Composer Barry Truax recently announced the remix of one of his classic granular synthesis works, Riverrun, previously released on Digital Soundscapes. This new octophonic version was made from the original analog tape and is available in DA88 and ADAT formats.

Composer John Oswald is one of the laureates of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. The awards recognize distinguished career achievements in the visual and media arts by Canadian artists. The jury underlined Oswald’s “exceptional and innovative work as sound artist, image alchemist, composer and media artist.” Considered “a master of deconstructionist sound and music,” Oswald is well known for his no holds barred approach to source materials. His Plunderphonics, deconstructed and reassembled pieces of pop songs, drew a lot of attention in the late 80’s and was recently re-issued as a 2CD box set. But his recent work, Aparanthesi, published on Montréal label empreintes DIGITALes, was praised as “a major milestone in acousmatics history” (Touching Extremes), “a fascinating and revelatory experience” (The Whole Note) and “a profound and surprisingly dramatic work” (The Globe and Mail).

The disc Jalons by Francis Dhomont was choosen as “Disc of the Year — Musique actuelle, Electroacoustics” at the 2003 Opus Prizes gala held on January 25 in Montréal. Created in 1996 by the Conseil québécois de la musique, the Opus Prizes rewards Québec artists working in the concert music scene.

14 years ago, on January 30, 1990, empreintes DIGITALes launched its very first CD. To celebrate this 14th anniversary, we are making a special offer to all our Internet customers: a 14% rebate for 14 days from Monday, January 19 to Monday, February 2, 2004 on all empreintes DIGITALes titles!

In Montréal on January 20, 2004, Éditions Artextes launched S:on, Sound in Canadian Contemporary Art, an anthology compiled by Nicole Gingras. Amongst the artists represented on this publication we find Pierre-André Arcand, Georges Azzaria, Steve Heimbecker, Hugh Le Caine, Christof Migone, Hélène Prévost, Jocelyn Robert, R Murray Schafer, Michael Snow, Alexandre St-Onge, Martin Tétreault, and Hildegard Westerkamp.

Two Squirrelgirl releases are now available on electrocd.com: … And Rabbits Named Friday the debut full-length by Montréal’s own [sic], aka Jen Morris, and The Romance Is Over by The Sleazy Listeners, the result of a back and forth collaboration between Toronto and Trondheim.