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“The temporal goals of Baroque constitute a ‘matterism’ (as opposed to the formal and conceptual mannerism that preceded it), which takes concrete situations into account and becomes part of history with an action.”
— Claude-Gilbert Dubois
If I substitute the word ‘electroacoustics’ for ‘baroque,’ I get a definition that corresponds accurately to my approach to electroacoustics.
Whether the sound object is used for its symbolic value, or is diluted by effects in order to retain only its energy and make it a more abstract entity, my work is initially produced from concrete sound objects. The variations come from the inductive nature of the material. The different ways of revealing this induction allow the creation of a form that will either follow the object’s logic, or be in opposition to it. To paraphrase Debussy: “the object creates the form.”
The processes that I use to ‘play object’ are: morphological transformations (transgressions/regressions), mutations, filtering effects (colorations) and montages. I also like to include quotes that refer to a historical event, suggest drama or a ‘semantic shift,’ as in the work Hérésie ou les bas-reliefs du dogme (Heresy or Dogma’s Bas-relief), where I use a Gregorian chant which gradually evolves into distortion (the symbolic passage from the pure to the impure). These symbioses and hybrids form a ‘baroquing’ æsthetic.
If I put forward the idea of the baroque spirit, it is not so much to defend this tendency as to better define my approach. Most of my works have been under the influence of a permanent feature: my baroque spirit. As the writer Alejo Carpentier says: “I do not consider baroque to be a historic style, it is more like a constant of the spirit.”
It is only in hindsight that I have realized how much my work is nourished by this constant, and which leads me to a rejection of the defined, the static and the unequivocal.
Electroacoustics also allows me to search for the nocturnal side of images, to find the limits of their symbolism, triggering interlocking effects that send perception towards a new object, a new image, a new signifier, like games of “trompe-l’ouïe” (auditory illusions) and “trompe-sens” (sensory illusions).
It is a quest for an Alibi, for spaces, for a deferred elsewhere, where day-dreaming stays so real, it can make you believe that “Life is a dream.”
Jacques Tremblay, Montréal [x-98]
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