The Ina-GRM’s Akousma concerts on January 25 and 26, 2013 will present premieres by Laurence Bouckaert, Roland Cahen, Régis Renouard Larivière, Jacky Mérit, Elsa Justel, Kasper T Toeplitz, Gilles Gobeil, and Philippe Mion and works by Elżbieta Sikora, and Gilles Racot.

Depuis [quelques] d’années, le duo formé par J-Kristoff Camps et Carole Rieussec imagine des siestes audioparlantes, «pièces é[éctroacoustiques pour une posture inclinée»: ces «compositions instantanées issues du paysage} pour 80 corps allongés» appellent un ailleurs restitué par casque dans un lieu propice à l’imaginaire (La Friche de la Belle de Mai à Marseille, les bords du lac de Neuchâtel, le jardin du château de Castries, la cour de l’ancien manège de La Chaux-de-Fonds…). [Un] précédent opus, Corazón Road transportait l’auditeur en Amérique centrale. À l’ombre des ondes convie à une plongée intime, «dans un monde, trouble à la temporalité floue» sereine, envoûtante, l’expérience nous embarque dans des récits de rêves loufoques, des «histoires» de villes plates et de Brigitte Bardot, des sons spatialisés, la fureur d’un train, des rires d’enfants ou un pas cadencé dans le gravier… Le duo entame actuellement une réflexion sur le théâtre sonore, à écouter sur le site kristoffk.roll.free.fr

[…] Along similar lines — electronic music and texts read in the French language is to be found on the release by Vromb and Lucien Francoeur. Vromb we obviously know from his various releases on Ant-Zen, but also from Hushush from his home town Montréal. He has quite a following I am told. Lucien Francoeur is a writer from Montréal, who has been active since the mid 60s. In his performances of the past he worked with musicians from the world of improvisation and as such has released a couple of LPs. Here we have twelve pieces, and unlike the release by Bruyas/Julliard, it’s not easy to escape from it; one can not play this a nice backdrop. The voice of Francoeur is more demanding in it that it is more present, and perhaps also because he skips occasionally back and forth between French and English, so you pick up sometimes something. The electronic music by Vromb is also more present and up front. Not in a disturbing way loud or anything, but more piercing at times and also more demanding. He has sustaining, insect like sounds, pulsating beats of a minimal nature, and throughout the music is spooky and mysterious. Certainly indeed one that requires full attention but if you fail to speak the language, like I do, it’s also a bit more complicated to grasp. We may return to what I said about the CD by Petit/Robinson in Vital Weekly 858: “it’s also something that I like to hear once or twice, but would not return to all too easily. Now I was thinking: maybe this is perhaps something to be seen live, seated in the dark and let it all come? I could imagine that would do well.” Especially this spooky stuff would do well in such places.

Dopo il meraviglioso strings.lines, il canadese Nicolas Bernier ha pubblicato un altrettanto suggestivo album per la tedesca Hronir (usure.paysage) e un doppio cd per l’etichetta specializzata in ambient music, Home Normal (Music for a Piano; Music for a Book). Sempre del 2012 è Travaux mécaniques, presentato dalla Empreintes Digitales nella solita elegante veste di DVD-Audio custodito in un bel box di cartone. Al suo interno cinque nuove tracce di Bernier presentate in surround 3.1/5.1, stereo, mp3 e aac (320kbps).

Dans le ventre de la machine è la personale “battaglia” del compositore canadese contro la “macchina”. Nel senso letterario del termine: Nicolas entra nel corpo di un dispositivo meccanico costruito da un amico carpentiere e ne descrive la natura con l’aiuto di un sensore piezoelettrico e un microfono a contatto. Sul finale si sentono le parole del celebre discorso di Mario Savio tenuto nel 1964 davanti agli attivisti di Berkeley.

Cresciuto in pieno evo digitale, Bernier sente nostalgia per quei dispositivi che gli ricordano l’infanzia: cineprese, videoregistratori o semplicemente vecchi giocattoli. Liaisons mécaniques è una descrizione acustica di tali oggetti, un racconto per suoni di superfici ricche di particolari.

Le suggestioni spaziali di Les chambres de l’atelier sono più evidenti ascoltate nella versione surround 5.1, ma anche nel più canonico formato stereo rendono bene la capacità di Bernier di descrivere spazi utilizzando solo gli “effetti”, creando forti dinamiche e giocando sulle profondità. Nelle sue mani il suono acquista qualità microscopiche, calibrando le orecchie su dettagli apparentemente impercettibili.

The Concert international presented by Musiques & Recherches on February 27, 2013 at Espace Senghor in Brussels (Belgium) will feature works by Elizabeth Anderson, Adrian Moore, Robert Normandeau, Zuriñe F Gerenabarrena, and Irene Pacini. There will be a pre-concert talk with Elizabeth Anderson about her new 8-track work Solar Winds which premiered in October 2012 in Mexico.

The demanding music radio show Délire actuel (CFLX-FM 95.5, Sherbrooke, Quebec) unveiled today its top 30 experimental music albums you shouldn’t have missed in 2012. This list culls 30 titles, the 2012 crème de la crème in demanding music, i.e. the avant-gardist or experimental fringe in every music genre (contemporary, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, avant-rock, electronica, etc.). […]