The winning works of the 5th Música Viva Electroacoustic Composition Competition are Dreaming of the Dawn by Adrian Moore and Language by Joshua Goldman. The pieces were presented in concert on September 8, 2004 at Teatro Aberto in Lisbon (Portugal)

Winners of the 2004 edition of the composition competition Jeu de temps / Times Play were revealed last week by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC). They are young composers Ben Wilson, Nicolas Bernier, Mathieu Marcoux, Stefan Smulovitz and Daniel Pruger. And while we are waiting the official release of the compilation Cache 2003 CA+UK, the participants of the upcoming edition were also announced. Compositions by Freida Abtan, Samuel Beaudoin, David Bednarczyk, Nicolas Bernier, Martin Lord, Mathieu Marcoux, Daniel Pruger, Stefan Smulovitz, Nick Storring and Ben Wilson will be featured on Cache 2004.

Vancouver New Music present two soundwalks, guided listening walking tours of Vancouver neighbourhoods, led by composer and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp. In a soundwalk, the listening “audience” moves through a place and the environment “performs.” The walking listener and the environment create a unique piece together that can only occur during the time of the walk. The first soundwalk will be held Sunday September 26, 2004 at 2pm, next one will occur October 3, 2004.

Masami Akita, a.k.a. Merzbow, is a pioneer in the field of extreme noise. For all the fans of intense experiences, four recent CDs are now available through electrocd.com. Fantail, published in early 2003 by the small Canadian label C3R, contains a live September 2002 recording in Toronto (Ontario). The same publisher just released Yoshinotsune, featuring more rythmic compositions. Also available, the 5th Merzbow album released by the Alien8 Recordings label, Animal Magnetism, which features more prominent guitar works. Lastly, the Victo label released a unique collaboration between Merzbow and Pan Sonic, [victo_089], recorded live in May 2002.

Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Est by Annette Vande Gorne won the 2nd prize at the 4th Pierre Schaeffer Computer Music Competition (Pescara, Italy, 2003). Sju by John Young won the 3rd prize ex-aequo.

Robert Normandeau is one of the selected finalist for the international acousmatic music competition Métamorphoses d’Orphée. His composition, Hamlet-Machine with Actors was commissioned by Vancouver New Music and premiered on October 11, 2003 during the “Electric City” event. Young Montréal composer Martin Bédard was also selected for his work Check-point. The final will be held October 20, 2004 in Brussels (Belgium).