film soundtrack composer, sound / installation artist, curator – An architect designs works that occupy spaces; I create sound sculptures that fit in the flow of time and perception
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
*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)
*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.
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
i8u is France Jobin, from Montreal, Canada.
Her discography is pretty impressive (cfr Discogs), and this 3 sound-suites release on Murmur records drives the listener straight into the vibrating suspension of senses, now all fused as one unique.
Roger beeps (loads of), imperceptible glitch, subtle grey shades of drone music, all differently seraphic. Instrumental, more like an aural trip, than a mere hypnosis state. Subliminal and tense. Luminance microsounds which embrace your neck and infiltrate you into the hypothalamus. You should play this on your stereo, and play it at loudest volume possible: the whole room would start vibrating, you’re going experience a one hour preview of after-life, but your dog would eventually die of acute deafness and the neighborhood would stop talking to you.
This event is set in the context of Steve Roden’s : Shells, Bells, Steps and Silences.
more info below
Variance
instinct, perception, intimacy and proximity are key elements to my performance at LACE in the context of Steve Roden’s installation.
not experiencing the installation first hand yet, having access to its sounds files, a very intimate connection to the work whilesimultaneously, being removed from it.
an allocentric approach to composition, a delicate balance between presence and absence of knowledge.
Thanks to LACE, Robert Crouch and Steve Roden.
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
ABOUT THE ARTISTS András Blazsek is a Hungarian-Slovak media artist, working mainly in the field of sound and installation art. He earned his master’s degree at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2009 and will start his postgraduate studies at the Academy Of Media Arts Cologne this year. Blazsek is a member of the artist group Besorolás Alatt (Unrated). He curated the +3dB contemporary Sound Art Festival in Budapest in 2009 and 2010. He lives and works in Budapest Hungary and Slovakia. More at amigzaj.blogspot.com.
France Jobin (b. 1958) is a sound / installation / artist, composer and curator residing in Montreal, Canada. Her audio art can be qualified as “sound-sculpture”. It reveals complex sound environments where analog and digital meet. Her installations can be said to follow a parallel path, incorporating both musical and visual inspired by architectural elements.
Jobin has created solo recordings for bake/staalplaat (Netherlands), ROOM40 (Australia), nvo (Austria), DER (USA), ATAK (JP), murmur records (JP) and on the prestigious label LINE (USA). Her work appears on countless compilations. Recently, her sound installation Entre-Deux presented within the new media installation exhibit DATA/FIELDS, was met with critical acclaim in Washington DC. DATA/FIELDS is curated by Richard Chartier and includes Ryoji Ikeda, Mark Fell among others.
Her latest endeavor, immersound, is a concert event/philosophy which she initiated and is curating. She produced the first immersound in Feb 2011 at the Gallery Oboro in Montreal and continues to produce and curate the event with Oboro.
Steve Roden : Shells, Bells, Steps and Silences.
LACE is proud to present Shells, Bells, Steps And Silences, a new video installation and film survey by Los Angeles artist Steve Roden, curated by LACE Associate Director/Curator Robert Crouch. While Roden has been making films for over 20 years, this is the first body of work he has made with video exclusively, although the visual language and the approach to performance is certainly an extension of his 2011 film, Striations. Shells, Bells, Steps And Silences incorporates 3 research projects conducted by the artist over the past year: a collection of sea shells acquired by Roden from the estate of modern dancer Martha Graham, notes from a recent residency at the Walter Benjamin archive in Berlin, and John Cage’s seminal 4’33”, a work that Roden performed daily over the course of an entire year.
ABOUT LACE
MISSION
LACE both champions and challenges the art of our time by fostering artists who innovate, explore, and risk. We move within and beyond our four walls to provide opportunities for diverse publics to engage deeply with contemporary art. In doing so, we further dialogue and participation between and among artists and those audiences.
HISTORY
Founded in 1978 by a small group of artists, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) has become an internationally recognized pioneer among art institutions. Uniquely positioned among commercial galleries and major art establishments, our nonprofit organization provides a local venue that advocates and exhibits innovations in art-making. By encouraging experimentation, LACE has nurtured not only several generations of young artists, but also newly emerging art forms such as performance art, video art, digital art, and installation-based work. LACE has presented the work of over 5,000 artists in over 3,000 programs and events, which have provided the impetus for dialogue about contemporary arts and culture for over 30 years.
Many of the artists that LACE has supported over the years, being once unknown, have gone on to become influential and admired individuals in their field, including Laurie Anderson, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Karen Finley, Dan Graham, Gronk, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Barbara Kruger, Linda Nishio, Tony Oursler, Jorge Pardo, Rudy Perez, Paper Tiger TV, Adrian Piper, Nancy Rubins, Ed Ruscha, Jim Shaw, Diana Thater, Bill Viola, Johanna Went, and Bruce and Normon Yonemoto.
Since moving to Hollywood Boulevard in the mid-1990s, LACE has become a key intermediary between the local community and the contemporary art world. Our prominent spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame allows for a broad and diverse audience. Since contemporary artists’ interests have moved beyond the gallery itself and into public arenas, LACE’s programs encourage the public to encounter art in their daily existence so that they are engaged by it and also participate in it. LACE has been deeply involved in the creative vibrancy of the Hollywood community and looks forward to expanding its reach through programming efforts.
LACE’s programming is either free or low-cost, making it accessible to all audiences. Just in 2008, LACE produced an exciting range of creative and educational activities, including 11 exhibitions, more than 40 public programs, and a mobile public art project. These presentations served nearly 16,000 audience members, and showcased the work of 195 artists and 18 curators. LACE has more than doubled its education and outreach offerings since 2005 and plans to continue this expansion.
LACE has developed ongoing education and outreach programs in order to build audiences and provoke discussions of exhibitions. These programs include the Salon Series, which are experiential events for adults; ArtWorks, providing hands-on art making workshops for at-risk youth; and the Gallery Guides Program, which provides gallery visitors with a point of entry for the artwork and its concepts.
At a time when public funding for arts education has diminished, and access to the arts becomes more rare for all populations, LACE strives to increase meaningful dialogue between our institution and our diverse community. LACE fosters artistic collaboration and provides Los Angeles audiences with access to stimulating ideas and artworks. These original guiding principles remain at the very heart of the organization today. While the contemporary art community in Los Angeles has grown and expanded over the years, the need for a venue like LACE—free from commercial constraint and unbound by the restrictions imposed by larger institutions—is more essential to the vitality and diversity of that community than ever before.
Recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, LACE has become a part of LA’s history and continues to innovate into the city’s future.
Variance is supported in part by the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres Québec
and the Canada Council for the Arts.
This sunday on Framework resonance.fm : “these are few of my favorite things” by France Jobin
/*framework*/ – phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley.
framework broadcasts:
– sunday, 11pm, london, uk on resonance 104.4fm
– tuesday, 12:30pm, south devon, uk on soundartradio 102.5fm
– wednesday, 3am, lisbon, pt on radio zero
– thursday, 7pm, lisbon, pt on radio zero - thursday, 11pm, maribor, si on radio marš 95.9fm
– friday, 1am, brussels, be on radio campus 92.1fm
– saturday, 11am, new york state, us on wgxc 90.7fm
~ time zone converter: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ~
This week is the last regular edition before the usual summer break of framework:afield,
as well as my last segment of “these are a few of my favorite things”.
This edition of “my favorite things”, is devoted to a particular live event that happened in Montreal in May 2011, and i was lucky enough to attend.
The artists featured are Herman Kolgen, Olivier & Urban9 and Orla Wren.
tune in and enjoy!
Welcome to “these are a few of my favorite things”, the last segment of 2012.
As mentioned in earlier installments, my interpretation of field recording based works, is very broad however, the thread I like to follow is to find artists who have mastered their unique identity through the music of sound.
Musique d’impression
Three composers, here and abroad, two live performances and a presentation of audio book.
The young and dynamic organization of electroacoustic music Ekumen Montreal, is investing again, in an intimate and unusual presentation, this time, music, printing and its surroundings.
The event invaded , the book binding studio of Cecile Cote, a small universe of stories printed, ready to be told, to take life and mix with the presence and the imagination of each .
Ekumen offered a unique opportunity for Montrealers to visit or revisit Geographic Words, the sound performance of the internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Herman Kolgen, to get carried away by the merger Sieste05 haunting book, created by the composer Olivier Girouard and graphics by Urban9 or discover through “The underneath of things”, the world premiere of the universe purring and delicate sound of British artist Orla Wren.
Travel, sound and magnetic proximity between artist, audience and venue
Inspired by the intimacy of the place and a magnetic proximity exacerbated with the public, each artist offers a work that manipulates and reinvents the laws of the size, but takes its support on a very human scale. Through a multidirectional interplay, each confronts a series of unexpected encounters solitary or in common.
The public is propelled, elastic jump, a leaping camera revealing voluptuous relative breaths , fragile voice or laughing, without reference to an environment where successive points and leaks resonate.
Three works
Geographic words, the very gripping and poetic performance offset by Herman Kolgen suddenly eradicates our dreams inside our thoughts to bring to light and melt back into the mass of sound that envelops us.
Facing the book Sieste05 Olivier Girouard & Urban9, connected by Cecile herself, our daydreams find the comfort of their intimate loneliness and gives way to a sound space that forms the imagination.
The underneath of things, the performance of Orla Wren Music is specially created for printing. The artist is inspired by the real machine tools and workshop revealing macroscopic details , often hidden around us, and its profound effect on the sensory experience of life, to listen and to hear.
Playlist + additional info below
Tracks Artists & Websites
Geographic words Herman Kolgen – www.kolgen.net
sieste_05 Olivier & Urban9 – www.ekumen.com
The underneath of things Orla Wren – www.orlawren.com
Ekumen is an organisation that facilitates the gathering of artists and the exploration of sound art and electroacoustic music.
Artistic director since December 2010, Olivier Girouard is pursuing Ekumen’s mandate to offer a space for local and international creation and dissemination, as well as supporting the production of works and publications.
Ekumen stands out not only by proposing original listening situations – making music with unusual objects in atypical places, but also through a constant thirst for exchange and the integration of other art forms and techniques. Research, curiosity and the unearthing of a variety of platforms to present work to an audience: these are integral elements of Ekumen’s creativity.
Ekumen moves the soundscapes we speak of – instead of contemplating them, we travel inside.
© F. Jobin, 2012
