1^st prize of the 2023 JTTP composition contest 

The Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s Jeu de temps /Times Play competition highlights new electroacoustic works produced by young or emerging composers and sound artists from or living in Canada.

Julie Delisle (ca)

Julie Delisle is a composer, multidisciplinary researcher specializing in audio technologies and a flautist. She graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal,  holds a doctorate in musicology (PhD) from the University of Montreal and is a former postdoctoral fellow at the Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory (McGill University). Her music is colored by her research into instrumental timbre and her interest in sound design, Chinese martial arts and mathematics.

Program 

Pipa Aura Suichi (2023) 11’03”
Pipa aura Suichi was entirely composed with sounds coming from the instrumentarium of Jean-François Laporte (Productions Totem Contemporain). It appeared to me that the materials chosen, thanks to their articulatory possibilities, often behaved in such a way as to cause chain reactions. The sounds, taken outside their instrumental context in a sort of schizophonia, also obey a particular temporality which unfolds over the triggers, attacks, resonances and propulsions, like the incredible machines of the Japanese show Pitagora Suichi.

Francis Dhomont (fr)

An ardent exegete of the acousmatic modality, his work has, since 1963, consisted exclusively of pieces on support which testify to a constant interest in morphological writing and for the ambiguities between sound and the image that it can arouse.

Mega-Hertz Grand Prix 2013 (Germany), Doctor Honoris causa from the University of Montreal. SACEM 2007 Prize for best contemporary electroacoustic creation. Career scholarship from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (2000).

He has received numerous distinctions for his works, including, in 1999, five first international prizes for four of his works. Recipient in 1997 of the Lynch-Staunton Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, 1st Prize (1981) and “Magisterium” Prize (1988) at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France), Ars Electronica Prize 1992 (Austria), etc. .

From 1978 to 2004, he shared his activities between France and Quebec, where he taught at the University of Montreal from 1980 to 1996. He now lives in Avignon (France) and devotes himself to composition and theoretical reflection.

The very first concert presented by Réseaux des arts médiatiques (Akousma) was given on Saturday, November 2, 1991, at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, in Montreal. It was a concert by Francis Dhomont, who was celebrating his 65th birthday at the time.

His work on electrocd

Program 

SOMME TOUTE (2022) 14’30”
spatialized by Louis Dufort

To Annette Vande Gorne

Looking/listening to a journey spanning more than fifty years and more than ninety opuses. Reminder, nostalgic assessment, synthesis, outcome perhaps.

This free abstraction, introduced by my latest writing choices, is the testimony of a long journey over the successive discoveries which constitute my contribution to the rich acousmatic repertoire. It also alludes to eighteen of my milestone works, temporal testimonies which could summarize the evolution of my thought and my language. FD

Commissioned by Musiques & Recherches and composed in the composer's studio in Avignon (France).

Mourad Bncr (ca)

Multimedia artist based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal). Mourad Bncr's sound and visual work is inspired by the concept of ephemeral memory. His creations infused with beat music leave a lot of room for texture and detail, establishing links between his North African cultural heritage, universes imbued with science fiction and a fascination with technological obsolescence. Over the years, he has led a prolific professional career as a trainer and sound designer specializing in the creation of immersive environments, spatialized audio and mixed reality, with recurring collaborators such as French artist Pierre Friquet or again the Nature Graphique and Iregular studios. Combining real sound recording, instrumentation, sound synthesis and microsampling techniques, his musical language appropriates the notion of space in a unique way and comes close to cinematic composition. He wrote the music for several films, collaborating on the work of directors such as Nicolas Lachapelle, Ariel St-Louis Lamoureux, Florian Delafournière and Kibwe Tavares. After several musical releases under the alias Famelik, a project between electronica and abstract-hip hop which has occupied him since 2007, his musical project assumes several different trajectories, giving rise to different aliases including [indistinct voices over PA], a project encapsulating the most abstract aspects of his creations. His EP UNREST, released by Unlog in 2021, is intended to be a synthesis of this journey, an assumed transition towards a new musical color.

Website
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Program 

The World After Us (2020-23) 19’33’’

The world after us; the part of us we leave behind in the places we pass through.

Between hauntology and fragments of synthetic sound memory, this triptych continues the work of the piece UNREST, released in 2021 by Unlog under the project [indistinct voices over PA]. Meditative, sometimes abrasive, these three images aim to be both immaterial and inhabited, confronting our relationship with space, imaginary places haunted by our collective past and future unconscious.

This collection takes its name from the filmmaker Nicolas Lachapelle's eponymous film released in 2020, a creative documentary and cinematic reflection on the spirit of places, for which Mourad composed the soundtrack. The two artists also collaborated on the short film Zug Island (2022).

Guillaume Côté (ca)

Through a blend of concrete, synthetic and vocal materials, sound artist Guillaume Côté explores the territorial, linguistic and social dynamics specific to Quebec.

His eclectic artistic research is based not only on the encounter with the Other through a musical discourse with narrative or informative aims, but also on the abstraction induced by modular systems.

An avid collaborator, he is co-founder of the audio-digital creation company Trames, of Falaises and Aubes collective, as well as holding the position of technical-artistic support at Avatar center in Quebec City, Canada.

Discrete Stream of Light, released in 2023, is his first solo release.

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Program

Discrete Stream of Light (2022) 20’

Arpeggiated patterns, hypnotic repetitions, all within reach of a discrete stream of light.

A 20-minute work containing 4 distinct movements. Originally recorded in real time, with no subsequent modifications, the version presented at Akousma takes up the same principle of spontaneity, with everything played in real time.

Roxanne Lacasse (ca)

Roxanne Melissa Guerra-Lacasse, born on a Wednesday, March 30, 1994, is a multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Quebec, near the Metropolis, navigating between two cultures: Quebecois and Mexican. Throughout her journey, the arts have been at the core of her career. She pursued studies in theater at Laval University and electroacoustic composition at the Montreal Conservatory of Music. The theme of love has been a significant source of inspiration for her, serving as a driving force behind her creative endeavors.

Following her studies, she dedicated herself to her non-profit organization, Angle Psy, which she co-founded with the aim of raising awareness among young people on topics related to mental health and rape culture. Her non-profit organization has garnered numerous awards and distinctions in the realm of entrepreneurship.

Simultaneously, she continues to work on her musical projects, striving to enhance her overall artistic body of work.

Programme

La Berceuse de la veuve (2020-23) 10’15”

«La Berceuse de la Veuve» originated from a theatrical piece I had written as part of my dramatic writing course during my Bachelor's degree in theater at Laval University. The basic concept revolved around the quest for Eternal Love. To achieve this, the portrayal of my secondary characters drew inspiration from the characteristics of stones that I personally associated with history, while my protagonist was inspired by music, which, for me, is connected to the vibrational fields existing in all forms.

After completing the writing, I translated my piece into Spanish to stage it in Costa Rica as part of my "Proyecto Final" course. I conducted several workshops on sound research with my actors, but I felt that there was a missing dimension to my work. After my stay in Costa Rica, I studied electroacoustic composition at the Conservatory to further develop my musical skills. During my second year, I composed music for this piece I had written, focusing my research on ritualistic music. I primarily expressed this composition using stones and minerals, as well as other materials I consider ritualistic, such as guitar strings, chimes, air, water, etc.

I wanted to take the work even further, so during a creative residency between Prim and Code d'accès, I worked on the spatialization of my piece to provide the audience with an additional dimension to the sonic experience. In this sense, my piece aims to be a multidimensional and sensory experience. I look forward to sharing the spatialization of the fruit of my efforts in this space with you.

Rocío Cano Valiño (ar)

Rocío CANO VALIÑO - born in Buenos Aires, Argentina – is a composer and interior designer. Rocío’s musical production is dedicated to instrumental, mixed and electroacoustic pieces. She is a member of the artistic committee of the Ensemble Orbis, which is based in Lyon and she co-founded. Rocío’s music was performed by ensembles such as: Proxima Centauri, HANATSU mirror, Paramirabo, Ensemble Orbis, Ensemble Ars Nova, Duo PARCOURS, among others...

Rocío is pursuing her Master’s in Contemporary Composition at the CNSMD in Lyon (France), where she studies with François Roux. She also takes lessons with Martín Matalon and Luca Antignani. She did an international mobility at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz (Austria) with Franck Bedrossian. Rocío obtained a DNSPM in composition at the CNSMDL in Lyon, a degree in musicology at the University Lumière Lyon 2, a Diploma of Musical Studies (DEM) in electroacoustic composition with Stéphane Borrel at the CRR in Lyon. In Argentina, she studied composition with Demian Rudel Rey.

She has received various commissions: Aide à l’écriture du Ministère de la Culture [FR]; France Musique “Création Mondiale”, residency at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and premiered at the Festival Présences 2020 at the Maison de la Radio [FR]; Fondo Nacional de las Artes [AR]; Studio Césaré CNCM [FR]; Ibermúsicas [AR-Latin America]; Bahía[in]sonora Festival [AR]; SACEM [FR]; OARA [FR] …

Her works have received distinctions from: Destellos Foundation [AR], Musicworks [CA], TRINAC UNESCO [AR], Banc d'Essai GRM [FR], KLANG! [FR], Exhibitronic [FR], Rampazzi Prize [IT], Marcelle Deschênes Prize [CA], Métamorphoses [BE], TRIMARG [AR], Luigi Russolo Award [FR-ES], among others. Rocío’s compositions have been selected and performed in various festivals around the world.

In 2017, the label Resterecords released her first monographic album “Tâches”. Rocío's music is published by Babel Scores, Score Follower, Musiques & Recherches, Monochrome Vision, Taukay Edizioni Musicali and Phas.e. La Lettre du Musicien published her "Portrait double vie" written by Antoine Pecqueur in the "Architecture" edition in 2020.

Website

Program 

Astérion (2018) 8’22”

Astérion is an acousmatic piece inspired by the story “The House of Asterion” by Borges. The story describes the life of the Minotaur named Asterion who lives in an immense palace (the Labyrinth) composed of such a tangle of rooms and corridors that it is impossible for anyone other than his architect (Daedalus) to find his path. This is his home and his prison, is finite and at the same time infinite. He spends his days playing, running through stone galleries and pretending to sleep. Every nine years, nine men enter his house so Asterion release them from their suffering. One of them prophesied, at the moment of his death, that one day his redeemer would arrive (Theseus).

The acousmatic work leads the auditor through the labyrinth. In the last part, the musical concentration is accentuated linking this moment to the confrontation of Theseus with the Minotaur. The sigh of the end represents the last breath of Asterion.

The piece was awarded at the Banc d'Essai 2018 GRM (France) and it received the Teresa Rampazzi Prize 2018 (Italy), the Exhibitronic Prize 2018 (France), a special mention at the Métamorphoses Competition 2018 (Belgium) and the First Prize Destellos Foundation 2019 (Argentina).

Okno (2020) 10’

Okno is an electroacoustic stereo piece inspired by the story "Okno, el esclavo" by the Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo. In the tale, the idea of the real and the fictitious is always present, at the uncertain border between dream and reality. It also describes the invention of the imagination... The story considers both identity and art as vectors of expression.

Through this musical piece, the idea of the imaginary is expressed by sounds that may have a connotation already determined in themselves - an imaginary sound is then constructed outside its original context. Moreover, in the work, there are recordings of machine devices (tape recorders,...) questioning the relationship between human beings and automation. It is about this limit, where the tool ceases to have an entity of its own to become an element integrated in us? The fact that I manipulated the machine, doesn't that make it a human behavior?


The work was commissioned by Radio France for the radio broadcast "Création Mondiale" and was realized at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris, France. The premiere of the piece was on February 14, 2020 at the Festival Présences at the Maison de la Radio (Paris).

Okno received the 1st prize of the Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest 2020, the Marcelle Deschênes Prize 2020 (Canada), the 2nd Prize of the International Electroacoustic Composition Competition Klang! 2021 (France) and an Honorable Mention from the Iannis Xenakis International Electroacoustic Composition Competition 2021 (Greece).

Sarah Belle Reid (ca)
Sarah Belle Reid is a performer-composer who plays trumpet, modular synthesizer, and an ever-growing collection of handcrafted electronic instruments. Her unique musical voice explores the intersections between contemporary classical music, experimental and interactive electronics, visual arts, noise music, and improvisation. Often praised for her ability to transport audience members through vivid sonic adventures, Reid's sonic palette has been described as ranging from "graceful" and "danceable" all the way to "silk-falling-through-space," and "pit-full-of-centipedes" (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her debut album for trumpet and interactive electronics, "Underneath and Sonder," was released on pfMENTUM in October, 2019.

When watching Sarah Belle Reid perform live, one quickly notices that her trumpet is also unusual—the blinking lights and colorful wires attached to her horn are part of an electronic sensor-based interface she co-designed, called MIGSI. Reid was inspired to build MIGSI as a way of integrating her passion for technology, trumpet, and improvisation. She has been gaining international recognition for the work since it's initial development in 2015: “Reid has greatly extended the possibilities of the humble trumpet into new territory by the application of innovative sensing technology and sound processing.” (Sequenza 21). She frequently performs, leads workshops, and lectures at notable festivals, institutions, and conferences around the world, such as Moogfest, Stanford University, and the International Conference of New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).

Reid's compositional practice draws influence from trumpeter-improviser Wadada Leo Smith (with whom she worked closely with while attending Calarts) and sound artist/electronic pioneer Pauline Oliveros, for their use of nontraditional notational practices and performance philosophies. In 2013–14, Sarah Belle Reid played trumpet in legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden's band while pursuing graduate studies at Calarts. Haden asked her to improvise on one of the songs, expressing that he didn't want to hear the "right" notes or chord changes. Instead, he said, "I want to hear your voice." Although simple on the surface, this moment deeply impacted Reid, inspiring her pursue her creative interests and curiosities without concern for whether they were the "right" choices, or how they would all fit together.

In Reid's improvisations and compositions, musical notation is often experimental and graphical—an invitation to explore a new sonic universe. This spirit for exploration has led her to collaborate with musicians and artists of all genres, including experimental electronic musician David Rosenboom, thereminist Carolina Eyck, and baroque-pop artist Julia Holter. Reid recorded trumpet and electronics on Holter's 2019 record Aviary, and recently wrapped up an extensive tour throughout North America, Europe, and Australia as a member of her band. Reid's own compositions have been premiered and performed by a number of renowned musicians, most recently pianist Vicki Ray and trumpeter Nate Wooley, and have received support and recognition from the Association of Canadian Women Composers and SOCAN. In 2017 her composition “Flux” for amplified percussion quartet won the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Next Wave Composer Initiative.
Reid holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from California Institute of the Arts, with a research focus on the development of new electronic instruments and musical notation systems as interfaces for exploring temporal perception and co-creation. She also has a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts, as well as a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Reid is on faculty at Chapman University (Orange, CA) teaching music technology, as well as Temple University (Philadelphia, PA), where she teaches Physical Computing and Electronic Instrument Design.

Website


Program Manifold (2023) 25’

Manifold is an investigation into temporal perception and memory—tiny moments that seem to persist indefinitely; hazy, fragmented narratives that degrade and slip away; forgotten rituals and cherished traditions.

This work— for trumpet, voice, live processing & interactive electronics—explores the collection, manipulation and distortion of moments in time through the use of feedback, looping, chaotic circuits, and granular processing in combination with experimental trumpet and vocal techniques.

The result is a constantly churning and shape-shifting sound world that is at once intimate, relentless, playful, and surreal—frenetic improvisation, melting melodies, and punctuated silence.

Diego Bermudez Chamberland (ca/cr)

Diego Bermudez Chamberland is a Latin-Quebec artist (Québécois/Costa Rican) who navigates several mediums related to sound and audiovisual creation such as composition, live musical performance, audiovisual performance and sound design.

His practice is inspired by his interest in exploring the mix of sound and visual materials. Collaboration is an essential aspect of his artistic practice. He sees it as a way to transcend his creative reflexes and thus take his works to new horizons.

He collaborates closely with Productions Totem Contemporain both in the creation of works for invented instruments, as well as for sound recording and the establishment of the Totem Électroacoustique competition. He also organizes the muramur concert series which leaves room for performative audiovisual exploration.

His works have been performed in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia and Mexico.
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Programme 

Destin//Trouble (2021) 18’21”

Destin//Trouble is the second composition of an acousmatic work in three movements (Cartografía interior) drawing its inspiration mainly from Scandinavian mythology as told in Snorri Sturluson's collection: the Edda. It is important to emphasize that the work does not attempt to materialize this universe in a literal way, but rather offers a free and personal sound adaptation. A music was born that explores energy, continuous and fragmented temporality, multiple spaces through varied timbres and articulations rather than research focused on mimicry or the literal recreation of this universe.

The possible connections between some major themes of Scandinavian mythology (natural forces, infinite territories and dynamism) and the composition were explored during the creative process. These themes are transposed into the morphology of sounds, the formal approach to editing and the work of space. The sound materials at the heart of the work come from various experiments based on the hybridization of synthetic sounds, acoustic instruments, naturalistic sound recordings, as well as a series of transformations using digital audio processing.

Destin//Trouble took the third place (ex æquo) at the 2021 JTTP composition contest.

Nicola Ratti (it)

Nicola Ratti is a multifaceted musician and sound designer who has been active for years in various experimental felds. His sound production creates systems that take shape from repetition and expansion, with particular attention to the construction of environments that gravitate in relation to the space and architecture we live in and balancing the emotional and perceptual orientations we are used to.

Born in Milano in 1978, he has performed in Europe, North America, Russia and Japan and his albums have been released by different international labels since 2006. His longest collaborative project the duo Bellows, formed with Giuseppe Ielasi in 2007. As composer and sound designer his works cross different felds from theatre to cinema passing through performing arts, radio works and sound art.

He's a co-founder and member of Standards, an artist-run centre focused on sound and space, active in Milano since 2015. This is a short bio, visit his website for a deeper look on his production.

Website
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PROGRAM

so the year will be this one 20’

Live version of K1/K2 for modular synthesizer piano tape loops.

Tomoko Sauvage (jp)

Tomoko Sauvage (JP/FR) is a musician and sound artist who is best known for her long-time experimentation on instrument combining water, ceramics, sub-aquatic amplification and electronics. Her research is grounded in live-performance practices that embrace the unpredictable dynamics of materials. Incorporating ritualistic gestures, she playfully improvises with environments, using chance as a compositional method. Her performances and installations have been presented at RIBOCA, V&A Museum, Manifesta, Roskilde Festival, Sharjah Art Foundation, Centre Pompidou Metz and Nyege Nyege Festival, among others.

Sauvage’s performances have been presented internationally including RIBOCA (Riga), V&A Museum (London), Manifesta (Palermo, Marseille), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Roskilde Festival, Centre Pompidou Metz and Nyege Nyege Festival (Uganda). Her installation piece has recently been exhibited at Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE) and Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris).

Her third solo album Fischgeist was recorded in a water tank in Berlin and published by bohemian drips in 2020. She lives and works in Paris since 2003.

Her work is supported by La Pommerie/ CRAFT (creation of the porcelain bowls, Limousin, France) and Aquarian Audio (Hydrophones, USA)

Website
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Waterbowls solo (improvisation) 30’

Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Sauvage moved to Paris in 2003 after studying jazz piano in New York. Through listening to Alice Coltrane and Terry Riley, she became interested in Indian music and studied improvisation of Hindustani music. In 2006, she attended a concert of Aanayampatti Ganesan, a virtuoso of Jalatharangam – the traditional Carnatic music instrument with water-filled porcelain bowls. Fascinated by the simplicity of its device and sonority, Sauvage immediately started to hit China bowls with chopsticks in her kitchen. Soon her desire of immersing herself in the water engendered the idea of using an underwater microphone and led to the birth of the electro-aquatic instrument.

Pierre-Luc Senécal (ca)

Master of Music (Université de Montréal, CA), Pierre-Luc Senécal built his artistic practice within the rich electroacoustic music field. Strongly inspired by rock, pop, and metal, he instills his electronic pieces with sensibility, lyricism and dashing passion. Listen to his music and you will discover dark depths and halos of luminous sounds. Hear the roar of its repertoire, complex and contrasted.

Amongst his notable achievements are the sound design for the famous Resident Evil 7: Biohazard video game and the founding of the dark, clamorous and attention-catching Growlers Choir. This unique vocal ensemble, exclusively made up of metal singers, was featured on America's Got Talent, one of the most famous TV shows in the world.

Program

Broken Voices (2023) 14’ - **premiere**

Broken Voices marks the first segment of a series exploring the theme of war. This haunting subject prompted extensive historicalresearch, which paradoxically heightened artistic inquiries. How does one depict in music the ravages of  war? How to employ sound to convey the brutality of an armed conflict? How to make specific war trauma resonate universally? How to compose about an unexperienced reality? Broken Voices stands as my endeavour to address these questions.

The piece fuses elements from prior works, sounds of metallic objects, vintage vinyl songs, and crucially, voice samples. Processed with saturation and feedback, the voices echo within themselves, metaphorically symbolizing anguished cries muffled by cascades of noise.

I'm grateful to Marc Béland, Émilie Sigouin, Vincent Pascal, and Rose Naggar-Tremblay for their voices. Additionally, I extend my appreciation to Jonathan Littell, who generously granted permission for the incorporation of excerpts from his novel "The Kindly Ones." I co-created this piece in partnership with Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, who provided invaluable assistance as a music producer, and Bernard Gariépy-Strobl, who expertly fulfilled the role of mixing engineer.

Marja Ahti (fi)

Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a Swedish-Finnish composer and sound artist based in Turku, Finland. Ahti works with field recordings and other acoustic sound material combined with synthesizers and electronic feedback in order to find the space where these sounds start to communicate. She makes music that rides on waves of slowly warping harmonies and mutating textures – rough edged, yet precise compositions, rich in detail.

Ahti has presented her music in many different contexts around Europe, in Japan and the United States. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner Niko-Matti Ahti and in the artist/organizer collective Himera.

Website

PROGRAM

Still Lives (2020-2023), 21’

• Untitled
  
• Dust / Light
  
• In Ictu Oculi
  
• Exosphere
  

For her Akousma concert Marja Ahti will perform a set fusing new material with unique realizations of recent pieces. Ahti's performances are often a continuation of the compositional process, in which new pieces grow like branches out of pre-existing structures.

Devon Hansen (us)

Devon Hansen is a musician and writer based in Montreal.

Having produced electronic music since age 12 and sharpened their compositional skills through Concordia University’s Electroacoustic Studies program, Hansen’s work has taken a wide range of forms — from hip-hop, techno, and ambient music to compositions for podcasts, installations, and interactive media, as well as multichannel acousmatic pieces. Their music has been released by a number of labels in North America, Europe, and Japan, and they have performed in small independent spaces and at larger festivals alike.

Most recently, Hansen has developed an approach to improvised performance that focuses on the hybrid use of modular synthesis and laptop, wherein the laptop serves as a live looper and processor for a single sound source. No patch notes or structures are determined in advance, and little to no rehearsal takes place, a method inspired by Hansen’s experience as part of the improvisation trio Fousek/Hansen/Tellier-Craig.

Hansen is currently working on a series of releases for their digital label Idioms. You can also follow their work on Instagram.

PROGRAM

Untitled Improvisation 

"There is a state of mind that means being open to anything and trying to be extremely vulnerable to things. I try to know nothing, to be simple, curious, and open. And I try not to be clever. That’s the state of mind."— Laurie Anderson

Combining laptop and modular synthesizer, this improvisation makes use of a single synthesis voice to build layers via on-the-fly patching, live-looping, and processing. It begins from a basic initial patch and evolves through curious whims and impulsive decisions, leaning toward simplicity, restraint, and delicate detail.

Nicola Giannini (ca/it)

Nicola Giannini is an electroacoustic music composer based in Montreal. His practice focuses on immersive music, both acousmatic and live. His works have been presented in North America, South America and Europe. He received the first prize at the 2019 JTTP competition organized by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and an honorable mention at the XII Fundación Destellos competition. He was also a finalist in the 2018 Città di Udine competition. Originally from Italy, he is a doctoral student under the supervision of Robert Normandeau at the Université de Montréal, where he is also a research assistant at the Groupe de recherche en immersion spatiale (GRIS) and a lecturer.

Program

Rebonds (2021) 13’

Rebonds is a playful piece that explores the boundaries between rhythm, pitch, texture, and space. The work is inspired by the rhythmic figure of the rebound, a recurrent figure in electroacoustic music, characterized by the repetition of an element at a progressively increasing speed. The goal is to create sound choreographies, exploring sound spatialization possibilities. The work was composed at the Université de Montréal and during a residency at the Sporobole art center in Sherbrooke.

In October 2022, the piece won the Micheline-Coulombe-Saint-Marcoux prize during the first edition of the AKOUSMAtique competition.

Bénédicte (ca)

Maxime Gordon is a Montreal based interdisciplinary artist working primarily in sound and music. She has been releasing and writing experimental electronic music as Bénédicte since 2017. Her music combines soaring synths, distorted field-recordings and glittering vocal samples to explore moments of introspection and feeling.

She has performed and presented work at venues and festivals across North America and Europe such as MUTEK (Montreal), the Spatial Sound Institute (Budapest), MONOM (Berlin), Eastern Bloc x Nuit Blanche (Montreal), and Glory Affairs x Punctum (Prague).

Her most recent album is the 5 track EP When It Binds that came out on NYC-based record label Blueberry Records in 2021. She is currently writing a new album and hosting soundwalks around Montreal.

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Program

Halves, Shoals (2023) 15’50

World premiere

Elias Merino (es)

Elías Merino is a composer, sonic artist and researcher based in Madrid. His practice includes installation, composition, and live performance. His work drifts from algorithmic abstract computer music, to contemporary unusual electronics, and instrumental music; and explores time-perspective shifting, fractured narratives, immersive contemplation, states of bewilderment, otherness, and the uncanny.

He is also interested in different approaches related with speculative futures and fiction, post-digital materiality, object-oriented composition, and Posthumanities. Combining his personal activity, he is involved in collaborative projects. Elías is one half of the audiovisual duo SYNSPECIES w/ Tadej Droljc and half of Grievous Bodily Harmonics w/ Rian Treanor.

His work has been exhibited across Japan, the US, UK, Spain, France, Czech Republic, South America, Serbia, Turkey, Romania, Italy, Canada, Germany, South Korea, Portugal, Taiwan, Sweden, Poland, Finland or The Netherlands. He has performed in festivals and venues such Sónar Festival (Barcelona and Istambul) MUTEK (Montreal and Mexico),  Philharmonie de Paris (NEMO Biennale), L.E.V. Festival, Semibreve, Cafe OTO, Lunchmeat Festival, HCMF (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival), Sonica Glasgow, MNAC - National Museum of Contemporary Art Romania, La Casa Encendida, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Matadero Madrid, or MNCARS to mention a few. His recorded albums have been released on different labels including Room40 or SUPERPANG among others.

Elías Merino holds a Masters Degree in sonic arts and PhD in composition at CeReNeM (Centre for Research in New Music).

Website

Program

Synthesis of Unlocated Affections: empathy distress (2023) 30’

#thingness #xenorepresentation #presence #brutalistmateriality #uncanny #defamiliarisation #postdigitalontology #noornamentation #elasticity #wrongsublime #unitary #disafection #partiallyconnectedessentiallyisolated #displacingtheemitter #selftransformation #unusualemergentqualities #othernes

Evan Magoni / Gonima (us)

gonima is an alias of Evan Magoni (he/him), a Montreal-based audiovisual artist exploring glitch aesthetics, complex rhythms, bright melodies, and ambient atmospheres. He employs pointillist audio editing, live playing, and generative musical processes to create detailed digital textures, ethereal tonality, and collage-like musical arrangements with an emotive core.

The gonima project started in 2011 in Philadelphia. Releases have found homes on Satellite Era in Chicago; Sunset Waves in Austin, Texas; Bullflat3.8 in Kyoto, Japan; Montreal labels ygrade and Ancient Robot; and in Munich, Germany on Slam City Jams.

Musical interests: deep listening, melodic tension and release, glitch sound design, drones, syncopation, gestural movement, sound collage.

Site web
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Program

Homeostasis (2023) 15’40

Création

Olivia Block (us)

Olivia Block is a media artist and composer. Currently, her practice includes live performance, recordings, audio-visual installations, sound design, and scores for orchestra and chamber music concerts.

Block’s studio pieces often combine field recordings, electronic sounds, electric organ, piano and long chamber music passages. She composes scores for ensemble, orchestra, pipe organ and piano. Her recordings are published on Another Timbre, Erstwhile, Glistening Examples, NNA Tapes, Room40, Sedimental, and Touch, among other labels.

Block performs using various techniques and instruments. She plays improvised and composed pieces on synth organ, laptop, analog synth, amplified objects, inside of grand piano and microphone, among other materials.

Block creates multi-channel diffusion concerts and site-specific, multi-channel sound installations. She recently completed a 14-channel sound installation featuring sounds from Harry Bertoia’s “Sonambient” sculptures for the Nasher Sculpture Gallery in Dallas, TX.

Block has performed, premiered and exhibited her work throughout Europe, America, and Japan in tours in festivals and performance series including Incubate (Tilburg), MoogFest, Festival del Bosque Germinal (Mexico City), Sonic Light (Amsterdam), Redbull Academy, Kontraste (Krems), Dissonanze (Rome), Archipel (Geneva) and many others.

Block has created site specific sound installations for public spaces and exhibition spaces worldwide, including the including Arthur Ross Gallery at University of Pennsylvania, CEAM at Flagler University, MCA Chicago, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Museo Reina Sofia, and University of Chicago, Manhattan Museum of Arts and Design, Sokolowsko Sanitorium (Poland), CONTEXT (Miami and NY), and The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (Chicago). She recently completed a 14- channel sound installation featuring sounds from Harry Bertoia’s “Sonambient” sculptures for the Nasher Sculpture Gallery in Dallas, TX. Her most recent album, Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea, is out on Room40.

Website
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Program

Breach (2022) 24’

Block’s new multichannel sound composition contains field recordings from various locations within the Laguna San Ignacio (San Ignacio lagoon) in the Baja, Mexico. Additionally, Block includes synthesized audio material in response to the field recordings. This composition places the listener in the lagoon from multiple points of view-underwater, on the shore, and inside of imaginary seascapes. The combination of field recordings and textures creates a subjective aural space rather than an objective representation of a location.

The sound collage is a framework through which we might imagine the experience of a listening whale. As we imagine ourselves listening, swimming and breathing we are often interrupted by the presence of anthropogenic noises. San Ignacio is the winter home to eastern Pacific gray whales (whose exhalation breaths at the surface water may be heard in some of the recordings). The lagoon is an UNESCO protected, pristine location for the whales to breed and feed. There are boats present in the waters, which have been captured in these recordings, presenting a loud din of noise underwater which covers the natural sounds.

Aho Ssan LIVE (fr)

Aho Ssan is the artist name of Paris based Niamké Désiré. After studying graphic design and cinema, he began to compose electronic music and create his own digital instruments. Shortly thereafter he went on to win the Foundation France television prize for his soundtrack to the film of Ingha Mago in 2015 and has worked on several projects related to IRCAM/GRM inFrance. His debut LP «Simulacrum» was released on the 7th of February 2020 via Subtext Recordings.Based on the concept of Jean Baudrillard, it navigates through society’s presentation of inclusivity and equality against my own experience of growing up black in France. Aho Ssan debuted “Simulacrum” at Berlin Atonal 2019.

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Program 

The Falling Man (2021) / 24’08

Commissioned by INA grm as part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

The Falling Man is a piece in three parts, aiming to plunge the listener into the unknown. The title is a reference to the famous photo of Richard Drew, taken during the attack on the World Trade Center. Produced during the covid crisis, the piece attempts to make a link with the events that we have all been experiencing for over a year. Unlike the famous photo, the play attempts to have a much happier ending.