À l’invitation de la commissaire Esther Bourdages, sept artistes canadiens se sont joint au compositeur espagnol Francisco López pour le projet Montréal Sound Matter / Montréal matière sonore. À partir de prises sonores de Montréal mises en commun, Louis Dufort, Steve Heimbecker, A_dontigny, Chantal Dumas, Hélène Prévost, Mathieu Lévesque et Tomas Phillips ont tous créé une œuvre audio qui fera l’objet d’une compilation CD. En groupe, ils ont réalisé une installation sonore qui sera présentée du 7 jullet au 27 août 2006 à la Fonderie Darling (Montréal). Pour compléter le projet, un concert de tous ces artistes se tiendra à la Fonderie Darling le 27 juillet.

The movement of the wind across fields of tall grass has always fascinated Canadian sound artist Steve Heimbecker. It creates wavelike patterns that resemble each other, but are never quite the same — an illusion of repetition, as he likes to call it. Illusions abound in the four video and surround-sound pieces brought together on this double DVD-V. In these elaborate portraits of rural and urban environments, mundane places and sounds bathe in a magical, timeless aura, taking on new meanings and a new lease of life.

Each track recreates a complex spatiotemporal environment extending over considerable distances, thanks to Heimbecker’s trademark mapping system: he identifies the location’s geographical centre, traces a huge imaginary circle around it and then selects eight equidistant locations on its circumference corresponding to the cardinal points. Audio recordings are made at the eight sites, which are also filmed by video cameras. These onsite recordings introduce a live element into Heimbecker’s mapping system. On the most compelling track, Songs of Place: Springwater, video images of rural expanses flash across horizontal bands of varying widths, evoking an endless journey through remote countryside. Accompanied by a dense, hypnotic tapestry of sound, made up of bird calls, rustling, hisses, wind-like sounds and enigmatic tinkles, these images create an impression of floating in a timeless limbo. Although Songs of Place: Vancouver works less well — the images of a bustling city flitting across four narrow vertical bands are reminiscent of a travelogue more than anything else — Songs of Place: Halifax more than makes up for it. Each of its eight juxtaposed images depicts an incessant flow of cars, suggesting the passing of time. As one car takes the place of another, they create an impression of perpetual motion. The illusion of repetition, as Heimbecker would say.

Modellato, a partire dalla copertina di Rupert Bottenberg, sullo stile degli album per moog in voga tra anni ’60 e ’70, lo stravagante debutto del trio di Montréal The Unireverse paga dazio alla mania sempre più diffusa dell’impiego di tastiere analogiche vintage. Ne vien fuori una sorta di deforme space-music (in cabina di regia c’è Paul Dolden) tra originali selvaggiamente sgangherati e riletture umoristico-creative di composizioni altrui (un ventaglio quanto mai vario che parte dai The Beatles e arriva a Donna Summer, passando per Brainticket e The Red Krayola), summa di una lunga attività di giramanopole già espletata in oscure formazioni cittadine (Kubelka, Daydream Square, Phÿcus, Beautifuzz). (7/10)

Francis Dhomont donnera le stage «S’exprimer avec des sons» du 19 au 21 juillet 2006 à l’Université d’été de la radio à Arles (France).

Le compositeur John Young sera en Nouvelle-Zélande en juillet et août 2006. Il donnera des conférences à l’université Victoria de Wellington ainsi qu’à l’université de Canterbury. De plus, l’ensemble Stroma créera de son œuvre électroacoustique mixte Arrivederci le 20 juillet 2006.

Christian Calon et Robert Worby donneront une série d’ateliers sur la composition électroacoustique et l’improvisation du 22 au 29 juillet 2006 dans le cadre des cours d’été du CoMA (Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs), à Doncaster (South Yorkshire, Royaume-Uni).