On the Edge

In January 1990, Montréal composer and ex-Concordia University professor Jean-François Denis fulfilled a long dormant dream of creating a label devoted exclusively to electroacoustic music. Now 18 months later, empreintes DIGITALes (for “digital imprints” or “impressions”) has released six compact discs.

Denis and his partner Claude Schryer started North America’s first independent electroacoustic label to fill a perceived need: “We saw all these Canadian electroacoustic masterpieces that nobody could hear unless they were in the right town on the night of a concert,” Denis recalls. The company operates with substantial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts: “Without them, we could hardly get involved in record production at all.”

The first six titles are Ligne de vie: récits électriques, devoted to works by Christian Calon; Lieux inouïs, featuring five works by Robert Normandeau; Volt, a group of eight works for MIDI piano, soprano, saxophone quartet and tape by Alain Thibault;

Électro clips, a collection of 25 electroacoustic “snapshots” by composers from various countries; Action/Réaction, featuring five interactive works by Vancouver’s Daniel Scheidt; and the newly released Anecdotes, a group of compositions by Yves Daoust.

empreintes DIGITALes releases are distributed by Scandinavian Record Import (SRI) of Peterborough, Ont., and through the Canadian Music Centre, as well as in France, the Benelux countries, Japan, the UK and the US. “Our manufacturer has just delivered the second pressing of our first discs; of which 1,000 copies had been made initially,” says Denis. “And Électro clips, released last November, sold out in six months.”

How would Denis classify electroacoustic music? “It’s hard to place it in a specific category. It’s music that puts the emphasis on timbre before anything else. Yet it’s not laboratory music: the final product is sophisticated.”

Denis is full of plans. He is currently working on a series of records of longer pieces to be sold as cheaply as possible. But he remains realistic: “Of course, the second pressing of our original recordings indicates a degree of profitability and could help me financially. But let’s face it, what we’re selling remains very much a fringe product.”