Empreintes DIGITALes & modern electroacoustics

[fearandpanic]

There's been a few threads on the classic electroacoustic and musique concrète era, but I'm curious about what people think of the later stuff. In this context the music should be from the 1980s onwards.

Some composers still making new electroacoustic have been around a long time (Francis Dhomont is a contemporary of Pierre Schaeffer's), so feel free to interpret the topic fairly loosely. The empreintes DIGITALes label, which was founded in 1990 and now has a vast catalogue, seems to have replaced INA-GRM as a sort of reference label for this area. At least according to themselves. Among the relatively well-known people whose music they've released are Michel Chion, Robert Normandeau, Francis Dhomont, Michèle Bokanowski, Paul Dolden, Bernard Fort, Jonty Harrison, and René Lussier. Metamkine's releases have come up before in the other threads and seem to be more widely known, so I'd like to keep the emphasis off them here if possible. So anything on the label or in related areas that stand out for you? Or do you think the style has declined in its glossier, digital era.

[some guy]

I have most of their CDs and DVDs. It was "most" in 2006, anyway. (How time flies.)

I've been most struck with how different all the CDs are, so that's probably a good sign. It's not just business as usual.

I go to a lot of festivals around the world, and so I get to hear a fair amount of recent music. And there are some common tropes that show up from festival to festival, sometimes more, sometimes less.

I think perhaps the more interesting, vibrant expressions are in live electronics, not with fixed media. But that doesn't keep me from enjoying fixed media music, nor from seeking it out. Nor from hearing new and different things in it, wherever I go.

(Sorry for the lack of detail. I'm desperately trying to finish up some reviews and reports before I head out on another long road trip--to Wrocław, Bourges, and Boston (for some acoustic and mixed avant garde). Fun times!)

[Stephen]

Or do you think the style has declined in its glossier, digital era.

Well, in a word, YES.

I find the excessive aestheticisation of the sounds thats generally the norm in this territory these days to be extremely off-putting.

In the last couple of years or so I would rate Helena Gough's debut on Entr'acte, Angelo Petronella's on Die Schachtel and the Lionel Marchetti/Bhob Rainey disc as standouts, though (and probably because) all are somewhat outsiders to this realm.

but still, gotta love Dhomont.

[mudd]

i really enjoy the miniatures compilation on ED, really brings out the playfulness of electroacoustic music without the grandeur and pomp.

other than that i have fond memories of 'clair de terre' by robert normendeau and more skeptical recollections of john oswald's 'aparenthesi'. and i've heard several other discs, i recognize them by name but can't bring back any thoughts about the music.

m

[mudd]

as for the genre itself, most of the effect electroacoustic music i've enjoyed of late has been in a live setting, not necessarily live performance but with specially arranged and positioned 8-16 channel playback systems, possibly more. every other cd release seems to come with a handful of excuses about the mixdown process.

other than that, it's a little awkward to note that electroacoustic music of this sort remains a rigorously academic and scholarly pursuit. i recall a number of the artists in the ED catalog having been faculty or students at a music program in montreal.

m

[jon abbey]

the Lionel Marchetti/Bhob Rainey disc

do you mean the Rainey/Wehowsky disc on Sedimental?

[horaflora]

and the Lionel Marchetti/Bhob Rainey disc

? what's this?

oops, didn't see that, yeah is that sedimental disc what you mean?

[Salty Swift]

I've amassed extensive catalogue of their releases over the last two decades or more....Dhomont, Normandeau, Gobeil, Daoust are some of my favourite composers from the field.....not to be outdone are two three individuals whose work is rarely discussed- Paul Dolden, Christof Migone and someone whom I hold in high regard, Dan Lander - check out the Radio Rethink: Art, Sound and Transmission book [published by Walter Phillips Gallery back in 94]...which incidentally comes with a companion book Selected Survey of Radio Art in Canada 1967-1992 and a CD of various performances...

[Adam Asnan]

This is a great thread, infact, I am very interested as to other's appreciation of the latter day acousmatic arts.

I am a firm follower of the classic musique concrete traditions, extending into the mid-late 70s INA-GRM offerings, but fear that my peers are not so keen (that is to say, those composers with whom I study with, under Denis Smalley) and thus in my opinion tend to re-state the current stylisation of sterile, digitally modified spectra.

I am very greatful to ED for publishing their 2 discs by Michel Chion, one of my favourite figures in the field. Requiem, and Préludes a la vie. The latter of which (24 préludes a la vie) completed in 1990 is perhaps my favourite piece of musique concrete, and exhibits little of the stylisation that has pretty much become modern day's academic standard. (rightly so, for it is a perfect example of Chion's characteristic application of sound materials)

I have many other releases, although I have them for reference, and have not listened to many of them in concentration. Jonty Harrison's 2 discs are a clear standout for me, and in my opinion one of the leading figures/works in explicit computer-aided transformation of materials. ...Et Ainsi de suite..., Hot air, Sorties, etc. all outstanding works, full of imagination and the perfect balance between completely transparent (and beautifully recorded/mixed) source bound material, and carefully chosen digital transformations, retaining a vitality and imagination.

Denis Smalley, Yves Daoust, Natasha Barrett, and Stephen Roy's work on ED is also very impressive.

Although as a side note, in my opinion, the latter day stylisation as outlined above has come about due to a demand for maximum clarity in diffusion (performance) and effectivity across a wide range of acoustic halls etc. I'm still learning the ins and outs of the best 'sound' for performance. What sounds sterile in our little chambers and mid range loudspeakers, will 'warm up' when projected in a larger space. (it makes me wonder how Chion's work holds up in a larger diffusion setting..)

although, I am much more interested in the idiosyncratic degradation and artifice expressed in Michel Chion/Lionel Marchetti/Jerome Noetinger's explorations, that is to say, outside of their compositional merits.

ramble ramble..

[Adam Asnan]

Oh yes, and lets not forget John Young..

[visa tapani]

Good thread, I was planning to start one like this myself...

Metamkine's releases have come up before in the other threads and seem to be more widely known, so I'd like to keep the emphasis off them here if possible.

Funny, I'm almost entirely unfamiliar with what Metamkine has put out, but I'm very familiar with a lot of the Empreintes Digitales catalogue. I guess they are known in slightly different cultural contexts. Are there any other labels significant for contemporary EA?

Anyway, some of my favorites from ED:

- Most of Francis Dhomont's discs, particularly Cycle de l’errance and Les dérives du signe
- Some of Robert Normandeau's works like Lieux inouïs and Tangram
- Gilles Gobeil's La mécanique des ruptures
- natasha barrett - isostasie
- jonty harrison - articles indéfinis and evidence material
- Denis Smalley has a lot of interesting stuff as well (I was actually planning to go study under him next year, but he's retiring. Bah!)

Really, Francis Dhomont at his best is really as good as ED gets IMO.

Thinking about this I noticed that I'm much less familiar with material from, say the last 10 years. Any highlights that are this recent? Slightly worrying if not...

Here's a list of the most important works in the history of the Bourges competition. Obviously composing competitions are as academic as it gets (and a very questionable idea anyway), but there's plenty of good stuff in there as well.

Or do you think the style has declined in its glossier, digital era?

I find the excessive aestheticisation of the sounds thats generally the norm in this territory these days to be extremely off-putting.

the current stylisation of sterile, digitally modified spectra.

I'd be interested in elaborations on these criticisms. Is the problem simply with cliche sounds, or something else? What exactly is aestheticisation of sound in the end?

The current state of EA is an interesting question in other regards too. For example, what is electroacoustic music these days anyway and is the term meaningful anymore? There's been no mention of the soundscape composers in this thread, but I guess many of them are generally labelled as EA (Hildegard Westerkamp etc). I mean, Luc Ferrari certainly is. Also, is there really any reason why, say, Lambkin & Lescalleet's Breadwinner wouldn't be EA?

[visa tapani]

Oh yeah, I'm sharing a lot of that stuff on slsk if you're interested (username: vasara)...

[Stephen]

the Lionel Marchetti/Bhob Rainey disc

do you mean the Rainey/Wehowsky disc on Sedimental?

Yes, my bad, I guess that's a confusion born of their inclusion in the metamkine umbrella.

[Stephen]

in my opinion, the latter day stylisation as outlined above has come about due to a demand for maximum clarity in diffusion (performance) and effectivity across a wide range of acoustic halls etc.

Hmmm.. I heard Jonty Harrison and a bunch of other BEAST affiliated composers 'diffuse' on the BEAST system in Plymouth, and it left me utterly limp (with the exception of Harrison's Undertow. Sterile it certainly was. What do you mean by 'maximum clarity'? That we hear can hear all the sounds and their spatialisation at all times? I just don't buy it. They were all using material recorded on location and much was made of evoking 'place' in the programme notes, but to me it all sounded like it was recorded in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I live in Devon, it rains a lot down here, and I've never heard rain *glisten*, why the need to make it so? If you ask me there is just too much sugar-coating going on (admittedly these were less experienced or respected composers than Dhomont or Smalley) which serves no purpose in my eyes.

[Joda]

as for the genre itself, most of the effect electroacoustic music i've enjoyed of late has been in a live setting, not necessarily live performance but with specially arranged and positioned 8-16 channel playback systems, possibly more. every other cd release seems to come with a handful of excuses about the mixdown process.

other than that, it's a little awkward to note that electroacoustic music of this sort remains a rigorously academic and scholarly pursuit. i recall a number of the artists in the ED catalog having been faculty or students at a music program in montreal.

m

Mudd, you are correct. The Electroacoustic program(s) in Montreal are essentially a farm team for Empreintes DIGITALes & this type of modern electroacoustics. Most of the students and faculty, from when I was attending, had little or no understanding or experience of contemporary electro-acoustic developments outside the academic arena. The multi-channel playback system in a large dark concert hall can be a good situation to listen to fixed electro-acoustic composition but of course it only sounds 'right' if you're in the middle.

[fearandpanic]

I'm aware that this stuff is considered to be kind of lame around here, for many of the reasons already mentioned. In part the narrative and poetic aspects that continue in Francophone electroacoustics don't seem to sit very well with adherents of musical non-referentiality. And it seems to represent the losing side in the battle with non-establishment electroacoustics; the clueless, academically legitimate, ugly-duckling side. Also it falls in a slightly awkward time, too late to be classic and a little too early for the electronica boom of the mid 90s. (The chronology is only vague, but I think there's some truth in it.)

The university ivory-tower aspect is undeniably true from a practical point of view. but it's only a valuable fact up to a point. Milton Babbitt and others are often dismissed with the same wave of the wand, and again the sociological basis of the music seems more suitable for a general social observation than for a particular consideration of pieces of music. One of the reasons for the thread is not only to repeat the general line one might expect from IHM that much of the music is clueless and dated (reasonable as it may be) but to maybe rescue some worthwhile music from blanket dismissal.

- Some of Robert Normandeau's works like Lieux inouïs and Tangram

I know the Lieux Inouïs CD and had a bit of a hard time with most of it. "Jeux" (1988-99) starts off with a channel-flicking sample of medieval music and never really seems to get going, but there's a nice enough segue to a childrens' playground at one point. The piece I liked most there, "Rumeurs (Place De Ransbeck)." seemed to be closer to early musique concrète than the others; lots of splashing water and other only slightly transformed household sounds. The closing pieces especially seemed a bit like space-synth noodling, but maybe that's just a prejudice of mine.

[(<oo>)]

I really like Denis Dufour's Douze Mélodies Acousmatiques a lot. Concise, eventful, to the point.

[Joda]

The university ivory-tower aspect is undeniably true from a practical point of view. but it's only a valuable fact up to a point. Milton Babbitt and others are often dismissed with the same wave of the wand, and again the sociological basis of the music seems more suitable for a general social observation than for a particular consideration of pieces of music. One of the reasons for the thread is not only to repeat the general line one might expect from IHM that much of the music is clueless and dated (reasonable as it may be) but to maybe rescue some worthwhile music from blanket dismissal.

You've reminded me that the University hosts a good online resource for modern electroacoustic music in this vein, SONUS:

"SONUS is an online listening library (jukebox) of electroacoustic works, created and managed by the CEC for the benefit of the greater Electroacoustic / Computer Music / Sound Art community."

There are literally hundreds of submissions to this catalogue, including most of the known artists , also there is a lot related info and articles up on the CEC website. I recommend listening to submissions by Freida Abtan, James Schidlowsky, Sarah Peebles, Joshua Zubot, and Ian Churprun's I was very safe… in my dream or To many moments passed, amongst others.

[fearandpanic]

I really like Denis Dufour's Douze Mélodies Acousmatiques a lot. Concise, eventful, to the point.

Yeah, that's a great one. So is Dix Portraits from about the same time.

Another really good later-period INA-GRM one is Guy Reibel's Granulations-Sillages from the late 70s.

[Stephen]

Another really good later-period INA-GRM one is Guy Reibel's Granulations-Sillages from the late 70s.

Yeah, that one's ace. I should check out Dufour...

Any opinions of the Christian Clozier cds? I have Quasars, which I like a lot, but haven't heard any of the others.