The 5th edition of the Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC ’08) will take place from July 31 to August 3, 2008 in Berlin (Germany). Starting July 23 concerts will be presented as part of the Inventionen 2008 festival. The joined programme is absolutely outstanding: many artists will be there, such as Martin Bédard, François Bayle, Ivo Malec, Bernard Parmegiani, Jean-Claude Risset, Denis Smalley, Horacio Vaggione, Annette Vande Gorne… Not to be missed:

• July 26: concert by Gilles Gobeil (Trilogie d’ondes) with Suzanne Binet-Audet playing ondes Martenot;
• July 27: concert “60 Jahre Musique Concrète & 50 Jahre GRM”;
• July 31: SMC ’08 opening concert with Gilles Gobeil (premiere of Castalie), Ludger Brümmer, Hans Tutschku et Åke Parmerud.

Robert Normandeau has been invited as an international keynote speaker for the ACMC on July 10-12, 2008 in Sydney (Australia). This year’s conference theme ‘Sound:Space’ aims to encourage discussion of contemporary issues including: performance of electroacoustic music, music and the Internet, Surround sound in recording, composition and performance.

The French magazine Revue & corrigée (#76, June 2008) has published an impelling article Pourquoi faites-vous des disques? (“Why do you make CDs?”). Jérôme Noetinger, remembering the 1987 Libération special issue asking “Why do you make films?” and the answer by Jean-Luc Godard (“I make movies to avoid the why question”), has decided to ask “the why question” to about 40 artists and producers, amongst whom: Jean-François Denis, Bertrand Denzler, Bernard Fort, Lionel Marchetti, Martin Tétreault, Carole Rieussec, Joëlle Léandre…

The winners of the 35th Bourges’ International Competitions of Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art have been anounced. Amongst others, the following works have been awarded: Orages d’acier by Georges Forget (prize, Degree I — residence); Internal Combustion by Jonty Harrison (mention, Degree II — Trivium/Quadrivium); Walk That Way. Tuesday, Turn. by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (mention, 7th category: work for multimedia); and L’accordéon du Diable by João Pedro Oliveira (Degree III — Magisterium).

Becquerels piece by Érick d’Orion will be presented on June 6, 2008 as part of the Court toujours festival in Poitiers (France). Besides, the collective album Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo: Études is available online on No Type label website: “The universes of Alexis Bellavance, Nicolas Bernier & Érick d’Orion are all radically different from one another […] We’ll leave it up to you to guess which is the good, the bad & the ugly…”

On June 20, 2008 Francis Dhomont will be in Brussels (Belgium) where he will take part in a jury for the Conservatoire royal de Mons’ Competition. Then, on June 21-24, he will be judge at the Musiques & Recherches’ Concours Métamorphoses 2008 in Ohain.