The videomusic Passages and Dérive by Francis Dhomont and Inés Wixckman will be presented during the recital Música de cámera mixta, electroacústica y video-arte on September 15, 2011 at Auditorio Alberto Lleras of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (Colombia). Also on the programme are works by Natasha Barrett (Rite-3/18), Catalina Peralta Cáceres, and Germán Toro-Pérez.

Speaking of lightness and mediation through culture, Le projet Ulysse is the perfect opposite of Désordres [by Roxanne Turcotte]. Firmly rooted in the myth of Ulysses, this work is backed by an extensive narrative in French, English and German. These lyrics are the star of this show, and their multiple and difficult meanings are making it difficult to focus on the music or the electroacoustic treatments. Among the voices participating to this work are singer Shelley Hirsch (who does a lot more than narrating), actor Gabriel Gascon, poet Fortner Anderson, playwright Wajdi Mouhawad, and composer Ned Bouhalassa. Interesting fact: this DVD-Video release includes a video track with stills from the performance and a scrolling graphic score.

There has always been a certain lightness to Roxanne Turcotte’s works, a lightness seldom experienced in acousmatic music. Désordres, her third album for empreintes DIGITALes, features two hours of works composed between 2003 and 2008. Except for one piece (Sous écoute!, 10 minutes), everything here is either short or made of short movements. Just because her ideas are exposed in short durations doesn’t mean her artistic approach isn’t as “deep” as other empreintes DIGITALes composers. Simply, she adopts a more “popular” approach, i.e. often her message is more immediately tangible, sensible, and less mediated through culture. Just for that, Désordres makes an excellent initiation to sound art. However, that being said, paradoxically, by being so long (two hours, nine works), the album gets a bit incoherent, and this lack of cohesion is reflected in its longest work, the 41-minute suite Musée sonore, whose sequence of movements seems a bit haphazard. Released as a DVD-Audio with 5.1 and stereo mixes.

The WFAE International Conference on Acoustic Ecology will take place from October 3 to 7, 2011 in Corfu (Greece) with fifty papers and roundtable discussions and 4 concerts. Hildegard Westerkamp, Katharine Norman, and R Murray Schafer are amongst the five keynote speakers. Theodore Lotis will present a paper on soundscapes and sound installation art.

The Foundation Destellos has announced the results of the 4th edition of its electroacoustic composition competition: the first prize was awarded ex æquo to Panayiotis Kokoras for his work Magic and to David Hindmarch for his work Golden Bowls. The Motus Prize has been awarded to Dans le ventre de la machine by Nicolas Bernier, and the Phonos Prize has been awarded to Caída, memoria y restitución by Ezequiel Esquenazi. A Special mention Musiques & Recherches was given to Les lointains noirs et rouges by Gilles Gobeil. Mentions were also awarded to works by Martin Bédard, Pei-Yu Shi, Peiman Khosravi, Lautaro Vieyra, Chester Udell, Andy Dolphin, Charles Nichols, and Sergio Santi.

Troisième disque sous ce label montréalais pour l’électroacousticienne, et la surprise est toujours au rendez-vous. Des étonnantes prises de son de Musée sonore (40 minutes!) à la musique mixte d’Espace vital, sans oublier une pointe d’humour ici et là, Roxanne Turcotte se fait plaisir et nous intrigue pendant tout près de deux heures. Des bribes de paroles sorties de nulle part viennent ajouter un peu de surréalisme à ces univers sonores féériques, et les pensées de l’auditeur s’envolent dans toutes les directions. Pour ouvrir la porte de l’univers électroacoustique, c’est le genre de production idéale. Il s’agit d’un DVD-Audio, alors tout ça, qui est déjà superbe en stéréo, est aussi offert en 5.1; imaginez.