PRESENCE

A Compilation of Electroacoustic Works

CD 1

Kevin Austin Static Gestures II (Formant Pulses) 10:00 © SOCAN (1987)

Analyses - by Sophia Male

This oxymoronicaly titled algorithmic piece was created in the studio of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in the fall of 1987 with an old EMS Synthi 100. When played over a multi-speaker system, the basic complexity of the spectrum of the signal creates the illusion of movement, and the sound splitting apart.

Kevin Austin lives in Montréal, Canada, teaches at Concordia University and has been active in almost all aspects of ea/cm. He is a Charter and Founding Member of the CEC (Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / Canadian Electroacoustic Community).

David Berezan Zirkus Zirkus 3:01 © SOCAN (1996)

David Berezan
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~berezan

Analyses - by Sophia Male

The wonder and 'other worldliness' of the travelling circus and carnival as seen through a child's eyes. That is essentially what I wanted to capture in this textural composition, and the music presents a playful examination of the awe, fear, and ever changing experience of childhood sensations and awareness.

David Berezan is a recent graduate from the composition program at the Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton. He has composed in folk, jazz, and experimental pop genres, but finds himself ever more immersed in the electroacoustic and modern chamber music milieus. He currently resides in Calgary, studying composition at the University of Calgary.

Steve Bradley Tape Measure 5:27 © ASCAP (1996)

Steve Bradley
http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~sbradley

Analyses - by Sophia Male

Tape Measure was created using a quarter-inch metal tape measure that I altered by soldering a small sewing needle to the tip. Then I pulled the steel quarter inch tape out approximately 15 inches and positioned the end with the needle onto an LP record which was placed on a record player. I played an old classical music LP Rigoletto-Questa o quella, which is barely audible or distinguishable.

I collect utilitarian objects which have a specific use or intention and attempt to discover within the object a unique sound that is not heard with normal usage. I search for an object's hidden sound potential.

Rémy Carré La Trace du Souffle 9:26 © SACEM (1989-96)

Rémy Carré

Analyses - by Sophia Male

From the Bull of Lascaux's Caves to Joseph Beuys' Coyote, the breath of the animal remains the sign of life, the sign of a vital force which also brings us to life. La trace du Souffle is a composition where the grain of the digital "sound machine" bears the energy of the breath. Whatever the tool or the instrument that is shaping the sound material, we will always keep in mind this animal presence. Commissioned by GMVL in 1989, adapted for publication in 1996.

After a number of sound and musical creations, Rémy Carré (France, 1954) deepened his artistic practice at the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges from 1983 to 1985. Since then, he has composed a catalog of pieces for concert and radio broadcast in research and creation centers such as GMEB, GMVL, INA-GRM and La Muse en Circuit.

MartÌn Alejandro Fumarola El peregrinar de la araña 4:10 © SGAE (1995)

MartÌn Alejandro Fumarola
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8444

Analyses - by Sophia Male

El peregrinar de la araña means the traveling of the spider. The conception of the piece is based on a typical navigation through the World Wide Web of the Internet. The composition was produced at the Laboratorio de Msica Electroacstica of the National University of Cõrdoba (Argentina) in 1995.

MartÌn Alejandro Fumarola studied composition in the Argentinian Universities of Cõrdoba and of the Littoral and electroacoustics with Ricardo Dal Farra. His music has been performed in Latin America, North America, Europe and Australia. He is now associate composer and computer consultant at the National University of Cõrdoba.

Martin Gotfrit Magic is Chance 4:12 © SOCAN (1995)

Martin Gotfrit
http://www.sfu.ca/~gotfrit

Analyses - by Sophia Male

This is the second in a series of three pieces which explore music from the perspective of the machine. In thinking about the meaning of magic in my own life, I imagine that for the machine it is only chance elements (random numbers, component failures) which may conjure up the miraculous.

Martin Gotfrit teaches electroacoustic music and film sound at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby BC. For the past several years Martin's interests have focused upon the use of computer systems in live performance, algorithmic composition and film scoring.

James Harley

Analyses - by Sophia Male

Voyage was created on the UPIC computer music system at CEMAMu in Paris, with the mixing onto 4-track tape carried out at the Experimental Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw (Ewa Guziolek - sound engineer). The piece takes inspiration from a fragment of Savitri by Sri Aurobindo: "A maenad of the cycles of desire / Around a Light she must not dare to touch…" Voyage was premiered at the International Computer Music Festival in Gothenberg, Sweden, and received honorary mentions at Bourges and Ars Electronica in 1987.

James Harley (1959) is a composer presently based in Montréal. Working both in the acoustic and electroacoustic domains, Harley has received numerous commissions and awards, and his music has been performed and broadcast in many countries. While completing his doctorate at McGill University, he pursued research into computer-assisted composition, developing CHAOTICS - compositional software tools derived from chaos theory. Harley's music can be found on DISContact!, Soundprints, and McGill Records.

Analyses - by Sophia Male

Where was I…? is a work about interrupted trains of thought, imperfect memories, and deja-vu.

Bentley Wright Jarvis (Red Lake, Ontario, 1949) studied visual arts and electronic arts at the Three Schools in Toronto in 1970, electronics at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario (graduated 74) and electronic music composition and system design at the University of Waterloo (honors BIS 82). He has been teaching a course in electronic music part-time in the New Media department of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto since 1983. His work has been performed in concert and on radio throughout North America and Europe. He lives in London Ontario with his wife Susan Davies and children Anna and Simon.

Analyses - by Sophia Male

Buoyancy was composed at the McGill University EMS using acoustic cello sounds exclusively. These were modified by speed changes, tape echo, layering, pitch to voltage conversion, ring modulation and filtering. White noise was produced by recording the highly amplified sound of the bow moving lightly on a string.

Jan Jarvlepp (Ottawa, 1953) studied composition at the University of Ottawa, with Luis de Pablo, McGill University, Montréal Quebec, with alcides lanza and at the University of California, San Diego with Roger Reynolds and Will Ogdon. Buoyancy is his first electroacoustic composition. More recently, he has turned to a neo-tonal postmodern style of composition.

The CEC gratefully acknowledges the financial support of:

CEC

CEC

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PRESENCE

CD 1

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