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piste@span_199022833-1
Krrrchstchack.
The event is triggered by a profound attachment to physical matter and nostalgia of an era I did not live through: the era of machines, real ones, set in motion by physical mechanisms.
I proceeded to gather peaces of machines and gears. My collection held reminiscent objects: cameras, 8mm projectors, music boxes and antique toys. I discovered naturally rich materials made of different granular textures and an abundance of micro-articulations. The gears are expressive and precise; they engage a defined process.
I sampled the small objects before deconstructing them, splitting them, dividing them up. From these fragments, I constructed new gears. I wanted to maintain, as much as possible, the essence of the physical characteristics of the sounds. The only thing left to do was to activate the musical mechanics.
In this context, the gears are release mechanisms. They engage a change in space, a material transformation, a stop, a change of direction or simply another mechanism. They play a double role: sound material and transition between events, just as the ties and slurs of musical writing.
[xi-11]
Liaisons mécaniques was realized from December 2006 to April 2007 in the studios of the Université de Montréal (Québec) and Musiques & Recherches (Belgique) and premiered on April 27, 2007 at Petit théâtre Mercelis in Brussels (Belgium). The piece was commissioned by Musiques & Recherches. It was realized with the support of the Conseil des arts des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and the Agence Québec-Wallonie-Bruxelles. Thanks to Robert Normandeau and Annette Vande Gorne.The work was awarded the 2nd prize (ex æquo) at CIMESP 2007 (Brazil) and mentions at Concurso Internacional de Composição Electroacústica Música Viva 2007 (Portugal), Digital Art Awards (Japan, 2007), and 34th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2007).
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oeuvre@20163
The work was awarded the 2nd prize (ex æquo) at CIMESP 2007 (Brazil).
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oeuvre@27395
To composer Hans Tutschku and our friendship
Premières traces du Choucas [First Traces of the Jackdaw] is a second preliminary work for Le cri du Choucas, a long work in progress about Franz Kafka’s world, works, and character.
“Kavka” is the Czech word for “jackdaw” (“choucas” in French), a kind of crow whose image adorned the storefront of Hermann Kafka, Franz's father. The title came from the strong animal symbolics found in the works of Kafka: a deep, solitary, never-empathic, often-muted cry one can hear in each one of his novels and tales, even in the slightest fragmentary story. As for the capital C attributed to “Choucas” in my title, it confirms the presence of a proper noun.
No text yet in these Premières traces du Choucas, but you will find sonic research on and an impressionistic approach to the Kafkaian themes highlighted in the writings of Marthe Robert.
[English translation: François Couture, i-09]
Premières traces du Choucas was realized in 2006 in the composer’s studio in Avignon (France) and was first premiered on October 21, 2006 during the 13th International Acousmatic Festival L’Espace du son (Brussels, Belgium), then on November 2, 2006 — the composer’s 80th anniversary — during the Akousma (3) festival at Monument-national’s Studio Hydro-Québec in Montréal. Premières traces du Choucas was co-commissioned by Réseaux des arts médiatiques with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, and Musiques & Recherches (Belgium). Premières traces du Choucas was awarded the Pubic Prize at the 7th Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (CIMESP ’07, Brazil) and was finalist in the “Premiere of the Year” at the 11th Prix Opus 2007-08 of the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM).
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oeuvre@27396
This work is dedicated to the composer’s father who passed away in 2003. The composer relied on sounds from different musical styles, which were those his father loved, and also ambience sounds which gave him pleasure, such as some animals or his grandsons voices, among others. Taking these materials as a point of departure the composer tried to get their common features, or even to process them in similar ways, in order to organize a unified discourse which intends to express in some way, something of what the permanent memory of his father generates in him.
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oeuvre@20183