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Track listing detail

Rites d’oiseaux pensants

Dominique Bassal

  • Year of composition: 2001, 08
  • Duration: 14:40
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9133019279

Stereo

ISRC CAD500910171

  • 96 kHz, 24 bits

An allegory with a tropical atmosphere, loosely inspired — after the fact — by a work of distant anticipation by Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), Star Maker (1937), in which a telepathic community of small winged beings represents, after the pathetic failure of mankind, the quintessence of creation.

The introduction to this piece is a disquieting radio foreshadowing of the main theme. In between is a long spatial drift, made of concentric waves. This portion represents the icy crossing of a temporal vortex over millions of years. The emergence into an ideal future is destabilizing: this is a feverish, vaguely oriental delirium, at odds with the serene image one has of perfect utopia. Radical disorientation, possibly mocking and insulting, confirmed by an ending which unites biological jumble and mathematical cruelty: severed from his foundations, stripped of edifying content, the listener is abandoned, all his dreams ignored, on a rocky shore…

[vii-09]


Rites d’oiseaux pensants [Rites of Thinking Birds] was realized in stereo in September-October 2001 (the transfer to 7.1 was realized in January 2006) at the composer’s studio in Montréal. It premiered on 7 November 2002, during an ÉuCuE concert at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall of Concordia University, Montréal. The final versions (stereo and 5.1) were extensively revised in November 2008, with the help of Ian Chuprun and, later, Marcelle Deschênes. Rites d’oiseaux pensants was awarded the 4th prize at the Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) competition of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC, Canada, 2002) and was previously released in 2002 on the CD Cache 2002 (PEP 006).

Composition

Revision

Premiere

  • November 7, 2002, ÉuCuE XXI: Concert, Salle de concert Oscar-Peterson — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

Remixing


Noyade en magma

Dominique Bassal

  • Year of composition: 2001, 08
  • Duration: 10:00
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9133019257

Stereo

ISRC CAD500910172

  • 96 kHz, 24 bits

“… a thinking being is thrown, by accident or otherwise, into the heart of a star. Far from being instantaneously vaporized, he finds himself, after a stunningly hard first physical contact, tossed about by magmatic currents of phenomenal power, which drag him along towards the centre of the heavenly body. This is a place of strangeness, and odd relationships are established, maybe through a peculiar gift of musical mimetism with the cultural substratum of the drowning being. The trip to the centre carries on, and with the accumulation of tensions and pressure the acoustical curve slows down, softens, and darkens, now more related to the ambience of the abyss. The ending of the piece lets us catch a glimpse of the premise of mutual adaptation, and even the edgings of a dialogue between the drowned one and his star…”

[vii-09]


Noyade en magma [Drowning in Magma] was realized in stereo in May 2001 (the transfer to 7.1 was realized in January 2006) at the composer’s studio in Montréal and premiered — with Francis Dhomont at the desk — on 23 June 2006, during the 3rd Festival di Musica Acusmatica at the Tiscali Auditorium in Cagliari (Sardinia). In July 2008, the final versions (stereo and 5.1) went through minor revisions carefully supervised by Marcelle Deschênes.

Composition

Revision

Premiere

  • June 23, 2006, Festival di Musica Acusmatica: Francis Dhomont, Auditorium Tiscali — Tiscali Campus, Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy)

Remixing


L’inénarrable Nout

Dominique Bassal

  • Year of composition: 2002, 09
  • Duration: 18:53
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9133019224

Stereo

ISRC CAD500910173

  • 96 kHz, 24 bits

In the Egyptian mythology, Nut is the goddess of the sky. This piece metaphorically describes one single night, lived in an awakened state, gazing at the stars, which are in fact painted on Nut’s naked, dark body. But it is also a deep sleeping experience, complete with moments of euphoria, astral travel and confused, recurring dreams. The last 70 seconds are either a sudden sunrise in front of the observer, or the awakening of a parallel self.

Almost 90% of the source material used in L’inénarrable Nout have been directly created by a single Max/MSP patch in high-definition audio (96kHz / 24-bit). This virtual synthesizer is the result of a long collaboration with programmer Olivier Bélanger, and it pushes the concept of blending additive and frequency-modulation synthesis to the very limit of current computers. That synthesizer’s sounds, transformed through re-synthesis in some cases but mostly left untouched, are surprisingly well adapted to the arrangement and massive superimposition process. And to think that our ears have grown to tolerate the “intentionally” degraded sonics cultural trendsetters are peddling! The “less is more” commonplace commonplace hammered again and again in the skulls of generations of music students might be affected too…

[English translation: François Couture, vii-09]


L’inénarrable Nout [The Unspeakable Nut] was realized in stereo in May 2002 (a first superficial revision and the transfer to 7.1 were realized in December 2005) at the composer’s studio in Montréal, and premiered on 10 February 2006, during an ÉuCuE concert at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall of Concordia University, Montréal. The final versions (stereo and 5.1) were substantially revised in March 2009.

Composition

Revision

Premiere

  • February 10, 2006, ÉuCuE XXIV: Concert 13, Salle de concert Oscar-Peterson — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Remixing


Mont des borgnes

Dominique Bassal

  • Year of composition: 2001, 09
  • Duration: 12:52
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9133019213

Stereo

ISRC CAD500910174

  • 96 kHz, 24 bits

Mont des borgnes is a highly critical representation of cultism. The piece begins with a presentation of the classic contemporary missionary pretense: the post-industrial context, cold and dehumanizing, foolish and superficial. However, the new convert’s exhilaration is short-lived, as he must embark on the ascension of the sacred One-Eyed Men’s Mountain, an initiatic journey to be accompanied by grotesque psalms and pretentious incantations. As he is nearing the moment of revelation, our pilgrim starts suspecting that behind the vulgar ersatz of mysticism lies the corrupted and cynical reality of a highly profitable operation. The community throws him out on the count of his clearsightedness, and he is forced to go back to where he came from, lonelier and more desperate than ever.

The source materials for this piece were developed over a long stretch of time. The “harmonic” sounds were generated on a Synclavier II in 1995, then sampled and manipulated on a Emu Systems e64 sampler in 1997, and worked into a compositional process three years later. Recordings of concrete sounds made between 1986 and 2000 are also used, along with granular resynthesis elements.

[English translation: François Couture, vii-09]


Mont des borgnes [One-Eyed Men’s Mountain] was realized in stereo in June 2001 at the Main gauche studio in Montréal, then completed at the composer’s studio in Montréal. The first major revision took place in July 2004 with the participation of Ian Chuprun, and the transfer to 7.1 was realized in January 2006. The piece premiered on 10 February 2006, during an ÉuCuE concert at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall of Concordia University, Montréal. The final versions (stereo and 5.1) was revised in January 2009 with help from Marcelle Deschênes.

Composition

Revision

Premiere

  • February 10, 2006, ÉuCuE XXIV: Concert 13, Salle de concert Oscar-Peterson — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Remixing