Stéphane Roy: Kaleidos: reviews

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electroradio

Kaleidos

Stéphane Roy

Kaleidos

empreintes DIGITALes | IMED 9630 | 1996

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Review

by Gary Flanagan in Nightwaves #8 (Canada), April 1, 2001 |381_1|

“A very bold work.”

Here is another intriguing release from the adventurous folks at Diffusion i Media. Apparently, Mr. Roy has been involved in the visual arts and the literary world for quite some time now, and he has also won several awards at various worldwide experimental music competitions. Plus, he currently teaches at Université de Montréal! Anyone with credentials as impressive as this obviously knows what they are doing, and this level of artistic experience is very evident on Kaleidos. This is electroacoustic music achieved by guitar, tape, and various other sources. It is pure sound chemistry which attempts to establish a fascinating sonic soundscape without any nod to convention. Roy succeeds in reaching this much strived for territory in which rules simply do not exist. A very bold work.


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Review

by Geert De Decker in Sztuka Fabryka (Belgium), November 1, 2000 |357_53|

On this CD there are 4 compositions, each is performed almost in the same style of music. Stéphane plays with sounds that he is able to create in an acoustic way and also in an electronic way. Sometimes the acoustic sounds are reworked electronically. Sometimes the composition is a chaotic mix of tunes, while in some songs it is a peaceful mix of easy tunes. It is not ambient music it is electronic music that can become real hypnotic.


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Recenzijos

by Linas Vyliaudas in Tango #8 (), August 1, 2000 |347_2|


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Discos / CD Reviews

by Esteban Lago in Hurly Burly #11 (Spain), July 1, 1999 |315_6|

Thick combinations of electroacoustic sound created using the guitar as a source. The work correspond to very different time intervals, since they unfold from 1987 to 1994. The sound is displayed in murmurs of granular texture representing internal states that are expressed and alternate in progressions of shocking dynamic splits.

Discos / CD Reviews

“Combinaciones espesas de sonido electroacústico…”

Combinaciones espesas de sonido electroacústico creado a través de la guitarra fuente. La obra consta de cuatro partes que a su vez so corresponden a situaciones muy diversas en el tienpo, ya que éstas se desrollan desde 1987 a 1994. El sonido queda expuesto en murmullos de textura granulada como representación de estados internos que se expresan y alternan en progresiones de chocante rupturas dinámicas.


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Review

by James Harley in Computer Music Journal #22:4 (USA), December 1, 1998 |287_4|

“A wide range of dynamics and techniques of granulation plays a major role in this tour-de-force of mixing.”

The 40-year-old Stephane Roy brings a background in literature to his work in electroacoustic music. This Montréal-based composer has received numerous awards for his music. The composer associates his style with the school of “acousmatic” composition of the GRM in Paris.

Kaleidos brings together four compositions composed over the period 1987-1994. Mr. Roy’s sonic palette is consistent throughout this collection. In sudden gestures, he scatters fleeting sprays ot oily resonant grains. These are often mixed on top of distant, amorphous textures. Stephane Roy also relies on another strategy: wide variations in dynamic range. Violent outbursts of energy emerge dramatically from near-silence to make curious gestures, then quickly disappear.

Mimetismo (1992) is a virtuoso composition based on strumming in the style of Spanish flamenco guitar, spanning 10 min and 36 sec. The piece was realized in several stages, with initial work using the SYTER system at the GRM studios, and final editing at the studios of the Universite de Montréal. The piece hegins gradually, building frenetically to an extended summit (but not a climax) at 3:30. The intensity gradually lowers, and we are transported to a realm of distant atmospheres. I was impressed by the composer’s fluid treatment of macro form.

Paysages interieures (1988), realized at the Universite de Montréal studios, works with a limited palette of source sounds that are transformed in the manner of musique concrète: filtered, transposed, remixed, spliced. The first several minutes consist of variations in what sound like small bells. The opposition between distant, Iooming figures and nervous cross-panning grains creates a dramatic landscape. As the composer states: “In these landscapes, where the unspoken reigns, a thousand fears suddenly emerge under the pressure of an interior murmur. The mysteries of our spirit open up ancient fratricidal debates, nourished by our entire existence” (program notes). This is a mysterious yet intriguing work, continuous in texture with a beautiful low-layer weaving throughout.

Ondes/arborescences (1987), created in Montréal a year before Paysages intérieurs, Iasts 9 min and 36 sec. It begins with a cascade ot high and low frequencies. The source of its watery timbres is untraceable. Pitch plays more of a role in the opening of this work, which adds layers of long sustained tones to create harmonic fields that eventually destadestabilize into noises. The (analog synthesizer?) pitches return, drifting down in amplitude and across the spatial panorama. The melodic material seems improvised and quasi-random, so although the piece is skillfuily mixed, I did not find this piece to be as strong as the others.

Cristal Music (1994), at 14 min and 46 sec, is the newest and longest work on this disc. The work unfolds in the same unstable style as Mimetismo Realized with the Common Lisp music language, the first minute opens in a dramatic “acousmatic” style. As the composer states: “Like glasswork, the material has been expanded, moulded, transmuted in the fiery furnaces of experimentation.” A wide range of dynamics and techniques of granulation plays a major role in this tour-de-force of mixing.


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Kritiek

by Peter Wullen in Gonzo Circus (Belgium), December 1, 1998 |286_003|

“… een perfect voorbeeld van.”

Het akoesmatische Kaleidos van Stéphane Roy is minder toegankelijk. Roy speelt met klanken en geluiden zoals een schilder met verf en kleurnuances. Als pointilisme in de muziek bestaat dan is Kaleidos daar een perfect voorbeeld van. De spaarzame tonen verspreiden zich op het eerste gehoor achteloos in alle richtingen als kleuren in een kaleidoscoop. Toch is dit een meticuleus en perfectionistisch samengesteld klankenpalet dat zijn volle rijkdom toont in Mimetismo, waar hij in de clinch gaat met de Spaanse, akoestische gitaar van Arturo Parra, en in het betoverende en kristalheldere Crystal Music.


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Review

by Alan Freeman in Audion #39 (UK), December 1, 1997 |254|

“It adds up to a fascinating disc…”

A student of Francis Dhomont and the winner of numerous awards, Stéphane Roy is a new name to keep a look-out-for, that is if you’re interested in sonic construction in the manner of François Bayle and the likes. This is a sound-world, where music of a marginally melodic but often dissonant nature is created from the most unlikely sources. The four works on this disc all have their own unique focus: Mimetismo, wich deconstruct the playing of an acoustic guitar; Paysages Intérieurs where excellent use is made of digital processing for a weirdly surreal cosmic feel; Ondes/Arborescences in wich percussive sounds are ripped apart, reverberated and shattered; and finally Crystal Music where the sounds created are indescribable in their fragility, power and diversity. It adds up to a fascinating disc and another worthy addition to empreintes DIGITALes’ budget “Compact Compact” series.


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Review

by Glenn McDonald in The War Against Silence #143 (USA), October 23, 1997 |247_712|

“… a bit of instrumental reverse-weirdness…”

I’m sure there’s as much distinctive nuance in electroacoustic music as there is in anything else, but I clearly haven’t learned to spot it yet, as Stéphane Roy’s Kaleidos sounds to me like a continuation of Harrison’s record.

The stars have calmed down a little. Perhaps now they are reminiscing, instead of berating each other; the sequences of sounds build more slowly, and flutter through more intermediary tones, rather than careening breathlessly from octave to octave. There is a bit more textural density, some of Harrison’s spasmodic flare sublimated into an atmospheric sparkle. Roy manages a bit of instrumental reverse-weirdness, too, on Mimetismo, where some of the alien parts are transposed for Arturo Parra’s guitar. Played back to back, though, these two albums [Harrison’s Articles indéfinis and Roy’s Kaleidos] seem to me like an epic 2001-esque expansion of the black-hole journey that Rush glossed over in the transition from Cygnus X-1 to Hemispheres.


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Review

by Andrew Lewis in CEC, Contact! #11:1 (Canada), October 1, 1997 |247_33|

“This is acousmatic art in its purest, highest form.”

All too rarely do recordings appear which present a convincing argument for the value of acousmatic music, but this CD from Stéphane Roy does just that, and with no shortage of eloquence. This is acousmatic art in its purest, highest form. There is a fluidity and mobility in the control and shaping of material which reveals a truly sculptural approach to sound — sound as a plastic medium. One immediately notices the careful attention to detail in this music, yet it is never over-controlled. There is always a sense of real joy, of reveling in the beauty of the sounds for their own sake. This is music which is immediately attractive on first hearing (perhaps because of the strong pitch content), but also promises that closer listening will yield yet greater rewards. What comes over very strongly in all the pieces featured is that the composer is not simply manipulating material as if it were inanimate matter. Instead, the sounds really are made to live and breathe, as if they themselves possess an intelligence, and exhibit particular behaviors in direct response to their sonic environment.

All the pieces on this CD share common stylistic attributes, in particular a characteristic use of the re-enveloping of sounds, both in intensity and in pitch. The earlier works Ondes/arborescences and Paysages intérieurs share a vitality which at times can be overwhelming, but at the same time is always clearly under control, while Mimetismo achieves with apparent effortlessness the difficult task of carrying such a strongly acousmatic language over into the live instrumental domain, and in such a way that guitar and tape really do act as one (something often claimed for other pieces, but rarely with real justification).

An important point is that these works exhibit not just artistry, but craftsmanship too, something indispensable in the acousmatic domain, since the composer not only conceives the music, but also makes it. In the final piece, Crystal Music, this craftsmanship is taken to new heights, with its exquisitely controlled explorations of quiet but intensely active shards of sound. In effect, the sense of craft becomes itself part of the artistic experience. We need more such music.


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Critique

by Stephan Dunkelman in Les Cahiers de l’ACME #184 (Belgium), September 1, 1997 |921|


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Review

by Elliott S in Splendid E-Zine (USA), July 21, 1997 |244_5|

“… worlds of sound unimaginable to the average luddite.”

With a microphone, a computer and sophisticated software, Stéphane Roy is capable of producing worlds of sound unimaginable to the average luddite. In the tradition of Pierre Schaeffer and GRAM, this Montréal-based composer (along with other artists in that city) is devoted to electroacoustic music and what is often referred to as acousmatic sound. Compared to their American counterparts, the French (and Canadian) approach relies more on sounds recorded from the surrounding environment (rather than synthesized timbres) and the diffusion of such sounds through multiple loudspeakers. Naturally, Kaleidos is reduced down to two channels for play on the home stereo, but it isn’t difficult to imagine Roy at the mixer moving these rich and lively sounds to different sets of speakers that surround the listener. Ranging between nine and fifteen minutes in length, these pieces are the 21st century equivalent to the 19th century symphony and it is all done with recorded sounds and digital processing. You won’t hear any violins or brass instruments, although Mimetismo does use the guitar as a sound source. Spanning eight years of Stéphane’s creative output, this collection is solid proof that electronic sound is not a sterile art.


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La musique électroacoustique résiste au temps

by Philippe Tétreau in La Presse (Québec), June 14, 1997 |244_002|

“Vitesse, bruissements, tensions mais surtout douceur…”

«N’ajustez pas votre appareil»

Des quatre récentes parutions, commençons par Kaleidos de Stéphane Roy. Ici les sonorités acousmatiques se présentent avec une rare délicatesse de traitement. Le vacarme y est proscrit. On retrouve plutôt dans les éléments retenus une grande et judicieuse parcimonie qui permet l’affirmarion d’un véritable style. Vitesse, bruissements, tensions mais surtout douceur, douceur qui parfois frise l’assoupissement, pour déboucher — qui sait? — dans le rêve. Roy opte surtout pour des sonorités éoliennes plutôt que pour des valeurs rythmiques. Aussi perçoit-on dans ses réalisations force grains de poussière, des tempétes de sable où défilent des bribes de tout poil. Dans la pièce Mimetismo qui ouvre le programme, Roy superpose les sonorités de la guitare (celle d’Arturo Parra) aux ondes fugaces des machines. Nait de cette union un mimétisme certain qui se transforme finalement en une osmose.


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Review

by Tom Schulte in Outsight (USA), June 1, 1997 |240_5|

“… it strikes me more as a series of provoking, sonic propositions.”

Varied sounds come in glimpses, interrupted by periods of silence, or near silence. This might sound even unsettling, but it strikes me more as a series of provoking, sonic propositions. Each idea stands out clearly and time granted for consideration. The French and English liner notes describe “unstable spaces” while Roy’s own notes bring into play the aural color, or “klangfarben.” This seems better suited to the title, to me. I see monuments of diverse form and color placed periodically along a road. Further notes explore each of the four tracks (the shortest cut is nearly ten minutes). Avant-garde compositions for the stereo adventurer.


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Critique

by Claude Dornier in SOCAN, Paroles & Musique (Canada), April 1, 1997 |233|

Intitulé Kaleidos afin de refléter le «fourmillement, éclatement, contraste et transparence» des quatre œuvres acousmatiques de Stéphane Roy qu’il juxtapose, ce recueil fait miroiter des pièces qui ont souvent valu à leur auteur des récompenses prestigieuses: Mimetismo, premier prix du Concours international Luigi Russolo (1992); Paysages intérieurs, deuxième prix du Concours national des jeunes compositeurs de Radio-Canada (1988); et Crystal Music, premier prix au Prix international de musique acousmatique Noroit-Léonce Petitot (1994).


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Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones

by Dwight Loop in The Sun-News #9:3 (USA), February 1, 1997 |222_005|

Stéphane Roy’s Kaleidos (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9630) is the work by the composer whose earlier artistic life straddled fine art and literature. This is theatrical music where the tonalities are treated as different characters in the sound-play.


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Critique

by Jérôme Noetinger in Revue & Corrigée #29 (France), September 1, 1996 |215|

“… des ondes de choc et diverses couleurs rayonnantes.”

Compositeur québecois primé dans de nombreux concours, Stéphane Roy présente quatre pièces dans la collection «Compact-Compact» (courte durée (environ 40’) à prix rébuit). Mimetismo pour guitare et bande est marquante par le mariage parfait de l’instrument et de la bande, une fusion totale, au même titre, mais dans une esthétique différente, que la pièce de Gilles Gobeil Associations Libres avec René Lussier à la guitare. Les 3 autres pièces pour bande évoquent plutôt des contrées étranges parcourues par des ondes de choc et diverses couleurs rayonnantes.


other texts in

  • SOCAN, Paroles & Musique (Canada), January 1, 1997
  • Voir (Québec), February 13, 1997
    “[une] collection déjà abondante de disques consacrés à l’électroacoustique québécoise et étrangère.”
  • Circuit #9:1 (Québec), January 1, 1998
    “un mixage efficace […] mettant en valeur chacune des multiples couleurs minutieusement et magnifiquement mises en temps par Stéphane Roy.”

Stéphane Roy: Kaleidos: reviews

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