Another from the Québécois label empreintes DIGITALes, this CD was released in 1994. It’s one of their Compact Compact series — an excellent idea — about 40 minutes of music at half the price of a regular CD. This disk, however, is great value for money with five pieces by Mario Rodrigue composed between 1985 and 1993.

First impressions? I must confess never to have heard this composer’s work before. I put the CD on without looking at the cover and found myself feeling pleasantly refreshed to be in a sound world which seemed a little old fashioned. So I reached for the cover — Tilt, the first track was made in 1986, and apparently, along with Qu’est–ce concert? (1987) and Fiano Porte (1985) was made with good old fashioned reel–to–reel tape recorders, varispeed, editing and filters. Aah yes, I remember it well! Rodrigue works in Montréal and the early pieces were made in the studios at the Université de Montréal where he studied with [Francis] Dhomont and [Marcelle] Deschênes. What I enjoyed most about all of the pieces on the disc was the layering of sounds, a sense of space and movement, and an effortless movement between real and surreal imagery. But the pre–digital pieces seemed somehow richer (no, I’m not going to write about analogue warmth). Perhaps the advantage of reels of tape over synths and samplers (certainly the samplers from the early 90s) was that you could use so much more sound — long sweeping gestures, no faking of sustained sounds with tiny loops because of the lack of memory, no MIDI limitation of dynamics, no equal tempered keyboard trying to tell you how to tune your sounds, better sounding distant transpositions with varispeed… OK, I’m biased, but I really don’t think that the beginning of Tilt would have been the same had Rodrigue been using the S1000 and Atari ST he used in the later pieces. Nevertheless, all five pieces inhabit rich, vivid sound worlds, and I was no less impressed with the later works.

Tilt is an imaginary pinball machine. Rodrigue didn’t start with recordings of real pinball machines, but takes the idea and plays with it, travelling a long way from the simple initial idea and turning it into a dynamic piece of music. I was impressed by its shape and energy and loved the sounds.

The track which follows, Cristaux liquides (Liquid Crystals, 1990), gained a well deserved Mention in the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition in 1991. Stylistically it is a mixture of the abstract electroacoustic soundworld of Tilt, and a more pitchnrhythm based language. Rodrigue pulls it off, though, making a virtue out of some of the limitations of his sampler — the piece has layers made up of rhythmic loops and clearly pitched sounds (drones, chords) as well as longer sweeps of recorded sounds (particularly water). The piece is obviously his with the clarity of mixing which characterises all of the pieces on the disk.

Qu’est–ce concert? plays with the idea of ‘concert’: it tips its hat to musique concrète in its opening spinning sound (the electroacoustic concert) and real soundscapes with references to concerts make appearances, including birdsong, a city, the sound of an orchestra tuning–up, applause and a string quartet. No simple catalogue of images though — the piece really flows and theres a constant stream of surprises, soundscapes appearing unexpectedly from within each other.

I have to admit that it took a few listenings before I started to enjoy Le voyageur. Im too easily put off by notes by composers which try to explain music in terms of narrative. It seems to belittle the power of sound to suggest much more, to ignite the imagination and to suggest ideas which can’t easily be described, if a piece can be explained away so easily as a story. A personal hang–up, perhaps. Although all of the pieces on Alchimie have a narrative idea or image lurking in the background, there is always something else there, something more to listen to. But the note on Le voyageur is a short, simple narrative, and the piece seemed to realise the ‘story’ in a very literal way. However, the piece is no less skilfully composed, and once I had managed to forget the description in the CD booklet the piece started to make more sense.

The final piece on the CD is also the oldest. Fiano Porte was made in 1985. Although the technique is not so developed it is fascinating to hear strands which are carried into later pieces. The looped fragments of voices are not so distant from the world of Cristaux liquides and the sense of space is all there along with a very natural feel for mixing.

This is a CD well worth recommending, and I came away wanting to hear what Mario Rodrigue is doing now.

Bells subsume into drainage systems and there is something quixotic about the cutting-up of water. And is identifying sounds winning out over listening to them? A taste of honey and a swirl of flies? Now shivering and wobbling, with an unidentified lowing beside. The cut-up review? No, as it coincides with the lowing laugh — that would be banal. Voices of children are trumped by more wobbling. Thumped? It could be read as such. Coo-koo. Applause. Is alchemy’s transmutation nothing less than an exchange of ideas? Something from nothing…

Telephone message — communications. Tones — questions. Voices — attention. Musique concrète — it is unclear.

The sounds that this electroacoustic music composer who studied in Montréal under the supervision of Marcelle Deschênes and Francis Dhomont, uses are highly identifiable or rather method sounds. Chance seems to be a distinct feature of his intention and some episodic memory can be made out in the soundscapes appearing at certain points of the piece.

Traduit de l’espagnol.

Mario Rodrigue, ein kanadischer Elektroakusiker, war u.a. Schüler bei Francis Dhomont, von dessen musikalischem Denken er viel gelernt zu haben scheint. Die Spuren, welche diese Zusammenarbeit hinterlassen hat, vor allem hörbar im Sound, wie im konzepionellen Aufbau, sind jedoch nur ein Bestandteil eines großen Repertoires, das von sensiblen Naturgeräuschen, Vogelgesang, über Schritte, Stimmen, traditionelle mechanische Geräusche, bis zu Elektronik, — Radiofragmenten und symphonischen Elementen reicht, die mit viel Ernst und ebensoviel Humor verknüpft und gemischt wurden. Liquidität und Ruhe dieser Musik, vergleichbar den Arbeiten von Michel Redolfi, und die Dichte Dhomont scher Prägung sind ebenso zu finden wie die sensible Transparenz z.B. mancher natürlicher Geräusche bei einigen französischen Elektroakusikern. Rodrigue bewegt sich im fließenden Feld zwischen dem Konkreten und dem Imaginierten. Er spielt mit den Elementen, die sein Material sind, aber er verliert sich nie in diesem Spiel. Starke assoziative Verknüpfungen und Entwicklungsprozesse machen die intensive Lebendigkeit, den Witz und die Wärme dieser Arbeiten aus.

Uber Verfremdung verwandelt sich eine Waschmaschine, in der das Leben einer ganzen Stadt zu toben scheint, in einen Helikopter, der dann aLdreht und aus dem imaginierten Bild fliegt, — um nur eines aus einer Fülle von Beispielen zu beschreiben. Rodrigue’s Zauberkino für die Ohren ist reich an Inhalten und klar und transparent in seiner musikalischen Erzählweise, was bei diesem enormen Fundus an verwendeten Geräuschen und Klängen-und der Komplexität der daraus entstandenen Arbeiten sicher nicht selbstverständlich ist. Besser kann man elektroakustische Musik kaum machen. Das informative Booklet gibt Auskunft auch über technische Details und Arbeitsweise.

A lot of great music is packed into this slender, discount-format CD, one of the best on this label. Rodrigue’s electroacoustic pieces have a fluid style that is refreshingly different from the jarringly erratic nature of most tape-music. Like a roller coaster ride through a spectacle of stereophonic fireworks. Not merely entertaining either: compositionally, the pieces are compelling, and they are no less artful for all their seeming concern with impressive technical tricks. It took some talented hands to shape these little tracks. Rodrigue is my top recommendation to insomniacs who listen with headphones.

Montréal composer Mario Rodrigue offers five electroacoustic works in this release, each demonstrating his keen ear and sense of humor. In Tilt, he creates an imaginary pinball machine and explores the sounds it might make; Cristaux liquides is described in the notes as “sound poetry inspired by two different physical states of water—solid and liquid”; and Le voyageur relates a space traveiier’s exploration of one of earth’s major metropolises.

Le compositeur montréalais Mario Rodrigue explore dans ces cinq nouvelles œuvres électroacoustiques la «zone tampon entre ce qui est et ce qui parait être». Il décrit notamment l’enjeu d’une partie de «machine à boule» dans Tilt, crée une poésie sonore inspirée de deux différents états de l’eau dans Cristaux liquides et suit un vovageur céleste qui pénètre dans l’orbite terrestre dans Le voyageur.

La période allant de 1985 à environ 1991 sera sans aucun doute considérée comme ‘l’âge d’or’ de la composition électroacoustique à l’Université de Montréal. Ces six ans ont vu le regroupement dans un même lieu de plusieurs futurs compositeurs de rénommé internationale tels Gilles Gobeil, Robert Normandeau, Stéphane Roy et Alain Thibault. D’autres compositeurs comme Michel A Smith, Denis Saindon et Daniel Leduc ont réalisés eux aussi des œuvres marquantes dans leurs domaines respectifs (multimédia, électroacoustique en direct, art radiophonique). Même que pendant quelques-une de ces années, on retrouvait nul autre que Christian Calon au comptoir de la bibliothèque de musique!

La parution de deux nouveaux DC de courte durée (+/- 40 min), Alchimie et Amore, ne font que confirmer cette théorie. Ainsi, même si pour plusieurs abonnés de Contact! les noms de Mario Rodrigue et Roxanne Turcotte n’ont peut-être pas la même résonance que ceux de leurs collègues de classe, on retrouve dans les œuvres de ces deux artistes une même richesse de timbres et soucis du détail.

Alchimie de Mario Rodrigue nous présente 5 œuvres acousmatiques, réalisées dans une période de 8 ans. Tilt, la première œuvre du disque, nous fait faire un voyage court mais très dynamique dans une machine à boules imaginaire. Nous retrouvons dans cette œuvre, qui a mérité à son auteur le Grand Prix lors du Concours national des jeunes compositeurs de Radio-Canada de 1986, la plupart des matériaux et des gestes typiques de Rodrigue: timbres riches et inharmoniques (cloches); accords et progressions d’accords tonals; courts motifs rythmiques répétés; et surtout, beaucoup de gestes articulés, d’objets en mouvement (panoramisation dynamique en stéréophonie, montage). Des quatres autres pièces, c’est Cristaux liquides, fin mélange de matériaux anecdotiques et abstraits, qui retient le plus l’attention. Comme ses contemporains Calon, Gobeil et Normandeau, Rodrigue est particulièrement influencé par le cinéma, et Alchimie offre à l’auditeur l’occasion d’entendre de merveilleux exemples du «cinéma pour l’oreille».

Alchimie is part of empreintes DIGITALes’s series of electroacoustic recordings for introduction or exploration of the genre. The CDs, each under forty minutes, come packed in a slimline case and are half-price. Here are five piece recorded by Rodrigue from 1986 to 1993. This includes Tilt, which earned him the 1st Prize in the electroacoustic category and the Grand Prize in 7th CBC National Competition for Young Composers (1986). Tape recordings of varied playback speed make up three of the five pieces on this disc, Tilt, Qu’est-ce concert? and Fiano porte. Using this technique, Rodrigue put together sounds usually encountered discretely (bells, rolling marbles, etc.) into “chords.” The effect is visually evocative because each sound brings to mind a tangible shape and texture. Also, these audio collages suggest weightless floating and a fantasy setting. The unexpected sonic replication and ‘harmonization’ suggests the effects of surreal distances and perceptions as encountered in dreams. (4.5/5)

La maison de production de musique électroacoustique DIFFUSION i MéDIA lançait récemment sept nouveaux disques compacts, simultanément. Amore de Roxanne Turcotte, Claire-voie de Wende Bartley, Alchimie de Mario Rodrigue et L’oreille voit de Randall Smith dans sa série COMPACT-COMPACT, c’est-à-dire des enregistrement d’une durée de près de quarante minutes seulement, vendus à moitié prix. L’ivresse de la vitesse, de Paul Dolden et Tangram de Robert Normandeau constituent quant à eux des coffrets, alors que l’œuvre intégrale de La mécanique des ruptures de Gilles Gobeil tient sur un compact ordinaire. On retrouve parmi ces œuvres de pures merveilles, l’école électroacoustique québécoise étant ce qu’elle est: une des plus riches qui soient actuellement, à témoin les concours internationaux. Mario Rodrigue fait partie de ce groupe de compositeurs d’envergure internationale, et nous offre avec Alchimie un échantillon de son immense talent qui ne cède en rien au vulgaire ou au facile. Un monde à découvrir.

AVIS: Le texte reproduit ici est extrait du site de Voir et est protégé par la Loi sur le droit d’auteur du Canada. © Communications Voir Inc, 1994