I’m fond of Natasha Barrett. Her electroacoustic compositions have bite, subtlety, and depth. Her art is serious but welcoming. Bouteilles de Klein is her second album for empreintes DIGITALes. It is a 2-DVD set (stereo and surround mixes, high fidelity), 140 minutes of concert works and sound installations. The installations disc (the second) is nice but less captivating than the concert works disc which holds lots of highlights. I’d be hard press to choose a favorite between the recomposed field recordings of Microclimates III-VI and the orgiastic electroacoustics of Avoid Being Eaten by Mimicking Other Less Palatable Species (ABEMOLPAS) (now there’s a program of sonic mimicry!). Heartily recommended.

The Électro-chocs concert series presented by the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal continues its celebration of the 20 years of empreintes DIGITALes with a concert of Jacques Tremblay’s music on December 8, 2010.

The acousmonium of the GRM takes center stage at the Imatronic festival at the ZKM in Karlsruhe (Germany) from December 1 to 5, 2010. Concerts, talks and lectures will take place with several guest composers such as Beatriz Ferreyra, Robert Normandeau, Ludger Brümmer, Hans Tutschku…

A lack of bass? Not La rage’s problem, clearly. This is Pierre Alexandre Tremblay’s latest offering on empreintes DIGITALes, and it is much better than his previous DVD. La rage is a 50-mnute suite featuring drummer Stefan Schneider in a concertist’s role. Metal electroacoustics! The 5.1 spatialization job is sobre yet effective, digital treatments are hard-hitting, the composition is dynamic, multiverse, and grabs you by the balls more than once. That said, I LOVE percussion — others may find this tiring on the long run.

The Montréal/Québec-based noise trio Napalm Jazz is back! This band predates morceaux_de_machines and used to feature A_dontigny, Érick d’Orion and Philémon. Released on LP (yes, it was today’s main theme), Le viandier de Taillevent features two studio tracks by the original trio and three live tracks with Philémon and d’Orion alongside a different guest for each track (experimental turntablist eRikm steals the show on Faus Cuernon). This record features a rather wide sound palette and draws from die-hard noise art, sound collage, and electroacoustic improvisation. Watch out for David Bowie’s surprise appearance in Pourcel Farci! However, I was supprised by the rather wimpy mastering — it lacks some “oomph” in the bass register, me thinks…

The work Fields of Darkness and Light for violin and processing by Adrian Moore was awarded the First prize (mixed music category) at the Musica Nova 2010 International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Prague, Czech Republic). The work will be heard at the competition’s concert on December 8, 2010 at Divadlo Inspirace in Prague.