Re: Gilles Gobeil + academic electronic music at large

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

andrei says:

> I picked up the two Gilles Gobeil CDs on empreintes DIGITALes last week
> and I have to say they are excellent. Some of the most satisfying
> electronic music I've heard in a while.

one thing i must say on the subject of gilles gobeil is that i'll never
forget his live performance.  so intense!  so full of sound!  gobeil's
ongoing collaborative work with rené lussier, "le contrat", is also
extremely good; although it is not yet available on CD, they have
performed the piece live several times & the result is simply awe-inspiring.

> I'm very happy to find that empreintes DIGITALes is proving wrong my long
> held, but kind of uninformed opinion that there hasn't really been any
> good academic electronic music since the 70's.

not only has there been good academic electronic music since the 70s,
there's been several different strains of it.  most of it however has
come from europe & canada, & almost never from the USA where "tape
music" seems to have the worst reputation in the world for some reason.

one of my favourite strains of electroacoustic music is what i would
call the british school, with forefathers denis smalley & jonty
harrison, & (relative) newcomers adrian moore, natasha barrett & john
young.  one of the common threads of these composers is an acute ear &
delicate technique for mixing real & processed sounds, as well as the
use of long strokes of sound.  the two founding works of this school are
most probably smalley's "pentes" (1974) & harrison's "klang" (1982). 
the recent CD by yves beaupré, although not british, can be said to be
following in those footsteps.

another interesting, although little-explored strain, is "sound ecology"
as exemplified by r murray schafer, hildegard westerkamp, claude schryer
& kristoff k. roll (btw, the latter is a duo from france & not just one
person).  this kind of work comes surprisingly close to what the lucky
kitchen bunch are sometimes doing.

there are also some works which are outside schools, so to speak, such
as paul dolden's classic "l'ivresse de la vitesse" which still doesn't
sound like anything else (but paradoxically, you have to play it loud or
you'll think it's just another ambient CD!)  mixed works are rare
nowadays, but a great, recent example is the new arturo parra CD
featuring 5 unprocessed guitar & tape pieces, which all sound
surprisingly cohesive & compelling on a rather immediate, non-cerebral level.

there is more, of course.  i would mention the extraordinary montréal
scene (led by robert normandeau, yves daoust & the aforementioned gilles
gobeil...  & mentored by the 75 years young french expatriate francis
dhomont) but people will complain that i'm sounding a bit chauvinistic
at this point.  :)

"in the interest of full disclosure" (quoting a lawyer) i will point out
that i work for diffusion i média, who produce the empreintes digitales
CDs (as well as the *NEW & EXCELLENT* no type CDs).  that said, an
opinion is subjective anyway; i would have probably enjoyed these
recordings if i didn't work here, but i might have never had the chance
to encounter them to begin with...  for those who want to know more, the
URL is: http://www.electrocd.com

have a nice day
~ david