The 11th Sound Travels festival started on June 14, 2009 in Toronto and will last until October 31. On August 7 Nicolas Bernier will premiere his work Courant.air and will present a 8-channel version of Les arbres. Also on the programme, Champs de fouilles (Excavations) by Martin Bédard. On August 8 there will be a concert with Annette Vande Gorne who will present works on Exils: Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Est, Exil, chant II, Figures d’espace.

Issue 80 of the French magazine Revue & corrigée featuring articles on Pierre Redon, Caroline Coll-Seror, Hans Tammen, Chris Corsano, Mick Flower is now available.

So beautiful! And rapturing! This music was originally composed for O Vertigo’s dance performance La chambre blanche, but it must have been reworked since, for Sur fond blanc stands very well on its own four legs. An exquisite electroacoustic excursion through electronic textures, whispers, restrained beats, and sophisticated moods. A top-rate aural journey!

On August 20, 2009, Robert Normandeau will present Francis Dhomont’s work Premières traces du Choucas selected for ICMC 2009 (International Computer Music Conference) to be held in Montréal on August 16 - 21, 2009. Also on the programme of the 18 concerts, listening sessions and installations: Bastet by Elsa Justel, Kuppel by Robert Normandeau, Winternacht by Hans Tutschku, Dédales by Todor Todoroff, and many others.

The Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon (France) will take place from July 13 to 31, 2009. Coming up:

• July 27: diffusion of Pentes by Denis Smalley;
• July 28: diffusion of Sémaphores by Christian Zanési;
• July 30: diffusion of Pierre Schaeffer’s works Étude pathétique [Étude aux casseroles] and Bilude as well as the premiere of Le travail du rêve by Francis Dhomont.

I finally finished listening to this album last night (couldn’t write about it then); I had started three weeks ago. Why so long? Well, it’s a 5.1 DVD-Audio – and by Ned Bouhalassa, something too rare to take it in casually. So I waited for optimal listening conditions. And it was worth the wait! Bouhalassa may be releasing music on empreintes DIGITALes, but his music is outside the box of academic electroacoustics. His techno background still rears its head in his artistic process and style. As a result, his music is surprising and entertaining, but also deep, image-filled and ear-intriguing. Breakbeat episodes cut through moments of pure sonic plasticit and, vivid and eminently urban field recordings. The editing is jumpy and frantic. The Urban Cuts suite (featuring cello and drumkit parts) is a must-hear. Strongly recommended to electroacoustics fans and newcomers alike.