empreintes DIGITALes simply keeps bombarding the world with their high-quality releases of old and new electroacoustic composers. Le contrat by Gilles Gobeil and René Lussier, and Migrations by Stéphane Roy are the latest in an ever-growing series that documents the ever expanding history of mainly French and Canadian compositions in the field of musique concrète.

Le contrat is a work that uses elements from classical music, contemporary electronic music and sampling techniques. Gobeil and Lussier present a CD filled with spooky and often distant soundcapes that are interluded with samples of spoken work, sudden bursts of orchestral music and recurring hints of rock music and noise. This almost ‘punky’ combination is very strange but somehow works quite well, although I must add that this makes this CD not very suitable for a classification such as ‘easy listening’.

Migrations by Stéphane Roy is a lot less eclectic and focuses more on orchestral manipulations and concrete recordings. Layers of processed ‘classical’ instruments build up to a dramatic intensity that reminds me of the works of Francis Dhomont. Roy also uses spoken word, in a way that is very atmospheric and subtle. Constant drifting soundscapes are used to create an exciting piece of work that begs for your attention.

Again empreintes DIGITALes delivers two excellent and challenging pieces of work.

The first concert of the 27th Multiphonie series, Akousma 1 will be presented in Paris (France) on November 27, 2004 at the Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio France by the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales)). This concert will be dedicated to GRM works from the ’70s and will feature works by Guy Reibel, Ivo Malec, Jean Schwarz, François Bayle and also the works Pour en finir avec le pouvoir d’Orphée (1972) by Bernard Parmegiani and Requiem (1973) by Michel Chion.

Surprisingly the new CD by Tomas Jirku was released on a sidelabel of the electroacoustic label empreintes DIGITALes. Jirku is known for his previous releases on labels such as Intr_version (the label of Mitchell Akiyama) and Substractif (the alien8 sidelabel). Apparently empreintes DIGITALes created the new label to release more ‘poppy’ music.

Bleak 1999 contains a mixture of moody ambient drones and electronic beats that sometimes remind of the idm/glitch music of Akiyama or Noto and sometimes of old acid techno from Detroit. Minimal beats pound into the infinite while synthetic drones pass by. An occasional hint of a dubby bassline and a glitchy click here and there keeps your mind in this century instead of floating back to the early nineties.

It is a mix between nostalgic sounds that remind of the early techno of Underground Resistance and Polygon Window and the more modern sounds of Chain Reaction, Raster Noton and the like. This mix between styles is really appealing and Bleak 1999 is a therefore a very nice album without edges.

The Groupe de musiques vivantes de Lyon (GMVL) welcomes Marcelle Deschênes. The composer will give a concert of her acousmatic works on September 15, 2004 at Lyon’s Théâtre de la Villa Gillet (France).

Both a huge sound installation and a concert in which the nocturnal sounds of nature create a vast symphony, Bernard Fort’s Safari dans le noir (“Safari in the dark”) will be presented September 17 and 18, 2004 in the park of Villa Gillet (Lyon, France). In this acousmatic safari, the listener walks across a wide soundscape with the help of his or her flashlight. The sounds heard, of birds, frogs, insects and mammals, come from many years of night recording in France and Europe.

John Oswald’s latest “time-based chronophotic images and stills” will be exhibited at the Edward Day Gallery in Toronto (ON) from September 9 to October 4, 2004.