Synthèse 2009 — 39^e Festival international des musiques et créations électroniques de Bourges aura lieu du 29 mai au 6 juin 2009 à Bourges (France). Parmi les artistes invités cette année, nous retrouvons: Åke Parmerud, Pete Stollery, Jonty Harrison, Yves Daoust, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Georges Forget, João Pedro Oliveira, Ingrid Drese, et plusieurs autres.

L’œuvre Castalie de Gilles Gobeil s’est méritée le Premier prix (audio) au 6^e festival audiovisuel Black & White à Porto (Portugal) (22 au 25 avril 2009).

Le duo Fiolûtröniq (flûtiste Cléo Palacio-Quintin et la gambiste Elin Söderström) interprétera, entre autres, Protée ou les quatre virus en plastique mou de Palacio-Quintin et la création de Gaza de Chantale Laplante à la Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur le 8 mai 2009.

Le Centre d’arts Orford (Québec) annonce la tenue de 4^e Stage de création sonore au sein de l’Académie internationale de musique. Ce stage, toujours sous la gouverne de Yves Daoust, se tiendra du 2 au 15 août 2009 et est ouvert aux créateurs sonores de toutes tendances. Cette année les maîtres invités de Yves Daoust — assisté de Alexandre Burton et Jean Landry — sont Gilles Gobeil, Jean-François Laporte, John Oswald et Hans Tutschku avec les invités spéciaux Robert Normandeau et Annette Vande Gorne.

Francisco López, Louis Dufort et Félix-Antoine Morin donneront le concert immersif Immer_son le 5 mai 2009 au Conservatoire de musique de Montréal dans le cadre du festival Elektra. López donnera aussi une conférence le 4 mai au Conservatoire.

Anniversary release to commemorate the 60th birthday of concrete music. Adkins collated the contributions of 60 artists into 8 segments, not following the categorization of the originator Pierre Schaeffer.

The disc contains music that was contributed by over 60 sound artists. It celebrates the 60th birthday of musique concrète in [2008]. Mathew Adkins, a veteran at Empreintes Digitales was invited to mix the sound contributions together. The result is a beautiful 74 minutes of electroacoustic music. Adkins diligently categorized all the contributions before setting to work with a mix. That way three major sections are created, each divided into two or three different sequences, each with its own sound character. To give you an impression: the first section is based on abstract electronic sounds, the second section uses concrète and ‘anecdotal’ material. The final balances between these two extremes.

The first section is nice but at the same time a little dull; too nice and cozy. The abstract electronics offer many chances for slowly developing scapes. And actually Adkins keeps his foot on the brakes for quite a long time. Only occasionally are we served with harsh sounds, with sudden dynamical rifts. Schaeffer, the founding father of musique concrète, had quite a different approach. His musical structure often refered heavily on classical structures, like the suite, the symphony. Of course, these are different times. Schaeffer created his music from within his own personal context.

Adkins works from a different perspective in a different age. These are more democratic times. Perhaps that’s why so many different artists (Hecker, Chartier, López, Jonty Harrison, Fennesz, Roden, just to name a few) were invited to contribute. The mixes are most times blends of different layers, no juxtapositions, bumps or crashes. Well, not until track 7, that is. But that one lasts only 2’43”…

7.5 / 10