Pour fêter sa dixième édition, le festival L’Espace du son invite deux compositeurs par soirée à confronter leur personnalité musicale. Chaque fois, le public appréciera deux styles, deux sensibilités, deux relations au monde, qui démontrent ainsi l’incroyable diversité du répertoire acousmatique. Le 14 novembre 2003, le Français Bertrand Dubedout et la Canadienne Sarah Peebles confrontent leurs impressions sonores des temples de Nara, et des rumeurs de la ville à Tokyo. Le 15 novembre, à la musique tranquille et méditative du Suédois Erik Michael Karlsson répond celle de Philippe Mion nerveuse et dynamique. Le 16, place aux sons granulaires d’Elsa Justel et les modélisations énergétiques physiques de Ludger Brümmer.

Le compositeur Francis Dhomont est l’invité du III Encontro Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de Brasilia (Brésil) du 5 au 10 novembre 2003. Y sera créé Reflexos pour trombone et bande. Il y présentera une communication: «Questionnements sur la rencontre entre l’instrument et l’électroacoustique» et il participera aussi à une table ronde sur l’enseignement de l’électroacoustique.

[Prenez note que, dû à des circonstances encore nébuleuses pour l’artiste, cette tournée a été malheureusement annulée.] Le maître de l’échantillonneur Books on Tape sera en tournée du 6 au 15 novembre 2003 avec les Français Métal Urbain, pionniers de l’électro-punk! Les villes de New York, Montréal, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Chicago et Los Angeles accueilleront ce tandem non conventionnel.

No newbie to the music scene, Czech artist Tomas Jirku has released tons of music on labels like Force Inc, Alien8 and Klang Elektronik, but his beginnings are rooted in mp3 labels like No Type. Bleak 1999 represents Jirku’s return to his origins, in which he brings moody structure back to the esteemed No Type roster.

If you know Jirku’s work, you’ll immediately be struck by the differences between this album and, say, his contribution to Clicks & Cuts 2. Still frolicking within the mechanical depths of techno austerity, Jirku has moved on from the Vladislav Delayesque glitch-techno of releases like Immaterial. For one thing, Bleak 1999 eschews much of the traditional overt processing, favoring a more unaffected strain of murky melody and plodding, switch-hitting rhythms that are sped down from what’s known on the dancefloor. Tracks such as Psychosis and Input fluid push a sober, cinemascopic agenda, reinforcing the album’s general overcast quality with dark strings and an intermittent thump of boom-bip kick drums and sci-fi synthesis. Cefuroxime, one of the album’s strongest cuts, injects ear-pleasing pin-prick percussion while adding a complementary nuanced shuffle. On 04.1.93, Jirku switches to more pronounced beat work and energetic melody that recalls Mike Paradinas via Berlin; Tranylcypromine finds itself in the realms of Amber-era Autechre, subtle percussion and sumptuous tonality moving fluidly over electro underpinnings.

As an album, Bleak 1999 is cut together like a performance: all the tracks run together, with occasional breaks for radio frequency ambience. Strong themes emerge, and it’s interesting to hear their development in such a repetitious environment. Whereas in minimal techno you notice subtle changes of syncopated clicks and sputter, Bleak 1999’s synths fill in the gaps and soften the edge with slow, dramatic strokes. Whether you like Bleak 1999 or not is a matter of taste; it’s a curious noise that falls somewhere between the realms early Warp, Industrial Strength artists like Disintegrator and the isolationist end of industrial music. It’s bold, groundbreaking stuff. Lull fans searching for a groove would be wise to try some.

Es ist mittlerweile kein Geheimnis mehr, dass auf Net-Only-Labels hervorragende Musik veröffentlicht wird, wie auch hier im Fall von Headphone Science. Gleich vorweg: es handelt sich um keinen Web-Release, die vorliegende Veröffentlichung erscheint als CD und wie der Pressemitteilung zu entnehmen ist, ist ein weiterer Release auf dem Wiener Skylab-Label geplant. Und das ist auch gut so, denn Headphone Science ist eine absolute Bereicherung für alle Addicts von Hip Hop-orientiertem IDM. Tighte Grooves, teilweise an Boards of Canada erinnernde Vocal-Schnipsel und sphärische Soundbackings, das sind die Hauptzutaten einer EP, die direkt und ohne Umweg den Kopfnicker-Button anspricht. Word.

Todd Drootin creates/constructs material from loops, whether sampled or self-created, into a dancing dramatic techno. The first time I listened, a bit fragmented, it seemed somewhat monochrome, but subsequent excursions have shown it to be a fun filled time.

Laptop Blues opens with a short guitar strum loop that wobbles from ear to ear and then varispeeds away. We get really going with Republic Of setting the tone and structure — varied loops, percussive and melodic (including guitar), layered onto each other crackles and changes, slowing and returning and slowing right back. This has a jolly rhythms that reminded me of the Clash in its dubby sections. They returned later on Girls Up Front where the fast samples drums and loops with a strong bass, recalled Armageddon time. With See You In Tokyo there is a building percussion from simple tap, plus cymbal, bass, snare and organ to a fast beachy sound that is part B-52’s rest sci-fi weirdness, emphasised through some changes.

The album then goes through all sorts of moods with these tracks — She’s Dead To Me is fast and furious (a few are) gunge with strong drums; Pointe du pied has a popcorn feel but slower, simple synth melodies, finally a bit dubby; white noise pulses, organs and synth sound Russian in Death In the Sex Shop and there is a continuing Cossack feel with Siberian Soundsystem that also includes some wailing voices amongst the layers; jangly samples, voice loops rubbery and stomping Circus Animal Battle Rap (instrumental). The mood changes with Frisson a slower backward toney more ambient track that has some distorted and spooky elements to it, followed by a more dirty and rocking Bicycle Beat, pulsing and crackling after which Shake That is somehow more “studied”, slower with voice loops and slowing tones, trumpet and drum. The pace rebuilds for the clarinet-drenched The Crucial a long and involved piece moving through a few states and chopping in organ and piano. Unlucky Bounce is solid with some dirty guitar and a piano melody over computer bootling. Choppy and slippery Sidekick is followed by the buzzing and sinuous Church Bus whose heavy rhythms close the album.

A fun excursion, worth reading.