Reservations

This event is open to the general public and free with reservation using this form.

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Program

Full details to come, with information subject to change.

Nicolas Bernier, Myriam Boucher and Pierre-Luc Lecours: Ensemble Modulaire – Synthetic Landscapes

For four modular synthesizers.

Steve Reich: Vermont Counterpoint (1982)

For solo flute and 10 pre-recorded flute parts.
Performer·s: Alex Huyghebaert (flute), David Piazza (spatialization), André Godinho (recording sound engineer)

Vermont Counterpoint is the first composition by Steve Reich written for solo instrument and tape, an instrumentation he would later explore in other works. The piece was created in response to a request from flutist Ransom Wilson in 1982. He had asked for a flute concerto, and in response, Reich composed a piece for soloist and pre-recorded accompaniment, where the flutist records all 10 accompanying tracks themselves. The work is scored for three alto flutes, three flutes, three piccolos, and solo flute. Reflecting Reich's minimalist style, Vermont Counterpoint uses simple motifs that are slightly staggered in time, creating new melodies as the offset motifs blend in the listener's ear. In our 360-degree spatialisation of the 10 tracks, our aim is to emphasise these emerging melodies, helping listeners to both distinguish and blend different musical lines.

Ensemble de Feedback Libre: 3.1416 (2025)*

For real-time audio feedback devices.
Performer·s: Francis Brûlé, Merlin Campbell, Sabrina Caron alias Sabe, Alexandre Marchand, Antoine Morin, Kasey Pocius, Jean-Philippe Jullin (spatialization)

Feedback and improvisation go well together. We explore the expressive potential of feedback interpretation; we create feedback devices with musical potential, and we develop different modus operandi for free improvisation. What are the guidelines for free feedback? This is where our research-creation work is located. 3.1416.

Gaël Moriceau: Étude pour T-Stick Sopranino solo et granulation

For T-Stick.

* denotes premiere

Biographies

Ensemble de Feedback Libre

Francis Brûlé

Driven by his passion for music and his creativity, Francis Brûlé is currently completing a master's degree in composition and sound creation at the University of Montreal. He completed a D.E.C. in jazz/pop piano interpretation at Cégep de Joliette in 2009, a bachelor's degree in music - writing in 2012 at the University of Montreal as well as a major in digital music completed the University of Montreal in 2022. In addition to having projects as a singer-songwriter in pop music and visual music, Francis is interested in music composition and sound design for video games. For his master’s degree, he aims to identify, explore and bring together the formal, stylistic and technical paradigms of the worlds of acousmatic-concrete music and popular music through the composition of a set of performative visual music works.

Merlin Campbell

Merlin Campbell is a Quebec audiovisual and sound artist (CA). He holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Concordia University and a D.E.S.S. in digital music from the University of Montreal. Campbell is pursuing his master's studies in composition and sound creation at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal. His creations, which manifest themselves in the form of performances, installations and works on fixed media, explore the relationships between sound and image through different extra-musical subjects. Campbell addresses topics such as the environment, humanity, death, violence, war, decline, decay and horror. Influenced by noise, drone and industrial music, his pieces wander in a universe immersed in darkness where brutality and delicacy coexist. To date, his work has been presented in Mexico, the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada.

Sabrina Caron alias Sabe

Sabe is an audiovisual performance artist from Montreal. She uses audio feedback from pedals, microphones and a no input mixer as well as her voice as compositional tools. After earning a degree in photography at Concordia University, she studied several aspects of tonal music. She fell in love with digital music and obtained a D.E.S.S. on the subject at the University of Montreal. She is now pursuing a master's degree in composition and sound creation with audiovisual artist Myriam Boucher as supervisor. Sabe draws on her personal experiences to speak out on various societal ills. In her performances, she combines sound and image to create intimate and abstract pieces in which she wants the viewer to find their own meaning. Many have said that his creations are contrasting, raw and unsettling.

Jean-Philippe Jullin

Jean-Philippe Jullin, sound and audiovisual artist, sits at the intersection of art and technology, where he explores the possibilities of co-creation with machines through interactive and immersive systems. Funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQSC), his compositional work has been praised by Musicworks magazine and the JTTP competition. He also participated in the latest conference on musical creativity through artificial intelligence. Jean-Philippe is actively involved in collaborative artistic projects, using emerging technologies to create experiences of active contemplation that question our perception of space and time.

Alexandre Marchand

Alexandre Marchand is a self-taught musician from Montreal, mainly practicing bass and double bass in his professional practice in several groups from diverse backgrounds. Added to his personal study, he has the opportunity to participate in workshops, notably in the Okto-Relève ensemble, co-directed by Katia Makdissi-Warren, where he could feed his curiosity with masters from a wide variety of cultures. His desire to free himself from certain musical and artistic philosophies, and consequently to approach others, led him to create O:DOOZ, a multidisciplinary arts group, branching out into dance, mixed music, and live entertainment. Seeking to perfect and diversify his practice, Alex experiments with sound material in various ways, including with feedback devices.

Antoine Morin

Antoine Morin is a sound artist from Laval. Morin holds a bachelor's degree in digital music from the University of Montreal. His artistic approach is characterized by the frequent use of the reinjection of sound materials, the exploration of sound parasites and an aesthetic strongly influenced by the punk movement. He thus embarks on an artistic quest by pushing the boundaries of the machines that surround him to create performances or compose works that capture a raw aspect. He also draws his inspiration from the noise scene and jazz, thus enriching his artistic palette. In addition to his personal projects, he is a trained bassist and trombonist. Morin is the bassist and co-founder of the Montreal trio Chop Sue Me, a group fusing the genres of Punk, Post-Hardcore, Grunge and Slowcore. Their ambition is to revive the musical spirit of the 90s.

Kasey Pocius

Kasey Pocius, a gender-fluid intermedia artist from Montreal, experiments with multimedia software alongside classical training in viola and piano. Known for mixed-media performances with live electronics, They are particularly interested in multichannel spatialization, and how this can be used in group improvisatory experiences. Pocius's works have been programmed at numerous festivals and conferences worldwide. They are a part-time faculty member at Concordia and a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) and Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (IDMIL), as well as the Groupe de Recherche sur la Médiatisation du Son (GRMS).

André Godinho

Audiovisual producer and musician, André Godinho graduated with academic honors from the Bachelor of Music program at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. He is also a graduate in audio and video post-production in Montreal. André has produced numerous audiovisual works, including concert recordings, documentaries, music videos, web series, behind-the-scenes, photographs, and content for various artists, projects, institutions, and brands.
In 2021, he worked as the director of photography and editor for the documentary "J. S. Bach - An Endless Journey - Prelude," which received awards at seven international film festivals. Since 2022, he has been in Canada, where he has completed various projects as a director, videographer, editor, and technician for clients such as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Université de Montréal, artists, and community organizations.

Alex Huyghebaert

Montreal based Australian flutist Alex Huyghebaert is an ardent contemporary musician. She is a member of Ensemble Éclat and with them has recorded a collaboration with NASA as part of The Universe of Sound data sonification project. Her recent endeavours have taken her to South Korea, performing with the Interplay Trio and representing the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity at the Music in PyeongChang festival. Alex appears on the album March of the Women 2024: Connecting Australia, a showcase of music by Australian female composers. She is also coordinator of the program El Sistema X OSM at the school Saint-Rémi. In the past three years she has performed more than 30 world premieres, and since her time in Montreal has helped share more than 60 new pieces with her public.

David Piazza

David Piazza is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music based in Montreal. As an undergraduate student at the Faculty of music of Université de Montréal, he studied composition with Dominic Thibault and undertook research in the field of concatenative synthesis. His research interests lie in composition, spatialization and synthesis.