electrocd

Blogue

Critique

Stephan Dunkelman, Les Cahiers de l’ACME, no 112, 28 février 1991
jeudi 28 février 1991 Presse

Compositeur Canadien et lauréat de nombreux concours (Phonurgia-Nova, Bourges et Luigi-Russolo), il nous propose un éventail de son évolution entre 1985 et 1989. Cette intéressante façon de faire permet de présenter un parcours clarifiant de manière plus nette la dmérence entre la première pièce, intitulée Jeu (vraisemblablement la plus aboutie et réussie) et la dernière: Le cap de la tourmente caractérisée par un plus grand nombre de sons électroniques et un travail moins fouillé sur l’espace. Mémoires vives possède la particularité — rare en électroacoustique — de plaire instantanément à un auditoire pourtant peu enclin à apprécier ce genre de musique. Robert Normandeau, adepte d’un «Cinéma pour l’oreille», a une façon légèrement différente, semble-t-il, de travailler l’espace par rapport à Calon: changements de perspectives plus brusques tout en jouant plus sur les plans proches/lointains, ce qui rend sa musique plus spectaculaire que d’autres. Cela se remarque surtout avec Jeu et Rumeurs (Place de Ransbeck) alors que Christian Calon joue plus avec l’espace gauche/droite.

Computer Whiz Offers Satisfactory Synthesis

Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight, 15 février 1991
vendredi 15 février 1991 Presse

It had to happen just as performers like Brian Eno, Joe Zawinul, and Wayne Horvitz have humanized the synthesizer, adding deep levels of meaning and musicality to an instrument that can so often sound inhuman and unfriendly, computer music is also being brought closer to the point where its technological complexities can be enjoyed for more than merely theoretical reasons. And at least one local MIDI wizard — Daniel Scheidt — is working towards a satisfactory synthesis of craft and intuition, composition and improvisation.

Five of Scheidt’s recent compositions are featured on Action/Réaction, a new CD issued by the Québécois empreintes DIGITALes label, and this recording shows that Scheidt’s abilities, as a composer and as a manipulator of electronic “reality,” are becoming increasingly strong. (Scheidt’s new works can also be heard “live” at the Western Front on Friday and Saturday, February 22 and February 23, in conjunction with works by Québécois composers Christian Calon, Robert Normandeau, and Alain Thibault. They will also be showcased at SFU Harbour Centre at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 22.)

Scheidt’s particular interest — and the reason why his work is so intriguing — is the integration of acoustic improvisation into an electronic environment. And while the orthodox approach to this is to drop an instrumentalist into a predetermined electronic arrangement, Scheidt’s innovation is to design computerized systems that effectively echo and accompany the improvising musician in musical relation’ ships that expand in depth and complexiq over the length of each piece. By working with instrumentalists of the calibre of trombonist George Lewis, clarinetists Claude Schryer and Lori Freedman, soprano Catherine Lewis, and percussionist Trevor Tureski — all profoundly gifted players, all featured on Action/Réaction, and all performing in the upcoming recitals — Scheidt has availed himself of some of the best improvisers currently active in new music, while his own, highly personalised approach to the electroacoustic medium ensures that they will be shown off in fascinating settings.

His innovations offer the best of live performance and studio research, Scheidt says. “There’s a very interesting thing that happens in the time domain,” he explains. “When I’m creating the software, I have time on my side. I can spend as much time as I need working out details of the way the syscem is going to behave. But then I take all of that carefully thought-out work and put it into a real-time environment. In essence that allows me to do some kind of time-warp, where I have all the benefits of reflective thought; of time, in an improvisational context. The software allows me to encapsulate a whole lot of thought and have it available to me in an improvisational environment.

“And, in turn, that allows for a different role for the performer. I’m no longer putting a sheet of paper in front of them and saying, ‘here’s what I want you to do,’ I’m saying, ‘here’s an environment I want you to explore.’“

Scheidt is careful to separate himself from the Québécois composers that he is currently sharing a record label and a concert tour with. “They have an incredibly defined sonic intention,” he explains. “And they have, from moment to moment, absolute authority over the sound that they’re projecting. I don’t have that concern. My compositional focus is on a much more general method of making music. It’s not that I have a sonic idea that I’m trying to realize, it’s that I have a compositional idea that I’m trying to hear.”

His is a more collaboracive vision, one that pays more attention to the social aspects of music-making and proceeds more gently with soloists needs and ambitions. In part Scheidt has come to this through world music — a member of Kyai Madu Sari, the SFU community gamelan orchestra, he recognizes that the bulk of the world’s music is at least in part improvised and to his early training at the University of Victoria.

“There was a feeling there that the craft could be learned, that it was just a matter of sitting down in class and doing it, where we needed to focus as students was on exercising our creative intention,” he says. “Also there was an interest, at that time, in live performance of electroacoustic music, and because of the lack of a structure for notation or instrumentation or anything at all, by default improvisation was going to be a component in what was going on. I obviously don’t think twice at the notion that improvisation is a valid component of music, or a valid thing for a composer to ask a performer to do.“

When Music Meets Software

Michael Becker, North Shore News, 13 février 1991
mercredi 13 février 1991 Presse

Daniel Scheidt’s innovative approach to computer software programming has him defining new soundscapes for musicians to play around in. The North Vancouver composer’s interactive electroacoustic music will be featured later this month in Vancouver at a concert and CD-release event.

Scheidt will be touring the country with Electro Traces, a showcase for leading electroacoustic composers and players. The first concert will be in Vancouver at 9 pm, Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 at the Western Front, 303 East 8th Street. The Feb. 22 concert follows an event at 8 pm marking the release of Action/Réaction, Scheidt’s new CD. Each composition on the CD is defined by a piece of computer software developed by Scheidt. The program, according to Scheidt, “creates a set of circumstances within which a live performer explores and interacts. The machine isn’t pretending to be another person jamming with a performer. The live performer leads all the way.” The system responds to acoustic input from a musician.

How do musicians tend to react to the composer’s interactive software structures? “At first they find it comical. And then it piques the curiosity and they begin to develop a rapport with it. It’s like the software is an entity. It has a behavior and you feel like it is responding to you,” Scheidt explains.

Scheidt has developed about a dozen interactive music software compositions. The heart of Scheidt’s computer system is an Atari 1040 ST. He chose it because it is affordable. “It’s the most bare bones. I don’t have to go through a lot of fluff to program it. It’s a raw tool.” He uses a Yamaha 802 rackmount version of a DX-7 synthesizer. It’s a box the computer can talk to and comes without a keyboard. The system also includes an SPX-900 multi-effects processor. A recent visit to Scheidt’s studio found a Roland Pad-8 Octapad percussion pad patched into the system.

The computer was loaded with the software forming the basis for the composition Obeying the Laws of Physics, recorded for the CD with percussionist Trevor Tureski. Striking the pad kicked off a fascinating series of musical responses from the computer.

Is what he is doing ultimately a self-indulgent process, given the limited popular appeal of the music? Responds Scheidt: “I’m not trying to make music that a lot of people will listen to. If I’m looking for some of the deepest of my motivations to do this, I would suggest that the way we as a North American society have been proceeding is not good enough. We need to find some new ways of thinking. I would suggest to you that what I’m doing is different.”

Scheidt graduated from North Vancouver’s Handsworth Secondary School in 1974. He first plugged into a synthesizer there and performed his first electronic music in 1973. He went on to study music at Capilano College and then at the University of Victoria. In 1985 he graduated from Queen’s University in Ontario with a computer science graduate degree. Scheidt is currently director of the Music Intensive program of the SFU Contemporary Arts Summer Institute.

The machine isn’t pretending to be another person jamming with a performer. The live performer leads all the way.

Le discobole

Gabriel Vialle, La Marseillaise, no 2682, 6 janvier 1991
dimanche 6 janvier 1991 Presse

empreintes DIGITALes, ce label québécois a entrepris récemment l’édition de disques compacts de musique électroacoustique. L’étape actuelle est celle de la recherche d’une Présence régulière de see disques dans le marché européen.

C’est ainsi que, voici quelques jours, J’ai reçu la visite de la charmante attachée de presse chargée de cette mission d’investigation. Et le premier disque qu’elle m’a présenté (IMED 9001) est consacré à trois œuvres de Christian Calon, originaire de Marseille immigrant au Québec depuis 1966 et actuellement vice-président de la communauté électroacoustique canadienne. Christian Calon, qui fut “résident” au GMEM (Marseille) en 87/88, y séjourne à nouveau.

Les trois «récits électriques» qui composent son disque Ligne de vie: récits électriques datent de 1984/83 (Portrait d’un visiteur), de 1987/88 (La disparition œuvre réalisée dans les studios du GMEM et créée à Marseille, le 17 juin 1988 au Jardin des Vestiges: en son temps, notre journal avait rendu compte de l’événement) et 1989 (Minuit).

Pages intéressantes, montrant un tempérament généreux et une virtuosité jamais gratuite au service d’une inspiration diverse. Des trois pièces, Minuit est sans doute celle qui présente la plus grande densité d’émotion et d’imagination.

On retrouve Christian Calon en compagnie de 24 autres compositeurs — Québec, Canada, USA, Mexique — pour le compact Électro clips.

Les 25 musiciens, pour la manifestation New Music America, à Montréal en novembre dernier, ont joué le jeu de la forme breve: pas plus de 3 minutes pour s’affirmer. Un catalogue passionnant mals déroutant, un peu hétéroclite, souvent roboratif, à feuilleter d’une oreille attentive en lisant les jalons proposés par un agréable livret de 58 pages.

… un tempérament généreux et une virtuosité jamais gratuite au service d’une inspiration diverse.

Daniel Scheidt Record Launch and West Coast Debut of empreintes DIGITALes

Hank Bull, Front, 1 janvier 1991
mardi 1 janvier 1991 Presse

DIFFUSION i MéDIA could be called the the most exciting thing on the Canadian NEW music scene. Based on a CD label called empreintes DIGITALes, the project of Montréalers Jean-François Denis and Claude Schryer is much more. DIFFUSION i MéDIA is stimulating production and building an interesting network of composers, players and listeners. With six releases under its belt after just one year of operation, DIFFUSION i MéDIA has assembled a formidable group of collaborators for its first trans-Canada tour.

On Friday night at eight we will welcome DIFFUSION i MéDIA to the West Coast and celebrate the launch of a new CD by Vancouver composer/performer Daniel ScheidtAction/Réaction. This will be followed by a concert with performances by Lori Freedman, Kathy Lewis and Pauline Vaillancourt in works by Daniel Scheidt, Alain Thibault, Robert Normandeau and Christian Calon.

Saturday’s concert will feature Jacques Drouin performing a piano concerto by Alain Thibault, percussionist Trevor Tureski in Scheidt’s Obeying the Laws of Physics and Claude Schryer himself in a new work for clarinet and electronics.

This tour is supported by a grant from the Touring Office of the Canada Council [for the Arts].

Review

R Seth Friedman, Factsheet Five, no 40, 1 janvier 1991
mardi 1 janvier 1991 Presse

A collection of 25 minute “Electroacoustic snapshots,” together with 25 black and white photographic snapshots and descriptive notes from the composers. Ranges from highly experimental noise to the sound of breathing and trains. Strangely soothing in its unexpected changes, and ideal for listening to in a shuffled order on the CD player.

Strangely soothing in its unexpected changes…