Robert Normandeau is Québec’s leading electroacoustic composer after Francis Dhomont. One generation younger than his teacher, he took his best techniques and pushed them further into the “cinema for the ear.” All about climates, drama and narrative, his works capture the listener’s attention, either in concert settings or through his steady output of albums.

Born March 11, 1955 in Quebec City, Normandeau followed the academic route to musique concrète: he obtained his bachelor degree from the Université Laval (Québec) in 1984, his master degree at the Université de Montréal in 1988, and the first Ph.D. degree given by this institution four years later. He studied with Marcelle Deschênes and Francis Dhomont.

Normandeau played a key role in the development of Canadian electroacoustic music. In 1987 he co-founded the Canadian Electroacoustic Community; he was an active member of the ACREQ, and co-founded the non-profit organization Réseaux through which he produced numerous concert events. He teaches acoustics and electroacoustics at the Université de Montréal since 1988.

Although he occasionally writes pieces for instrument(s) and tape, most of Normandeau’s output falls into the “acousmatic” category. His first CD, Lieux inouïs, came out in 1990. It revealed strong stylistic similarities with his mentor Dhomont, especially his sense of the narrative. Tangram, in 1994, gave first examples of his fascination with speech. International consecration came in 1996 when he was awarded the prestigious Golden Nica at that year’s edition of the Ars Electronica competition for the work Le renard et la rose, loosely based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s tale Le petit prince. The piece was included on three compilation CDs before finding its way on his third solo album Figures.