empreintes DIGITALes innovates again! Fifteen years after its foundation, the 100% “digital” label jumps from CD to DVD-Audio, bringing the sound’s richness and spaciousness from concert halls to the living room of music lovers. DVD offers very high fidelity with its 24-bit encoding and immersive sound spatialization with the famous “5.1” home theatre sound. The first release in this format is Puzzles from composer Robert Normandeau. Available since February 3, 2005 this disc was officially launched on February 12 at the “trans_canada” festival at the ZKM in Germany.

Annette Vande Gorne invites every family to an electro Christmas for kids on December 15, 2004 at Brussels’ Petit Théâtre Mercelis (Belgium). This concert will feature electroacoustic compositions that will stimulate the imagination with works by Nicola Sani, Beatriz Ferreyra, François Bayle, Philippe Mion and Laurent Delforge. Presentation and spatialization by Annette Vande Gorne.

Réseaux presents a new (annual) acousmatic concert series at the Montréal Planetarium titled Pulsar. The first concert, “Puzzles,” will feature composer Robert Normandeau and will be held on December 6, 2004. On this occasion will be announced Normandeau’s 5th solo disc on empreintes DIGITALes: Puzzles, the first Surround DVD-Audio release for this label.

Composer and guitar player Arturo Parra will be performing live each night the music he wrote for the stage play Le Retable de l’avarice, de la luxure et de la mort by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, presented at the Université du Québec à Montréal on December 2 — 11, 2004.

Éric Mattson, artistic director of the Oral label, presents the concert series Transitors et autres circuits (TAC). The next edition will be held on November 26, 2004 at Montréal’s Musée juste pour rire with Diane Labrosse, David Sanson, Mathias Delplanque, Daniel Olson, and Szkieve. The two next events will be featuring works by Nancy Tobin, David Kristian, and i8u on December 15, 2004 and by Ælab, Magali Babin, and Tim Hecker on December 17, 2004, this time at Oboro’s new media laboratory (Montréal).

An important event is shaping up in Québec City (Québec)… Machines 13! A unique concert featuring three groups that define improvised new music: Les Poules (Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, Danielle Palardy Roger), Klaxon Gueule (Michel F Côté, Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge) and morceaux_de_machines (Érick d’Orion, A_dontigny). The concert will be held at Méduse’s Studio d’essai Saturday November 20, 2004 at 8pm.