immerson 7

Immerson7_oboro_wp

Nicolas Bernier, John Duncan, Herman Kolgen, Mika Vainio

Curator : France Jobin

Thursday, June 4 and Friday, June 5, 2015 at 6 pm

Tickets on sale at OBORO ($10)
as of May 26, 2015. *Maximum of 2 tickets per person*
From Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also call 514 844-3250 (credit card only).
Limited seats. No ticket reservation.

The Artists:

Nicolas Bernier creates sound performances, installations, musique concrète, live electronics, post-rock, noise improv and video art while also working with dance, theatre, moving images and within interdisciplinary contexts. In the midst of this eclecticism, his artistic concerns remain constant: the balance between the cerebral and the sensual, and between organic sound sources and digital processing. Awardee of the prestigious Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica 2013 (Austria), his work have been presented in major events and venues like SONAR (Spain), Mutek (Canada), DotMov Festival (Japan), ZKM (Germany), Transmediale (Germany) and LABoral (Spain) to name a few. His sound compositions are widely published on electronic music labels: Crónica (Portugal), LINE (US), leerraum (Switzerland), Entr’acte (UK) and empreintes DIGITALes (Québec). He holds a PhD in sonic arts from the University of Huddersfield (UK). He his a member of Perte de signal, a media arts research and development centre based in Montreal. He his teaching in the Digital Music program of the Université de Montréal.

www.nicolasbernier.com

John Duncan was born in the United States, currently lives and works in Bologna. Duncan portrays his work as a catalyst, inciting a transmission of energy through which he seeks to compel the audience to actively participate in the process of investigation and self-discovery. His lengthy career of electroacoustic intensity and confrontational performance art events is the result of rigorous investigations into a number of arcane, metaphysical, and at times transgressive themes. Duncan is a rare artist who is totally immersed in existential research.
– Jim Haynes, The Wire (UK). His audio releases THE CRACKLING (1996 with Max Springer), PALACE of MIND (2001 with Giuliana Stefani), FRESH (2002 with Zeitkratzer), THE KEENING TOWERS (2003), PHANTOM BROADCAST (2004), NINE SUGGESTIONS (2005 with Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen), THE NAZCA TRANSMISSIONS (2009) to name a few, are all considered by critics and composers alike to be benchmarks in the field of experimental sound and contemporary music.

www.johnduncan.org

Recognized for his multimedia creations for over twenty years, Herman Kolgen is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Montreal. A true audiocinetic sculptor, he draws his primary material from the intimate relationship between sound and image. Kolgen works to create objects that assume the form of installations, video and film works, performances and sound sculptures. Constantly exploring, he works at the junctures of different media, as well as elaborating a new technical language and singular aesthetic. Herman Kolgen creations have been presented at renowned festivals and events, such as: Berlin Transmediale, isea, Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, Sonic Acts, Centre Georges Pompidou, Cimatics, Dissonanze, elektra, Mutek, Sonar, Tapei Digital Art, Shanghai eARTS. Herman Kolgen is the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes, including Qwartz, Ars Electronica, Best Experimental Film Award of the Independant Film Festival of New York and Los Angeles, and the Award of Conseil Général du Festival International du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand.

www.kolgen.net

Mika Vainio, editions Mego, sähkö, blast first, raster-noton, touch / finland
Mika Vainio, currently based in Berlin, was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland (the other was Ilpo Väisänen), whose brand of quirky, lo-fi minimalism transformed them into one of the most popular exports from the Northern European techno underground. Before starting Pan Sonic in beginning of the 90s, Mika Vainio played electronics and drums as part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, tend more toward the ambient and experimental, blending sparse machine noises with shifting rhythms, stubbornly unmusical sonic textures, assorted channel separation weirdness and known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, Vainio is always creating unique, physical sounds. He has released on labels like editions Mego, Touch, Wavetrap and Sähkö.

www.mikavainio.com

About immerson:

immerson 7 is pleased to continue its exploration of new perceptions and experiences regarding the listening process, and this year will be an exceptional edition. For some time, I had been hoping to welcome the artists John Duncan and Mika Vainio for an evening of concerts and voilà! In addition, immerson 7 will also present Montreal artists Nicolas Bernier and Herman Kolgen. An evening charged with creativity in an intimate setting. [France Jobin]

immerson is a concert event and philosophy initiated by France Jobin that proposes creating an environment dedicated to an enhanced listening experience through the physical comfort of the audience by means of a specifically designed space.

Jobin initiated immerson in February 2011, in partnership with OBORO and in close collaboration with Stéphane Claude.

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

This event is part of the Montreal Digital Spring 2015
In collaboration with BIAS – International Art Biennial by ELEKTRA

immerson_logoLOGO_ELEKTRA_02_2013_NOIR

France Jobin acknowledges the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.

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CALQ2c

immersound 6

© F. Jobin, 2013

Martin Tétreaut, Olivier Girouard

Curator: France Jobin

immerson 6 – Concert June 5 and 6, 2014 at 6 pm

Tickets on sale at OBORO ($10)
as of May 27, 2014
From Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also call 514 844-3250 (credit card only).
No ticket reservation.

The Artists:

Martin Tétreaut is an internationally-renowned Montreal DJ improviser originally from the visual arts milieu. His has produced several CDs and stage performances with numerous collaborators notably Diane Labrosse, René Lussier, Jean Derome, Michel F Côté, I8U, Otomo Yoshihide, Kevin Drumm, Xavier Charles, Ikue Mori and many others. Abandoning the musical citation, on which his work was developed since its beginnings in 1985, he now explores the intrinsic qualities of the turntable: motor noises, parasitic sounds, etc. He also uses needles and prepared surfaces (thank you John Cage) and small electronic instruments. True to analog broadcasting, this noise approach allows him to not have to answer the question: “ What about copyrights? ” as well as to no longer be invited to electronic music manifestations (!). When he wants a break from music, he returns to visual arts where he sands, scratches and cuts out books, magazines…

www.actuellecd.com/en/bio/tetreault_ma/discog/

Olivier Girouard draws inspiration for his work in the “bends”: a link between two concomitant ideas, the transformation of the relief of sound. He reinvents the way we relate to sound through several collaborations with dancers and visual artists.

Involved in the production and the promotion of sound art, Girouard is also the Artistic director of the collective Ekumen. Olivier has received several awards, namely the SOCANFoundation’s Hugues-LeCaine prize, 1st place, in 2008 and the 1st place of the JTTP prize in 2009. His work has been presented in North and South Americas and in Europe.

www.oliviergirouard.wordpress.com

www.ekumen.com

Right-click to download as MP3 (13 Mb)

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

shibui_oto

Founding member of shibui_oto

Artistic Director

About shibui-oto

shibui_oto [subtlety in sound] is a sound art presentation collective. Dedicated to the act of listening, it facilitates intervention between sound creation and architectural or geographical spaces. shibui_oto strives to push beyond borders with respect for the context of presentation and artistic vision. In the spirit of minimalism and drawing from Japanese culture, shibui can be named as the aesthetic of simplicity, balanced with refinement in detail.

shibui_oto affirms its commitment to the nuances of sound environments and dedicated listening experiences.

The artists:

Christopher Bissonnette is a Canadian musician/sound artist/designer living and working in the Detroit/ Windsor area. He has released two full-length albums for the Chicago based label Kranky and more recently a collaborative recording with David Wenngren (Library Tapes) on Home Normal. Bissonnette is also a founding member of Thinkbox, a project-based collective that has explored art, sound and video in a variety of contexts ranging from art galleries to music venues.

Bissonnette began his career studying fine art at the University of Windsor with a major in video and multimedia. His intense interest in sound art began while creating audio works to support the abstracted imagery of his visual work. Bissonnette also experienced the rise of the Detroit electronic music scene in the early nineties and began to develop a distinct sound of his own. Experimenting with “purist” techno sounds, working with analogue synths and rhythm machines, he soon discovered that this was ultimately unfulfilling. In 1996 Bissonnette teamed up with Mark Laliberte to form Disseminator Audio, which produced hybrid performances of sequenced tracks, turntable experiments and spoken word. Bissonnette refined his practice producing audio, video and installation work. In 1997 Laliberte and Bissonnette began working with Windsor film and video artist Chris MacNamara, founding Thinkbox, a media collective focused on the intersection of art and electronic music. Thinkbox produces art in a variety of media and spaces from art galleries to nightclubs and have fronted a series of limited edition themed compilations.

In 2004 Thinkbox was invited to perform a showcase at the Mutek music festival in Montreal. In addition to a collaborative performance with the other five members, Bissonnette offered a solo piece derived from a body of work that would be the foundation of his solo debut release, Periphery. Over the past ten years Bissonnette has continued to expand his aural vocabulary and production techniques incorporating elements of concrete, field recording and modular synthesis.

www.christopherbissonnette.ca

Tim Hecker is a Canadian-based musician and sound artist, born in Vancouver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Kranky, Alien8, Mille Plateaux, Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His works have been described as “structured ambient”, “tectonic color plates” and “cathedral electronic music”. More to the point, he has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft, which is both physical and emotive. The New York Times has described his work as “foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole”. His Harmony in Ultraviolet received critical acclaim, including being recognized by Pitchfork as a top recording of 2006. Radio Amor was also recognized as a key recording of 2003 by Wire magazine. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, as well as various writings. He currently resides in Montreal

www.sunblind.net

An intellectual pioneer as much as anything else, Akira Rabelais issued forth musical creations and inventions from his perch at CalArts. Born and raised in South Texas, one of his childhood pastimes involved shooting metal plates with BB guns so that he could experience the unique sound that it caused. That fascination with sound, combined with a philosophical and literary bent (his favorite surreal and magical realist snippets of literature are on his website, www.akirarabelais.com) helped lay the path for the musical creations he has been issuing since 1990 — he describes himself as a “composer writing software, not an engineer making music.” The software that Rabelais made reference to in that quote, or at least the most famous among his inventions, was the Argeïphontes Lyre. With functions like Eviscerator Reanimator, Time Domain Mutation, Morphological Disintegration, Verwechslung Kaffeetass, and the Lobster Quadrille, the Lyre was a program that allowed the user to make a number of alterations to a piece of pre-recorded sound. The program quickly became a favorite of electronic music composers such as Terre Thaemlitz and Scanner, who used it to create disorienting sound shifts. Rabelais’ own CD, Elongated Pentagonal Pyramid (Ritornell, 1999), showed the stamp of the Lyre, with its multiple layers of gently wavering sound. Eisotrophobia followed in spring 2001.

www.akirarabelais.com

immersound_LAX

shibui_oto is pleased to present immersound_LAX in partnership with Human Resources and VOLUMEimmersound_LAX will showcase artists Christopher Bissonnette (CA), Tim Hecker (CA), and Akira Rabelais (US), for an intimate evening of performances in an immersive 6.1 channel installation.

About immersound

immersound is a concert series/philosophy initiated by artist France Jobin, which proposes to create a unique listening environment by focusing on the physical comfort of the audience through a specifically designed space. The premise for immersound is to seek out/explore new perceptions and experiences of the listening process by pushing the notion of “immersion” to its possible limits. Set in a very intimate context, limited to an audience of no more than 40, the architecture of the multi-channel sound system is consistent and evolutive in its design and tuning. The artists work collaboratively with the curator and sound engineer to develop musical compositions unique to the immersound experience.

SOLD OUT!

Venue
Human Resources
410 Cottage Home St.
Los Angeles CA, 90012

Zabuttons: Zen Stitchery.

immersound_LAX  is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

immersound_SEA

shibui_oto is pleased to present immersound_SEA in partnership with Wayward Music Series at the Chapel Performance Spaceimmersound_SEA will showcase artists Christopher Bissonnette (CA) and Tim Hecker (CA),  for an intimate evening of performances in an immersive 6.1 channel installation.

immersound is a concert series/philosophy initiated by artist France Jobin, which proposes to create a unique listening environment by focusing on the physical comfort of the audience through a specifically designed space. The premise for immersound is to seek out/explore new perceptions and experiences of the listening process by pushing the notion of “immersion” to its possible limits. Set in a very intimate context, limited to an audience of no more than 40, the architecture of the multi-channel sound system is consistent and evolutive in its design and tuning. The artists work collaboratively with the curator and sound engineer to develop musical compositions unique to the immersound experience.

BUY TICKETS

Friday November 8th 2013

The Chapel Performance Space
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, 4th Floor
Seattle, WA 98103
Corner of 50th st. in Wallingford

immersound_SEA  is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

immersound 5

© F. Jobin 2012

Quatuor Bozzini, Marint Arnold, Wandelweiser ensemble

Curator: France Jobin

Friday, June 14, 2013 at 7 pm
Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 3 pm, 5 pm and 7:30 pm

Tickets on sale at OBORO ($10)
as of June 4, 2013.
From Tuesday to Friday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also call 514 844-3250 (credit card only).
No ticket reservation.

as part of the festival Suoni Per Il Popolo

The artists:

Based in Montreal, the Bozzini Quartet is composed of Clemens Merkel (violin), Stéphanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello) and Mira Benjamin (violin). A radically contemporary ensemble in a stimulating, exciting milieu, the Bozzini Quartet enthusiastically explores the possibilities of classical concerts as well as more diverse experiments. Carefully building a diverse repertoire that has never ceded to ease or currents of fashion, the quartet has performed over one hundred and fifty commissioned pieces and has premiered more than two hundred other works. Invited to numerous international festivals, the Bozzini Quartet supports the next generation of composers through workshops, such as the Composer’s Kitchen. The quartet also manages their own recording label, Collection QB, through which they record composers from Canada and abroad.

http://www.quatuorbozzini.ca

Toronto-based composer and performer Martin Arnold studied in Edmonton, Banff, the Hague and Victoria, where his teachers were Alfred Fisher, Frederic Rzewski, John Cage, Louis Andriessen, Gilius van Bergeijk, Rudolf Komorous, Douglas Collinge, Mowry Baden, Linda Gammon and Michael Longton. He is also an active member of Toronto’s free improvisation and experimental jazz/roots/rock communities performing on live electronics, banjo, melodica, guitar, and hurdy-gurdy. Martin works as a landscape gardener, lectures in the Department of Cultural Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, and is an Adjunct member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University in Toronto.

http://www.kalvos.org/arnoldm.html

The Wandelweiser composers ensemble -a name, maybe an idea, a program- without ever having published an explanation or even manifesto growing out of the Edition Wandelweiser in 1995 with the goal to not only publish their music together but also to become active through concerts. The Wandelweiser composers ensemble today has 12 members from different European countries, Japan, Brazil and the US. The group is characterized through its curiosity for each others work and a pleasure in artistic and aesthetic discussion. The ensemble is a network of relationships and friendships, with many ramifications and held together only in a loose manner. But then its members can also be very close together in questions of art, of composing, of comprehension and approach.

The 4 concerts’ program :

Friday, June 14, 7 pm, with Antoine Beuger (Wandelweiser)
• Manfred Werder — Ein Ausführender, S 534-538
• Antoine Beuger — Silent harmonies in discrete continuity

Saturday, June 15
3 pm, with Wandelweiser + Quatuor Bozzini
• Michael Pisaro — asleep, river, bells, chords
• Antoine Beuger — Méditations poétiques sur “quelque chose d’autre”

5 pm, with Wandelweiser + Quatuor Bozzini + Martin Arnold
• Jürg Frey — Landschaft mit Wörtern
• Michael Pisaro —Interference (2)

7:30 pm, with Quatuor Bozzini + Jürg Frey, clarinette
• Martin Arnold — Waltz Organum
• Jürg Frey — Streichquartett 3

immerson 5 – event pictures

About immerson:

Immerson is pleased to renew its collaboration with the festival Suoni Per Il Popolo to offer an exceptional, intimate experience! The Bozzini Quartet, Martin Arnold and members of the international group of composers Wandelweiser–Jürg Frey (Switzerland), Thomas Stiegler (Germany), Antoine Beuger (Holland), Radu Malfatti (Austria), Michael Pisaro (United States–will participate. The quartet’s musicians will interpret the playful subtleties of Wandelweiser’s music which, according to Radu Malfatti, focuses on evaluating and integrating silence(s) rather than creating an infinite, continuous blanket of sound. This minimal instrumental music is well suited for the acoustic architecture of Immerson.

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

immersound 4

© F. Jobin, 2012

Constantine Katsiris, Tomas Phillips, Nancy Tobin

Curator:  France Jobin

January 24 and 25, 2013 at 6 pm

Tickets on sale at OBORO ($10)
as of January 15, 2013.
From Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also call 514 844-3250 (credit card only).
No ticket reservation.

The artists

Scant Intone is the solo project of Canadian artist Constantine Katsiris dedicated to experimentation with audio as a medium. The output varies from stark minimalist tones to densely complex textures with a sound palette that incorporates elements of field recordings, shortwave radio, raw data, and digital sound synthesis. Focused on researching psychoacoustics, waveform anomalies and various audio phenomena discovered while exploring the frequency spectrum, his compositions are excursions in abstract electronic music with influences including ambient, lowercase, microsound, noise, glitch and drone. Live performances have been numerous over the past years, including many collaborations and improvisations with like-minded audio and video artists. Katsiris has brought his sound to many notable venues, such as Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), Brut Konzerthaus (Vienna), and SESI Art & Cultural Center (Sao Paulo). Scant Intone has also shared the stage with Fennesz, Crys Cole, KK Null, Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker and Sawako, to name a few.

http://scantintone.com

Tomas Phillips (b. 1969) is a composer, novelist, and teacher whose sound work focuses on improvisational performance and minimalist through-composition. He began composing electronic music in the early 1990s that has seen release on such labels as Trente Oiseaux and Line. Additionally, he has created music for installations and collaborations in dance and theatre. Tomas has taught in the disciplines of literature and fine arts at various universities in the US, Québec, and Finland. Having completed an interdisciplinary Ph.D. at Concordia University, Montreal, he now lives in the US, where he teaches comparative literature, as well as seminars on minimalist texts and horror genres at North Carolina State University.

http://incursion.org/phillips

Nancy Tobin is an audio artist based in the St-Henri neighbourhood of Montreal. Her sound designs for dance and theatre productions have been part of the Festival TransAmériques, the World Stage Festival, the Festival d’Avignon and the Edinburgh International Festival. Tobin has, in her twenty years of experience, developed a specialization in vocal amplification for theater and is known for her distinct style, using unusual loudspeakers to transform the aural qualities of her compositions.
In performance and sound improvisation, Tobin collaborates regularly with turntable sound artist Martin Tétreault (duo TÉTO, the TURNTABLE QUARTET and the SUPERHEART performance). Her solo work includes commissions for the group ARTIFICIEL (Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal), and curator Eric Mattson (Mutek Festival and other special events). Her current performance instrumentation consists of electromagnetic transducers, vintage tone generators, and small speakers. In 2007, she formed BêTEs NoCTurnes, an open collective that improvises live around the idea of sounds of nature at night.

http://www.mmebutterfly.com

About immerson

Immerson 4 continues its exploration of new perceptions and experiences of the listening process with the invited artists, who will unveil a diversity of approaches, all while respecting the notion of immersion within an aesthetic of minimalism.

Immerson is a concert event and philosophy initiated by France Jobin that proposes creating an environment dedicated to an enhanced listening experience through focusing on the physical comfort of the audience by means of a specifically designed space.

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

LOUNGE

DHC/ART presents LOUNGE,
an event presented in the context of the exhibition Ryoji Ikeda

LOUNGE:
Synesthésie Sonore/
Sonic Synesthesia

Laura Cetilia
Seth Horvitz

Saturday, November 10 at 9 p.m
Doors open at 8:30 p.m. — PHI centre,  407 Saint-Pierre Street, Montreal

Free admission with pass, available at DHC/ART
and the PHI Centre as of November 1st.

Guest curator: France Jobin
Associate Curator: Cheryl Sim

LOUNGE is an audio project developed in a minimalist aesthetic,
the result of a long process of reflection on ways of listening
in the context of the public presentation of audio art.

LOUNGE proposes an environment inspired by the architecture
of the presentation space, an environment entirely dedicated
to listening. The presentation takes its inspiration from the
Montreal piano bars of the 1950s and explores new ways
of perceiving and experiencing the listening process, all the while
questioning the relationship between performer and performance,
intimacy and immensity, self and solitude, and between human
and machine. This exploratory environment serves as backdrop
for Seth Horvitz’s “Eight Studies for Automatic Piano” and
Laura Cetilia’s captivating approach to the cello, one that
combines virtuosity with inventiveness.

In this context of performed sound art, the contrast between
acoustic instruments used in very different ways is brought
to the fore; one using computer-based composition, and the
other using an approach to playing where traditional methods
are subverted. These approaches are complemented by
a very positive sort of synesthesia created by the presence
of the sound in the architectural space. It is in this spirit
of synesthesia that LOUNGE forms part of the development
of France Jobin’s curatorial practice, highlighting her
deep belief that the public’s experience of sound art must
happen immersively.

The work of Seth Joshua Horvitz (b. 1973, Los Angeles) crosses many
disciplines, among them electronic and experimental music, music for film
and dance, sound design, visual design, video, and installation art. His recent projects are primarily concerned with the web of relationships between nature, machines, and human perception. Under his own name and various pseudonyms, he has published music on dozens of record labels including LINE (USA), Mille Plateaux (Germany), and Leaf (UK). As a performer, he has appeared at venues across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Japan. He holds a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of California at Berkeley (1995) and an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College (2010).
Seth Horvitz

Laura Cetilia is a cellist currently based in Providence RI.  She is comfortable with both acoustic and electronic performance and improvisation, developing extended techniques and technologies that best convey her artistic intentions. Her work manifests itself in many forms. Apart from her solo projects, she is half of the electroacoustic group Mem1, member of the avant garde viola/cello duo Suna No Onna, and collaborator with a number of video artists, including Naho Taruishi, with whom she creates site-specific audiovisual installations.
Laura Cetilia

France Jobin is a sound/installation artist and curator residing in Montreal.
She has created solo recordings for ROOM40 (AUS), nvo (AT), ATAK (JP),
murmur records (JP) and LINE (USA). Her sound installation Entre-Deux,
was met with critical acclaim in Washington DC during the DATA/FIELDS
new media exhibit curated by Richard Chartier and including Ryoji Ikeda
and Mark Fell among others. As curator, she has presented several events
and her latest endeavour is immersound, a concert event/philosophy, which she initiated, and curates.

DHC/ART Fondation for Contemporary Art
451 & 465 Saint-Jean (corner Notre-Dame, in Old Montreal)
Montreal, Quebec H2Y 2R5 Canada

Gallery Hours
Wednesday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Information
(514) 849-3742   |   info@dhc-art.org
www.dhc-art.org   |    facebook | @dhcart    |    dhcart.tumblr.com

immerson 3

© F. Jobin, 2012

chesterfield (Angélica Castelló/Burkhard Stangl) ,  Chantale Laplante, Steve Bates

Thursday June 7th and friday June 8th 2012 6 pm, limited seating!

Tickets on sale at OBORO for $10 (cash only),
from Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also dial 514 844-3250 to make a reservation with credit card.

The artists

Steve Bates is an artist and musician, raised in Winnipeg and now living in Montréal. Coming from a back ground in the noisier side of music, radio art eventually lead to installation projects, both gallery and publicly sited. The sonic is always the starting point for his projects which are then manifested as evocations of communication networks and systems, or expressions of spatial and temporal experience.

Bates frequently uses sound material that is site-specific in an attempt to uncover place and how the sonic effects our experience of site. Time is measured, stretched, pulled at, ignored, and extended. Bates holds an MFA from Concordia University where he was awarded the inaugural Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Current projects include ongoing collaborations with Douglas Moffat as Field Sound, including Okta, a multi-channel, permanent, outdoor sound installation commissioned by the City of Toronto, Lanterner, a music duo with Marc-Alexandre
Reinhardt, and solo exhibitions.

Bates continues to release music, both solo and collaboratively. His
work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Chesterfield (Angélica Castelló/Burkhard Stangl)

Chesterfield was founded by Angélica Castelló und Burkhard Stangl in 2007. The Duo is active in field of composition (f.i. Tapes & Dreams with a commissioned video by Billy Roisz – premiered at Radar-Festival 2010 México D.F.), live-music to silent movies, improvisation, curating and cooking for nice people. Concerts in Europe and México. CD-release: wireless headphone concert live-recording, Olliwood Records 025, 2012, Vienna (limited edition).

Angélica Castelló (chesterfield)

Recorder player + electronic devices, distortions, cheap toys, feedbacks, voices) performer, curator, composer, teacher.

*1972 México City
She studied Music in her native town (Conservatorio Nacional de México), in Montreal (Université de Montréal), Amsterdam (Conservatorium van Amsterdam) and Vienna (Konservatorium der Stadt Wien, Institut für Elektroakustische und Computer Musik). Since 1999 she lives in Vienna where she teaches, She founded the concert series “Neue Musik in St Ruprecht” which she currently runs and where regularly musicians from Austria and abroad perform.She works interdivisionaly with Dancers, Writers, Musicians, Video Artists, Performers, Theater etc.

Even if she stayed faithful to the ancient music (Ensemble fiori musicali), the center and heart of her work is electroacustic and New Music: Co-creation of the Ensembles low frequency orchestra, los autodisparadores (with Thomas Grill and Katharina Klement), frufru (with Maja Osojnik), cilantro (with Billy Roisz), subshrubs (with Katharina Klement, Billy Roisz und Maja Osojnik) and Chesterfield (with Burkhard Stangl). With this ensembles and other musicians such as Olga Neuwirth, Wolfgang Mitterer, Urkuma, Martin Siewert, Eva Reiter, Manrico Montero, Mario de Vega, Barbara Romen, Gunter Schneider, Juan Jose Rivas, Marina Rosenfeld, John Butcher, Okkyung Lee,  dieb13, Matija Schellander, Kazu Uchihashi a.o. she performed across America and Europe

As a composer she wrote for her own instruments (mainly Paetzold recorders with or without electronics), for ensembles (a.o. Danubia Saxophon Quartett, subshrubs, Bella Discordia) as well as for theatre and dance; she composed several electroacustic pieces. Her music has being recorded at labels like mosz, Ein_klang Records, Mandorla, Mikroton Records and chmafu nocords and has being presented in several radio programs.

Castelló has work with composers like Mario Lavista, Hilda Paredes, Katharina Klement, Daniel de la Cuesta, Robert Kellner, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Phil Niblock, Johannes Kretz, Burkhard Stangl etc. on their works, some of which have been dedicate to her.

She has performed at important festivals such as: Salzburger Festspiele, Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon, Donau Festival, Radar, Taktlos, Interpenetration, Osterfestival, Musica Genera, lmc festival, Musikprotokoll, Numusik, Music Unlimited, Wien Modern, Cha’ak’ab Paaxil, Klangspuren, Kontraste, a.o. And worked as an artist in residence in Schrattenberg (AUT) and in Topolo (I).

Prices and Grants:

1997            Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Quebec (Canada) Grant for abroad studies
1999            FONCA (Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y la Artes, México) Grant for abroad    studies
2007            Publicity-Preis from the SKE-austro mechana in Austria (for the Ensemble Low Frequency Orchestra)
2011            State Grant for Composition from the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture in Austria (bm:ukk)

http://castello.klingt.org/
http://castellonews.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/AngelicaCastelloGarnett
www.neue-musik.at

Burkhard Stangl (chesterfield)

composer/performer, guitar, electronic devices, author

*1960, Eggenburg near Vienna.
He works in the field of non-idiomatic improvisation, electronica and contemporary classical; more than 70 CD-releases and three books; inter alia: Récital (guit-solo, 1996), Polwechsel (1998, 1999, 2001, 2002), Moon of Venus (opera without location, together with the poet Oswald Egger, 2 CDs, 2000/2004), ereb afrik (composition for piano, 2004) and Duos with Angélica Castelló, Taku Unami, Taku Sugimoto, Christof Kurzmann, Kai Fagaschinski and dieb13. At last: Hommage à moi, box with 3 CDS, Book (496p., german only), DVD, edition echoraum/loewenhertz, Vienna 2011. Since 2004 he teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Improvisation and New Streams in Music.

http://stangl.klingt.org

Chantale Laplante Biography (French)

Chantale Laplante, compositeure, improvisateure et artiste sonore, vit et travaille à Montréal. Pianiste de formation, classique et jazz, elle a fait des études de composition à  l’Université de Montréal puis s’est perfectionnée auprès de Francis Dhomont et Jonathan Harvey, dans le cadre de cours privés. Son travail repose sur la sensation et le champ  phénoménal du lieu, et se caractérise par une approche au temps non pulsé, imprégnant
l’œuvre d’une impression à la fois de flottement et de tension. Sa pratique est multiple, allant de la composition instrumentale, mixte et électronique, à l’improvisation et, plus récemment, à l’œuvre in situ.

Depuis 2009, elle est chercheure associée au Matralab de l’Université Concordia et, à compter de l’automne 2011, elle est inscrite au Doctorat en études et pratiques des arts de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, avec le soutien d’une bourse du Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture.

About immerson:

immerson is a concert event and philosophy initiated by France Jobin that proposes creating an environment dedicated to an enhanced listening experience through the physical comfort of the audience by means of a specifically designed space.

Jobin initiated immerson in February 2011, in partnership with OBORO and in close collaboration with Stéphane Claude.

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

In collaboration with Oboro and in partnership with  Festival Suoni Per Il Popolo
Immerson would like to thank the Austrian embassy in Ottawa for their support

Sublimation

©Tu M’, 2009

Sublimation: An Exercise in the Immersive

Exhibition
March 3 – April 7, 2012

Opening 
Saturday, March 3, at 5 pm

Audio Screening
Studio 04
Saturday, March 3, from Noon to 7:30 pm

Live Performances
Studio 01
Saturday, March 3, from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm
(pass required, available at OBORO from Tuesday, February 28)

Curators: 
Helen Frosi, France Jobin and Yann Novak

Sublimation: An Exercise in the Immersive is an exhibition featuring a range of audio-visual works  that respond to the idea of the sublime. The exhibition presents eight international artists: Mark + Laura Cetilia (US), Ryan Connor (US), Robert Crouch (US), Gary James Joynes/Clinker (CA), Mimosa|Moize (TW, UK) and Tu M’ (IT).  These works saturate the sonic and visual landscape, drenching and enveloping the audience and must be experienced to be truly understood.

The six audio-visual works on view in Sublimation: An Exercise in the Immersive explore the sublime through their creation of expansive, saturated and meditative environments.  Each artist’s work accentuates an understanding and appreciation of multi-sensory experiences.

The artists in this exhibition explore a wide range of artistic styles and practices, from audio and video field recordings (Morning by Mimosa|Moize), the utilization of broken lenses for light and sound manipulation (Letterlens to Kid Eyes by Ryan Connor), and the incorporation of ceremony and ritual (Provody by Gary James Joynes/Clinker).

One of the more well know works in the exhibition comes from artist duo Tu M’ (Rossano Polidoro and Emiliano Romanelli) who contribute a work from their Monochrome series: Monochrome # 09+V06, a reductive landscape that has been distilled down to fragile atmospheric shades of blue. Robert Crouch pushes the idea of traditional landscape further with his work Dusk, which presents an impossible landscape where a single surface shifts from land formation to skyline and back again.  Landscape leads to location based work in Mark + Laura Cetilia’s Visiting Hours where the piece is formed from recordings within the Museums of Bat Yam, Israel where the piece was first exhibited.

The opening night of Sublimation: An Exercise in the Immersive is accompanied by two complementary programs; an audio screening including works by: Katherine Bennett (US), Celer (US, JP), Stéphane Claude (CA), Heribert Friedl (AT), Robin Parmar (UK, CA, IE), Tomas Phillips + Craig Hilton (US), Scant Intone (CA) & Tom White (UK); and a concert consisting of live performances by:  Robert Crouch (US), David Kristian (CA) and Mimosa|Moize (UK).  The audio screening serves to highlight a larger range of work that fits into the idea of the sublime.  The live performances is a chance for both artist and audience to be consumed by the same visceral experience, to be drawn into and among the same heights and depths of the sonic and emotional spectrum.

Artists:

Exhibition:
Mark + Laura Cetilia (US), Ryan Connor (US), Robert Crouch (US), Gary James Joynes/Clinker (CA), Mimosa|Moize (UK, TW), & Tu M’ (IT).

Sound Diffusion:
Katherine Bennett
(US), Celer (US, JP), Stéphane Claude (CA), Heribert Friedl (AT), Robin Parmar (UK, CA, IE), Tomas Phillips + Craig Hilton (US), Scant Intone (CA) & Tom White (UK).

Sound Performances: 
Robert Crouch
(US), David Kristian (CA) & Mimosa|Moize (UK).

 

Curators:

Helen Frosi is an artist and curator with an interest in sonic and olfactory arts, currently based in London (UK). Helen is co-founder and creative director at SoundFjord the UK’s first sound-devoted gallery and research unit. As a serial collaborator with nomadic tendencies, Helen has programmed internationally for organisations and festivals as well as creative and unconventional arts spaces. Recent projects include screenings, performance and installations for, among others, Apiary Studios (UK), Café Oto (UK), Dragonfly Festival (SE), Galerie8 (UK), Gorey Arts and Film Festival (IE), ICA (UK), Pigeon Wing (UK). Helen is currently a nominator at Supersonix (UK).

soundfjord.org.uk

France Jobin (1958) is a sound/installation artist and curator residing in Montreal. She has created solo recordings for ROOM40 (AUS), nvo (AT), ATAK (JP), murmur records (JP) and LINE (USA). Her sound installation Entre-Deux presented within the new media exhibit DATA/FIELDS, was met with critical acclaim in Washington DC. Curated by Richard Chartier, DATA/FIELDS included Ryoji Ikeda and Mark Fell among others. As a curator, she has presented several events, amongst those: emptiness at Monkeytown, New York (2006), Nocturne 3, Mutek in 2007 (co-curator) and her latest endeavour Immerson (2011) at OBORO, a concert event/philosophy which she initiated and is curating.

francejobin.com

Yann Novak is a sound, video and installation artist based in Los Angeles. He has presented his installation work through solo exhibitions at 323 Projects (CA), Armory Center for the Arts (CA), Las Cienegas Projects (CA), Lawrimore Project (WA), Soundfjord (London, UK) and in two person exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery (WA) and  Pøst (CA). In 2005, Novak re-launched his father’s Dragon’s Eye Recordings imprint with a new focus on limited edition releases by emerging and mid-carrier sound artists, composers and producers. Since its re-launch, Dragon’s Eye has published over 60 releases and has received critical acclaim.

yannnovak.com

immerson 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Chartier,  Monique Jean, Nathan McNinch

In conversation with Richard Chartier after the concert @ 19:30.
Open to all!

Concert
Immerson  2 at Oboro
Thursday, February 24 and Friday, February 25, 2011, at 6 pm, limited seating!Tickets on sale at OBORO for $10 (cash only), from Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also dial 514 844-3250 to make a reservation with credit card.

The Artists:

Richard Chartier (b.1971), sound and installation artist, is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist electronic sound art which has been termed both “microsound” and Neo-Modernist. Chartier’s minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself.

Chartier’s critically acclaimed sound works have been published over the past 12 years as 40 compact discs on labels such as 12k/LINE (US), Raster-Noton (Germany), Spekk (Japan), Non Visual Objects (Austria), Room40 (Australia), Die Stadt (Germany), DSP (Italy), ERS (Netherlands), and Trente Oiseaux (Germany). He has collaborated with noted sound artists Taylor Deupree, William Basinski, CoH, and German pioneer Asmus Tietchens, as well as installation artists Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, and visual artist Linn Meyers. His work currently appears on 38 international sound art and electronic music compilations.

Chartier’s sound works and installations continue to be presented internationally. His work has been exhibited in the 2002 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Sounding Spaces at NTT/ICC (Japan), I Moderni / The Moderns at Castello di Rivoli (Italy), Resynthesis at The Art Institute of Chicago and with the traveling sound exhibit Invisible Cities. His solo and collaborative installations have been shown at the Art Gallery of University of Maryland (US), Media Lab Enschede (Netherlands), Montalvo Arts Center (US), G Fine Art (US), Die Schachtel (Italy), The Contemporary Museum of Baltimore (US), Fusebox (US), and Diapason (US).
Chartier continues to perform his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America. He has performed at noted art spaces/electronic music festivals including:  MUTEK (Canada), GRM/Maison de Radio France (France), Musiktriennale Koeln (Germany), Observatori (Spain), DEAF (Ireland), Transmediale (Germany), NETMAGE (Italy), Lovebytes (UK), The Leeds International Film Festival (UK), The Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands), REDCAT (US), and La Batie (Switzerland) and at art museums including: ICA (UK), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (DC), ICC (Japan), CAPC Musée D’Art Contemporain De Bordeaux (France), Musee d’Art Contemporain (Canada), The Contemporary Art Centre (Lithuania), and Sculpture Center (NY). His live performances have taken place in conjunction with the exhibits Frequenzen [Hz] at the Schirn Kunsthalle (Germany) and A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968 and Visual Music at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (US).
Since 2000, Chartier has continued to curate his influential recording label LINE, publishing 45 CDs and DVDs documenting the compositional and installation work of international sound artists who explore the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. Chartier’s Series, the premiere release on LINE, was awarded an Honorable Mention for Digital Music by Austria’s prestigious Prix Ars Electronica in 2001.

In 2006, Chartier was invited by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to create a sound work in conjunction with the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibit. Titled Specification.Fifteen and composed with musician Taylor Deupree, this work is inspired by Sugimoto’s Seascape series. The audio performance premiere in the museum’s curved Lerner Room at sunset reflected the duality and stillness of Sugimoto’s series. The live recording was released on compact disc through Chartier’s LINE label. The work was awarded one of five Honorable Mentions for outstanding contemporary artistic positions in digital media art by the Jury of Transmediale.07 Award (Germany). With a special slowly shifting video piece incorporating Sugimoto’s Seascapes, a new version of Specifiation.Fifteen premiered at Berlin’s Akademie der Kuenste (Germany) in 2007. This audio/visual performance has subsequently been presented at Issue Project Room (NY) and Torun’s Center for Contemporary Art (Poland) and continues to be adapted.

http://www.3particles.com/

Monique Jean lives and works in Montréal. She studied electroacoustic composition at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Francis Dhomont.

In addition to her acousmatic compositions, her work is also regularly associated with video and experimental films, with dance and with installations. Her harbour symphony L’Appel des machines soufflantes (“The Call of Blowing Machines”), a commission of Radio-Canada, was premiered in March 1998 at the Port of Montréal and in 1999 she was an invited composer during the Rien à voir (5) concert series produced by Réseaux (Montréal).

Finalist in the Ciber@rt (Valencia, Spain, 1999), Musica Nova (Prague, Czech Republic, 2001) and Bourges (France, 2002) competitions, her works are regularly performed and broadcast during numerous national and international concerts and festivals.

www.theresatransistor.ca
www.electrocd.com/en/bio/jean_mo/discog/

nathan mcninch is a consummate tinkerer whom on occasion makes art and music. nathan has released sound work for a handful of independent record labels including: oral, important records, moar and his own petite sono. he has also produced sound works for a variety of other mediums including: installation, video radio, and the internet.

http://petitesono.com/

About immerson:

immerson is a concert event and philosophy initiated by France Jobin that proposes creating an environment dedicated to an enhanced listening experience through the physical comfort of the audience by means of a specifically designed space.

Jobin initiated immerson in February 2011, in partnership with OBORO and in close collaboration with Stéphane Claude.

France Jobin is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

francejobin.com

Immersound wishes to acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts. 

 

 

immersound

Stéphane Claude, France Jobin, Yann Novak

See photos below

Thursday, February 24 and Friday, February 25, 2011, at 6 pm, limited seating!

Two “consuming” evenings of minimal sound art with Yann Novak, Stéphane Claude and i8u in which both artists and audience are mutually drawn into the same heights and depths of the sonic/emotional spectrum.

This sound art will be felt as well as heard.

Tickets on sale at OBORO for $10 (cash only), from Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 5 pm.
You can also dial 514 844-3250 to hold tickets for 24 hours.

Oboro, 4001, rue Berri, local 301, Montréal (Québec) Canada H2L 4H2

The Artists :

Stéphane Claude is an electronic_acoustic composer and sound engineer.

His research is based on integrating a conceptual and physiological framework of audio recording and sound installation for different diffusion contexts in the electronic arts. His interests gravitate around the communication of a formal aesthetic, of a transductive experience of the electronic medium, an exploration of digital signal processing, the parameters of acoustic and sound in spaces.

His work has been published by ATAK(JP), LINE (US), ORAL (CA), among others.

He is the co-founder of the art research unit Ælab with artist and professor Gisèle Trudel. The work of Ælab has been shown internationally. Upcoming projects include a workshop and performance in New-Zealand at the SCANZ Eco Sapiens residency and an exhibition at Fonderie Darling in march 2011.

http://www.intercreate.org/
http://www.intercreate.org/category/scanz-2011/workshops-and-events/
 www.aelab.com

As an audio consultant, he participates in the conception, production and integration of presentation spaces, of specialized analog and digital creation and production studios for artist run centers, institutions and independant sites.

http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/st%C3%A9phane-claude/7/481/B83

France Jobin  is an audio / installation artist, composer and curator. Her audio art, qualified as “sound sculpture”, distinguishes itself in a minimalist approach of complex sound environments at the intersection of analog and digital. She participates in festivals, as well as presents installations and events internationally. Jobin has produced numerous solo albums with renowned labels such as ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), popmuzik records and ATAK (JP).  France Jobin was a Sonic Arts Awards 2014 finalist in the category Sonic Research.

 

Yann Novak (b. 1979 Madison, WI) is a sound, video and installation artist living and working in Los Angeles. His work utilizes different forms of digital documentation as a point of departure. Through the digital manipulation of these sound and image files, his works serve as a translation from documents of personal experiences into an open ended autobiographical narrative. By choosing subject matter that is also relatable to the audience, Novak’s work creates a hybrid state, balancing between his own personal history and that of the audience.

His recorded works have been published by Dragon’s Eye Recordings (US), The Henry Art Gallery (US), Infrequency Editions (CA), Koyuki (IT), LINE (US), Mandorla (MX), smlEditions (US), White_Line Editions (UK) and others.

Novak’s installations and performances have been presented internationally at prestigious events and venues including American Academy in Rome (Rome, Italy), Blim (Vancouver, BC), Decibel Festival (WA), Ersta Konsthall (Stokholm, Sweden), Fiske Planetarium (CO), Henry Art Gallery (WA), Hit Art Space (Gothenburg, Sweden), Kasini House (VT), Las Cienegas Project (CA), Lawrimore Project (WA), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (CA), Mutek Festival (Montreal, QB), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (WA), Soundfjord (London, UK), Soundwalk (CA), Suyama Space (WA), TBA Festival (OR), Torrance Art Museum (CA), Western Bridge (WA) and others.

As a result of these endeavors, Novak had been invited to numerous Residencies including the Environmental Aesthetics Residency (WA), the Espy Foundation Residency (WA), the Jental Artist Residency (WY) and the Kasini House Studio A Residency (VT).

In 2005, Novak re-launched his father’s Dragon’s Eye Recordings imprint with a new focus on limited edition releases by emerging and mid-carrier sound artists, composers and producers. Since its re-launch, Dragon’s Eye Recordings has published over 25 releases and has received critical acclaim. In 2009, Infrequency Editions, curated by Jamie Drouin, was integrated into Dragon’s Eye’s operations and distribution.

In recent years Novak has collaborated through select installation, performance and recorded work with Gretchen Bennett, the Crispin Spaeth Dance Group, Robert Crouch, Jamie Drouin, Will Long, Marc Manning, Alex Schweder and others.

Artist Statement

My work is an exploration of incident, process, and narrative. Central to my practice is the capture and manipulation of audio recordings and photographs. Through various types of digital media, I collect material from a range of sources, initially selected because of the subject matter’s emotional content. The content of these documents is used as a point of departure and a catalyst to recall the experiences; it is never used or excluded because of aesthetics. These documents then become highly charged fragments of an ongoing autobiographical text. Dramatic events like relocating from one city to another, or simple day-to-day incidents like being trapped inside during a strong rain, can be equally compelling. I am interested in reconfiguring documents of moments such as these into abstract, open-ended narratives. My intent is to create experiences that give the audience a window into my own personal experiences, but leave enough to the imagination that the viewer has room to relate their own experiences.

By subjecting these selected recordings to a series of erasures and treatments, a delicate palette of textures, drones, and subtle melodies emerges. When photographs are incorporated into my work, similar treatments and erasures are used to shape them into videos of slow moving or static color fields intended to tint the listening experience. Each piece is then composed from numerous variations from a single source, meticulously sculpted to highlight some aspect of the original document. Although significant details and artifacts are deliberately eliminated, the narrative and structural elements of the source material are left intact. The final form of my work may be realized as sound installation, sound performance, large-scale projection, video work or recorded work.

Each of my works is an investigation into presentation, composition and perception, not just to be heard, but to be felt. By creating situations the audience can relate to, a hybrid state is created, existing somewhere between my own personal history and that of the audience.

Recorded Work Description

My recorded work functions in a number of ways, all with the final goal of re-presenting my work in a format that is more easily accessible to a larger audience. One way I take advantage of the recorded format is to explore and further expand on themes and ideas present in installation or performance work. In these instances, fragments of, or source material from previous installations or performance works are reworked to further explore the idea expressed in the original.

I also use recorded works as a way to catalogue and document my installation or performance work. When I use recordings for this purpose, each work is treated differently depending on its origin. Generally, the goal is to preserve as much of the original experience as possible or to simplify the piece to not detract from the original experience.

The final way I use the recorded format is to free my process from the dependence on an exhibition or performance space in order to explore concepts or techniques not suitable for those venues. In this final form, recorded works serve as a platform to sketch, experiment or collaborate with other artists and affords me more freedom while getting exposure and feedback from an audience. Publishing recorded work allows me to breathe new life and longevity into pieces that would otherwise not allow it due to their ephemeral nature.

Sound Performance Description

My sound performances utilize the same techniques as my recorded or installation work: transforming a simple environmental recording into a richly layered, and emotionally tense composition. Since each of my works is constructed out of numerous variations on a single recording, my performances are composed from a library, unique to that piece, of altered sounds. Through this process my performances can take on aspects of my recorded or installation works, while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to unique venues, situations, environments and the audience.

My performances are also adaptable through their presentation. Generally I will perform in stereo, but when possible, my performances can be expanded to up to 6-channel surround. My performances utilize darkness as a visual cue to draw the audience into a deeper listening experience. However, in some cases, video will be utilized as a focal point if the piece was originally conceived with a video element. The video paired with my performances is similar to my installation works, slow moving or static color fields projected behind me on stage or in multiple around the audience. Both of these elements can be discussed with the organizer and are expansions on the basic elements of my performance.

Quotes

Novak does not waste his chance to make a first impression. In fact, with remarkable economy he transforms the three rooms he’s been given to work with into chambers where you can be transported into states of mind that feel both personal and familiar. Using digitally altered field recordings (in which the sounds are heightened but the time is real) and snapshots digitally stitched together and abstracted into gleaming videos, Novak both fills the work up with his subjective experience and empties it out to make room for you. There’s just enough specificity and just enough blankness.

I know, technically, how Novak made this work, but I don’t quite know how it works. The closest I can get to describing his approach is that it’s a combination of generosity and restraint. Each detail being so firmly in place means that the rest is open.
– Jen Graves , The Stranger (From “Yann Novak’s ‘Relocation’: All Kinds of Movings On” May 13, 2009)

The work is distinguished by its clean design, with its constituent parts meticulously woven into a seamless flow without a superfluous element in sight.
– Textura (CA)

Essentially, this is a drone workout, but in the hands of one of its most proficient exponents, becomes a glistening, precious sound work, unrivalled but by a handful of contemporaries. Novak has seemingly taken an obvious source sound, and with an exploratory and majestic treatment transmuted it into sonic gold. Masterful.
–BG Nichols
, WHITE_LINE (UK)

Novak creates a sense of distance by abstracting his source materials beyond recognition – whatever is going in is obscure, and far away. Hence the vague, rotorblading, respiratory effects of the first of these three tracks – the sound of systems ticking over, yet whose undulating motions are curiously involving.
–David Stubbs , The Wire (UK)

(1)

immersound is a concert event/philosophy initiated by France Jobin (i8u) which proposes to create a dedicated listening environment by focusing on the physical comfort of the audience through a specifically designed space. The premise for immersound is to seek out/explore new perceptions and experiences of the listening process by pushing the notion of “immersion” to its possible limits.