To my parents, Larbi and Marie-Françoise

Move 1 presents some anecdotal and abstract representations of animal and human movement. It is not a ‘pure’ research work into the behaviour of sound in space but rather it is closer to a poetic etude on movement. Most listeners will recognize some of the sound objects in motion: sounds of bees and birds in flight and humans moving about on skates and skateboards are juxtaposed with abstract shadows, percussive imaginary echoes of the ‘natural’ world. This exchange or contrast between the recognizable (stable) and the unknown (unstable) is at the heart of my compositional exploration and often dictates the form of my works.

Technically, my initial intent was to find a way to integrate some of the work that I had been doing with the MAX software (Ircam, Paris) into a composition. I had heard some wonderful sounds fabricated with the SYTER system (at the GRM, Paris) and was interested in trying to find a way to use MIDI to reproduce some of those rich morphologies. I constructed a MIDI data generator that changes a sound sample start point every every time it is played. In addition this generator also affects a variety of parameters, including volume, filter cut-off point, pitch, pan position… allowing for various applications resembling granular synthesis. This allowed me to generate a constantly evolving yet homogeneous texture from a single sound sample (examples are abundant in the first and last sections of this piece).

Move 1 was realized at the electroacoustic studio of Université de Montréal, under the guidance of Francis Dhomont and Jean Piché, and premiered in April 1995 at the 4th Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea (Bogotá, Colombia). Move 1 was a finalist at the 4th Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1995) and was recorded on the compact disc Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1995 (NOR 4). A shortened version was also recorded on the compact disc The Swarm of Drones (Asphodel 0953).

Composition

• 1994, Faculté de musique – Université de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Premiere

• April 20, 1995, IV Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea: Concierto, Auditorio Alberto Lleras — Edificio Alberto Lleras Camargo — Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá (Colombia)

Elastic Rebound is the second composition in a series of three pieces that explore the geological activity of the earth. The title is a geological term coined by geologists after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which describes opposing tectonic forces moving in opposite direction along each side of a faultline. The rock bends and in its weakest areas fractures followed by a spring back or rebounding effect — called ‘elastic rebound.’ This work uses these geological processes as a metaphorical ground to occasion sound. Sound events were gathered, many of non-musical origin, to lend voice to natural processes, each conspiring to produce an image of a landscape in flux. Isolating and elaborating individual sounds permits me to alter dynamics and mass, and the effect of the mixing of these objects creates a soundscape of cataclysmic disorder.

Elastic Rebound is filled with the tension of geographical recoil. Tectonic plates rub and repel, gasses hiss through the cracks, a teeming underworld gathers and is dispersed in a single furious upheaval. Hidden forces gather beneath the threshold of visibility, conspiring to create new worlds. Here everything is in transformation, each sound (and there are hundreds) giving way quickly to the next. Tempests of exhalation, sniffing, ringing, cracking, all gesture towards a crescendo of fracture. These gestures of opening and closing are the beginning, the prelude, to a new settlement, an uneasy truce of history and geography.

— MH

[xii-99]

Elastic Rebound was realized at the composer’s studio in 1995 with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). It was premiered on September 22, 1995 as part of ISEA95_Montréal, the International Symposium for Electronic Art. Elastic Rebound was awarded the 1st Jury Prize and the Public Prize at the 4th Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1995) and was previously released on Prix internatinal Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1995 (NOR 4).

Composition

• 1995, Personal studio, Toronto (Ontario, Canada)

Premiere

• September 22, 1995, ISEA95_Montréal: Concert, Cinquième salle — Place des Arts, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

• 1st prize, 4th Noroit-Leonce Petitot International Prize 1995, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)
• Public prize, 4th Noroit-Leonce Petitot International Prize 1995, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)

To Sylvain Carette and Alain Thibault

This is a piece that explores the sound-world of the telephone, with its ringing, its hidden defects, its dead-air moments, its anonymous voices, and its more or less direct relationship to communication. In a world in which we communicate more and yet which remains surprisingly insular, we all live against a background of loneliness.

[xii-99]

«… Ceci est un message enregistré…» [“… This is a recording…”] was realized in 1994 in the Montréal studio of composer Yves Daoust and premiered in Montréal’s Redpath Hall on June 19, 1994 during the concert celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of ACREQ. «… Ceci est un message enregistré…» was commissioned by ACREQ with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). I would like to thank Ned Bouhalassa. It was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 16th Luigi Russolo International Competition (Varese, Italy, 1994) and was preselected for the Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1995).

Composition

• 1994, Personal studio – Yves Daoust, Montréal (Québec)

Premiere

• June 19, 1994, 2^e concert 15^e anniversaire, Salle Redpath — Université McGill, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

• Mention, Radiophonic Work, Concorso internazionale Luigi Russolo di musica elettroacustica 1994, Varèse (Italy)

Awards

• Mention, 4th Noroit-Leonce Petitot International Prize 1995, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)

Sieve is a ‘radiogenic’ work dealing with natural sounds and electronic manipulations of these sounds. The sieve is a process of separating material, information, sound and meaning according to need.

In listening to Sieve one builds a personal hierarchy of events which could be ‘musical.’ Often, sounds are not as we think they ought to be in that they exist in foreign soundscapes and are devoid of certain portions of the sound such as attack or decay.

If one forces listening at the wrong moment, the clarity of the listening experience changes and something ‘musical’ can sometimes be heard. For example, consider walking along the side of the road. Normally one would listen to cars when approaching an intersection and listen to the birds or the wind in the trees as one walks along the sidewalk. If this was reversed and we listened to the cars as we walked along the sidewalk and the birds at the intersection, our relationships to the environment would be changed, as our attempts to listen would be frustrated. (Not least by the likelihood of being run down!)

In Sieve, a huge amount of sonic data is thrown at the listener, who naturally is asked to make sense of it. For example: one is asked to compare interiors and exteriors by moving from a quiet living room to a town square. A morphology between the chimes of a small carriage clock and a church bell obscure the fact that this process is taking place. We are taken outside again later in the piece via a flushing toilet. Any metaphorical meanings suggested by the juxtaposition of sound events is just that: a suggestion.

[ix-00]

Sieve was realized during the summer of 1994 in Studio F (the studio of Elizabeth Parker) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in London (UK) and premiered by BBC Radio 3 as part of the Between the Ears series in 1994. Sieve was funded by the Barry Anderson Trust. Thanks to Elizabeth Parker. Sieve received 2nd prize at the 4th Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1995).

Composition

• June – August 1994, Studio F — Radiophonic Workshop — British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London (England, UK)

Premiere

• 1994, Between the Ears, Radio 3 — BBC, UK

Awards

• 2nd prize, 4th Noroit-Leonce Petitot International Prize 1995, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)