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Review – Tmymtur (ENSL AMDC) – 2013 – LOOP

Guillermo Escudero for LOOP (english below)

‘Yusei’ es parte de una actuación en la que Tmymtur graba miles de capas de su voz que se transforman en ondas ultrasónicas que son imperceptibles al oído humano. Son sonidos naturales como el fluir del agua de un río o el soplido del viento sobre los árboles y son procesados electrónicamente.
La música es minimalista y ambient en la que remezclan artistas importantes del mundo de la electrónica minimalista como Taylor Deupree, Yui Onodera, Celer, i8u, Christopher Willits, Sogar y Stephen Mathieu, entre otros.
La atmósfera que crean estos músicos es melódica y por tanto bella y al mismo tiempo relajada, evocadora de ambientes sosegados.

‘Yusei’ is part of a performance in which thousands of layers of Tmymtur’s voice were recorded and transformed into ultrasonic waves that are imperceptible to the human ear. They are natural sounds like the flow of water from a river or the wind blowing over the trees and electronically processed.
The music is minimalist and ambient which is remixed by worlwide renowned artists of the minimal electronics field such as Taylor Deupree, Yui Onodera, Celer, i8u, Christopher Willits, Sogar and Stephen Mathieu, among others.
 The atmosphere created by these musicians is melodic and beautiful that conjure up quiet ambience.


tmymtur 


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Review – Framework Seasonal -Issue #4 Spring 2013- VA (2013) – The Field Reporter

Framework Seasonal -Issue #4 Spring 2013- VA
(Framework 2013)

Review by Chris Whitehead

Words can be sound art too. The introduction to every one of Patrick McGinley’s framework programmes contains the promise that ‘framework is a show consecrated to field-recording’. The word ‘consecrated’ has two emphasised consonants that create beats like a car passing over a railway line or a heartbeat, particularly if you repeat the word over and over until it loses its meaning.

consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consecrated consectrated

Its use here, rather than the words ‘devoted’ or ‘dedicated’ for instance, suggests an important distinction. The show will not be a programme about field-recording, it will be a field-recording composition in itself. The hour will be consecrated, set apart for a purpose, the purpose of listening. Very few radio programmes value silence and quiescence as significantly as framework.

Catalepsis is a state of involuntary rigidity of the limbs: A suspension of sensation and volition. Jay-Dea Lopez uses nocturnal recordings of insects to make this ever tightening tourniquet of gradual paralysis. Insects are often treated as little other than hard machines, with their robot like exoskeletons and their ability to make Geiger-counteresque stridulations in various ways.  Here they form a songless choir of increasingly insistent, inhuman sound, unnervingly electronic in nature, closing in and enveloping, shutting down the senses. When disturbed people in films wake up sweating and say they feel things crawling all over their skin as they tug at their clothing, this maybe what they mean.

The Kinsendael natural reserve in Brussels is a place where nature and the urban cityscape bleed into each other. Flaviene Gillie recorded in this fragile liminal zone during the winter of 2012, where a metal sign at the entrance to the nature reserve is defaced with graffiti by ‘Koop’ and ‘Bird’. Indeed as with any naked space in any city investors are constantly looking to fill the emptiness with buildings.

For me Gillie evokes that peculiar smell of waterside plants and exhaust fumes, a singular cocktail that only occurs at these small oases set within urban sprawl. We hear birds and sirens, vehicles pass and an engine throbs away (some sort of pump?). Then a shock, a gunshot, a barking, snarling dog at close proximity: A wave of physical danger. This influx of barely leashed violence from the tower blocks dropped into the centre of this piece is the fulcrum around which the rest of it revolves: The nail on which it hangs.

After quite palpably being in the real world of trees, city, threatening dog and passing vehicles, France Jobin illuminates a placeless inner realm. Using material collected from the huge Morongo Casino, then stretching and polishing it into a sepulchral glow. She creates a fully self-sufficient interior world. Air-conditioned, glittery and burnished, a kind of temple music for a temple dedicated to money and chance. This is a truly beautiful piece. As it begins to slowly fade the music becomes a veneer of peripheral sheen: As thin, superficial and temporary as the allure of shiny dollars, before it melts into silence.

Yannick Dauby and Olivier Féraud use a dead tree as their instrument. With the close proximity brought about by headphone listening it claws at the ears with pointed branches and dry twigs. Through speakers the room is full of desiccated creaks and peculiar crackles and feels prone to collapse. A tone akin to a trumpet is evoked, bizarre in its provenance, probably created by the rubbing of branches together. I’ve encountered these brassy, wind instrument emanations before in windblown trees.

Dauby and Féraud don’t set their improvisation in a landscape, they focus in on the heart of the wood only. There’s a joy in their exploration and a sense of discovery as new and strange sounds emerge. Indeed the whole genesis of this track seems to have been a chance encounter with this lifeless tree.

Stefan Paulus opens out a vast space filled with alpine air and grass. A gurgling stream gives way to bells clanging, an undulating drone underpinning their sonority. Sheep bleat and make the title ‘A Journey into a Spatial Fold’ particularly apt. The crackle of vegetation, breaking stalks, possibly sheep cropping grass: A plane crosses the stereo field at the end and emphasises the vault of the sky under which this document of sound cartography has unfolded.

These field recordings were collected from the alpine valley of Ötztal, on mountain peaks, Atlantic islands and sea ports. Gathered by Paulus during psychogeography drifts, unpredetermined physical and temporal explorations into landscape and topography, the recordings were composed into an altered reality using cut-up and fold-in methodology. Nothing is real. Everything is real.

Track 6: Keening laminar sheets of sound converge and overlap in scoured metal layers. We have shut out nature. This manifests itself in a steely industrial netherworld. 8 minutes and 40 seconds in and a huge mechanical churning peaks out and scrambles this structure from the inside. Intentional clipping occurs with various effect depending on your choice of listening apparatus. The raw material from which this untitled piece is forged was collected from Lima and Panamá City by Francisco López, but any sense of place has been expunged.

Krs Marina Vinter is a night water recording by Terje Paulsen containing infinite intricate detail and an unfussy delicacy of presentation. Beautifully rich and multilayered, distant rumbles occur far away as small clouds of bubbles rise and disperse close by. Waves gently swirl and break and ships can be imagined, hinted at by the odd metallic sound. Paulsen’s material for this piece was collected from a marina in Kristiansand, Norway. The dark sky and cold air infuse into the fluid dynamics of this piece.

Maile Colbert’s contribution comes at you from a very different standpoint to anything else on this album. Constructed with all the compact, structured logic of a song, it evolves from an emotional core. Helen’s Hands is Colbert’s hymn to the memory of her grandmother. It lasts little more than four minutes.

Through the distance of time and the detritus of gathered dust slow cello like instrumental tones rise and fall. Across all this a Hawaiian dawn chorus sings in its many various voices. At just one point the hint of human speech: Just a sound. Did it happen? Was it there? When the music fades we’re left with a solitary bird calling and the imperfection of past time still audible.

Helen’s Hands is dedicated to Colbert’s grandmother, and her piano hands, and all that they have touched. The framework radio site contains a poem by D. H. Lawrence alongside this work. The poem ends ‘Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.’

In contrast to Maile Colbert’s careful composition, Luis Antero leaves the world to compose itself and documents the interplay of birds, water and humans as they occur in real time. Antero’s numerous recordings from his native Portugal are jewel like and transparent in their purity. He never interferes. He never enters the recordings.

Volta Do Castelo is a river, a swift river, trees full of birds and someone probably fixing a roof at a distance.  Because Antero belongs to these places in a spiritual and emotional way, it is tempting to think that his choices of site are informed by the land itself. That he’s drawn to these places by ancestral memory and an attempt to map it in sound. A pure field recording and a fine way to end this compendium of framework radio contributors.

Maybe it’s a little unimaginative to review these tracks in the order they appear on the album, but I wanted to highlight something: In any compilation the choices of the compiler are important. They designate a path along which we travel and they sculpt the terrain. This particular path takes many twists and turns through synthetic plains and back into lush forests, we plunge beneath water and traverse mountain valleys, but it is as promised purely consecrated to field recording.

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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

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framework seasonal issue #4 Spring 2013

framework seasonal is a regular review of works produced by artists working with field-recording. all works are previously unreleased, and contributed freely by their creators in support of framework radio. many thanks to the artists, who have made this project possible.

these compilations are available exclusively to framework donors; to get one, donate €20 or more via the paypal buttons on the right (or make an equivalent subscription pledge). we’ll get back to you to confirm your mailing address and your choice of issue(s). thank you for your support!

framework

Track listing:

01 jay-dea lopez ::: catalepsis ::: 09:38

02 flavien gillié ::: liminal drift ::: 07:05

03 france jobin ::: morongo ::: 08:45

04 yannick dauby & oliver féraud ::: thorenc, 5 janvier 2013 ::: 05:54

05 stefan paulus ::: a journey into a spatial fold ::: 09:46

06 francisco lópez ::: untitled#293 ::: 14:01

07 terje paulsen ::: night recording at the waterfront kr.sand s ::: 10:29

08 maile colbet ::: helen’s hands ::: 04:21

09 luís antero ::: volta do castelo ::: 10:04
Morongo was created with field recordings at the Morongo Casino,
special thanks go to Yann Novak and Robert Crouch for their generous hospitality,
an unforgettable trip to Joshua Tree National Park and a fun stop at Morongo.


photo: © F. Jobin 2010

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Review – Tmymtur (ENSL AMDC) – 2013 – Fluid Radio

Review by Nathan Thomas  for Fluid Radio

TMYMTUR – 呼応
Label: ENSL AMDC
Tmymtur, Tomoya Matsuuran

Tmymtur’s new record which I believe can be transcribed as “Yusei” is an intriguing proposition: a sound piece made from over 5,000 recordings of the human voice, manipulated and interpreted by nine different artists from the field of ambient experimental music. The voice recordings were captured using a special microphone with a frequency response wider than that of the human ear, reaching into the range of ultrasound. The ultrasonic frequencies, though perhaps present in the audio file, cannot be reproduced by most consumer speakers; however, it is possible that they made their presence felt as the file was processed by the interpreting artists, influencing the resonances and subharmonics produced.

On initial, casual listening many of the album tracks seem very similar, but upon closer attention the differences in the artists’ approach to the provided material become apparent. Contrasts emerge, for example between i8u’s use of dynamic range and Celer’s gentle stasis, or between Christopher Willits’ turbulence and Taylor Deupree’s airiness. Given that over 5,000 individual recordings went into the creation of the original sound piece, it could be argued that the album represents only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be drawn out from the resulting cloud of tones. Personally, I would have liked to have heard a couple of more invasive interpretations included, where the source material is manipulated a bit more radically — the contribution by Stephan Mathieu points in this direction, towards a second album maybe. Yet it is perhaps because of general similarities in the artists’ styles that this collection of remixes makes an excellent manual for those who wish to study ambient composition techniques, either to improve their own compositions or simply to understand why they prefer the work of one artist over another — being able to hear clear differences between one approach to structure or harmonics and another is a valuable learning tool.

It is often argued that ultrasonic frequencies, though technically inaudible, are actually perceived by the senses and possess the capacity to relax the brain, contributing to the soothing effect of sounds such as the flow of a river or wind rustling the trees. I’d love to compare brain scans taken when listening to such sounds with others taken with the music collected as the stimulus: it wouldn’t surprise me if the results were very similar, even without the presence of ultrasonic frequencies. To get the full effect, however, one would have to attend one of Tmymtur’s live performances, such as the one at the Asahi Art Square in Tokyo on 24th March, for which he will construct a sound system capable of reproducing ultrasound; if his material can draw such powerful responses from the range of talented artists represented, then to ‘hear’ this vocal symphony in its full glory should indeed be something special. Tmymtur has managed to create/curate a project in which curiosity about the perception and cognition of sound and ultrasound becomes part and parcel of the aesthetic value of the music, and vice versa; the fact that each of the contributing artists has responded to the source material with sensitivity and imagination makes the album all the stronger.

– Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio

 

 

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tmymtur – Release Date 18.March.2013

Tmymtur:

呼応

release 18.March.2013

Format: Digital | 96kHz/24bit
Time 64:41.622
Cat#: en005
Label: ENSL AMDC
値段: 3,150 JPY (Tax in)

Track Listing:

“05.09.2012/0” Taylor Deupree remix
“05.09.2012/0” Yui Onodera remix
“05.09.2012/0” i8u remix
“05.09.2012/0” Celer remix
“05.09.2012/0” Christopher Willits remix
“05.09.2012/0” Mark Harris remix
“05.09.2012/0” Sogar remix
“05.09.2012/0” Opitope remix
“05.09.2012/0” Stephan Mathieu remix

 

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Review of Empac concert – “Akousma,” EMPAC Studio 2, 10/7/11 – Barton McLean

 

from “Barton McLean, Reviewer, Computer Music Journal.”

Réseaux des arts médiatiques presents “Akousma,” EMPAC Studio 2, 10/7/11

Since its inception in 1991,  Réseaux has dedicated itself to presenting and later commissioning electronic music works from Canadian and non-Canadian composers alike. Based in Montreal and amply funded by national, provincial, city, and other funding, it has garnered a unique place in the development of all forms of electronic music in Canada and internationally.  It assigns the broad title “electro music” to all forms of electronic and computer music, with prominent subheadings “electroacoustic,” “concrète,” and “acousmatic.”

The EMPAC audience was treated to a preview of a much larger festival in Montreal to occur the following week. Titled “Akousma,” this sound diffusion concert consisted of an array of 20 loudspeakers configured in bottom and top rows, with a few in the middle, all surrounding and above the audience, with fewer discrete channels (at times 8, at times 6, at other times undetermined).  The overall sound quality was spectacular (as we have come to expect from EMPAC), with clarity and finesse of frequency response unparalleled.

Although the stylistic mission of Réseaux is broad-based, the work of three of the four composers on this concert was rather traditionally oriented in sonic materials I would characterize as granular-based, white noise-derived, rapidly moving sound events usually divorced from traditional tempered pitch/rhythm elements, opting instead for the juxtaposition of gesture, silence, peppered with occasional sections of low key continuity.  If this sounds like a general description of your average electroacoustic concert of today, you are right.  Although these three composers managed to exhibit  technical skill in crafting the sound event, there was rarely anything to distinguish one piece from another in this milieu of common practice style that has so permeated the scene for the past decade.

One exception to this was a powerfully executed section of “Qui-vive” by Pierre-Yves Macé, in which a quasi-microtonal gestural melodic idea was repeated over several minutes with variations, to the accompaniment of a gradually rising tension in other stratified layers, producing a grand feeling of inexorable forward motion, prompting this reviewer to the conclusion that this common practice style still has room for growth in the hands of a masterful creator.

Speaking of masterful, France Jobin’s “Valence of one” forced the audience to sit up and take notice, not because of any new wild gestural statement as we had come to expect, but rather from the sheer quietness and slow pace.  The overall scheme was simplicity itself, with two main sections, the first being various derivatives of a major second chord sounding with other fleeting pitches and timbres entering and exiting unobtrusively, and the second, the same the treatment of what was basically a major triad with added sixth.  This was punctuated by an occasional piano-like note pinging against the otherwise continuous montage of sound.  Twenty minutes later, when this longest work of the evening quietly ended, I was startled, since I felt that I was just beginning to feel extremely comfortable and engaged in a wonderful world where time stood still.  It was as if awakening from a deeply satisfying dream.  How she managed to engage the audience with such simple means still escapes me, but engage she did, masterfully.

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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

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France Jobin Laureate for the Prix Opus in the category “concert of the year”

 

 

 

Laureate for concert of the year – Category Musique Actuelle – Electroacoustique

for her concert at  AKOUSMA 8 : sens_action : France Jobin, Réseaux des arts médiatiques, 14 octobre 2011

She presented EVENT HORIZON, the audio version of an audio visual collaboration with Cédrick Eymenier

Congratulations to all the Laureates!

Et les Lauréats sont….

Le Conseil québécois de la musique a dévoilé la liste des Lauréats des prix Opus qui ont été remis  lors de la 16e édition du gala des prix Opus, tenu le dimanche 27 janvier dernier à 15 h à la salle de concert Bourgie, à Montréal.

Créés en 1996, les prix Opus témoignent du dynamisme et de la diversité du milieu musical québécois. Ils soulignent l’excellence de la musique de concert au Québec, dans différents répertoires musicaux : médiéval, de la Renaissance, baroque, classique, romantique, moderne, actuel, contemporain, électroacoustique, jazz et musiques du monde. Par cet événement, le Conseil québécois de la musique souhaite rendre hommage aux musiciens d’ici, mais aussi transmettre au public et aux mélomanes le goût de découvrir, d’écouter et de fréquenter la musique de concert.

Les membres du Conseil québécois de la musique choisissent, parmi les quelque 1200 concerts qui se donnent annuellement, ceux qu’ils souhaitent inscrire à la compétition. Ainsi, pour la saison qui s’étend de septembre 2011 à septembre 2012, 160 concerts ont été jugés, auxquels s’ajoutent 66 disques, une dizaine d’articles et plus d’une quarantaine de candidatures pour les 8 prix spéciaux remis à des personnalités et à des organismes qui se sont démarqués au cours de la saison.

Pendant la soirée, le Conseil québécois de la musique rendra hommage à monsieur François Morel, pianiste, compositeur, chef d’orchestre et pédagogue. Considéré comme l’un des plus grands auteurs de musique contemporaine au Québec, ses oeuvres ont été jouées dans les grandes villes d’Europe, en Russie, au Japon, en Chine ainsi qu’aux États-Unis et en Amérique du Sud, sous la direction des chefs les plus réputés. François Morel s’est également impliqué intensivement sur la scène québécoise, produisant des événements tant pour le concert, le disque, le théâtre que pour la radio et la télévision. Par le passé, il a été récipiendaire du titre de Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec et du prix Denise-Pelletier des Prix du Québec.

Les prix Opus se distinguent par la remise de prix en argent aux lauréats. Ainsi, lors de la cérémonie, 5 récipiendaires se partageront 26 000 $. Pour une seizième année consécutive, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec remettra 10 000 $ au lauréat du prix Compositeur de l’année. Pour leur part, le Conseil des Arts du Canada et le ministère de la Culture et des Communications verseront 5000 $ aux récipiendaires des prix Interprète de l’année et Production de l’année – jeune public. Le Conseil des arts de Montréal remettra au gagnant du prix Concert de l’année – Montréal, un montant de 3000 $. Enfin, le lauréat du prix Découverte de l’année recevra également une bourse de 3000 $ du Conseil québécois de la musique qui veut ainsi appuyer sa relève artistique.

Le Conseil québécois de la musique remercie ses partenaires pour leur contribution à cette 16e édition du gala des prix Opus : le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Musicaction, le Conseil des Arts du Canada, Radio-Canada, Espace Musique, le ministère de la Culture et des Communications, le Conseil des arts de Montréal, ainsi que Le Devoir, la Librairie Monet, le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, la salle de concert Bourgie et La Scena Musicale.


LA LISTE DES LAURÉATS – AN 16, saison 2011-2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MONTRÉAL
Louise Bessette : 30 ans de carrière, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec en collaboration avec la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, 31 mars 2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – QUÉBEC
The Tempest, coproduction : The Metropolitan Opera (New York), Festival d’opéra de Québec, Opéra de Vienne (Wiener Staatsoper), coll. Ex Machina, 26, 28, 30 juillet, 1er août 2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – RÉGIONS
Marc-André Hamelin éblouit dans Busoni, Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, 6 avril 2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES MÉDIÉVALE, DE LA RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE, CLASSIQUE
Concert inaugural de la Salle Bourgie du Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Fondation Arte Musica, 28 septembre 2011

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES ROMANTIQUE, POSTROMANTIQUE, IMPRESSIONNISTE
Philippe Sly et Michael McMahon en récital, Philippe Sly, baryton-basse et Michael McMahon, piano,  Société d’art vocal de Montréal, 21 mai 2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES MODERNE, CONTEMPORAINE
Louise Bessette : 30 ans de carrière, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec en collaboration avec la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, 31 mars 2012

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES ACTUELLE, ÉLECTROACOUSTIQUE
AKOUSMA 8 : sens_action : France Jobin, Réseaux des arts médiatiques, 14 octobre 2011

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – JAZZ
Rémi Bolduc Jazz Ensemble : 4+2, Les Productions Art and Soul, 14 octobre 2011

CONCERT DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES DU MONDE
Convivencia, Fidelio Musique/Art et musique La Mandragore, 16 et 31 octobre 2011

CRÉATION DE L’ANNÉE
Atacama : Symphonie no 3, Tim Brady, Atacama !, Bradyworks et VivaVoce, 12 juin 2012

PRODUCTION DE L’ANNÉE – JEUNE PUBLIC
Les aventures fantastiques de Flonflon, Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, 26 novembre 2011


DISQUES

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES MÉDIÉVALE, DE LA RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE, CLASSIQUE
William Lawes – The Royall Consorts, Les Voix humaines, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES ROMANTIQUE, POSTROMANTIQUE, IMPRESSIONNISTE
Bruckner 4, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Orchestre Métropolitain, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES MODERNE, CONTEMPORAINE
Denys Bouliane, Denis Gougeon, John Rea, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Lorraine Vaillancourt, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES ACTUELLE, ÉLECTROACOUSTIQUE
Palimpsestes, Robert Normandeau, empreintes DIGITALes

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – JAZZ
Autour de Bill Evans, Donato, Bourassa, Lozano, Tanguay, Effendi Records

DISQUE DE L’ANNÉE – MUSIQUES DU MONDE
Lieux imaginés, Cordâme, Malasartes musique, DAME


ÉCRIT

ARTICLE DE L’ANNÉE
« Richard Wagner, Louis de Fourcaud, and a path for French opera in the 1880s », Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis, Act : Zeitschrift für Musik und Performance, no 3, 2012
PRIX SPÉCIAUX
PRIX HOMMAGE
François Morel

COMPOSITEUR DE L’ANNÉE
Simon Bertrand

DÉCOUVERTE DE L’ANNÉE
Stéphane Tétreault, violoncelliste

DIFFUSEUR SPÉCIALISÉ DE L’ANNÉE
Fondation Arte Musica, saison inaugurale

DIFFUSEUR PLURIDISCIPLINAIRE DE L’ANNÉE
Corporation culturelle de Shawinigan

DIRECTEUR ARTISTIQUE DE L’ANNÉE
Grégoire Legendre, Opéra de Québec et Festival d’Opéra de Québec

ÉVÉNEMENT MUSICAL DE L’ANNÉE
Festival d’opéra de Québec – The Tempest

INTERPRÈTE DE L’ANNÉE
Lorraine Desmarais, pianiste jazz

RAYONNEMENT À L’ÉTRANGER
Les Violons du Roy

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Review – Valence (LINE) – 2012 – i care if you listen

Valence on LINE  054 – 2012

A rather small, independent record store in Cambridge, MA (such places still exist), it contains one of the, well, weirdest selections I’ve ever seen. If you are seeking something off the beaten path, it’s absolutely fantastic. The pricing is good, shipping cheap, and at the end of the day it felt great to support both some lesser-known artists as well as a bona fide record store.

One of my recent purchases from this most excellent establishment was France Jobin‘s CD, Valence. A Montreal-based artist, Jobin (b. 1958) has created solo recordings for a number of labels and has also produced installations around the world. Her work is mostly electroacoustic in nature, exploring sounds at an unhurried pace. If this CD is any indication of her work as a whole, I would be quite anxious to hear some of her installations.

The title for the CD, Valence, is inspired by the valence bond and molecular orbital theories of atomic particles. If you harken back to high school chemistry, you may recall that the electrons around the nucleus of an atom do not follow planet-like orbits (despite what the logo from The Big Band Theory might imply), but rather exist in particular regions around the nucleus. The tracks are thus appropriately titled S orbital, P orbital, and D orbital.

Orbital Diagram
Diagram of S, P, and D orbitals – Image by Dr. Alex M. Clark

The CD opens with sounds that lie on the edges of human hearing, demanding a high-quality listening environment to enjoy the full effect. As the 27-minute track progresses, a swath of warm, lush tones, which might be more commonly found  as backdrops to a tranquil video game, emerge. S orbital is anything but passive music, however, as the interaction of this warmth with other sounds at extreme frequencies and occasional, less-musical sounds, creates a complex listening space worth exploring. I only wish I could experience this is a concert hall with as many surround channels as possible.

P orbital takes a noticeably different path from S, as it opens with a single note struck repeatedly, and slowly, on a piano. The sounds, while still primarily warm and consonant, are also more aggressive both in their sweeping volume and slight metallic tinge. In this track, Jobin really demonstrates her remarkable sense of pacing and development. Approximately seven minutes in to this 22-minute track, the opening figures are reduced to a single tone while lower frequences take the piece in a decidedly more sinister direction. Later, a major chord slowly and unexpectedly emerges, and, to provide stunning closure, the piano note returns at the very end. It can be difficult to maintain interest over time with relatively few sounds, but with these opening two tracks Jobin demonstrates both a capacity for sustained intrigue and remarkable adeptness at transitioning to new ideas.

The final track, D orbital, seems to combine aspects of both S and P. The warmth of the opening track and some of its high-pitched tones return, and the slowly emerging harmonies seem connected to the second. As I hear it, these three tracks are intimately connected, but at the same time I would be quite hesitant to impose some sort of three-movement form on the disc. D orbital may be a continuation of similar ideas, but it is not a summary.

In the end, I think this is a magnificent CD, worthy of your time, attention, and purchasing power. As a caveat, though, I think a 30- or even 90-second preview of this album will not do it justice (especially in an inferior listening situation). At a glance, one might write this music off as ambient fluff, but deeper listening reveals a subtle complexity that is immensely satisfying.

Andrew Lee

Buy at Line,