Pulse Field: SoundScape I

Musique Concrète and Acousmatics

Disc I – 73:08

Brian Schorn (USA)

1) Music for Two Pierres 1:39 2000

2) Tape Case Music 6:56 2000

3) Possible Compositions 5:04 2001

4) A Catalog of Numbers 2:16 2000

Francis Dhomont (France/Canada)

Cycle du Son (1998)

5) Objects Retrouvés 5:20 1996

6) AvatArsSon 18:11 1998

7) Novars 19:06 1989

8) Phonurgie 12:43 1998

Disc II – 74:15

Nicolas Vérin (France)

1) Courante Statique 9:48 1991

2) In Vino Musica 19:40 1992

Ouie Dire (France)

3) Paris 18:12 2000

Ricardo Climent (Spain / Northern Ireland)

4) e-RRATUM 10:15 2001

Ciaran Casey (Northern Ireland)

5) A few Jars 4:57 2001

Kari Besharse (United States)

6) Small Things 10:50 2001

Disc III – 60:30

James Paul Sain (United States)

1) Coriolis Effect 9:29 2002

Michael Alcorn (Northern Ireland)

2) Resonant Air 10:53 2000

Scott A. Wyatt (United States)

3) In the Arms of Peril 10:00 2001

Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece)

4) Response 9:06 2001

Elizabeth Mara Bossero (Italy)

5) …e ha poi chiuso la porta 14:00 2001

Georgina Lewis (United States)

6) Central Conflict Theory: Film with Dogs 6:00 2001

Disc IV – 73:34

Ruth v. Mengersen (Germany)

1) spieluhrstück 8:00 2001

Chin-chin Chen (Taiwan)

2) Points of No Return 7:25 1997

Mei-Fang Lin (United States)

3) Internal Landscape 8:00 2001

John Gibson (United States)

4) Day Trip 8:41 2000

5) Thrum 8:55 1998

Mark Chambers (United States)

6) Winter Nocturne 4:45 2002

Cheryl E. Leonard (United States)

7) Ma-ai 5:06 2002

8) Truck 8:12 2002

9) Topos 12:41 2002

Disc V – 56:18

Elzbieta Sikora (Poland / France)

1) Janek Wisniewski, december, Poland 16:07 1982

Pablo Cetta (Argentina)

2) …que me hiciste mal… 7:57 1992

David A. Jaffe (United States)

3) American Miniatures 14:03 1992

Daniel Teruggi (Argentina / France)

4) Leo le jour 5:15 1985

Jacques Lejeune (France)

5) Portrait de jeune fille au miroir,

ou Ètude aux silences 11:56 1998

Acousmate. n. (from the Greek Akousma, what is heard). Imaginary sound, or of which the cause is not seen.

In 1955, the writer and poet Jérôme Peignot, at the beginning of musique concrète, used the adjective acousmatic, meaning ‘a sound that we can hear without knowing its cause’, to designate “the distance that separates a sound from its origins” by obscuring behind the impassivity of the loudspeaker any visual element that may be connected to it.

Thus, this music—or better: Acousmatic Art (Denis Dufour)—was conceived from its beginnings to be heard without the use of visual intervention. It does not involve any instrumentalist on stage—with the exception of the person who projects the work during a public performance in order to maximize the use of the given space. It organizes morphologies and sonic spectra, “images of sound” (François Bayle), coming from a multiplicity of sources, but that the absence of visual identification makes anonymous, unifies and prompts a more attentive listening. (Is it by pure coincidence that the hearing of blind people is reputed to be so refined?) (Dhomont)

Musique Concrète

A term coined by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 to describe a music made 'concretely' by working directly with sounds, as against music made 'abstractly' by working with symbols that represent sounds (as in a musical score). Recorded sounds, often processed using studio techniques (splicing, change of speeds …) to obscure their origin, are combined to create a sonic montage.

The works of SoundScape I are all examples of acousmatic sound art. In fact, many of the works of the entire exhibition could be correctly termed so. Sounds, often of ordinary and humble origin, recontextualized and enriched by connotatioin and metaphor create new alien tableaus unfolding in the plastic dimension of timespace.

In this set are works specially selected for Pulse Field, such as the work of Fancis Dhomont, Elzbieta Sikora, Nicolas Vérin, Daniel Teruggi and Michael Alcorn. Other works have been selected by critical review from the numerous submissions to the Pulse Field project and include works by Ricardo Climent, Scott Wyatt and Cheryl Leonard, among others.