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Performances
August 4th & 5th, 2009, 8pm, $5 (FREE for ST Intensive Participants)
SOUND TRAVELS INTENSIVE CONCERTS
The Loop Studio Centre for Lively Arts, 601 Christie St #170
Performances of work by emerging and mid-career composers attending the Sound Travels Intensive (a series of workshops over a 3-day period). Performances will feature classic analog and sensor-based digital spatialization techniques. Feedback and discussion from audience is encouraged.
August 6, 8pm, $15/$10 (FREE for INTENSIVE and SYMPOSIUM participants)
TORONTO ELECTROACOUSTIC SYMPOSIUM (TES) OPENING NIGHT CONCERT
Loop Centre for Lively Arts and Learning, 601 Christie St #176
Celebrate the opening of the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium by listening to a multichannel concert of works by international artists attending the symposium. Works featured were juried by an international panel of artists, researchers and teachers assembled by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community.
August 7, 8pm, $15/$10
ECOLOGY: WATER, AIR SOUND CONCERT
world premiers
by Nicolas Bernier and Marilyn Lerner
Loop Centre for Lively Arts and Learning, 601 Christie St #176
A chance to hear the latest emerging voices in sound art with acousmatic and mixed electroacoustic works performed using the NAISA spatialization system. Featured are world premieres by Nicolas Bernier (commissioned through the Canada Council for the Arts) and Marilyn Lerner. Also included is Les Arbres by Bernier along with works by Emilie LeBel, Hervé Birolini, Martin Bedard, and Adam Basanta. Performers include Nicolas Bernier and Scott Trottier.
Full program notes for the August 7 Concert
Écologie Matérielle by Adam Basanta
World Premiere by Emilie LeBel
Ozone by Hervé Birolini
BACKTACK (World Premiere) by Marilyn Lerner
Champs de fouilles (Excavations) by Martin Bedard
World Premiere by Nicolas Bernier
Les Arbres by Nicolas Bernier
Écologie Matérielle
by Adam Basanta
Between the natural enviroment and the consumer product derived from it (paper/plastic/wrappers/foil) lies a sonic and metaphoric continuum. Within this scope, I expore variations on the themes of extraction and re-depostion between opposing sound-images, investigating an evolving musical interplay between the ecological organiation of characteristics of each sound world.
She Dreams in a Transient Place (2009)
by Emilie LeBel
She Dreams in a Transient Place was written during a residency at The Banff Centre in fall 2008. In this piece, I explore thematically the transient nature of settlements in Alberta's Bow Valley where Banff is located. The piece incorporates recordings taken from the natural environment of the local area, and samples from cellist Rachel Desoer.
Ozone
by Hervé Birolini
Ozone has little to do with the musical clichés often associated with the saxophone. Instead it creates a space where elemental sounds, such as the sine waves used by the earliest synthesizers, or the iterative sequences of digital processing, are able to intersect with the raw breath and other saxophonic artifacts produced by Bertrand Gauguet's instruments.
BACKTACK (2009 - World Premiere)
by Marilyn Lerner
My mother's side of the family were tailors from Ozarow, Poland. In a book of childhood memories of the town written by Hillel Adler, he writes of each tailor having his or her own song as they worked in their shops. That sonic image has always haunted me. This piece was been made by "weaving together" sounds of sewing machines, scissors, steam irons, with immigrant accents, turns of phrase, textures of voices.
Champs de fouilles (Excavations)
by Martin Bedard
Commissioned by the ensemble Erreur de type 27 for the Québec City 400th anniversary (1608-2008) celebrations. Excavations is a homage to the history and unique character of Québec City (Canada). In the piece, I explore the cohabitation of electroacoustic media and sound culture, which I identify as being the unique sound heritage of a community or area.
COURANT.AIR (2009)
by Nicolas Bernier
World Premiere of NAISA Commission (2009)
for acoustic guitar, 4-track tape and live electronics
Acoustic Guitar : Simon Trottier
Ecology. Air. Water. Sounds. These words, like the theme for the current edition of Sound Travels, ineluctably lead me to the banks of the St. Lawrence river, with its landscapes created by erosion caused by wind and water. I thus look towards my roots by imagining the junction between a music derived from folk music and noisy sounds and wind, pushing the guitar to a digital abyss. Thanks to NAISA and to Simon Trottier.
Commissioned by New Adventures in Sound Art with financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts Music Section.
NICOLAS BERNIER
COURANT.AIR(2009) 10'
Pour guitare acoustique, bande 4 pistes et électronique en direct
Une commande de NAISA
Ecology. Air. Water. Sounds. Ces mots donnés comme thème de la présente édition Sound Travels me mènent inéluctablement aux rives du fleuve St-Laurent, à ces paysages façonnés par l'érosion causée par le vent et l'eau. Je cherche donc vers mes racines en imaginant la jonction entre une musique dérivant du folk et des matières bruiteuses et venteuses qui poussent la guitare aux abîmes du numérique. Merci à Naisa et à Simon Trottier.
Guitare acoustique : Simon Trottier
LES ARBRES (2004-09)
by Nicolas Bernier
For electric guitar, 4-track tape, live electronics and video
Electric guitar : Simon Trottier
Video : urban9
After a moment spent at the water's edge, I enter into the middle of the grounds where these forgotten trees of my childhood are. My moto there will be found: to abolish the borders between complexity and naivety, between popular and serious music, electronic music and acoustics, noise and melody. This quadraphonic version with electric guitar was created especially for Sound Travels.
NICOLAS BERNIER
LES ARBRES (2004-2009)
Pour guitare électrique, bande 4 pistes, électronique en direct et vidéo
Après un instant passé au bord de l'eau, j'entre au coeur des terres où se trouvent ces arbres oubliés de mon enfance. On y trouvera mon credo : abolir les frontières entre complexité et naïveté, entre musique populaire et sérieuse, entre musique électronique et acoustique, entre bruit et mélodie. Cette version quadriphonique avec guitare électrique a été créée spécialement pour Sound Travels.
Guitare électrique : Simon Trottier
Vidéo : urban9
August 8, 8pm, $15/$10
TWO PORTRAITS CONCERT
Retrospectives of work by Benjain Thigpen and Annette Vande Gorne
Loop Centre for Lively Arts and Learning, 601 Christie St #176
Retrospectives of work by Benjamin Thigpen and Annette Vande Gorne - two sound artists that are little known in Toronto but who have contributed greatly to the development of sound art in Europe in recent years. Thigpen's side of this duo portrait includes Balagan, Incandescence and Malfunction3093 while Vande Gorne's side features Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Est, Exil, Chant II and Figures d'espace from a her latest release on the famed empreintes DIGITALes label. Both artists work feature a wide range of energy, intensity and colour. The artists will both be on hand to perform their work and provide some insight to the processes behind their works.
Ben Thigpen - Balagan
Ben Thigpen - Incandescence
Ben Thigpen - Malfunction3093
Annette Vande Gorne - Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Est
Annette Vande Gorne - Exil
Annette Vande Gorne - Chant II
Annette Vande Gorne - Figures d'espace
balagan (2001)
by Ben Thigpen
"... but I let you fall back into chaos, like diving bells." - Lautréamont
balagan is a study in disintegration. In Hebrew, the title means "mess." As I composed the piece, the principle problematics for me revolved around the issues raised by this title: disintegration, chaos, disorder. But disorder is not just the absence of order; nor is order the simple exclusion of disorder. The two opposites do not exclude each other; they are folded into and founded on each other. The question (or one of them) is how things fall apart, and how in falling apart they take on orderly, coherent shapes.
I like to think that the form of balagan resembles that of the "constructures" my daughter used to make when she was 2 or 3 years old. There are many small objects arranged on the floor. Seen from a distance - as you enter the room, say - they give you the impression of a big mess; but if you look more closely, you become aware of a strong coherence in the juxtapositions and successions of objects. If you follow these links, you discover a changing, evolving logic; you get the feeling that it could lead almost anywhere, but never arbitrarily - that each step, however unforseeable, would display an inner necessity. In the end, if you continue, you are drawn into a kind of labyrinth, filled with interconnections and relations.
The sounds, all of acoustic origin, were transformed primarily by fragmentation - the extraction and superimposition of small bits of sound - and hybridization - the combination of the spectral energies of two different sounds. This processing was done by programs I wrote in Max/MSP; for the octophonic spatialization, I prepared a streamlined version of Ircam's Spatialisateur, to which I added numerous modules for automation and control.
Commissioned by Ina-GRM, 2001, and composed in their studios [Paris]. balagan was a finalist in the contest CIMESP 2003.
Incandescence (2003)
by Ben Thigpen
for Iannis Xenakis
"This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be: everliving fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out." - Heraclitus
Nearly all the original sound material for incandescence was extracted from Iannis Xenakis' Persepolis. This material was transformed by such processes as fragmentation, scrambling, distortion, comb filtering and reverberation, using programs I wrote in Max/MSP.
Composed during a Djerassi Artists Residency in May 2003. Many thanks to Naut Humon of Asphodel Records for his generous and energetic support, and to all the people of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, without whose "gift of time" this piece would never have been written.
incandescence was a finalist in the competition Musica Nova 2006 and in the VI International Contemporary Music Contest Città di Udine 2006.
Malfunction3093 (2007)
by Ben Thigpen
for K
A malfunction is not only a problem: the obsticle that stands in the way of our intentions, thwarting our immediate expectations, holds the potential for unforseeable illuminations and for the release of tremendous energy.
malfunction30931 is based on a computer malfunction, which I recorded in Ircam's Salle Varèse on 8 May 2004. The piece was composed nearly three years later at the Visby International Centre for Composers [Visby, Sweden].
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Est (2003)
by Annette Vande Gorne
To Hans Tutschku
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Est is a threnody for the civil victims of ideological-economic wars.
Claude Debussy's highly varied writing and composition techniques find a strong echo in electroacoustic writing techniques and sound processing. For example, in his music we can hear 'looped' repetitions of short cycles often transposed, with or without speed variation (fast high notes, slow low notes) or coloured differently each time they occur, dynamic contrasts, sudden changes in tempo through transition-less sections (abrupt editing), overlaying of figures in a continuous weft, oppositions of masses, of movements (mobile/tension, still/release)... His 3rd movement of La mer - Dialogue du vent et de la mer -, the 7th Prelude from the First Book for Piano - Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest -, and his orchestral work Jeux are all fine lessons.
There is also the special relationship with nature as a model. Here, nature is perceived in a diversity of energetic movements and spectral colours by the ear of a musician who tries not to describe it with anecdotal sounds, but to reread it and transpose the energy that drives natural phenomena. In turn, Debussy is taken as a model of energetic and musical behaviour, not as a sound source, but as a stylistic and dialogue reference point, one hundred years later. Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Est makes playful use of the opacity or transparency of a moving curtain that hides or lets us peak at a few fragments and reminiscences of Debussy, who would no doubt have participated in the adventure of electroacoustic music, and would conceivably have integrated space as a musical parameter...
Commission: Monumenti Pianistici (Cagliari, Sardinia)
Premiere: June 7, 2003, Monumenti Pianistici, Exma' (Cagliari, Sardinia)
[English translation: François Couture, ix-07]
Exil, chant II (1983, 2006)
by Annette Vande Gorne, Composer & Saint-John Perse, Writer
This admirable poem by Saint-John Perse has everything: rhythm, speed, movement, space, matter, numbers and form. The music provides the text with natural images/movements, their synthetic imitation and transformation being chosen for their expressiveness. The mix is symphony-like in its great variety of sound sources and creates standardised energetic textures, which either blend into each other vertically, or on the contrary, form contrapuntal chains.
Premiere: July 30, 1983, Stalker (Brussels, Belgium). The text is excerpted from the poem Exil (1942) by Saint-John Perse (© Éditions Gallimard, 1945).
[English translation: François Couture, ix-07]
Figures d'espace (2004)
by Annette Vande Gorne
* Vide et Plein [Emptiness and Full] * Texture * Ritournelle 1 [Ritornello 1] * Vagues [Waves] * Ritournelle 2 [Ritornello 2] * Contrastes [Contrasts] * Ritournelle 3 [Ritornello 3]
Commission: Noise Watchers Unlimited
Premiere: November 19, 2004, Rainy Days, Villa Louvigny (Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
To Claude Lenners
Aerial or blocked space, in movement or static, in contrasting colours, materials and movements... but what does 'space' mean? Here, each part requests a 'complimentary soul' from the performer at the mixing board, a certain virtuosity. In the tradition of the classical study or prelude, the piece has been designed as an instrumental gesture, as space figures conditioning the gestural answer of the performer.
[English translation: François Couture, ix-07]
August 9, 2pm, PWYC
AGAINST THE WINDE OUTDOOR CONCERT WITH KITES
Due to the fact that this performance relies heavily on the right wind and weather conditions, we will meet at the NAISA space at 2pm (601 Christie Street #252 - near Christie and St Claire West at the Artscape Wychwood Barns 2nd floor) on August 9th and Ken will decide at that point which park we will go to for the performance. If for some reason the wind is not in our favour, Ken will instead show and play the various devices he has created during his residency here (he creates small electronic instruments using very old technology).
What would happen if you connected a kite to a guitar resonator and pickups? Join us for this not to be missed outdoor performance by Winnipeg media artist Ken Gregory in which he will coax music out of kites with his site-specific performance work Against the Wind.
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