Sounds only

Woche 13-18 / 24.03. - 4.05.08

Programm der CEC mit Veröffentlichungen des Labels "empreintes DIGITALes"
curated by Jef Chippewa, CEC Administrative co-Director

01. Elsa Justel / Bastet / 2004 / 10:37
02. Martin Leclerc / Sauf dans la brume / 2005 / 12:33
03. John Young / Arrivederci / 2005 / 15:35
04. Jonty Harrison / Undertow / 2007 / 12:19
05. Andrew Lewis / Benllech Shells / 2003 / 8:33
06. Annette Vande Gorne / Figures d’espace (Vande Gorne) / 2004 / 13:49
07. Laurie Radford / Terms of Occupancy / 2006 / 10:08
08. Gilles Gobeil / Le miroir triste / 2007 / 13:42
09. Louis Dufort / Enfant d’obus / 2007 / 10:02

Recent Releases on empreintes DIGITALes (Montréal) Founded in 1995, empreintes DIGITALes has the largest selection (over 1100 titles) of electroacoustic music recordings in North America! In addition to discs with audio excerpts (in realaudio and mp3), press reviews, biographies, interviews of composers and complete programme notes of their works are available on www.electroCD.com.
In order to recognize the valuable contributions Jean-François Denis continues to make for the larger field of electroacoustics, the CEC proposes this month a WebRadio? programme of selections from a number of recent releases on the empreintes DIGITALes label: these nine works by Canadian and international artists offer a glimpse into the diversity of their catalogue.
Enjoy the listening, and don’t forget to make a stop at electroCD.com for more info on the works and on the artists.
jef chippewa CEC Administrative co-Director 13 March, 2008

Elsa Justel / Bastet / 2004 / 10:37
Bastet, this naughty cat deity, has slipped into the piano box. Confused by the strange appearance of this place, she tries to find the exit while holding on to the strings.
The project is based on the notions of ambiguity, instability and chance. The material comes from sounds produced by piano strings, guitar and snare drum through unconventional modes of excitement (by rubbing, scratching and hitting, or using various items, such as wooden and metal sticks, nail file, paper, etc.). I was exploring the spectral instability unique to string sounds with the intention of producing nuances of character and effects of ambiguity. Some digital treatments allow to change the personality of sound, so it is possible to obtain sounds similar to percussion or wind instruments. Also, I have let chance, this ineffable assistant, play a role in order to lead us to unexpected discoveries.
Released on Mâts (2007) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0785

Martin Leclerc / Sauf dans la brume / 2005 / 12:33
“Everything was basking in oppressive calm.”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), Memoirs (Confieso que he vivido: Memorias, 1974)
“I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Walden; or, Life in the Woods, 1854
This piece is about solitude. I was inspired by my own solitude and two literary works: Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau and Confieso que he vivido: Memorias by Pablo Neruda. Sauf dans la brume (Except in the Mist) is a musical transposition of various states of solitude feeding on the literary discourse and soundscape evoked by these works.
Released on Horizons du silence (2007) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0786

John Young / Arrivederci / 2005 / 15:35
Stroma: Hamish McKeich, conductor; Bridget Douglas, flute, alto flute; Pat Barry, clarinet; Su Yi, harp; Jeremy Fitzsimons, percussion; Emma Sayers, piano; Rebecca Struthers, violin; Robert Ibell, cello

To the memory of my mother

The core sound used in the work is a recording of one of the bells of Forlì’s Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Croce, which dates from the 15th century. Hearing their chimes amongst the bells of many other churches in and around the centre of the city evoked for me a sense of the timelessness of such sounds and their interaction in space — a physical, architectural presence that extends beyond living memory. As it happens, the Duomo’s original bell tower was destroyed by German soldiers as they retreated from Forlì in 1944 — a fact which, for me, shifts the significance of these particular sounds from an image of constancy and eternity to one of regeneration and hope.
Arrivederci’s harmonic colours were developed in response to the bell’s spectral content, embellished and embroidered through instrumental sonorities. Filtering out certain partials of the bell spectrum meant that I could “retune” the bell’s perceived pitch (by leaving only harmonically related sets of partials) conveying the impression of different fundamentals and allowing it to integrate with the work’s shifting harmonic fields. Digital convolution of components of the bell’s spectrum with instrumental samples also meant that the bell timbre could be made to gel harmonically with the fixed tuning of the instruments. In more poetic terms, the distinctive spectrum of the bell might be taken here as a metaphor for memory, as an implied and recognizable identity. The coherent morphology of the actual bell surfaces at certain points to maintain a sense of the realistic source, but in other respects the instruments are in dialogue with rhythmic and spectral traces of the bell’s sonic qualities.
Released on Lieu-temps (2007) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0787

Jonty Harrison / Undertow / 2007 / 12:19
Plunging beneath the waves we discover a world teaming with life and pulsing with energy. But we cannot hold our breath forever. (And not only that, there seem to be cars down here, masquerading as breaking waves!)
Released on Environs (2007) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0788.

Andrew Lewis / Benllech Shells / 2003 / 8:33
“High summer, a crowded, baking beach. Noise, movement, ice cream, diesel. Children and adults alike are drawn to the foaming shore, melodious squeals and cries bobbing up momentarily through the noise of the surf. Away from the water families stake their claim with colourful fortifications: parents bask and sweat, little ones search the sand. ‘I’ve found a shell…’ The child’s eyes and ears collect her future memories. ‘We could save this shell…’” (Benllech, Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, July and August 2003)
Putting a shell to our ear to see if we can ‘hear the sea’ is perhaps the earliest experience any of us has of transforming sound artificially, creating a wholly fictitious but nevertheless magical aural impression of the sea. Benllech Shells employs computer technology to much the same end, lending an extraordinary aspect to ordinary and familiar sounds (those of a crowded beach in high summer). It also tries to draw some parallels with the way that memory transforms childhood events - in this case the sights and sounds of the seaside - to create an often fictitious but nevertheless magical impression of the past.
Released on Miroirs obscurs (2007) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0789.

Annette Vande Gorne / Figures d’espace (Vande Gorne) / 2004 / 13:49
To Claude Lenners Aerial or blocked space, in movement or static, in contrasting colours, materials and movements… but what does “space” mean? Here, each part requests a “complimentary soul” from the performer at the mixing board, a certain virtuosity. In the tradition of the classical study or prelude, the piece has been designed as an instrumental gesture, as space figures conditioning the gestural answer of the performer.
Released on Exils (2008) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0890

Laurie Radford / Terms of Occupancy / 2006 / 10:08
Terms of Occupancy began as an eight-channel variation and extension on the earlier work à la cire perdue. The title refers to the strategies and methods that bind me to the sounds I deploy as well as a preoccupation with multi-spatial determination for these sonic objects. It continues a line of work that seeks to bring together sounds and characteristics from seemingly disparate areas of my sound and music making activities. The challenge posed by the expanded possibilities for spatial placement and trajectory, first in eight channels, and then for the 5.1 format led to a substantial reshaping of the original sounds as well as a recasting of their compositional possibilities.
Released on Les ponts de l’espace (2008) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0891

Gilles Gobeil / Le miroir triste / 2007 / 13:42
Freely adapted from a few scenes from an unshot scenario by Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovksy (1932–1986) entitled Hoffmanniana (1975) and picturing the tormented life of Romantic-era German writer/composer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822). A dialogue between Donna Anna (a character from Don Juan by Mozart) and Hoffmann), taken from Hoffmanniana: — “Have you ever had, if only in a dream, the certitude that everything was possible, that no matter what you could want, it would have to happen? — And that everything would happen if, suddenly, you were to decide to believe that your impression was real?” — “Yes, but only in a dream.” — “But is not the dream as real as reality?” she says, smiling. Then, noticing he is not looking at her but at her reflection in the mirror, she turns around and adds: “You should not be looking into mirrors at night.”
Released on Trois songes (2008) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0892

Louis Dufort / Enfant d’obus / 2007 / 10:02
Enfant d’obus (Bomb Child) was realized in 2007 at the composer’s studio in Montréal. The piece is taken from a section for voice and tape from the opera L’archange (2005). My thanks to Chants libres and Émilie Laforest.
Released on Matériaux composés (2008) IMED 0785.
www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_0893

CREDITS: Canadian Electroacoustic Community Administrative Directors — jef chippewa & Yves Gigon Web Site — Yves Gigon The CEC’s activities are supported by the SOCAN Foundation’s Core Funding Programme, Concordia University, The Canada Council for the Arts, empreintes DIGITALes, several individual and institutional Partners and by CEC members. Canadian Electroacoustic Community c/o Music Dept., Concordia University RF-302 7141 rue Sherbrooke ouest | Montréal QC | CANADA H4B 1R6 cec@vax2.concordia.ca | http://cec.concordia.ca

Hier werden Produktionen aus Archiven der Elektroakustischen Musik, wie z.B. dem Archiv der DEGEM oder dem IDEAMA- und dem DEGEM-Archiv des ZKM, dem Archiv des elektronischen Studios der TU Berlin sowie anderen internationalen Archiven und Dokumentationen elektroakustischer Kunst unter verschiedenen Aspekten präsentiert.