electrocd

Track listing detail

Attractions

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2003-05
  • Duration: 17:38
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714127

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110190

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps

Attractions… An unusual circus! Of audible natural spaces. Setting in order the attraction between the elements over which we have no control. An audio research revolving around a central aspect: perceptions. The magnetic force of natural elements. Phenomena such as objects falling back down, terrestrial and sonic motion, the influence of planets and tides. Earth, sea, sky, heat, and natural disasters… Specific manifestations are creating illusions, impressions that eventually, become reality. What are we hearing? Only auditory illusions and perceptions.

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Attractions, a series of miniatures, was realized in 2003-05 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal for a sound and light installation — which includes movements from the work Musée sonore (2003-05) — featuring lighting engineer François Doyon. The installation Attractions (2005) was presented from January 20 to January 29, 2005 at the Café of the Monument-National, Montréal, during the event Akousma (1), presented by Réseaux, and as part of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC)’s Canadian festival New Music in New Places. The composer thanks the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Composition

Mastering


Musée sonore

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2003-05
  • Duration: 40:47
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714116

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110192

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps

Eleven sonic scripts where ambient sounds, gadget sounds, and nature sounds have a story to tell. Clinks, creaks, knocks, shakes, whistles, squeals, mechanisms, electrifying material, cogs, tinkles — they all have a life of their own. This piece was inspired by Tintin’s imaginary museum. When the installation was presented, objects revealed very special sounds that were orchestrated using small hidden loudspeakers.

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Musée sonore [Sonic Museum], a series of miniatures, was realized in 2003-05 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal for a sound and light installation [which includes movements from the work Attractions (2003-05)] featuring lighting engineer François Doyon. The installation Attractions (2005) was presented from January 20 to January 29, 2005 at the Café of the Monument-National, Montréal, during the event Akousma (1), presented by Réseaux, and as part of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC)’s Canadian festival New Music in New Places. The composer thanks the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).

Composition

Mastering


Mères et monde

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2003
  • Duration: 4:07
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714105

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110042

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110018

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

To my mother

Mothers… The phenomenon that triggers the life cycle, the breath of life. The birth of worlds, cultural differences and their grand richness.

Light waves, inner world and beating heart, soft feminine words, singing, lullaby, breathing and rhythm, orchestral punctuations.

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Mères et monde [Mothers and the World] was realized in 2003 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, and premiered on June 10, 2003 during Synthèse, the 33rd Bourges International Electronic Music and Creation Festival (France).

Composition

Premiere

  • June 10, 2003, Synthèse 2003: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)

Mastering


Bourdons enjoués

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2004
  • Duration: 4:08
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714081

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110043

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110019

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

This work was inspired by the master bellringers of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Time to party and bring in techno-pop electronica that brings to mind the drones and bellringers of years past. The work starts with a long drone that gradually transforms into a burst with metallic overtones created by the reflection of a lake. The sampled, electronic tones and the computerized layout are imitating the acoustics of the musical instruments’ party. For the finale, ancient resonances blare over modern times, making their presence felt through a large crescendo.

A sawtooth sound sample is the core of the piece, along with a recording of drones and melodies improvised on the bagpipes and the Breton bombard by Michel Dubeau. Improvisations at a keyboard and timbre transformations combine the traditional popular aspect and electronics, over a polyphony of drones. This dualism is also found in the way the minor and major music modes are being opposed and the power of the tone.

[English translation: François Couture, xi-08]


Bourdons enjoués [Cheerful Drones] was realized in 2004 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, and premiered in June 2004, during the concert “Les Maîtres sonneurs” at Synthèse, the 34th Bourges International Electronic Music and Creation Festival (France). The composer thanks Michel Dubeau (recorded bagpipes and Breton bombard).

Composition

Premiere

  • June 2004, Synthèse 2004: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)

Mastering


Capharnaüm

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2004
  • Duration: 4:37
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714070

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110044

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110020

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

For all the peace attempts, past and future! Let’s put an end to war…

Acousmatic music on the topic of human conflicts to support peace processes throughout the world. Here’s hoping order can be reestablished one day… May these shambles stop and may we lay down our weapons… Acoustic sounds have been borrowed from real events, then modified and mixed in with electronic sounds. These sounds have been laid out anarchically, in a large crescendo/decrescendo structure. This structure takes us through material noise, human noise, excitement, live reports, tumbles of sounds, then the rise of a tornado, and finally, disarmament!

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Capharnaüm [Shambles] was realized in 2004 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, and premiered on May 20, 2004 at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), during the Zéppelin 2004 festival (Barcelona, Spain).

Composition

Premiere

  • May 20, 2004, Zèppelin 2004 Barcelona: Del acuerdo y el conflicto, 2, CCCB — Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona – Hall, Barcelona (Spain)

Mastering


Espace vital

Roxanne Turcotte / Élise Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2004-08
  • Duration: 22:43
  • Instrumentation: 2 pianos and stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060713997

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110045

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110021

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

The piano beside itself. Sounds from a German Steinway, a Yamaha U3, and a digital Kurzweil, along with erased words and old scratchy records. The two live pianists are supported by ten modified / prepared piano tracks set up as if there were twelve players sporadically answering one another. A dialogue between pianists expresses things left unsaid. Duel, wandering, laughs, and delirium. Putting one’s ideas in order. Days go by… A week and a few bridges, months, years, but there’s always time… Euphoria, nostalgia, being hunted. Twelve variations on a state… The diary of a present, future, and past life.

The sound of the piano is a trigger that harmonizes with the feelings and the letting-go of one’s self… Vital space. Suffocating, having trouble breathing! I am being tracked down by a transforming shadow. This shadow is void, agitation, or someone I don’t know.

Structure: Overture, two themes, and 12 variations in and out of sequence. A life, a cycle of 12, as prescribed by the Chinese horoscope and the months of the year. The themes change with states of mind, moods that can be occasionally dark or sunny. The piano breathes and becomes the breath of life… Vital space. Words are inner voices that engrave themselves.

Technique: The piano score was composed out of my own improvisations. A highly personal approach that includes harmonies and a traditional bar. The themes, overlapped or developed separately, are multiplied by the variations, despite the original structure. At the beginning, a long tremolo cries its heart out. This is followed by a resonance. The pianos get carried away and spin out ritornelli. Word samples are transformed and cut through successive editing processes, growing muted, out of breath, and dull from the equalizing and the bouncing echo. An electronic sound provides a bridge between turned pages. On the tape, words fly by, in a jumble, saying nothing; modified sentences and onomatopoeia are battling for a place that would answer something. The words — thought-over, still, not spontaneous — blend in with the piano samples that are resonating like an ominous spectre. Where is the exit? Are we misunderstood?

Sources of pianistic and literary inspiration:

  • A little diary of ideas started one day and never meant to see the next, where words don’t manage to clearly circumscribe myself, or maybe are they too obvious? Everything is on my piano, like a book of musical tales.
  • Glenn Gould’s piano; the piano of Russian musicians. George Gershwin’s piano; the impressionists and the jazz pianists.
  • Élise Turcotte, La maison étrangère, Éditions Leméac, Montréal, 2002.
  • Élise Turcotte, Ma petite sœur et moi, Radio-Canada, 2001.
  • Henrich Neuhaus, L’art du piano, Éditions Van De Velde, 1971.
  • Miguel Angel Estrella, Musique pour l’espérance, Le Seuil, 1997.
  • A wink at Claude Debussy.

[English translation: François Couture, xi-08]


Espace vital [Vital Space] was realized in 2004 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). The composer thanks Laure Fugère, Élise Turcotte (recorded voices).

Composition

About this sound recording

The acoustic piano part, performed by Christian Parent, was recorded on October 10, 2008 at Studio Digison (Magog, Québec).

Performers

Recording

Mastering


Delirium

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2007-08
  • Duration: 5:00
  • Instrumentation: 16-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714069

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110046

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110022

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

To my father

Donald Crowhurst, he who fooled the whole world at the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, has discussed “the mechanics of the mind” and being “a prisoner of one’s own image.” The smallest thing can make your brains tip over: a thought, a fear, a foreign substance. But there is worse: my father’s illness. There was no controlling that wrecking…

As with an embarkment, delirium is a modification of a person’s state of consciousness. Figuratively speaking, it can become a frenzy. Therefore, sonic delirium is a modification of the audible, an occasionally unsettling and nightmarish disorder. A musical illustration of the many guises of delirium. Confusion, rambling, emotion, enthusiasm, anger, sacred fire, frenzy. To each his own delirium…

Switching from one state of consciousness to another turns into a feeling of temporary paranoid or invading madness, accompanied by extraordinary fears… a state of panic! Mental confusion. What is this switching, whose pathological causes are known, but not the means to counter this enormous fear that takes hold of you? How can you face it, when this suffering is usually seen as a psychiatric condition, a form of evil, or simply an end in itself, leaving behind this moral martyrdom hiding under brain-numbing techniques. Delirium is shocking! And what are we planning for the future of ageing society?

Is delirium an unconscious or a lucid phenomenon? Is the observed confusion confusing us in the few strands of knowledge we have, or is it pushing us back into the realm of atypical — therefore uncontrollable — cases? Is it a dream without a future? A parallel world where a few memories are gradually fading away? Weak excuses for answers contribute an impression of sonic balance to the structure of the work. This music has underpinnings, subliminal waves… Inner voices are gnawing at ideas.

Sometimes, soft cinematic images featuring gentle small animals and little children appear; at other times, these images turn into terrifying visions. Search and you will elucidate the mystery.

I didn’t have enough time to find answers to my questions… My father left us too quickly. It was better that way… at least for him! Obviously, I am searching, and I will find, via the sonic world and fabulous sea memories. A kind of music poetry. Words alone will never succeed.

Simple frequencies occasionally tell us of a distant or even subconscious memory, either happy or sad. Sine waves of various frequencies are heard isolated and disseminated through the channels set all around the listener. A chance rhythm — a random dispersion technique — in a swirling feeling. Then, the musical carrousel grows repetitive, and the waves start combining in a sonic whirl, eventually replaced by a mysterious abyss. This abyss sets the tone for the crazy musical messages that are often muted by the wind whistling through the shrouds of the sails, before creating a peaceful aerial space. Letting futureless enigmas fly away.

Musical winks at Sidney Bechet, Diana Krall, and Harry Belafonte.

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Delirium was realized in 2007-08 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal and premiered on March 10, 2011 during the Travaux électroniques féminins concert in the Studio multimédia of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.

Composition

Premiere

  • March 10, 2011, 20 Years of empreintes DIGITALes, Électrochoc 2010-11: Électrochocs 4: Travaux électroniques féminins, Studio multimédia — Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Mastering


Sous écoute!

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2007-08
  • Duration: 10:03
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714036

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110047

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110023

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

From various sources, suspicion in all its guises occasionally takes us to unexplored, dark or zany avenues that provide us with surprising answers… Captured incognito and reworked through camouflage, the sounds of guitar, voice and whispers bang together, thus becoming outspokenness. The sound, in all its frankness, contains the multiple dimensions of the vocal catches in the act. But beware! Any resemblance with actual persons is merely coincidences. We are in the presence of fictional conspiracies from beyond reality.

Inspired by an installation entitled El Síndrome de la Sospecha (2004) by Lázaro Armando Saavedra González.

[English translation: François Couture, v-09]


Sous écoute! [Tapped!] was realized in 2007-08 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal. It was realized (first under the title Écoute électronique) with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). Thanks to Fannie Doyon-Turcotte (recorded voice).

Composition

Mastering


Périple de l’eau

Roxanne Turcotte

  • Year of composition: 2006
  • Duration: 5:18
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9060714025

Stereo

ISRC CAD501110048

  • AAC, 320 kbps
  • MP3, 320 kbps
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Surround 5.1

ISRC CAD501110024

  • Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 24 bits
  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Let’s follow the trail of a source of water that originated from very high in the mountains, somewhere on this earth. During its journey, life’s obstacles — challenges, heat, cold, freezing, and bad weather — will never prevent it from flowing gently down. O water so clear! Nothing can send it off course. Seasons, a blossom, pollution, steps to complete — stream, brook, river, lake… Some people want to bottle it up, others play in its flow. But it will reach its destination, as planned. Its ultimate goal: merging, drowning at the bottom of a living sea!

[English translation: François Couture, viii-08]


Périple de l’eau [The Journey of Water] was realized in 2006 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, and premiered on June 11, 2006 during Synthèse, the 36th Bourges International Electronic Music and Creation Festival (France). An excerpt from Périple de l’eau was used for the work Traces realized in 2006 for the concert Hommage aux 80 ans de Francis Dhomont presented on Octobre 21, 2006 by Musiques & Recherches in Brussels (Belgium).

Composition

Premiere

  • June 11, 2006, Synthèse 2006: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)

Mastering