Also greatly influenced by European electronic and musique-concret techniques, Canadian Normandeau has developed many of the compositional techniques developed by the likes of Pierre Henry and Stockhausen further, to create a music that contains many familiar elements yet is new and different.
Featuring five very different styled pieces Lieux inouïs is a challenging and exciting experience. Most obviously a dedication to Stockhausen (in fact some text from his Hymnen is borrowed here!), Jeu is a dynamic collage, featuring slabs of sound, good use of space, and sonic sliding effects. In fact the compositional technique is almost stolen from Stockhausen! Mémoires vives is a carefully constructed collage of borrowed orchestral and instrumental sounds, a great ever-developing sound-pool. Rumeurs (Place de Ransbeck) is very much in the fashion of François Bayle, featuring opening and closing doors, voices and effects. Incidentally it is nothing like Pierre Henry’s similar instrumental Music for a door and a sigh! Contrasting again, Matrechka is a kind of organised chaos, a melange of electronic sounds moving through numerous phases, spatial and dynamic. And to end on a softer note Le cap de la tourmente is a spooky atmospheric piece with rich harmonics, composed by very novel means.