electrocd

Track listing detail

Birdscape

Christian Bouchard

  • Year of composition: 2021-22
  • Duration: 14:16
  • Instrumentation: 4-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T3180381088

Stereo

ISRC CAD502310006

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

Sound sources: bird songs. Since there are so many species around the world, I limited my selections to Canadian birds.

I have been wanting to work with bird songs for a long time. I have always heard them as the Earth’s sonic flowers, the first terrestrial melodies, but also as oscillators with complex modulations. After testing a few transformations, I felt like I had at my disposal the tools that would allow me to twist, transpose, and explode them into other materials in order to create new bird species. However, my first attempts turned out to be beginner’s luck, for bird songs are just like the human voice: they resist transformation tools, as if they were imbued with the species’ survival instinct.

Following a desire to retain an imprint of these disfigured melodies, I composed Birdscape on a quadraphonic system where spatialization was influenced by the imagined trajectories of birds in flight: the figure eights of swallows, the varied and choppy curves of bats, the stationary flight and ultra-fast movements of hummingbirds, the straight lines of birds of prey, the standstill of the cuckoo, multiform clusters…

All around an electronic nest… weather events, hunting, intimate games, daytime calm, nighttime threats, human danger, first flights, imitation, winter winds, high altitudes, languages to learn. Let me present to you the Winged-Biped Orchestra.

[English translation: François Couture, iv-23]


Birdscape was realized in 2021-22 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and was premiered on October 12, 2022 at Usine C during the Akousma 18 festival presented by Réseaux des arts médiatiques. This work was realized with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ). Thanks: Martin Bédard and Monique Jean.

Composition

Premiere

  • October 12, 2022, Akousma 18: Soirée 2, Usine C, Montréal (Québec)

Portrait Montréal

Christian Bouchard

  • Year of composition: 2014-15
  • Duration: 13:52
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T3180381635

Stereo

ISRC CAD502310007

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

To Yves Daoust

I am a location sound recordist by trade, so the idea of simply going outside to capture environmental sounds in stereo was accompanied by a strong sense of déjà vu. That is why I decided to multiply and diversify the sources I recorded.

Montréal, October 10, 2013 & January 16, 2014. Over six hours of eight-track recordings made from my car. Those are the tracks: one microphone on the roof of the car, pointing backwards; another one inside the car; one track capturing the firemen’s radio frequency broadcast from the Internet; one track doing the same thing for the police’s radio frequency on the Internet; one track for the weather shortwave radio station, and; the last three tracks recording various FM radio stations. The journey starts in Montréal’s Old Port, goes downtown, then moves to the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood and ends at Mont-Royal’s Camilien-Houde Belvedere.

I would like to dedicate this piece to Yves Daoust, whose music was constantly in my mind throughout this adventure… Adagio, L’Entrevue, Suite baroque, Petite musique sentimentale, Fantaisie… The archival document, the art of playing, the rigour, the let’s-stop-being-so-serious moments, the electroacoustic counterpoint…

I started composing first drafts simply by editing these recordings in an attempt to sculpt the material, to push it to the extreme and see how far I could go without resorting to effects or synthesizers. I looped very short segments and then simply had fun mixing the eight tracks and automating extreme changes in volume and panning to bring forth the material’s musical dynamism. To my surprise, I added very little effects and synths to this audio portrait. When the time came to put everything in sequence, I let the dramatic events from the police radio guide me; so many incidents happened in the short time I was recording that they became the core of the piece. And then there is the weather station bringing some lightheartedness to the mix by reminding us that the world is still turning. So here are a few moments in the life of Montréal!

[English translation: François Couture, iv-23]


Portrait Montréal [Montréal Portrait] was realized in 2014-15 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and was premiered on December 1st, 2016 as part of the concert Électrochoc 3: Christian Bouchard at the Studio multimédia of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. This work was realized with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ). Thank you to the poet/playwright Nathalie Boisvert and the puppeteer/stage director Antoine Laprise.

Preparation

  • 2013-10-10, Montréal (Québec)
  • 2014-01-16, Montréal (Québec)

Composition

Premiere

  • December 1, 2016, Électrochoc 2016-17: Électrochoc 3: Christian Bouchard, Studio multimédia — Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

UHF-Complex

Christian Bouchard

  • Year of composition: 2017-19
  • Duration: 12:09
  • Instrumentation: 4-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T3180381157

Stereo

ISRC CAD502310008

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

Source: oscillator files; “UHF – Complex” folder; Galbanum’s “Architecture Waveforms 2010” bank.

I was starting audio explorations for this piece, wanting to work with leftover sounds from previous projects, when I discovered these oscillators. I was instantly seduced by their raw potential. Now, I do like a challenge and limited sound sources, but I was still apprehensive of the amount of work that would be required to propel, mix and model these oscillators into multiple sonic spots, to breathe life and movement into these inert objects, like a prelude to creating a chimera. Here are some of the images that carried me through the realization of this piece… Unicellular. Antibodies. Thunderstorm. Magma. The din of birds in a pet shop. Talkativeness. Manifestation. Gesture. Metal puppets. Mathcore. Mario Bros. An extraterrestrial encounter. Liquids in zero gravity. The plastic continent. The all-over. Tone. Joy. Labyrinth. I was also inspired by the names of the oscillator files found in the “UHF – Complex” folder: Ameba. Androgenous. Bacteria. Cosmos. DNA. Dust. Eyeliner. Flutter. Fungi. Fuzzy. Grime. Itchy. Larva. Lightning. Mold. Nanopede. Oort. Osmosis. Porkipine. Roboto. Seashell. Sparkles. Sticks and Stones. Tadpole. Turbulesence. Whale.

[English translation: François Couture, iv-23]


UHF-Complex was realized between 2017 and 2019 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and was premiered on October 24, 2019 under the title Impasto-UHF at Usine C during the Akousma 16 festival presented by Réseaux des arts médiatiques. This work was realized with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). Thank you Martin Bédard and Louis Dufort.

Composition

Premiere

  • October 24, 2019, Under the title Impasto-UHF: Akousma 16: Soirée no 2, Usine C, Montréal (Québec)

Montréal-mafia

Christian Bouchard

  • Year of composition: 2013-14
  • Duration: 15:01
  • Instrumentation: 8-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T3180381226

Stereo

ISRC CAD502310009

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

For this piece, I called on my fellow location sound recordists — there’s more than a hundred of us according to the Association québécoise des techniciens de l’image et du son (AQTIS). I asked from whoever was willing to participate to capture 15 minutes of sound wherever they are, inside or outside, objects of any kind, even musical instruments, as you please! This 15-minute take had to begin at 9 pm on September 26, 2013. I had chosen that time so that human activity would be not too extreme outside… and to recruit as many participants as possible… I got three, four including myself. Compared to the symphony orchestra I was hoping for, all I had was a quartet… I decided to carry on with the project just the same! So these are the four aural points of view: mechanical activity at the Port of Montréal, Liébert street, south of Notre-Dame street, by Jean-Jacques Bourdeau; a conversation at the dinner table in a loft inside the old Cadbury manufacturing plant in Montréal, by Simon Goulet; activity in the kitchen of an expensive restaurant, downtown Montréal, by Simon Brien; a wide vista on Montréal from the Mont-Royal’s Kondiaronk Belvedere, by Christian Bouchard.

At the Port of Montréal: metallic impacts, engine sounds, the “beeps” of backing cargo handling machines. At the dinner table: discussions about a collusion scandal at the City of Montréal, the mafia, drugs, the Pope, a documentary film, tiny bugs, education, satellites, and a lot more… At the restaurant: two tunas, then four, are ordered, tables 53 and 108 are English speakers, the chef is giving directives, and then he seems to not appreciate the presence of microphones and asks the recordist to get his gear out of there after only eight minutes. On the mountain, the breath of the city is quite monotonous, except for kids playing nearby as they understand that there is nothing to listen to.

[English translation: François Couture, iv-23]


Montréal-mafia was realized in 2013-14 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and was premiered on December 1st, 2016 as part of the concert Électrochoc 3: Christian Bouchard at the Studio multimédia of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Heartfelt thanks to Jean-Jacques Bourdeau, Simon Brien and Simon Goulet. This work was realized with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).

Composition

Premiere

  • December 1, 2016, Électrochoc 2016-17: Électrochoc 3: Christian Bouchard, Studio multimédia — Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Nombres et silences

Christian Bouchard

  • Year of composition: 2014
  • Duration: 13:27
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T3180380665

Stereo

ISRC CAD502310010

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

Historical Recovery Society
Montréal, May 25, 2113

We have the pleasure to present you with the results of our expertise on the contents of a 90+ years old hard drive that belonged to 21st-century composer Christian Bouchard. We were able to recover a complete file named “Numbers and Silences.” Our experts believe that the Fibonacci series was used to generate rhythmical sequences, build parameter automations and apply moments of silence. However, the bad state of the drive and the interpretation our software conducted may be responsible for digital artifacts or even for mixing several files into one. There is also a possibility that this piece echoes a series of short pieces also detected on the same drive. More results to follow. Thank you for your business.

Sound Department
Representative 5238113

[English translation: François Couture, iv-23]


Nombres et silences [Numbers and Silences] was realized in 2014 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and premiered on November 5, 2014 at Usine C under the title Conséquence as part of the concert Concret_éclaté during the Akousma XI festival presented by Réseaux des arts médiatiques. This work was realized with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Composition

Premiere

  • November 5, 2014, Under the title Conséquence: Akousma XI: Concret_éclaté, Usine C, Montréal (Québec)