Francis Dhomont is one of the guest composers at the “Other Minds 10” festival in San Francisco (USA), March 4-6, 2004 where he will present Les moirures du temps and Phonurgie. The movie My Cinema for the Ears, which features M. Dhomont, will also be presented.

Composer Francis Dhomont is invited to the III Encontro Internacional de Música Eletroacústica in Brasilia (Brasil) from November 5 to 10, 2003. The work Reflexos, for trombone and tape, will be premiered. He will also give a lecture: “Questions on intruments and electroacoustics” followed by a roundtable about teaching electroacoustic music.

Electroacoustic music is an acquired taste. Like it or not, radio and television have conditioned us from an early age into accepting some musical (tonal and rhythmical) molds as being “normal.” Therefore, electroacoustics, along with other sound-based (in opposition to note-based) forms of musical expression like free improvisation, is perceived as being “abnormal.” That’s why a first exposure to this kind of music often turns into a memorable experience — for better or worse. Many factors come into play, but choosing an album that offers an adequate (i.e. friendly and gentle) introduction to the genre will greatly help in letting the initial esthetic shock turn into an experience of Beauty and mark the beginning of a new adventure in sound.

My goal with this sound path is simply to point out a few titles that I think have the potential to encourage instead of discourage, titles opening a door to a new musical dimension. Of course, this selection can only be subjective. But it might be helpful to new enthusiasts and to aficionados looking for gift ideas that would spread good music around. After all, Christmas is only a few weeks away!

Bridges

We usually develop new interests from existing interests. What I mean is: we explore music genres that are new to us because a related interest brought us there. That’s why when it comes to electroacoustic music, mixed works (for tape and instrument) or works related to specific topics are often the best place to find a bridge that will gently lead the listener into the new territory. For example, people who enjoy reading travel literature will find in Kristoff K.Roll’s Corazón Road the sublimated narrative of a journey through Central America. Those still young enough to enjoy fairy tales (I’m one of them) will find in Francis Dhomont’s Forêt profonde an in-depth reflection on this literary genre as inspired by the works of psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim, in the form of a captivating work with multiple narratives (in many languages) and electroacoustic music of a great evocative strength. Lighter and more fanciful, Libellune by Roxanne Turcotte finds its source in childlike imagination and is in part aimed at children without over-simplifying its artistic process.

Guitar fans can turn to Parr(A)cousmatique, a wonderful project for which classical guitarist Arturo Parra co-wrote pieces with some of Quebec’s best electroacoustic composers: Stéphane Roy, Francis Dhomont (Quebecer at heart, at the very least), Robert Normandeau, and Gilles Gobeil. The latter has just released an album-long piece, Le contrat, written with and featuring avant-garde guitarist René Lussier. Lussier’s followers and people interested in Goethe’s play Faust (and its rich heritage) will find here an essential point of convergence, another bridge.

Essential listens

Those who want to explore further will probably want to venture into more abstract electroacoustic art. I recommend starting with the Quebec composers. Chauvinism? No way. It’s just that the music of composers like Dhomont, Normandeau, Gobeil, Yves Daoust, or Yves Beaupré seems to me to be more accessible than the music of British or French composers. It is more immediate, has a stronger impact (Gobeil, usually hitting hard), a more pleasant form of lyricism (Daoust, Beaupré), more welcoming architectures and themes (Dhomont, Normandeau). If you need places to start, try Normandeau’s Figures, Gobeil’s La mécanique des ruptures, Dhomont’s Cycle du son, and Beaupré’s Humeur de facteur.

That being said, there are hours upon hours of beauty and fascination to be found in the works of Michel Chion (his powerful Requiem), Bernard Parmegiani (La création du monde), Jonty Harrsison (Articles indéfinis), Denis Smalley (Sources/Scènes), and Natasha Barrett (Isostasie), but they may seem more difficult or thankless on first listen. And for those interested in where these music come from, the EMF label offers L’œuvre musicale, the complete works of Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète and grandfather of electroacoustics.

Tiny ideas

A compilation album has the advantage of offering a large selection of artists and esthetics in a small, affordable format. Available at a budget price, eXcitations proposes a strong sampler of the productions on the label empreintes DIGITALes. The albums Electro clips and Miniatures concrètes, along with the brand new volume of the DISContact! series, cull short pieces (often under three minutes) to trigger interrogations and discoveries in those with a short attention span.

And finally, for those of you who want to take their time and explore in short steps, the Cinéma pour l’oreille collection produced by the French label Métamkine contains many wonderful 3” CDs, 20 minutes in duration each, for a reduced price. The catalog includes titles by renown composers such as Michel Chion, Lionel Marchetti, Michèle Bokanowski, Bernhard Günter, and Éliane Radigue. These tiny albums are perfect for gift exchanges.

Of course, all of the above are only recommendations. The best sound path to discovery is the one you follow by yourself, little by little.

Best listens!

Elektrophonie’s mission is to merge electronic and electroacoustic musics. Held September 6, 2003 at Saline Royale (Arc et Senans, France), the “Nuit bleue” (Bleue Night) event will put forth musics from more than 36 composers worldwide on a 50 loudspeakers soundsystem. Featuring works by Francis Dhomont, Robert Normandeau, Christian Calon, Hans Tutschku et Magali Babin.

New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) will celebrate 5 years of Sound Travels on August 9, 2003 at 2:30 pm at Centre Island, Toronto by presenting Francis Dhomont’s Here and There, Prince Prospero’s Party by Norway-based UK composer Natasha Barrett, Inside Out by Toronto composer Randall Smith, Temple by Vancouver’s Barry Truax, and works by Italian composers Laura Bianchini and Michelangelo Lupone.

Francis Dhomont will present a solo concert in Köln (Germany) July 18, 2003. The night’s programme features compositions Vol d’Arondes, Chiaroscuro, Corps et âme, Phonurgie and Forêt profonde. Beforehand, Dhomont will be a jury member at the Conservatoire royal de Mons (Belgium) on June 17, 2003. He will also be a jury member for Phonurgia Nova in Arles (France) on July 12 and 13, 2003. The composer will conclude his frantic summer with a residency at the Delta P studio in La Rochelle (France) from July 20 to August 1, 2003, to produce an multimedia project with Inés Wickmann.