electrocd

Track listing detail

La volière

Randall Smith

  • Year of composition: 1994
  • Duration: 12:58
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T0708614112

Stereo

ISRC CAD509410840

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

The opening fanfare offers a blueprint for creation, an inaugural explosion which ushers in a universe of struggle, where the machines of our perception are pitted against their natural surround. Epitomized by the gestures of birds, their movements of flight are retraced according to the dictates of a machine universe, which aligns them into orders of understanding, geometries of the visible.

Volière is French for aviary. The large birds’ cage is the one we’ve built ourselves, and amongst its many exhibited specimens is the music of this piece, La volière. Using the human voice as a template or ground, the sounds of birds swarm around it, finally fragmenting until they become inhabited by the machines which describe them. In a series of crescendos the sound mimes the voices of birds, using their movement to inform its own, its risings and fallings an echo of the natural order. This parallel universe, constructed along the lines of the first, bears the traces of its original, yet remains distinctly manufactured, synthesized, shaped. La volière mimes a natural process of growth and evolution, begun with the resounding clap of creation; it proffers a song of machines learned in the habits of ornithology, its own issue grown against the sound of flight.


La volière was realized at the composer’s studio in 1994 with support from the Canada Council [for the Arts] (CCA).


Composition

The Black Museum

Randall Smith

  • Year of composition: 1993
  • Duration: 15:05
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: ACREQ, with support from the CCA
  • ISWC: T0705074505

Stereo

ISRC CAD509410850

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

The Black Museum is a collection of experimential artifacts or sound objects; my musical sensibility, compositional techniques, and the impressions collected; and things learned from other composers’ works which have been so fundamental to my own development. As curator of this ‘museum’ I have collected all of the ideas and experiences that mean the most to me, transforming the past into my present. This piece emphasizes a strong dynamic structure which brings together the use of such elements as the ephemeral, the fleeting, the use of rushes and sudden outbursts — a fantasy of unexpected encounters where sound illuminates the eye through the ear. The piece is composed of nine movements.


The Black Museum was realized at the composer’s studio in 1993. It was commissioned with support from the Canada Council [for the Arts] (CCA) by the Association pour la recherche et la création électroacoustiques du Québec (ACREQ) for its Clair de terre concert series. It premiered on April 27, 1993 at the Planétarium de Montréal. This piece is dedicated to the history of the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) and the composers and friends of Montréal. The Black Museum was finalist at the 21st International Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1993); it received the 1st prize at the 15th Luigi Russollo International Competition (Varese, Italy, 1993); and the Groupe de musique expérimentale de Marseille (GMEM) Prize (France, 1993). Special thanks to composer Robert Normandeau for a door sound excerpted from his Rumeurs (Place de Ransbeck) released on an empreintes DIGITALes compact disc [IMED 9002; IMED 9802].


Premiere

  • April 27, 1993, Clair de terre IV: Concert 4 — L’œil écoute, Planétarium de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

Composition

Ruptures

Randall Smith

  • Year of composition: 1991
  • Duration: 8:10
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T0707257111

Stereo

ISRC CAD509410860

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

During the formative time of Ruptures I became intensely aware of the sudden rate of political and social change in the world. The end of the cold war had spurred such an overwhelming display of worldwide unrest and instability that I felt compelled to vent my angst in a musical form. It seemed to me that the old established systems had become ruptured and were giving way to the new. The music is not intended to interpret the literal meaning of the word but to represent the large scale disfunction caused by change.


Ruptures was realized at the composer’s studio, and premiered on June 9, 1991 during the 3rd CEC Electroacoustic Days, >>Perspectives->->, at Concordia University in Montréal.


Premiere

  • June 9, 1991, >>Perspectives->->: Concert, Salle de concert — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Composition

CounterBlast

Randall Smith

  • Year of composition: 1990
  • Duration: 9:21
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T0707257177

Stereo

ISRC CAD509410870

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

CounterBlast is a composition that draws its title from the Marshall McLuhan book of the same name. My intention was to set out and then transform sounds into larger sonic/perceptual experiences similar to the way McLuhan’s words would come out at me from the page. CounterBlast consists of three movements, all are very dense and employ extreme dynamic range. The use of dynamic range is analogous to McLuhan’s use of bold text fonts enhancing the meaning of key words. The piece draws for its sound sources from concrete and synthesized sounds. These two different sound sources are intended to be perceived in such a way that they ‘counter’ one another as if each is attempting to prevail over the other.


CounterBlast was realized at the composer’s studio in 1990 and premiered on December 4, 1990 at Concordia University in Montréal.


Premiere

  • December 4, 1990, Series 9 — Concert 6, Salle de concert — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)

Composition

The Face of the Waters

Randall Smith

  • Year of composition: 1988
  • Duration: 9:40
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T0705095039

Stereo

ISRC CAD509410880

  • 44,1 kHz, 16 bits

The Face of the Waters is a composition which borrows its ideas from the sounds of water, ranging from a babbling brook to crashing waves, transfiguring these images to new sonic depths. The piece is composed of four movements, with each movement building gradually to a crescendo. The sounds used in this composition were either created electronically or by the manipulation of everyday objects, like broken springs in a chesterfield, the clanging of glass objects and lightbulbs. No real water sounds were used. Finally the sounds went through various manipulations to produced the desired effects.


The Face of the Waters was realized at the composer’s studio in 1988 and received its concert premiere on June 30, 1992 at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles — Annexe Stassart during the “Traces électro Europe 92” concert tour.


Premiere

  • June 30, 1992, Traces électro — Europe 92, Cycle acousmatique 92: Concert Diffusion i média (Montréal), Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles — Annexe Stassart, Brussels (Belgium)

Composition