Ligne de vie: récits électriques

Life Lines: Electric Tales
IMED 9001
1990
CD
1 disque

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Radio // Ligne de vie: récits électriques
1 septembre 2001
Par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 septembre 2001

Texte

«Calon’s art is impregnated with a personal touch that makes it unique.»

The release of Ligne de vie: récits électriques marked two important events: the launch of the record label empreintes DIGITALes which would grow up to become a leader in electroacoustic music and establish Montréal as a Mecca in this field; but also the closing of an era for composer Christian Calon, who following this publication would leave Montréal to go back to Europe. This CD contains three long works created between 1985 and 1989. They illustrate the composer’s “first phase,” so to speak. Portrait d’un visiteur (“Portrait of a Visitor,” 17 minutes) takes the listener on an evanescent journey. Synthesized sounds paint an uncertain landscape with very poetic strokes. La disparition (“The Disappearance,” 21 minutes) follows a more determined structure of almost architectural proportions. Bits of classical and foreign folk music have been transformed and embedded in the sonic narrative that recalls Francis Dhomont’s storytelling talents. The latter’s influence is highly detectable in the 40-minute Minuit (“Midnight”), clearly the disc’s highlight. Three fragmented texts form the backbone of this hörspiel. There is no real story, but emotions and metaphors follow a progressing narrative, leading the listener through various stages of the night (the booklet provides an English translation of the French texts). This breathtaking piece points in the direction Calon will follow in the hörspiels from his Berlin period (1996 and on). Ligne de vie: récits électriques is highly recommendable to anyone interested in electroacoustics. Calon’s art is impregnated with a personal touch that makes it unique.

blogue@press-443 press@443
1 octobre 1998
Par Tom Schulte in Outsight (ÉU), 1 octobre 1998

Texte

Calon [(Ligne de vie: récits électriques)] presents three pieces, dated 1985, 1988 and 1989. These are an electronic impressionism of inner space. Human voices appear solely in the third selection, along with the sounds of birds. Whereas it can be a cure for depression to close your eyes and put yourself in your happy place Calon offers the power to combat a deficient imagination by using early synthesizer sounds and effects to put yourself in that richly hued, glowing nebula inside you. (Calon: 3.5/5)

blogue@press-281_503 press@281_503
10 août 1998
Par George Zahora in Splendid E-Zine (ÉU), 10 août 1998

Texte

«… a landscape of shimmering, volatile polyphony.»

Christian Calon is a founding member of the CEC (Canadian Electroacoustic Community), so the canny listener immediately knows not to expect an album of traditional three-minute pop songs… or, indeed, an album of any kind of songs. What you’ll encounter instead is a landscape of shimmering, volatile polyphony. Portrait d’un visiteur, for instance, melds brief sonic motion-textures — analog found-sound and synthesized instrumentation — to show how the familiar can become unfamiliar. La disparition, if I’ve understood it correctly, collects sound-fragments from a multi-cultural array of works, assembles and categorizes them and then reassembles them in ways that highlight the fundamental connections and similarities between the disparate musical traditions. Minuit, the last composition, is a sort of exploration of a sonic dreamtime, combining the emotional climax of dream-thought patterns and the interplay of music and text. As with most empreintes DIGITALes releases, this is a challenging work that’s far more involved than an uninformed listen might suggest; reading the CD booklet provides essential contextual information that gives the pieces meaning.

blogue@press-279 press@279
1 mai 1994
Par David in Concept #24/25/26 (France), 1 mai 1994

Texte

«… une seule chose éclate aux oreille de l’auditeur: création. Oui, avec un grand C comme Calon

Le label canadien empreintes DIGITALes est indiscutablement synonyme de qualité. En effet, que ce soit au travers des œuvres de Daoust, de Normandeau ou de Dhomont, une seule chose éclate aux oreille de l’auditeur: création. Oui, avec un grand C comme Calon.

Une fois de plus nous sommes transportés dans un univers sonore impalpable, mystérieux et émouvant: l’auditeur plonge dans ces remous globuleux, nage au beau milieu de ces incessantes variations onriques et s’émerveille face à ces reliefs audibles constamment déstabilisants. Les «repéres» ou «rappels» de Daoust et Normandeau sont ici effacés, Calon nous fait véritablement vivre l’inouï sans faire transparaître la technologie musicale. Ces récits électriques sont inévitables…

blogue@press-173_7 press@173_7
1 mars 1992
Par Elzbieta Dyda in Obieg (Pologne), 1 mars 1992

Coupure de presse

blogue@press-110 press@110
1 mars 1992
Par Ed Blomquist in Sound Choice #17 (ÉU), 1 mars 1992

Texte

«… a very powerful space to spend some time in.»

Calon, one of the founding members of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Montréal, and French-Canada is the center of an extremely active group of composers workin’ in a style they dub «electroacoustics» a modern descendent of the musique concrète of such luminaries as Pierre Henry. This uses manipulations of acoustic sounds as well as electronics, to create evocative and compelling sound art. This work is much more humane than purely electronically generated sounds. This CD contains three pieces, Portrait of a visitor, The Disappearance, and Midnight, the latter being full of manipulated female orgasmic moans, which I like a great deal! It is not your basic hump-disco, but a highly deconstructed libretto about sex, death and other profundity. Overall, this is a very powerful space to spend some time in.

blogue@press-113_1 press@113_1

Autres textes dans

  • Circuit #3:1 (Québec), 1 mars 1992
    «… Christian Calon […] leur prête sa langue, l’une des plus chatoyantes de la jeune école acousmatique montréalaise.»

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