A connection between the electroacoustic academy and legions of more, uh, amateur practitioners of electronic composition is infrequently made, but this bold move by Rephlex brings it out into the open. Licensed from the hallowed Canadian label empreintes DIGITALes, which exists to document developments in electroacoustic and acousmatic music, this collection by celebrated Québécois composer Robert Normandeau is an object lesson in the infinite possibilities of sonic manipulation. Offen using the simplest source material — much herein is fashioned purely from the human voice Normandeau conjures windswept soundscapes of thrilling complexity. His sparkling array of sharply delineated sonic events and immaculate attention to spatial placement combine to produce music that effortlessly outguns most greyscale offerings from the laptop massive.

Vancouver native, Montréal-based Dolden’s L’ivresse de la vitesse (Drunk on Speed) proved as tantalizing as its title. Completed in 1993, this work came out of the electronic studio, and like the pump of an electric guitar at a rock concert, left listeners with the sort of buoyant exhaustion of having been there when something socially significant took place.