eFlash! 2024-02

A Few Words from the CEC Board

Canadian Electroacoustic Community
A sound network.

Dear CEC members,

I’m Rick Nance and though I’m new to the CEC Board, I’ve been involved with the CEC in some way or another since the late 1990s, first as a member of the CEC Listserv (cec-discuss, now cec-conference) and later as a CEC member and even a courier of CDs to a conference in Berlin. It’s great to be a member of the Board and I’m looking forward to working with and on behalf of all of you.

JTTP 2024 — Call for Submissions and Three New Awards. This year marks the 25^th edition of JTTP coordinated by the CEC. Deadline: 31 May 2024. Thanks to further donations by Kevin Austin, we are pleased to announce three new thematic awards:

• The Yves Gigon Award for the Most Outrageous Electroacoustic Work;
• The jef chippewa Award for an Electroacoustic Artist Having or Identifying with an Indigenous Cultural Background;
• The Barry Truax Award for Environmental or Ecological Audio Practices.

With four prizes and seven thematic awards, as well as residency opportunities and concert performances in Canada and abroad, JTTP is an annual project offering unparalleled support of young / emerging electroacoustic artists from or living in Canada.

Funding. Thanks and kudos to jef’s work on securing funding for 2024–26 from SOCAN Foundation’s Annual Operations Assistance programme. Funding was awarded at $30,000 for 2024; the amounts for 2025 and 2026 will be communicated at a later date, possibly by May. Despite no increase from last year, we’re happy to hear the news, as SOCAN Foundation’s continued support contributes to the long-term stability and well-being of the CEC.

eContact! Call for Contributions. This is the last call for contributions for the upcoming eContact! — it’s the Sound Installations issue (23.1). The deadline is 1 April 2024. We encourage everyone to pass this along to any artists and institutions that you feel would be interested.

JTTP 2023 Concert in Sound Days (Liepaja, Latvia). If you’re in the Baltic region or if you’re looking for somewhere to go, please join us for a concert of selected works by prizewinners and thematic award recipients from the 24^th edition of JTTP. There are also workshops by Shawn Pinchbeck (CEC Treasurer) and JTTP 2023 artists. This year’s Sound Days runs 23–27 April 2024 in Liepaja (Latvia).

Francis Dhomont (1926–2024). Some people here have spent true quality time with Francis Dhomont. To the people that knew him, I am sorry for your loss. For the people like me, and I know there are many more, I am sorry I didn’t get to know him better. 1[1. Guest Robert Normandeau talks about his late mentor Francis Dhomont on the 10 March 2024 edition of Making Waves, a monthly show about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art’s Artistic Director, Darren Copeland.] I was introduced to Francis while on a placement in 1997 at BEAST. He was energetic, engaging, kind, and he was really excited to be there, talking to composers (the BEAST postgrads of 1997) that were asking questions about music and sound (and specifically not about equipment!) The news of his passing has echoed across the world. Almost no one in the international electroacoustic community has been clear of his influence through either personal contact or his music.

Rick Nance
CEC Board Member
29 February 2024