electrocd

Track listing detail

Éclats de voix

Robert Normandeau

  • Year of composition: 1991
  • Duration: 14:47
  • Instrumentation: 14-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: CKUT FM, with support from the CCA
  • ISWC: T0704774173

Stereo

ISRC CAD509411010

To Martine Blain

The primary visual imagery of the title (Bursts of Voices), the fragmentation of the voice into little shatters, is augmented by the connotation of anger — a child’s sudden anger which appears like a tornado, to disappear just as quickly. The voice is of an 11-year-old child who wholeheartedly joined in the game of recording dozens of sounds from the Dictionnaire des bruits by Jean-Claude Trait and Yvon Dulude. The work is divided into five sections which represent childhood ‘states’ and a corresponding sonorous parameter. These different sections are presented one after the other in concert, or separately when broadcast on radio.


Éclats de voix was realized in the composer’s studio and at the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) in Paris from recordings of the voice of Marie-Hélène Blain. It premiered on September 26, 1991 in stereo by CKUT FM in Montréal. Éclats de voix was commissioned by CKUT with support from the Canada Council [for the Arts] (CCA). The piece was awarded the 1st prize by Jury and tied for the Public’s Prize at the 2nd Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1991) and recorded on the compact disc Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1991 (NO R2). It was also awarded a Mention at the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award Competition (Sweden, 1992), an Honorable Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1993) and a 1st Mention at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1993).

Composition

Premiere

  • September 26, 1991, Concert, CKUT FM, Montréal (Québec)

Awards


Obsession

Todor Todoroff / Charles Baudelaire

  • Year of composition: 1991
  • Duration: 11:13
  • Instrumentation: 4-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9005280295

Stereo

Obsession is a work of research / variation on the theme of Eros and Thanatos. The sonic materials of the piece were derived mainly from two types of sources whose multiple transformations occur successively or blend together through montage and mixing in such a way as to create poetic contrasts and coincidences.

The first type of source is made of stereophonic recordings of flowing water and waves, used in two different manners. Processed as a whole through filtering and spatialization techniques, they create variable sonic masses that draw the listener into their ever faster-spinning whirlpool. These same sounds, when analyzed in terms of their energy distribution across multiple frequency bands, reveal the microscopic and chaotic nature of water which hides beneath the apparent overall serenity of movement. This analysis gives birth to a polyphonic structure, distributed over four acoustic signal paths (the four channels of the quadraphonic set-up). An additional feedback mechanism allows the development of the system to be influenced by its own history. By synthesizing the notes extracted from the analyzed frequencies and reinjecting these synthesized sounds into the input of the system, the notes self-sustain until a sufficiently loud disturbance, stemming from notes generated from the analysis of water sounds, causes them to change. It is symbolic of life, where a multitude of external stimuli — often contradictory — will sometimes decisively change the course of one’s existence.

The second type of source is comprised of excerpts of poems by Baudelaire and other texts which have been read aloud and sampled. These samples have then been fragmented, transformed, joined together and spatialized. There is an evolution throughout the piece, starting with micro-editing small fragments of voices at the beginning of the piece and progressing towards complete sentences, passing through sequences of words which, combined not altogether innocently, create mental images which are more or less troubling as they associate pleasure with pain and love with death.

Composed for a quadraphonic set-up, Obsession makes extensive use of multiple localization points (front / back, left / right, close / distant) and rotational movements.

[English translation: Stephanie Moore, i-19]


Obsession was realized in 1991 at the ARTeM (Art, recherche, technologie et musique [Art, Research, Technology, and Music]) studio in Brussels (Belgium) and premiered on August 2, 1991 during the Bunker 91 festival in Antwerp (Belgium). Thanks to Sophie Beernaerts and Coralie Gary, whose voices I recorded. This piece tied for the Public prize at the 2e Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1991) and was included on the CD Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1991 (NOR 2). In 1993, it was also included on the CD Presence One (DIV 02).

Composition

Premiere

  • August 2, 1991, Bunker 91, Antwerp (Belgium)

Awards


Les objets obscurs

Åke Parmerud / Åke Parmerud

  • Year of composition: 1991
  • Duration: 14:43
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: Ina-GRM
  • ISWC: T9118616005

Stereo

Les objets obscurs [Hidden Objects] was composed during an intensive period in the summer of 1991 in the Studio 116 of the Ina-GRM in Paris (France). Since I was invited to do a piece at this very honorable institution, it was natural to do something that related closely to the historical tradition represented by the GRM. The concept as well as material and compositional methods lie within the basic framework of classical musique concrète. Through its lyrics the piece is self-explanatory, but some background information may still come in handy. Les objets obscurs is a set of riddles partly describing the physical object producing the sounding material and partly describing some aspect of the musical content of each movement. The answer to these riddles may be found in each of the four movements. It works like this: a short text is read (in French) presenting the riddle, immediately followed by a movement, the musical equivalent of the riddle. Each movement is based on sounds and transformations of sounds produced by one single everyday object (like a chair, a glass…). One movement — one object. In the end of the last movement the ‘solution’ of all the riddles is presented. These answers, however, set up a new ‘inner’ riddle, to which no answer is given.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, listen to the hidden objects!

The first is the point from which an enigma arises.

The second: A walking landscape. A perpetual displacement. Something that grazes without touching. An aimless movement. An object of rest.

The third: Convex bodies thrown into a series of collisions. Hazardous movements on irregular surfaces. Something that is loved without loving. Something that comes together and scatters immediately.

The fourth: The union between the first and the last. The first being the origin of the enigma. The last, the dissolution of the first.

The solution: the first is a lock; the second is a chair; the third is twenty-two stone marbles; the fourth is both voice and language, and the enigma of hidden objects is… Music.”

[English translation of the original French text.]

[viii-18]


Les objets obscurs was realized in July of 1991 in the Studio 116 of the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM) in Paris (France) and premiered on October 27, 1992 in the Grand Auditorium of the Maison de Radio France (Paris, France). The piece was commissioned by the Ina-GRM. Thanks to: Dominique Andrieux (recorded narration). Les objets obscurs was awarded 2nd prize at the 2nd Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1991) and a Prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1993).

Composition

Premiere

  • October 27, 1992, Son-Mu 92: Concert, Grand Auditorium — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Awards


Meta incognita

Philippe Le Goff

  • Year of composition: 1991
  • Duration: 10:02
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T0030759308

Stereo

On the Meta incognita where I landed one day, several laughs, iridescent in the silence, blend with the wind and the accents of the shamanic drum…

[i-95]


Meta incognita was realized in 1991 with support from the grant Villa Medicis hors les murs. Premiered on November 23, 1991 in Arras (France) during the Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot concert, Meta incognita was released on the compact disc Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1991 (NOR 2) in 1992.

Preparation

  • 1988 – 1991

Composition

Premiere

  • November 23, 1991, 2e Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot, Centre culturel Noroit, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)

Mixing