Electrochoc

The Electrochoc concert series, presented jointly by the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and Akousma,

is a series of concert-discussions that introduces audiences to different aspects of electroacoustic music. The concerts also showcase the talent and creativity of the students invited by Martin Bédard and Louis Dufort (the series’ two artistic directors) from their composition classes.

2025-2026 Season
Électrochoc no 1:  Hommage à Luciano Berio / Tempo Reale - October 23, 2025
Soundwich XXI - November 6, 2025
Électrochoc no 2: Nicolas Bernier  - December 11, 2025
Électrochoc no 3: France Jobin - January 22, 2026
Soundwich XXII - February 19, 2026
Électrochoc no 4: Florence-Delphine Roux / Audréanne Filion - Mars 26, 2026

 

Francesco Canavese & Francesco Giomi: sound projection

TEMPO REALE | Center of musical research production and education

Founded by Luciano Berio in 1987, Tempo Reale is one of the main Italian points of reference for research purposes, production and education in the field of new musical technologies. Since its beginning, the Center has been engaged in the realization of the Berio's works, allowing it the possibility of working in the most prestigious musical contexts in the world. The development of a criteria of quality and creativity derived from the Center's experiences is reflected by its continuous work with both famous composers and artists as well as with young emerging musicians. The main topics of research reflect the multifaceted ideas that have always characterised the choices and initiatives of Tempo Reale: the conception of musical events of great depth, the study of electronic processing of "live" sound, the experience of interaction between sound and space and the synergy between creativity and performance and rigour. In addition to the activity of research in these areas, the Center regularly organises performances, events and projects in collaboration with various institutions in Tuscany involved in the fields of music, theatre and dance, as well as promotes a wide network of educational exchanges.

Since 2013, Tempo Reale has been recognized as a Significant Institution for music by the Tuscany Region; since 2018, it has been the Italian member of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music.

Francesco Giomi: composer, improviser and sound projectionist, he has coordinated the Tempo Reale team for the works of Luciano Berio and other composers, directors, and choreographers in major theaters and festivals worldwide. He has collaborated with musicians, orchestras, ensembles, choreographers, and theater companies from Italy and abroad. He teaches Electroacoustic Music Composition at the Conservatory of Music in Bologna.

Francesco Canavese: expert in computer music, guitarist, improviser, and composer in the jazz field. Over the past twenty years, he has specialized at Tempo Reale as a live electronics performer, participating in various performances and installation projects. He teaches Music Informatics at the Conservatory of Music in Bologna.

Program
A monographic concert dedicated to the centenary of Luciano Berio, one of the greatest Italian composers of the twentieth century.

The program begins with a performance / installation that is a true homage presented by Tempo Reale (in partnership with the Centro Studi Luciano Berio): a score of sounds and voices, a small partial journey into one of the most influential minds of the twentieth century. Fragments from some of his fundamental works (such as Naturale, featuring the voice of the Sicilian storyteller Celano), as well as sonic objects from his boundless documentary excursions, emerge and intertwine in a surprising and evocative path. This is enriched by the spatial dimension that Berio the composer so loved and used from the earliest stages of his repertoire.

The rest of the program focuses on the most well-known Berio of electronic music, whose masterpieces of vocal and timbral exploration are presented in a new light: some of them are offered in a very recent interpretation realized in an Ambisonics environment, capable of shedding new light on a timeless music.

Tempo Reale : In-Naturale, sound performance for Luciano Berio
Sound design: Simone Faraci and Francesco Giomi. Production: Centro Studi Luciano Berio, Tempo Reale

Luciano Berio : Thema (omaggio a Joyce) -  1958. Electroacoustic elaboration of Cathy Berberian's voice on tape. Text by James Joyce

Luciano Berio : Chants parallèles - 1975. Electronic sounds on tape

Luciano Berio : Visage - 1961. Electronic sounds and Cathy Berberian's voice on tape

Tempo Reale Website

This concert is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal.

[TBA]

 For this carte blanche to Nicolas Bernier, the artist invites you to spend an evening in the company of his fantastic guests: Mélanie Bourassa on bass clarinet, Myriam Boucher on audiovisual cocreation, and David Caulet on saxophone. Common to all three duos will be Bernier's modular synthesis.

In recent years, after a decade devoted primarily to audiovisual projects, Bernier has refocused his practice on instrumental performance. Largely improvised (or “comprovised”), the music of the three duos is sure to fill the Conservatory's multimedia room with distinctive sounds.

Program
1 • Super scintillant (25 minutes)
Music infused with a certain mysticism. World premiere.

Mélanie Bourassa : bass clarinet
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer

2 • Les formes flottantes (10 minutes)
To handle heavy objects as if they could float in the sky. World premiere. 

Nicolas Bernier & Myriam Boucher : visuals and modular synthesizer

3 • Melt mauve  (around 25 minutes)
Free jazz reminiscences melting into a melancholic syrup of crackling textures and velvety fries.

David Caulet : soprano saxophone
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer


NICOLAS BERNIER
Nicolas Bernier is a professor of composition and sonic arts at the Faculty of Music of University of Montreal. With more than twenty awards from prestigious competitions in both music and contemporary arts, his work frequencies (a) won a Golden Nica in 2013 from Ars Electronica, one of the most important awards in the field of digital arts. In 2019, he published the book Sur le diapason with Presses du réel, which concludes the frequencies cycle of works. That same year, his audiovisual work entitled structures infinies was nominated and exhibited in London as part of the Aesthetica Art Prize. From May 2025 to September 2026, his flagship work, the installation frequencies (light quanta), is on display at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Germany. A copy of this same work is also part of the permanent collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ).

For more than two decades, his work in sound performances and installations has been presented around the world in institutions such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Sónar (Spain), Mutek (Canada), DotMov Festival (Japan), L.E.V (Spain), ZKM (Germany), and Transmediale (Germany).


MYRIAM BOUCHER
Sound and visual composer Myriam Boucher is a professor and researcher at the University of Montreal. Her sensitive and multifaceted work explores the intimate relationship between music, sound, and image through audiovisual performance, VJing, ensemble music, and in situ projects. Her research and creative activities integrate composition, improvisation, deep listening, sound ecology, and immersion. Her research focuses on the perception of audiovisual works and multidisciplinary concerts combining sound, music, image, and musicians, with the perspective that art can transform reality and generate new forms of sensitive representations.

MÉLANIE BOURRASSA
Mélanie earned a Prize with High Distinction from the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, a doctorate in performance, and furthered her studies in Europe and Chicago. Mélanie teaches at Laval University and Cégep de Ste-Foy, and is a Buffet-Crampon and Silverstein artist. She performs regularly with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre Métropolitain, among others, and throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.

She is a scholarship recipient from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, Domaine Forget, and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). She won first place in the Canadian Music Competition in chamber music and an Opus Award in 2015. She has served on several juries, including the CALQ and the Canadian Music Competition. Mélanie founded the Canadian Bass Clarinet Association and directs the Canadian Center of Excellence for Bass Clarinet.


DAVID CAULET
He trained as a saxophonist, and his artistic journey
has led him to explore several musical cultures. Ska, punk, salsa, and funk in the 1990s, then jazz, improvised music, and electronic music at the turn of the 2000s. Strongly guided by improvisation, his creative work is influenced by these various trends and navigates around this musical crossroads. Through several projects, he has collaborated and recorded with various musicians such as J.F. Oliver, O. Lété, C. Lété, D. Fournier, R. Bottlang, R. Charmasson, G. Pansanel, and others.

Now based in Montreal, he is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Sound Creation at the University of Montreal and, in recent years, has devoted himself almost exclusively to electronic music and composition.