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by Jacques Tremblay |imed_9842-0001|
“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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