At the end of Grant Morrison’s run on Batman Incorporated, readers learned of arch rival Ra’s al Ghul’s secret stock of super-foetuses, cloned from the caped crusader’s genes and gestating for some future Battle Royale. On the strength of this latest batch from electroacoustic label empreintes DIGITALes, of whom ample note has been made here, a similar programme seems to be well underway in deepest French Canada, with a plot to inundate listeners with award-winning, electroacoustic composer-pedagogues.

Georges Forget is the latest of these luminaries to alight upon these pages, following a trail unremarkable only among his peers: schooled to PhD level in Bordeaux and Quebec, scooping up awards along the way, and moonlighting for stage and screen while teaching electroacoustic composition at his alma mater. The journeys in these pieces (mostly from 2008) are suggestive of an ambition that can blast through shield doors; a ferocity evident in Métal en bouche (Metal in Mouth), which detonates millions of charges at stifling, oceanic depths; its claustrophobic paranoia constituting a debt to Wolfgang Petersen’s epic adaptation of Das Boot.

If Forget favours high-minded literary extracts over lucid description of his sound sources, he still shares a passion for the elements, especially water and metal. This he appeases by sticking a mic in everything from sea waves to the kitchen sink and capturing the frothing tension that ensues.

Peaks may be difficult to detect in these careening escapades, but a telling reference appears in his notes on the WWII (account)-inspired Orages d’acier (Storm of Steel) in which he refers in both sound and text to the ‘moments (in battle) where violence gets so intense it becomes hallucinating and stripped of any emotion… separated by long stretches of emptiness’, the corresponding result is an alternation between harrowing, ballistic frenzy and scenes of dead air that lashes together emotions such as revelry, violence and horror as definitively as anywhere else on this fine collection.

26 years ago, on January 30, 1990, empreintes DIGITALes launched its very first disc. To celebrate our 26th anniversary, we are offering a 26% rebate for 26 days (until February 1, 2016) on all of our 123 available empreintes DIGITALes titles!

22. Gilles Gobeil — Les lointains

“Gobeil’s particular take on acousmatics is extremely heavily inflected with sharp attacks redolent of industrial machinery. Big impacts litter his music, acting both as material element and structural marker; as such they become antagonistic pivot points about which each piece spasmodically turns and contorts. One ends up feeling rather small listening to these pieces, but not just due to their blunt force trauma; Gobeil also punctuates his music with periods of repose that are more void-like and ambient (albeit edgy), broad but delicate vistas that seemingly stretch into infinity, gradually becoming filled with raw material for the next episode of onslaught. The scale, the force, the immensity, the drama—it all adds up to a sequence of experiences that go beyond simply being immersive; one feels enveloped by these six pieces, surrounded on all sides by danger and beauty of utmost intensity.” (Reviewed in September 2015.)

Album art can draw listeners to music, or push them away. The best album art enhances the overall presentation, while the worst detracts from it. In some cases, we’ve reviewed albums because of the art, while in others we’ve declined. In this feature, we’ll take a closer look at some of the year’s best artwork and share words from the designers, labels and musicians involved.

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Georges Forget ~ Le dernier présent (empreintes DIGITALes)

Design: Georges Forget

Topic: “The illustration on the cover of the disc is based on the multiple meanings of the French title “The last present.” Understood as “the last now” and “the latest offering,” the pose of an individual subject with cords coming to life on a twilight background was a way to illustrate the end of a period in my life as a composer. Including quite dark and nostalgic rooms, the picture is clear to me.”

Process: “I discussed this with the way I approach in my compositions sound materials; I basically worked by gluing in Photoshop. Not being a professional graphic designer, the attached image shows an example of composition of my visual work. I printed the silhouette I had done by computer, then I glued on a cardboard plate to come add real cables. The photograph was then cable mounted on the original figure and finally processed digitally.”

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