500317450

15b. Les chevaux noirs (1996-2003) 54s imed_0372-1.1.15b | 21167 |

15c. L’entremetteuse (1996-2003) 1m58s imed_0372-1.1.15c | 21168 |

16. La cathédrale (1996-2003) 5m39s imed_0372-1.1.16 | 13974 | ISRC CAD500317460

17. L’écolier (1996-2003) 2m11s imed_0372-1.1.17 | 13975 | ISRC CAD500317470

MP3 Real

Gilles Gobeil, René Lussier: Le contrat: track detail

>>
<< >>

Prices are in Canadian dollars — 1.00 CA$ ~ 0.98 US$ ~ 0.62 € ~ 0.49 £ ~ 1.01 AU$ ~ 104.74 ¥ — and include handling, shipping and applicable taxes.


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

Page cat@imed_0372.pistes generated in Montréal by litk 0.550 on Sunday, July 6, 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!