L’oreille voit

The Ear Sees
Compact-compact 4
IMED 9416
1994
CD
1 disc
15.00 CAD -7%

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Radio // L’oreille voit
L’oreille voit
La volière (1994), 12m58s [excerpt]
Track 1 from L’oreille voit
CD: empreintes DIGITALes (1994) IMED 9416
13 September 2001
By François Couture in All-Music Guide (USA), September 13, 2001

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“… approches the art form with innocence and the intention to have fun.”

L’oreille voit (“The Ear Sees”) was Randall Smith’s first CD. Released in 1994, it gathers works created between 1988 and 1994. His constructions include a lot of movement, something that translates into the titles of works like La volière (“The Aviary”), Ruptures (“Breaks”), and Counterblast. This sense of movement gives life to the compositions in a way similar to what can be found in Francis Dhomont’s works: ample, calculated gestures of swirls and crescendos that lead somewhere (as opposed to Gilles Gobeil’s escalators that stop in their tracks). L’oreille voit begins with the composer’s recently finished La volière, where the human voice is used to simulate bird sounds. The wide dynamics and intriguing sources make for a fascinating listening experience. Then we gradually move back in time down to the 1988 The Face of the Waters, which paradoxically contains anything but water sounds. Very playful, it imitates water or conveys the idea of it by using a sonic vocabulary reminiscent of the candor that marked the early days of musique concrète (Pierre Henry’s early pieces, particularly): bedsprings, glasses, light bulbs, squeaky doors, etc. Smith’s subsequent works, especially the ones for tape and instrument, will tend to be denser and more satisfying, but this first crop reveals a composer who, although remaining firmly anchored in academic electroacoustics, eschews its too frequent pretentiousness and approches the art form with innocence and the intention to have fun.

blogue@press-448_5 press@448_5
21 January 2001
By Richard di Santo in Incursion Music Review #019 (Canada), January 21, 2001

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“Smith’s work is an electroacoustic wonder.”

Five compositions by the electroacoustics wizard Randall Smith, composed and recorded between 1988-1994. As with Sondes (also on empreintes DIGITALes), a follow-up collection of Smith’s works from 1995-1999, this record is teeming with activity and intensity. It’s title, L’oreille voit, translates as “the ear sees,” and as such these compositions can largely be seen as attempts to visualise sound — to create sound sculptures which present themselves visibly to the senses. True enough, Smith’s palette contains many tangible sounds (or “sound objects” as he calls them) that are quite concrete and seem to manifest themselves physically. The first composition, La volière (the aviary), investigates the theme of flight and the gestures of birds. As Smith explains in the liner notes, “their movements of flight are retraced according to the dictates of a machine universe, which aligns them into orders of understanding, geometries of the visible.” This composition, and the rest that follow it, are remarkable for their wealth of detail. A stunning world of sound and visibility where our senses are sharpened and our experiences of microscopic and “minor” events are intensified. Academic compositions are matched by more reactionary ones: Ruptures, realised in 1991, documents Smith’s angst regarding “worldwide unrest and instability” given a sudden influx of rapid social and political change in the world (i.e., the end of the cold war, etc.). The disc concludes with The Face of the Waters, which is also its earliest composition. Realised in 1988, it takes a close look at the sounds of water in a whole range of situations (a babbling brook, crashing waves, etc.). Arranged in four movements which build gradually in intensity, this piece is remarkable for how it transforms and amplifies these sounds, arranged on an unconventional and multifarious canvas. Randall Smith’s work is an electroacoustic wonder.

blogue@press-370 press@370
1 January 2000
By Esteban Lago in Hurly Burly #12 (Spain), January 1, 2000

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[Translation] Noises arising from the elements situated as supporting canes in imprecise and disquieting situations. Other less identflable sound clusters survive the mechanical explosions which crumble and are recycled into a new timbric feature or a simple self-echoing.

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16 November 1998
By Noah Wane in Splendid E-Zine (USA), November 16, 1998

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“… you’ll be drawn into a whole sonic world…”

In the acousmatic tradition, Randall Smith’s music consists of sonic “symbols” intended to be “seen” by the listener’s mind. This is perhaps the most visual music you’ll ever hear (see?). I’ll warn you right away, the proper effect is not achieved by putting this music on in the background. You need to give it your full attention. A darkened room will help, as will closing your eyes and imagining the sounds emanating from behind a closed curtain. If you’re doing it correctly you’ll be drawn into a whole sonic world, full of bizarre people, places and things. The ear sees (L’oreille voit)! For further details, please aurally ogle Ruptures.

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3 January 1998
By RK in Odradek #3 (Germany), January 3, 1998

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Randall Smith entdeckte die elektroakustische Musik für sich, als er auf die Arbeit der französischen GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales) aufmerksam wurde. Im Zusammenspiel seiner eigenen musikalischen Experimente mit etwa experimentellem Film und Tanz entwickelte er Kompositionstechniken, mittels derer er visuelle und akustische Elemente in einer Klangsprache vereinte. Was über das Ohr vermittelt wird, läDt im Kopf einen imaginären Film entstehen. So auch der Titel dieser CD L’oreille voit, übersetzt Das Ohr sieht. Smith’s Musik sind filigrane Klanggeschichten, differenziert und vielschichtig gewoben, technisch hervorragend realisiert, und dabei sehr persönlich, kraftvoll und sensibel zugleich, souverän im Zugriff und immer spannend und flüssig erzählt. Hier hat ein Künstler gearbeitet, der den Klang selbst — egal welcher Art, an sich und in jedem denkbaren Kontext — wirklich liebt, und der darüber hinaus ein Meister seines Handwerks ist, der sein Material genau kennt und mit sicherem Gespür beherrscht, aber niemals vergewaltigt, und der sich mit aller Selbstverständlichkeit im Spektrum zwischen Naturgeräuschen und moderner Elektronik mühelos bewegt. Ich vernehme in diesen Klangfantasien “Gesänge” unserer Zeit, Maschinenstimmen als eine eigene Art von Natur.

Hier wird Technik zu etwas durch und durch Lebendigem, Atmosphärischen, Emotionalem, Erzählendem, weit entfernt von rein Funktionalem. In diesen Klangerzählungen geschieht sehr viel, und gleichzeitig entsteht Raum für spontan sich entfaltende imaginäre Bilder im Kopf. Bizarre kleine Welt-MiniaNren / Miniatur-Welten, Natur und beseelte Maschine zugleich, lebendige SkulpNr, voller sich immerfort verändernder Polyrhythrnik. Geschichtenerzähler, Filmregisseur, Choreograph, Komponist, „Instrumentalist“, Randall Smith ist alles in Einem. Ich höre so individuelles Persönliches, gleichzeitig ein gutes Gespür für die Zeit, in der wir leben. Diese Musik ist voller Wärme, aber auch Schärfe, fantasievoll und klar. Stellenweise habe ich das Gefühl, verzückt einem Glasperlenspiel zuzusehen, erlebe das Klicken und Ticken und Rappeln der “ Murmeln” als ein akustisches Vexierspiel. Smith nennt Parmegiani als einen seiner musikalischen Väter, und das hört man auch. Und dennoch hat Smith eine deutlich eigene Klangsprache entwickelt. Seine Musik ist warm, natürlich, frisch, jugendlich, fast verspielt, humorvoll, aber dabei niemals oberflächlich. Randall Smith scheint den Gesang der dinghaften Welt hinter den Dingen und in ihnen selbst zu suchen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Glücksfall in der acousmatischen Musik.

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1 June 1997
By Jeff Filla in N D - Magazine #20 (USA), June 1, 1997

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“… It took some talented hands to shape these little tracks.…”

A bit more patient and slowly evolving than your average electroacoustic work. This gives a lot of emphasis to stimulating, grainy textures and raw imagery, without constantly interrupting you with that sterile “electronics-in-a-void” sound that can make me blase about electroacoustic work sometimes. Satisfies the same tastes that enjoy John Watermann’s “Calcutta Gas Chamber” or David Dunn’s “Chaos and the Emergent Mind of the Pond.” Pretty potent stuff, especially at high volume levels.

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Other texts in

  • Ear Magazine (USA), June 1, 1997
    “Excellent, among the best of the genre”
  • The Toronto Star (Canada), October 19, 1994
    “… La volière, a texturally rich electronic tape piece…”

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