JTTP 2008

Jeu de temps / Times Play

Results / Résultats

The CEC is pleased to announce the results of the ninth edition of the CEC’s annual project for young and emerging composers in Canada, JTTP. More information on the project can be found here. The next deadline is May 1, 2009.

Gagnants / Winners | Participants | Prix / Awards | Jury | CD Cache 2008 | Soumissions / Submissions

Winners / Gagnants

Note that this year there was a tie for second place.

1. Nick Storring — Artifacts (I) (8:00 / 2007)
2. Jean-François Blouin — Catacombes (10:01 / 2007)
2. Félix-Antoine Morin — Feed Metal Dirt (7:00 / 2007)
4. Thierry Gauthier — [pjanistik] (4:56 / 2006)
5. Mathieu Arsenault — Edges (5:44 / 2008)

The top 5 placing composers as selected by the international jury receive CEC memberships and over $3000 worth of prizes donated by our Project Partners: DVDs and CDs, books and journals. Additionally, the top 3 placing composers receive a total of $700 in cash prizes.

CD Cache 2008

Participants

This year a total of 35 composers submitted their work to the project. By clicking on the names below you can read programme notes and biographies for each work submitted, and listen to all works submitted to the project.

Awards and Project Partners / Prix et partenaires

We are extremely grateful for the continuing support of our many Project Partners, who help ensure the success of the project and help us recognize the work of the upcoming generation of composers / sound artists. Several people and institutions from Canada and abroad donate cash, recordings, books and journals for prizes awarded to the top 5 placing composers. JTTP Media Partners broadcast and diffuse works in concert from the project.

If you wish to make a donation or become a Project Partner for the next edition of JTTP, please contact the JTTP Project Manager.

Jury

This year’s international jury was made up of 28 individuals having a variety of backgrounds and experiences: composers, performers, representatives from various international bodies, radio personalities, electroacoustic educators and past JTTP Top 5 winners.

Submissions / Soumissions

Click on the composer’s name to visit their website, or click on the title to hear the work (in mp3 format).

Mathieu ARSENAULT — Edges (5:44 / 2008)

Edges est une pièce angulaire.

Edges contient des fragments d’enregistrements de sons émis par l’œuvre Parcourir le Hors-Champs (2008) de l’artiste Gwenaël Bélanger. Merci à l’artiste et au personnel de la galerie de l’Uqam.

Études en composition électroacoustique au cégep Saint-Laurent de Montréal de 2005 à 2007. Admission à l’université de Montréal en composition électroacoustique en 2007.

Adam BASANTA — Transients and Resonance (8:25 / 2008)

I have long wanted to compose a piece using instrumental extended technique, which is then further extended into the electroacoustic realm; in this composition, prepared guitar is used as the source material. Within the electroacoustic compositional realm, I used several spectro-morphological archetypes, classifying them using the amount of “energy” they contained, and using the idea of ‘energy transfer’ between the archetypes as an organizing principle. In my mind, this organization resulted in a relationship between Resonances (slow, evolving, energy building gestures), Transients (hard attacks and struck sounds, exuding energy), as well as the resulting Particles (remnants of Transient collisions), leading to the sound events’ perception as a cohesive, though state changing, material entity.

Adam Basanta is a Music major at SFU’s School of Contemporary Arts, studying electroacoustic composition with Barry Truax. In his compositions, Adam tries to preserve a connection to the real world, as well as explore lyrical phrasing while using sounds that are not considered lyrical. Other interests include the relationship between sound materials, syntax and processing, indeterminate composition and interactivity.

Jean-François BLOUIN — Catacombes (10:01 / 2007)

Pièce acousmatique inspirée de la présence des environnements sous-terrains dans mon existence. Quoiqu’il arrive on me confine à migrer au sous-sol. Là où l’on entendra moins les vibrations résiduelles de mes curiosités sonores.

J’ai élaboré cette pièce en imaginant l’éclatement de mon environnement à une échelle où des espaces fermés deviennent tout à coup vastes et lumineux, pour ensuite se refermer dans des claquements de portes obstinés.

Jean-François Blouin étudie au Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal dans la classe de Yves Daoust. Il y développe la composition assistée par ordinateur et crée des pièces acousmatiques. Il a été assistant à la création de musique mixte auprès de Michel Gonneville, Louis Dufort, Charles-Antoine Fréchette et Gabriel Dharmoo. Il a été concepteur sonore au théâtre pour Marc Béland et Guy Sprung, à la danse pour Catherine Castonguay, Estelle Clareton et Sonia Biernath, au cirque pour Nicolas Cantin et en arts visuels pour Julie Favreau et Sylvie Chartrand. Avec son collègue Benoit Rolland, il fonde en 2005 le duo Blube, axé sur la performance en musique électro-acoustique directe.

Peter CAVELL — not an y thing ? (4:19 / 2005)

“not an y thing ?” is a duet in which a live spoken voice interacts with pre-recorded manipulated copies of itself. The work chronicles the narrator’s struggle to ascertain what – if anything – is actually real. The text is presented in a manner that suggests there may be a deeper meaning beneath the unapologetically absurd words. (There isn’t.)

Structurally, the work is divided into 7 sections, alternating between “dialogues” and “hallucinations”. Dialogues feature apparent interaction between the “live” and pre-recorded voices: they seem to blend and finish each other’s statements. Hallucinations are wild and dense, and the live voice’s frenzied gibbering seems to have no effect whatsoever on the pre-recorded voices. As the piece progresses, the hallucinations grow longer and more complicated, and the dialogues grow shorter and more sparse. The final dialogue heralds a subtle change in the relationship between the live and pre-recorded voices. By the end, they are no longer interacting as equals; instead, the ominous recorded voice seems to be dictating to the narrator…

“not an y thing ?” was created in Protools, constructed entirely out of samples of the composer’s voice.

Peter Cavell is a composer/writer/actor/sound artist living in London, Ontario. He studied composition at the University of Western Ontario, and earned a Masters in composition from the University of Victoria. Recent projects include the one-man electroacoustic play Walking the Labyrinth, which will be performed in the Ottawa and Toronto Fringe festivals in summer 2008, and a techno remix of John Cage’s “4’33”. Peter’s interests include creating accessible yet experimental interdisciplinary works that combine drama, music, words, sound, and (sometimes) humour.

Brett CURRIE — Deck 2 (7:38 / 2008)

built on a single loop. exploring the harmonic series and the “attack to pitch effluvium”

musician, composer, recently returned to school to continue studies in music, acoustic and electroacoustic

Isabelle DUSSAULT — Éberluée (3:14 / 2007)

Cette pièce est construite sur l’idée d’un personnage féminin subissant des pressions extérieures et qui entend s’incarner en elle des voix. Le poème traduit ces voix angoissées qui tourmentent et questionnent l’héroïne. L’atmosphère est mystique et lugubre.

Isabelle Dussault est née à Donnacona. Elle a complété des études collégiales en guitare classique au Collège d’Alma. Par la suite, elle a effectué un baccalauréat en composition instrumentale, à l’Université Laval, avec Éric Morin. Elle fait actuellement une maîtrise en composition instrumentale et mixte à l’Université de Montréal, sous la direction d’Isabelle Panneton. Son catalogue contient des œuvres, telles des trios, des quintettes, des orchestres de chambre, des pièces pour guitares, des pièces mixtes et électro-acoustiques. Musicienne active, elle fait partie d’un quintette qui exécute ses propres créations. Elle a été guitariste pour Samantha Fox lors des tournées québécoise et canadienne en 2006. On a également pu entendre sa musique dans des courts métrages lors du Festival des films du monde (Montréal, 2007), du Festival des films Arabes (Montréal, 2007) et au Musée de la civilisation (Québec, 2007). Elle s’intéresse à l’art numérique et produit également des œuvres sur papier photo.

Alex EDDINGTON — to the North Saskatchewan River (1:00 / 2008)

The core of this piece is an excerpt from an interview with a friend of mine in which she describes her daily runs in Edmonton, Alberta that take her across the North Saskatchewan River. In a brief window each day, she observes how the ice on the river changes, from autumn through to spring. My piece travels from the indoor interview room into a fantasy on the speaker’s words, and eventually outdoors to the riverbank. All of the sounds are derived from her voice except for the crows and wind of Jasper, Alberta.

Alex Eddington is a compoer, playwright and actor based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His music has been performed and recorded by established performers such as L’Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, the Toronto Chamber Choir, and the Talisker Players, as well as a younger generation of professionals including Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, Jeremy Maitland and the Silver Birch String Quartet. He has received a SOCAN Award for young composers, and recently won the Mississauga Symphony emerging composer competition. He currently spends his summers performing his own plays (sometimes musical) on the Canadian Fringe festival ci! rcuit.

Jesse FEGELMAN — to bye C (10:27 / 2008)

This piece explores the duality of analogue and digital electroacoustic techniques. These elements first appear as disparate and physically separated. As the piece progresses, the disparity dissolves as the two different tec! hnologies become unified in the sonic space. Mirroring the narrative of the diffusion, the individual parts themselves start very sedate and become more active over the course of the piece. The disparity is able to be resolved as at the most basic level analogue technology operates on a digital principle (the discrete iron filings in the magnetic tape), and the digital technology operates with analogue aspects (electricity travels in waves through microchips), though both technologies attempt to defeat the shortcomings of the other system that it is built on. Dualities also appear in the individual parts, as both contain both linear and looped aspects. The material in both parts mirror each other in design and evolution, though contain only elements of their own elements (analogue to analogue and digital to digital).

Jesse Fegelman is a musician originally from North York. He holds a B.Mus from Queen’s University and a M.Mus from the University of Alberta. He has studied composition with Dr. Alfred Fisher, Marjan Mozetich, Dr. Howard Bashaw, Dr. Andriy Talpash and Mark Hannesson. His compositional interests include interactive improvisation with computer performers, and he intends to continue researching in this field.

Jeremy GAUDET — Virginia Woolf goes to the Park (6:08 / 2008)

The piece concerns the relationship between man and nature. Virginia Woolf, as an emblem of the modern human, ventures out to the park. However, it must be realized that the park is not nature itself; it is merely a creation of man’s portrayed as nature. And it is the same with Woolf, since she is not “human” but rather an ape who has separated herself from the past in the same way that the park was separated from nature – both are creations. During the piece, Woolf realizes this, and what ensues is the reaction not in the actual world but in her mind, akin to her writing style.

Jeremy Gaudet is a current student at Mount Allison University who has taken composition lessons from Ian Crutchley over the past year.

Thierry GAUTHIER — [pjanistik] (4:56 / 2006)

Altération pianistique, agencement et manipulation de sons provenant de la table d’harmonie d’un piano préparé.

This expressionist acousmatic piece is entirely made from prepared piano and sine waves. The development is guided by the piano fragments, which were played and recorded directly on the soundboard of the instrument.

Thierry Gauthier est detenteur d’un diplome (AEC) en conception sonore assistee par ordinateur (Musitechnic, 1998), d’un baccalaureat en composition electroacoustique (Universite de Montreal, 2007) et il complete une maîtrise en composition électroacoustique et videomusique avec Jean Piche (Université de Montreal, 2008). Le compositeur eclectique se demarque par sa grande diversite de styles et ses techniques experimentales. Il a recu maintes commandes, il compose et produit de la musique pour films, videos, series televisees, documentaires, installations et performances multidisciplinaires. Il a performe dans plus de 250 concerts a travers le monde et ses compositions se retrouvent enregistrees sur plus d’une vingtaine d’albums. Il est recipiendaire d’une mention honorable (2e prix) au concours international de composition electroacoustique Musica Nova (Republique Tcheque, 2006), finaliste pour le 5e Concours International de Miniatures Électroacoustiques (Espagne, 2008) et finaliste (3e prix) au concours JTTP (Canada, 2007).

Thierry Gauthier has completed a diploma in computer assisted sound design, a (BMus) in Electro acoustic music composition at University of Montréal (2007) and he is completing an M.Mus. in electroacoustic music and video composition with Jean Piche at University of Montreal (2008). He received an honorary mention (2nd prize) at the international electroacoustic music competition Musica Nova (Czech Republic, 2006), finalist at the 5e Electro-Acoustics Miniatures International Contest (Spain, 2008) and finalist (3rd prize) at the competition JTTP (Canada, 2007). The eclectic composer distinguishes himself by his versatility and by his experimental techniques and approach to composition. He received numerous commissions for movies, art-videos, television series, documentaries, multimedia, installations and multidisciplinary performances. He performed in more than 250 concerts across the world and his compositions can be found recorded on more than twenty albums.

Carlo GENTILE — 2 scenes from Narnia (6:30 / 2007)

This work is inspired by the Book Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. Two scenes are expressed through sound, a gateway to the magical kingdom of Narnia.

Carlo Gentile recently completed a Bachelors degree in Electroaccoustic Composition at Université de Montréal. This follows a DEC in popular music, a DEC in Jazz music, and a lifetime of exploring ways to create music through various mediums.

Anoushirvan GHADIMI — In His Place (4:44 / 2008)

Composed by: Anoushirvan Ghadimi
Poem: Parvin

This is a piece about how the world would come to an end were I in God’s place. Given the limited patients of God’s creation, namely Man, he would be incapable of withstanding all the troubles that other humans have caused in the world despite all the virtues that God has placed in him. As a result, destruction and annihilation of the universe are made inevitable. The poem is recited in Farsi and English.
Sources:
Setar: a plucked Persian musical instrument, also used as percussion in this piece.
Tombak: a Persian percussion instrument
Violin
voice: sung and spoken

Student of communication and philosophy at Simon Fraser University, interested in traditional Persian musical instruments, anci.ent and contemporary Persian poetry

Olivier GIROUARD — Fabbrica_01 (9:03 / 2008)

L’atelier tout à la fois lieu de travail et travail du lieu. […] La transformation d’un site environnant (son air, son brouillard, son atmosphère particulière) en paysage de la psyché, en caractère stylistique, en empreinte de l’intimité? […] Les choses de l’art commencent souvent au rebours des choses de la vie
Georges Didi-Hubermann, Génie du non-lieu, 2001

En enregistrant des artistes se préparer au travail, ces gestes simples, rituels, banals, je prends conscience des choses de la vie pour en faire une œuvre : la sculpteure qui cherche son argile et l’installe sur son tour, l’artiste sonore qui cherche son fer à souder pour fabriquer un amplificateur ou encore une danseuse qui pratique dans le silence de son art. Dans un second temps, je recrée ces lieux, le travail du lieu, dans un espace défini. J’espère ainsi rendre compte, déceler la matière en ses mouvements les plus essentiels.

Olivier Girouard cherche à mettre la musique en mouvement. Ses trames sonores laissent entendre des instruments traditionnels traités numériquement dans des atmosphères autant bruitistes qu’impressionnistes. Il collabore avec des artistes de différentes disciplines notamment : la danse, l’art sonore, la vidéo et l’art visuel. Il étudie à la maîtrise en composition électroacoustique au Conservatoire de musique de Montréal sous la direction d’Yves Daoust et de Louis Dufort.

Olivier Girouard seeks to instil movement into music. His compositions highlight traditional instruments filtered digitally in noise and impressionistic soundscapes. He collaborates with artists from different disciplines namely dance, sound art, video and visual art. He is currently working on a masters degree in electroacoustic composition at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with supervisors Yves Daoust and Louis Dufort.

Louis HAUSER — Signs And Wonders (3:19 / 2008)

I love the interplay between traditional ie. familiar sounds, in this instance the sound of the piano and various percussion instruments and pure electronic sounds bearing in mind that all the sounds in this short piece are computer generated (Propellerhead Reason on a PC. I haven’t altered/processed the piano sounds apart from editing notes/chords into registers far above and below those of an acoustic piano. The percussion sounds haven’t been altered in any way at all.

I live and work in Montréal.

Véronique JACQUES — Requiem pour une comptine (6:56 / 2008)

Plonger au cœur de l’enfance naïve et paisible. J’ai imaginé un monde où la tranquillité se transforme peu à peu en ambiance mystérieuse. C’est le son d’une “alarme” qui nous transportera d’un paysage à l’autre. Une fois pour aller vers un imaginaire calme, accompagné d’une mélodie rassurante et de rires d’enfants. J’ai tenté de représenter l’imaginaire ludique de l’enfance et de l’amusement. La fois suivante, c’est un passage pour tenter de plonger dans une atmosphère contrastante, tenue dans les graves avec des sons souvent brusques et sombres. Un doute, une inquiétude qui nous ramène à la toute fin, à cette mélodie, à ce souvenir d’enfance.

Je suis en première année du Baccalauréat en musique générale (violoncelle). J’ai entrepris mon baccalauréat en musique à l’Université de Montréal en 2007 auprès de Madame Johanne Perron. En mai 2007, je complétais mon diplôme d’étude collégiales au collèges Vincent-d’Indy. J’ai découvert l’électroacoustique lors d’un cours de littérature musicale et ma curiosité m’a permis de découvrir plus en profondeur cet univers. Je partage cette passion pour la musique électronique avec Luc Langlois avec lequel je me suis investie dans le projet Ö. Depuis ce temps, j’approfondis mes connaissances en découvrant de manière concrète la musique électroacoustique.

Reena KATZ — Hadil (5:30 / 2008)

This poem, written and performed by Rafeef Ziadeh inspired a conversation with processed violin and voice. The trauma of loss and the rhetoric of authority draws Hadil’s face from the ashes.

How does the left’s profile of Palestine compare with the portrait of those lost? How do we create space for mourning amoung the chaos of activist immediacy?

Reena Katz is Toronto-based musician, performer, and audio installation artist currently completing her BFA at OCAD. Her work explores gender, ethnicity, migration and anachronism through experimental, electroacoustic, performance and sound art formats. She focuses on the use and re-use of analog sound technologies mixed with contemporary digital software. Guided by a deep love of collaboration, Katz has developed an inventive and strong voice across disciplines. Her work focuses on the interface of sound with film, video, poetry, dance and performance art.

Yota KOBAYASHI — Tensho (11:18 / 2008) [PDF score]

Tensho (2008) is written for electroacoustic tape and flute. “Tenshō” is a Japanese word meaning roughly “rebirth through regression;” this piece in many ways represents the desire to return to the ultimate solitude and serenity of the mother’s womb. The work begins with the most basic, primordial sound of the in-utero state: the beating heart. From there, the flute acts as an acoustic guide through the varied electronic soundscapes, and at one point is even propelled by forces beyond its control (accentuated by sounds of urban transit and train whistles). The final stage of the flute’s journey sees a rejection of chaos, and a return to the sanctuary of the womb, recapitulating a soundworld of beating hearts and gentle breathing.

Acoustic and electroacoustic composer, Yota Kobayashi, was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1980. He moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2000 and studied music composition at Simon Fraser University under professors Barry Truax and Owen Underhill. Yota is currently based out of Vancouver where he works as a teacher in the Electronic Music Programme at Langara College. In 2006, Yota’s composition Reminiscence was awarded the third prize in Canada’s national competition for electro-acoustic music, Prix Jeu de temps / Times Play, held by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Yota was appointed to serve as one of the international jury members for the competition in 2007. Reminiscence has been performed at several concerts and festivals as well as radiobroadcast in Canada, the US, Chile, Sweden, and France. Yota’s music has been performed publicly numerous times, including Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom festival in 2007, the Bourges International Festival of Electroacoustic Music in France, as well as a Jean Coulthard reading by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Yota’s scores for film and theatre include the documentary film, Adaptive Greening (which was awarded the United Nations Environmental Program award in Turin, Italy in 2008), the Vancouver International Dance Festival dance/theatre piece, Mothers in 2007, and the score for the short film Hirsute, which has screened at many international film festivals.

Stéfan KOZMINCHUK — Gore (5:01 / 2007)

Stefan Kozminchuk est originaire de Gatineau, Québec, où il a commencé son apprentissage de la trompette classique. Après avoir mérité deux certificats du Royal Conservatory of Music et un diplôme d’études collégiales en musique classique, il a débuté ses études en composition électroacoustique à l’Université de Montréal. Sa musique est un hybride de rythmes et de textures à la fois mélodique et destructrices, influencées par le rock industriel et classique.

Stefan Kozminchuk grew up in Gatineau, Quebec, where he first learned to play the classical trumpet. After earning two certificates from the Royal conservatory of Music and a classical music degree in college, he began to study electroacoustical composition at the University of Montréal. His music is a hybrid of melodic and destructive textures and rhythms influenced by both industrial and classical rock.

Steve LALONDE — Quand la nuit se referme (5:00 / 2008)

Cette pièce est une étude, à partir d’un type unique de matériau sonore, au travers des dédales intimes des anxiogènes qui nuisent au contrôle de l’esprit lors de tentatives d’accomplir l’acte vital de dormir.

La recherche du silence, la perte de contrôle et la course effrénée dans le but d’atteindre la relaxation ultime tentent ici d’être représentés à partir de différents types de papiers qui ont été froissés puis traités.

Sébastien LAVOIE — Une nuit à la dérive (5:39 / 2008)

Explorateur sonore, il parcourt les différentes avenues bruyantes et musicales afin de saisir les chemins menant vers des sons nouveaux.

Sound explorator, he travels through the diverse avenues of noise and music in order to capture the novel sounds.

Simon LEVINE — Cosmos (5:37 / 2006)

Cosmos is a piece for electronic and ambient sounds exploring the relationship between space, time, space-time and human existence. All of these elements are meant to be portrayed as states of mind within the human psyche as well as the need to communicate with other life forms. I wanted finally to give the listener a sense of loneliness not only in the isolation of space, but also the inner sense of loneliness here on earth.

Simon Levine is a pianist and electroacoustic composer based in Montréal.

Colin MCGUIRE — Boxed Wine Perambulation (3:56 / 2007)

Boxed Wine Perambulation is the result of collaboration between longtime friends Paul Garofano and Colin McGuire. It began as a poem that Garofano composed about a bacchanalian evening that he barely survived in Spain. McGuire’s elaboration of the vocal material takes the words and sets them free in a heady burst of editing and processing.

Colin Patrick McGuire is a digital composer, producer, DJ, and educator based out of Toronto, Canada. Though he started his musical odyssey as a trumpet player, for the last ten years he has devoted himself to studio-based work. Colin is a sessional lecturer in digital and electronic music at his alma mater, York, and maintains an active practice in both vernacular and art genres. In September 2008, he will be starting a PhD in ethnomusicology with the aim of conflating his interests in music and martial arts. Colin is currently promoting his independently released new album of beat-driven eclectronica Big Dirty HiFi, under the pseudonym Ronin E-Ville.

Jeffrey METTLEWSKY — Vive les voix (4:29 / 2007)

A stereo composition using software introduced at the CCMIX studios in Rmainville, France, including the UPIC and Kyma systems. Vocal improvisations by the composer are layered with synthesized materials to create an imaginary space at the intersection of real and abstract sound worlds. A question of dominance ! pervades the piece as the voice moves between these two realms dynamically and the level of electronic processing is varied.

Jeffrey Mettlewsky is a recent graduate of Simon Fraser University preparing for graduate studies in the fall of 2008 in music and technology. His interests include electronic music composed of acoustic instruments, especially the voice; also the listener’s visual and spatial mappings of recorded sound.

Félix-Antoine MORIN — Feed Metal Dirt (7:00 / 2007)

Esthétiquement, je tire en partie mon inspiration de la lutherie de la musique industrielle allemande des années 70. Cette composition est aussi nourrie par un coup de cœur que j’ai eu dans l’enceinte d’un lieu particulier: une vaste salle de concert en chantier de construction. Et lorsque je suis tombé, par hasard, sur cette immense pièce, l’image que j’avais devant moi représentait exactement l’esprit que je voulais insuffler à ma musique. L’éclairage chaud des projecteurs industriels sur les murs de béton donnait à l’endroit une ambiance particulièrement cinématographique. Les sons naissaient de gros tubes métalliques de différentes grandeurs, du gravier, des objets de construction de toutes sortes et de tout un bordel de boîtes de carton et de trucs multiformes jonchant le sol. Ainsi cet amalgame sonore balbutiait dans un espace intérieur énorme à la résonance intimidante. Pour moi, cet endroit semblait incarner quelque chose de sacré, telle une cathédrale. J’étais justement muni d’un micro; la chasse aux sons a commencé et la notion du temps s’est volatilisée pendant un long moment. Enfin j’étais seul, abandonné dans mon environnement naturel!
La composition est donc constituée de sons directement extraits de cette séance d’enregistrement. J’ai aussi voulu travailler avec des matières de nature parasitaire comme des ‘‘feedbacks’’ divers ainsi que des bruits souvent considérés comme de la pollution sonore.
La structure joue sur deux plans: celui de la mécanique des sons-parasites dans leur espace très réduit et celui de la répercussion de mes objets industriels captés dans leur cathédrale urbaine. Avant tout, cette pièce se veut un essai de développement d’un langage rythmique instinctif.

Esthetically, I take my inspiration from the lute-making of german industrial music from the 1970’s. This piece is also nourished by a spontaneous coup de cœur that I had for a particular space : the construction site of a vast concert room to be. When I accidently discovered this hugmongous space, the image before me struck my eyes, it represented exacly the spirit that I want to insufflate my music of. The warmth of the lighting on the concrete walls created by the industrial projectors gave the place such a particular cinematic ambiance. In this artistically rich environment, the sounds where being born out of the gravel, out of huge metal pipes of different sizes, of various construction tools and cartboard boxes, and all sorts of multiform objects laying around. This amalgamation of sounds was babbling and growing inside the belly of this enormous space with such an intimidating resonance. This place seemed to embody something sacred for me, something like a cathedrale. Thankfully I had a microphone on me and was prepared. As the hunt for sounds begun, time stood still, finally I was alone, abandonned in my natural environment.

Therefore, the piece is constituated of sounds directly extracted from the original recording. Also I wanted to work with matters of natural parasitic such as “feedbacks” and noises often considered as sonorous pollution.

The structure plays on two plains : the mechanic of the parasitic sounds in their very reduced space and the repercussions of the industrial objects caught in their urban cathedrale. Foremost, this piece is a ground-test of the development of an instinctive and rythmical language.

En tant que compositeur, Felix-Antoine morin fait ses débuts dans la première moitié des années 80 à l’aide d’un magnétophone Fisherprice beige. (…) Dans les années 90, il travaille comme disc-jockey. Il étudie aussi les arts visuels à l’UQÀM et y développe un langage intrinsèque qu’il introduit plus tard dans sa musique. Il crée le projet D-Co avec Patrick Dubé. Le duo mélange l’électro, les percussions industrielles et le lo-fi interactif. Entre temps, il fait la conception sonore pour divers courts et moyens métrages ainsi que la musique pour le défilé de mode de Denis Gagnon. Plus tard, il rencontre le duo de musique techno Nuclear Ramjet avec lequel il collabore surtout en spectacle. (…) En 2004, il s’oriente vers la musique instrumentale. Dans un local de l’Usine Grover, il met au monde plusieurs projets musicaux basés sur l’improvisation dont les collectifs Minuskulls et la Readyfactory. Il fonde ensuite les groupes Feltz, Eta Bootis et ttttttttttttttttttttt. Avec ce dernier, il crée une cassette sur l’étiquette Evoc in evens et un disque sur Brise-cul Records. (…) Au cours de l’année 2007, il prend part au collectif Parabolik Guerilla, dans le spectacle multimédia Symbolocaust inspiré des mouvements du butoh et du chamanisme. Il étudie présentement la musique acousmatique avec les compositeurs Yves Daoust et Louis Dufort au conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Sa production est basée sur l’enregistrement de sons concrets gardés à l’état brut.

Félix-Antoine Morin is a multidisciplinary artist working amond other things as a sound designer for films. As a composer, his career started in the mid-80s experimenting with a fisherprice tape recorder. While working as a Dj in the 90s he studied visual arts at the University of Québec in Montréal where he developped a instintive language that would soon be transferred into his music. In collaboration with long time friend and musician, Patrick Dubé, Felix-Antoine put together the D-co project. The duo blend electronic, industrial percussions and interactive lo-fi. While working on the project, he also does many sound designs for long and shorts films and and signs the conception of the music for a fashion show by Denis Gagnon. Making his way in the the world of music he meets a Montréal-based electronic duo called Nuclear Ramjet which he ends up working with in studio and for live performances. The beginning of 2004 marks a significant moment in his carreer, where he enters the world of instrumental music and start experimenting. In a jam space of an old factory in Montréal called l’Usine Groover, he puts together many musical projects based on improvisation and spontaneity, of which are Minuskulls, a project with small instruments and the Readyfactory. Into a creative mindset he then form three experimental projects, Feltz, Eta Bootis and the infamous noise band ttttttttttttttttttttt each of them following their own musical direction.

Sylvia MURPHY — Echoes of Home: All the Way from Ireland (18:37 / 2000)

a portrait of a family with voices (spoken&sung), music, cat purring, clock ticking & train sounds

With the voices of
Aunt Winnie MacCormac (hello)
Captain William Harney (goodbye)
Stella (nee Robinson) MacCormac Murphy
(lovely garden & singing)
Sylvia (nee macCormack) Murphy
John James Murphy
Uncle Tony Murphy
Auntie Patricia (nee Harney) Martin
Carl, Michèle, Philip & Melanie Murphy
sylvi (macCormac) Murphy
Soula (purring) and her Bell,
Clock Ticking

Songs & Music
Stella talking humming whistling in Audio-Post while recording Radio Television Éirrean airing
Coffee Song (they’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil)
Tony sings Two Eyes of Blue
Sylvia (mum) sings Little Sir Echo, My Curly Headed Baby
Michèle (sis), John (dad), Tony (uncle)
sing My Grandfather’s Clock
sylvi’s i thought i saw you again (phoenix CD)
railway lines: trains of thought (voices & wheels CD)

sylvi macCormac received honourable mention at the International Musique Electroacoustique Bourges, France (1999) and produced Uts’am / Witness CD (2004) including Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bruce Cockburn, Barry Truax and Squamish Sp’ak’wus Slúlum / Eagle Song Dancers. a multi-talented performer/composer of modern music, and the creator of WHEELS: Soundscapes with the voices of people with dis abilities, sylvi macCormac has extensive performance credits since the 1980’s, including the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, New Music Wes , and Seattle’s RockrGrl Music Conference in 2000. Electroacoustics, including Soundscape Composition, stretches the boundaries of music by collaging sound, story and song, transforming sound sources with signal processing and combining them in creative ways. Diffusion extends familiar structures, by placing the listener inside the Soundscape while inviting us on imaginary journeys. www.sylvi.ca / na / da / bc www.imeb.net - www.vams.org - www.utsam-witness.ca - www.thefestival.bc.ca www.myspace.com/sylvimacCormac

Erica NEUMANN — Remains (12:30 / 2008)

“Remains” was made using a violin and hair pins. The violin recording was processed using logic sound studio. The piece was composed to pay homage to what haunts us; what will not leave us be.

“Remains” was made in March of 2008, in the Brandon University electro-acoustic sound studio. It began as a final project for a sound design class. I have been making noise and sound structures since I was born, but this year has been my first opportunity to study electro-acoustic composition formally. In studying violin, I was inspired to combine prepared violin with electro-acoustics.

James O’CALLAGHAN — Casino (8:05 / 2007)

A Soundscape work which explores the hyper-reality of the casino experience and relates it to personal anxiety and agoraphobia. Created from sounds of casino ambience and sounds of bodily discomfort.

James O’Callaghan is a student at Simon Fraser University pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music. He is an interdisciplinary artist searching for new ways to integrate and communicate between art forms. He hopes to use music as a communicative tool with social purpose and meaning.

Pierre PARÉ-BLAIS — Ky (7:16 / 2008)

Κύριε ἐλέησον, Χριστὲ ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον.
Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison.

Kyrie = Seigneur, Allah, Yhw, Naranaya…
Ky = ?
À vous de décider du reste…

Pour ma part, cette pièce est une expérience, un défi, une exploration de la voie et de ce qui peut l’entourer, des possibilités et univers, réels ou artificiels, qui peuvent en émerger… À cela ce greffe un collage exploratoire des airs polyphoniques de Machaut, Ockeghem et Des Prez, des Kyries d’antan, mantras occidentaux hautement intemporels dont on oublie parfois la beauté et la simplicité.

Κύριε ἐλέησον, Χριστὲ ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον.
Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison.

Kyrie = Lord, Allah, Yhw, Naranaya…
Ky = ?
The rest is up to you…

This piece is merely an experiment, a challenge; to explore the voice, what it contains, what surrouds it, what it can create, real and unreal... to that is attached a personal explorations of polyphonic choral works of Machaut, Ockeghem and Des Prez, and of the Kyrie of the Mass Ordinaire, a powerful western mantra, who’s beauty and simplicity is too often taken for granted.

Né en 1984, Pierre Paré-Blais est d’abord et avant tout un Metteur en scène de Théâtre, bifurquant brièvement dans le monde de l’électroacoustique, le temps d’exploré certaines avancé technologique, artistique et esthétique dans le but éventuel de les relier au monde de la scène… Pierre étudie d’abord le Théâtre avec Victor Garaway pendant 3 ans au Cégep Marianopolis. Suites a ces études, il se rend à Bali (Indonésie) en 2005, pour y étudier la danse, le théâtre et la musique, c’est durant ce séjour qu’il décide de ce dédier a la mise en scène et a l’avancement du théâtre en général. À son retour il retourne a Marianopolis, cette fois a titre d’assistant professeur de Théâtre, ou Victor Garaway continue de le former, mais cette fois comme metteur en scène et professeur. En 2007 il travail sur un collage des oeuvres de Shakespeare ou il allie technologie et théâtre avec son ami Eric Andrade, Compositeur et vidéographe Electroacoustique. Suite a cette expérience il décide de bifurqué en électroacoustique le temps d’exploré plus en détails certaine question soulevé par le projet. Pierre est présentement étudiant au Bac en composition Electroacoustique à l’Université de Montréal, et professeur/coach en Jeu Théâtrale à l’École de Cirque de Verdun.

Born in 1984, Pierre P. Blais is first and foremost a Theatre Director and performer, whose brief passage in the world of electroacoustic is merely a stop on the road to better integrate technology with the live performing arts, namely theatre… Pierre Studied theatre at Marianopolis College under Victor Garaway for three years, where he received an education revolving around the works of Brook, Barba, Grotowski and Artaud. Upon completion, he left for Bali (Indonesia) where he took the time to study Dance, Theatre and music under various well respected Balinese masters, On his return, he went back to marianopolis, but this time as assistant to his former teacher, accumulating valuable experience as director and teacher. In 2007, he participated in the creation of a collage of Shakespeare’s work, integrating technology and theatre. The experiment opened his eyes to a world of possibilities between theatre, the multimedia and electroacousitcs. Convinced he needed to further explore these possibilities, he chose to go to the source, the Electroacoustics program at the Université de Montréal. Pierre is currently pursuing a Bachelor in Electroacoustic composition at Université de Montréal, and is also a theatre teacher/coach at the École de Cirque de Verdun.

Émilie PAYEUR — Écholocation (7:35 / 2008)

Les «pulsensations» pulvérisent les repères éphémères.

Émilie Payeur est née le 13 novembre 1986 à Thetford Mines. Bercée dès son plus jeune âge par la musique, elle commence à jouer de la guitare à l’âge de 11 ans, après avoir vu un spectacle de Nirvana à la télévision. Grande exploratrice musicale, elle découvre par la suite la musique psychédélique et le rock progressif des années 60 et 70. Son intérêt marqué pour tout ce qui sort de l’ordinaire la poussera à faire la découverte de la musique contemporaine et surtout de la musique électroacoustique. Elle a complété des études collégiales en guitare jazz au cégep de Drummonville. Puis, ayant déjà composé quelques oeuvres électroacoustiques, elle décide de tenter sa chance à l’Université de Montréal, encouragée par Gilles Gobeil. Elle débutera sa deuxième année d’études en composition en automne 2008. Les similarités entre l’art visuel et la musique électroacoustique sont au coeur d’une recherche personnelle qui permettront à la compositrice d’établir de nouvelles techniques compositionnelles.

Eric POWELL — Floating on Clouds Like Gelatin (9:36 / 2007)

Floating... is an acousmatique piece. There should be no fear or loathing of boredom in contemporary or electroacoustic music. The audience should feel free to allow their minds to drift and wander to wherever the sensations they are experiencing take them. To feel the need to contextualize and cognitively process, dissect and examine every part of the experience removes the Magic from the Art, leaving only a pale, academically massacred representamen. If anyone experiences a need to have their mental wanderings directed, dwell upon the non-linear nature of Time. I believe that all moments in the past, future, and the ‘Now’ exist in a single, all-encompassing ‘Now’. This ‘Now’ contains all possible pasts and futures. We impose an artificial, metered conception of time upon this singular ‘Now’ as a navigational tool. Floating on Clouds like Gelatin exists in this non-linear temporal plane with overlapping sound fields extending, twisting, and undulating within and without their accompanying fields far into the linear past and future. Above all – Relax. Sink into the sound, and allow thought to float freely.

Eric Powell is a multidisciplinary artist working with integrating soundscapes, live musical composition, theatre and dance. Eric has created sound and music for a several theatrical productions and gallery installations, including Critical Distance’s 2007 Fringe show Free Range, and Minneapolis artist Margaret Pezalla-Granlund’s installation Sub-Theory: Iceberg Sculptures. Recently, Eric installed SoundGardenScape, an interactive short-range FM piece in Montreal; composed and performed the floating concert “Sound Canoe” under a bridge on Regina’s Wascana Creek; as well as presenting a lo-fi cassette tape loop entitled Tides: The World Within, as a part of Crossfiring 2006, a multidisciplinary, community-based, cross-cultural site-specific performance event at the Claybank Brick Factory in Southwest Saskatchewan. Currently, Eric is completing an MFA from Simon Fraser’s School for the Contemporary Arts. His research is made possible through the generous support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

Antonin PROVOST — Bourrasques (8:25 / 2007)

Tara RODGERS — Sonic Panorama #2: Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, BC, 9 October 2007 (4:32 / 2007)

Six photographs forming a panoramic view of the park were taken with a mobile phone and imported into a computer. Image size is reduced to 20 pixels wide. Color information captures the light, weather, architecture, and vibrancy of the city; data from each pixel is converted into sound in SuperCollider. Sounds are distributed among four speakers to correspond with locations in the panoramic view. This is a stereo mix, translating the six photos from left to right. Revisiting the site of Hildegard Westerkamp and Andra McCartney’s soundwalk of Queen Elizabeth Park ten years earlier, this piece takes a different approach by using color data as source material for music and for evocation of a place and time.

Tara Rodgers is originally from upstate New York and now based in Montréal. She uses the programming language SuperCollider to sonify large-scale patterns of living. Recent sound and video installations have been based on butterfly migrations, human population shifts, and urban landscapes. She earned an MFA in Electronic Music & Recording Media at Mills College in 2006, and is a PhD student in Communication Studies at McGill University.

Nick STORRING — Artifacts (I) (8:00 / 2007)

Artifacts (I) is drawn from a (projected) series of works based entirely on sounds from a near-broken violin. The violin, despite being full-size was given to me by my grandmother when I was too young to remember, a hint to my parents that I should get violin lessons. I ended up getting cello lessons instead and the violin collected dust, and endured several seasons of humidity and lack thereof, leading to the collapsed of its soundpost.

This piece explores memory and the (mis)representation of events in time through documentation and recording.

This violin seemed like an apt sound-source for such a piece. I used the strings - bowed, plucked, struck, scraped, bent from the other side of the bridge, but also the body of the instrument -- the sound of the paint and varnish being scraped off by the microphone, the body being struck, the soundpost being shaken around inside of it.

The processing of the materials was inspired by various recor! ding media - everything from sound of old 78 RPM to corrupt MP3 files. Compositionally I also was interested by suggesting certain stylistic markers.

There was also an awareness on my part of evocations and manipulations of time on the level of a recording in and of itself, the perception of historical time, and time in the personal/ nostalgic domain, and how these temporal lines intersect.

Nick Storring is a composer, and cellist based in Toronto, Ontario. He holds a BMus in music composition from Wilfrid Laurier University where he worked with Peter Hatch and Glenn Buhr. Currently he is finishing a Masters in composition at York University with David Mott. He has been featured as a composer and performer at a variety of festivals and serieses nationally including Suoni Per Il Popolo, Over The Top (Toronto), VTO Festival (Toronto), Open Ears (2005, 2007 Kitchener), Wavelength’s Anniversary, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s New Orchestra Series. He has also composed for a variety of theatre and intermedia productions in the Waterloo area, including for several pieces with experimental company MT Space. He is a member of several projects including sombre ‘sleep-rock’ trio Picastro (Polyvinyl Records), eclectic and electronics-heavy improvisational trio I Have Eaten The City and The Knot, an improv-based cello duo with Tilman Lewis.

Anthony TAN — Per/Cycle (14:42 / 2007)

S l o w G r a d u a l P r o c e s s

My intention was to create a deep listening environment in which transformation and change is subtle and over long periods of time. It is based on a recording of a Tibetan prayer bowl.

Anthony Tan studied human and plant genetics, then moonlighted as an acid-techno DJ before deciding on the path of contemporary art-music composition. As an artist he is interested in incorporating a diverse set of interests into his musical life including Eastern mysticism and literature, Psychoacoustics, Physical Sciences. Somaticism and a personal Ashtanga Yoga and Vajrayana Meditation practice. His research interests include acoustic, electronic and mixed media composition, and contemporary improvisation. His experiences at the Cantos Music Foundation where he served as an interpreter, researcher, and sound archivist for their vintage acoustic and electronic ! keyboard collection helped shape his musical and sonic palette. Having also taken a keen interest in music for contemporary dance, Anthony Tan has written music for numerous contemporary dance companies including the Merce Cunningham Faculty School, Ephemeral Industry, as well as various other choreographers in Montreal, New York, and Calgary. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Calgary and has received a diploma in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto from which he received the Gold medal. He currently resides in Montreal where he is pursuing his Master’s degree in Composition at McGill University.

Project Team / Équipe de projet

Project Managers — jef chippewa & Yves Gigon
Web Site — Yves Gigon
Translation — Dominique Bassal, jef chippewa
Project Consultation — PeP (Productions electro Productions)

Support

Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) est rendu possible grâce à une association stimulant la recherche et la créativité canadienne en électroacoustique établie avec l’université Concordia en 1986. La CEC reconnaît également le support du Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi l’année dernière 20,1 millions dans les lettres et l’édition dans l’ensemble du Canada. Merci aussi à la Fondation SOCAN et aux membres de la CEC, qui ont aimablement fourni de l’aide financière au projet, et à PeP pour son aide constante à la production.

Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) is made possible thanks to a partnership fostering research and creativity in Canadian electroacoustics established with Concordia University in 1986. The CEC also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada. Thanks are also due to SOCAN Foundation and CEC Members, who have graciously provided further financial support to the project, and to the PeP team for continued production assistance.