Derde in de reeks en het meest beklijvend is de heruitgave van Corazón Road van Kristoff K.Roll’ niet de naam van een muzikant maar van het duo Carole Rieussec en Jean-Christophe Camps. Corazón Road is een auditief dagLoek van een reis in ‘9’doorheen Mexico, Belize en Guatemala. De klankopnames krijgen een sobere, muzikale ondersteuning toegevoegd. De pakkendste hagmenten zijn de jonge rappertjes in Belize die spontaan in de microfoon van Camps en Rieussec beginnen te wauwelen en de aankomst in Guatemala, alwaar de vrolijkheid en kleurenrijkdom vrijwel onmidUellijk ter onder gaan in een klaagzang en een auditieve evocatie van de eeuwige tropische regenstormen die dat land sinds dag en eeuw teisteren.

Transformations van Hildegard Westerkamp kon ons meer boeien. Westerkamp is een Duitse die eind de jaren zeventig in Vancouver strandbe. Haar opnames schipperen altijd tussen stad en natuur A Walk Through The City documenteert op een vrij conventionele wijze een wandeling door de achterbuurten van Vancouver. Interessanter zijn’Kits Beach Soundwalk’, Cricket Voice en Beneath The Forest Floorwaar Westerkamp haar natuarexploraties (krekels, kraaien en zeepokken) registreert en becommentarieert.

Bij deze releases zouden we een boompje kunnen opzetten over de zin en onzin van elektroakoestische muziek. Het Canadese empreintes DIGITALes is gespecialiseerd in dergelijke releases en stuurt ze met karrenvrachten op ons af. Met wisselend succes.Bruit-graffitivan de Canadese componist Marc Tremblay, die onder meer samenwerkte met Martin Tétreault, spitst zich toe op geluiden uit onze onmidUellijke omgeving. Vroum is een auditieve denhoefening over de wijze waarop het gemotoriseerde verkeer onze manier van luisteren in de voorbije decennia beinvloedée.L’argent… toujours l’argent!, «… Ceci est un message enregistré…» en Cowboy Fictionzijn humoristisch bedoelde collages (over geld, telefoons en westerns) met een boodschap. Boobschap ook in Résidus (clip dadaïste), dat bij ons een glimlach kon tevoorschijn toveren omdat Temblay hier uitsluitend toiletgeluiden reproduceert. Ooit al eens erover nagedacht met welke knal een drol het water raakt? Conte sous la lune kon ons echter wel bekoren. Tremblay roept hier met eenvoudige, auditieve middelen de kindertijd terug op als een verloren eden.

Jeune compositeur électroacousticien de Montréal, Louis Dufort, nous offre ici un échantillon de son travail de ces dernières années. Les quatre pièces de ce recueil, qu’elles soient à finalité purement musicale, ou, tel Décap, le support d’une chorégraphie, ont entre elles une certaine affinité. Celle-ci réside d’abord par les sonorités, proches du bruit blanc, mais loin de toute uniformité, car elles sont plus ou moins étirées ou compressées, affectées quelques fois de rythmes trépidants ou se noyant dans des espaces de silence inattendus pour resurgir avec un dynamisme renouvelé quelques secondes plus tard. L’auditeur semble ainsi passer constamment d’une forme d’expressionnisme un peu bruitiste vers une abstraction plus impressionniste. Cela est particulièrement le cas de Pointe-aux-Trembles, illustration sonore d’un complexe pétrochimique.

L’autre aspect notable, c’est la force et la conviction avec laquelle Louis Dufort assène son propos. Sa musique enlace l’auditeur, le transperce, saisit ses sens, bref, le captive par le jeu constamment mêlé entre la linéarité de la trame sonore et les divers effets en surimpression, tantôt purement électroacoustiques, tantôt fait de voix retravaillées. Une connexion impressionnante…

This new disc from empreintes DIGITALes compiles four pieces by Louis Dufort, a Montréal-based electroacoustic wizard, composed between 1996 and 2000. Dufort manifests his passion for electronic music, cinema, painting and contemporary dance in his electroacoustic works. His own description of his music emphasises the narrative qualities in his work: “Object, body, colour and sound anecdote give rise to plays of perception that envelope the listener. Sound material is used in this way to draw forth musical outlines in which poetry and the narrative representation of sound serve as markers in the development of the work.” It is therefore only fitting that his work carries a particularly “theatrical” component, suggesting all the movement of a story, but enacted solely through the use of abstract sound. Each of these compositions presents an intense sound environment, buzzing with activity and motion. The themes are of paradoxes (“continuous discontinuity” in track 1), opposites (“elasticity/contraction” in track 4), and self reflexive exercises (“the formal expression of form” in track 3). All manner of sounds are used in arrangements that forever keep you on the edge of your seat. You never have time to relax your perception, as each of these compositions demands your undivided attention. Although there is an immense host of extremely fascinating sound constructions (Dufort’s concrete sounds all share a certain clarity that fits perfectly in my ears), I occasionally found the arrangements to be a little too busy and chaotic for my liking. Still, these recordings have piqued my interest to see what Dufort’s theatre pieces are like; since he often composes for the Marie Chouinard contemporary dance company, it would be interesting to see how his music, itself so very theatrical and expressive, can work together with a more physical stage presence.

Darren Copeland’s compositional output for tape medium draws entirely on environmental sounds. His teachers have included Barry Truax (Simon Fraser University) and Jonty Harrison (University of Birmingham). Theatre soundtrack composition is a continuing influence on his thinking about music, and his most recent work crosses the boundaries between acousmatic art, radio art and theatre.

CD notes by the composer outline his perspective on the relationship between associative sound and visual imagery, a theme reflected in the titles that appear on this CD. His theoretical approach is explored in a recent article for The Journal of Electroacoustic Music (SANS) entitled ‘Indifference or Ambiguity’. Here, the composer argues for the need to centralize the associative properties of environmental sounds in acousmatic music practice.

There are three tracks on the CD: Rendered Visible; Reaching for Tomorrow; and Night Camera, made up of Maritime Vision, Prairie Dream and Vanishing at Sea. A wide palette of sonic material is drawn on throughout, and the overall production is outstanding.

The danger of the theoretical stance taken here is that in practice it runs the risk of degenerating into new age, ambient and environmental pap. On this CD, the skill and talent in layering and manipulating the material selected results in subtle and complex textures that are anything but trite. It is a fine balancing act superbly controlled for the most part, the results being often internally ambiguous and certainly poetic.

Rendered Visible quotes various natural sources that are combined with unfamiliar sounds. A refreshing aspect is the way the flux of the work is referenced to seemingly contradictory natural events. A sense of the dramatic carries this finely paced work forward.

The second track, Reaching for Tomorrow, again uses the technique of controlling tension and relaxation through the layering material. The sonic references are wider here, and include surrogate instrumental gestures. This creates a slowly evolving texture, brooding, sparse and foreboding.

The longest piece is Night Camera. The composer notes that ‘night camera’ is ‘an imaginary listening aid that like an infrared scanner allowing one to probe regions lying beyond the common, everyday frame of experience’. The analogy sets the frame of reference well, allowing one to enter a cinematic paradigm.

The three tracks that make up Night Camera each deal with a different type of environment within the general theme. Source material includes environmental and city sound references. Each work is powerfully evocative and the dynamic shape is carefully controlled throughout to keep the listener engaged.

The strength of this CD is its rich referencing to known/associative sound balanced and juxtaposed with unfamiliar material, and the manipulation of gestures and textures that are both familiar and exotic. A greater variety of generative methods may help to broaden the approach taken, adding to its versatility.

Combining notions of the theatrical and film scoring with acousmatic music overcomes many of the semiotic limitations of a purely acousmatic approach. It also has the potential to attract more than an academic audience for acousmatic art. The works presented here explore one way the two approaches may be synthesized.