“Fizzes, Bangs + Whistles” is a concert of electroacoustic works to be held on November 5, 2002 at Sheffield’s Firth Hall (UK). Amongst the selected works, compositions by Javier Álvarez and Åke Parmerud.

A double-CD release of avant sounds, featuring an overwhelming 36 tracks. A buffet of styles is offered, including noise, musique concrète, click-dub, instrumental free-improv, electroacoustic sound engineering and ambient, among others. Some of the more striking tracks are Jon Vaughn’s Bouncing Ball (1 of 2) + Gravel Road, coupling static noise with menacing rhythmic overtones, and Tomas Jirku’s I Think I’m In Love, a nice minimalist dub piece. The one flare track is definitely Infoslut’s He Dreamt She Was An Atom, She Dreamt He Was Enola Gay, a radiant full-colour painting set amidst clever etchings. Opening up with some screaming distortion static, Infoslut lays in some drilling industrial strength percussion and epic synthesiser sweeps that instil a powerfully dramatic mood. All these tracks are very good explorations in sound texture and rhythmic pieces.

Aujourd’hui les musiques du futur (“Tomorrow’s music today”) is a series of concert produced bu the GMVL and held from November 12 to 16, 2002 at Les Subsistances (Lyon). Amongst the featured composers, Robert Normandeau will give an acousmatic concert on November 12 and the director of Musiques & Recherches (Ohain, Belgium), Annette Vande Gorne, will present her work Autour de la voix on November 13.

A second collaboration with the CEC and PeP, electrocd.com will include a free copy of the new CD Cache 2002 with any online purchase, while supplies last. The item is automatically added to your shopping cart when you make a purchase on the electrocd.com website. Cache 2002 is the recent compilation produced by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC). [Finished on January 6, 2003.]

Kracfive, a small but esteemed American label, result of the meeting between Colongib and Octopus Inc, makes its debut on the electrocd.com catalogue with its complex and inventive electronic releases. Abstract or rythmic, their styles will elicit joy in the ears of all sympathetic listeners! Check out the soundclips to get an idea of their unique sound.

Le guitariste Arturo Parra a lancé il y a déjà quelque temps le disque Parr(A)cousmatique (Empreintes Digitales) où il se livre à un exercice inusité qui consiste à composer une partie de guitare sur des musiques pour bandes pouvant être écoutées de façon indépendante. Les bandes sont de Stéphane Roy, Mauricio Bejarano, Francis Dhomont, Gilles Gobeil et Robert Normandeau. On a ici le meilleur de ce que peut offrir la musique mixte: une partie électroacoustique réalisée par quelques-uns des meilleurs compositeurs du genre et une partie instrumentale composée par un virtuose qui connaît toutes les possibilités de son instrument. Du grand art.