TOO REAL / FEELS FAKE (2022)
composed by James O'Callaghan 
performed by l'Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (ECM+):
Véronique Lacroix - conductor

Jeff Stonehouse - Flutes
Geneviève Déraspe - Flutes
Martin Gauvreau - Clarinets
Carmelle Préfontaine - Bassoon
Laurence Latreille-Gagné - Horn
Pamela Reimer - Piano
Olivier Maranda - Percussion
Hubert Brizard - Violin I
Caroline Laurent - Violin II
Marie-Lise Ouellet - Viola
Julie Trudeau - Cello
Samuel-San Vachon - Contrabass + 5-string Electric Bass Guitar

Recorded 4 May 2022, Salle Pierre Mercure
Video : Le Conserve Média
Audio mixing: James O'Callaghan

Programme note
EN
TOO REAL / FEELS FAKE is an examination of the uncanny space between ‘real’ and simulated sounds and spaces. Traversing between instrumental, environmental, and synthetic sounds, the work renders homage to the nostalgic and beautiful quality of things that are ‘not quite right.’ Drawn from the ‘classic’ synthesized sounds of simple oscillators and vintage drum machines, vocal synthesis, general MIDI samples, field recordings, and manipulated media samples (including recordings of a reel-to-reel film projector and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s spoken line “realer than real” from the David Cronenberg movie eXistenZ (1999)), the work is an expression of the poetry of the hyperreal, where instruments imitate sounds that were meant to imitate instruments.
  Most of all, it is a tribute to the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal and their director Véronique Lacroix, who commissioned the work. I wanted to create a work that would be fun and virtuosic, allowing for the musicians to explore many different sides of their expression, filtered through excess and saturation.
FR
  TOO REAL / FEELS FAKE (“TROP RÉEL / A l’AIR FAUX”) examine l'espace étrange entre les sons et les espaces «réels» et simulés. Traversant des sons instrumentaux, environnementaux et synthétiques, l'œuvre rend hommage à la nostalgie et à la beauté des choses qui « ne sont pas tout à fait correctes ». Tiré des sons synthétisés « classiques » d’oscillateurs simples et de boîtes à rythmes vintages, de la synthèse vocale, d'échantillons general MIDI, d'enregistrements environnementaux et d'échantillons multimédias manipulés (y compris des enregistrements d'un projecteur de film 8mm (« reel-to-reel ») et la phrase parlée « realer than real » (« plus réel que réel » ) de Jennifer Jason Leigh du film de David Cronenberg eXistenZ (1999 )), l'œuvre est une expression de la poésie de l'hyperréel, où les instruments imitent des sons censés imiter des instruments.
Il s'agit surtout d'un hommage à l'Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal et leur directrice Véronique Lacroix, qui a commandé l'œuvre. Je voulais créer une œuvre ludique et virtuose, permettant aux musiciens d'explorer de nombreuses facettes de leur expression, filtrées par l'excès et la saturation.

TOO REAL / FEELS FAKE - ECM+, Véronique Lacroix

In an archipelago is a work for sextet and electronics, or any combination of its constituent parts, from solos, various possible duos and trios, and so on, all the way up to the full band, for a total of 127 possible combinations. The work was composed during the
COVID-19 pandemic, where an uncertain future led to the idea of affording the extracting of solos from the commission of a chamber piece-to-be. Each instrument’s part was composed one-by-one, first as a mockup assembled from recordings of my past pieces, among other sources. I listened to each of these parts in different combinations and fine-tuned them as I went in order to compose in such a way that they could exist on their own or in this variable company. I then transcribed the parts into a notated chamber score.
Each instrument has a phoneme attached to it, drawn from the title, and the title of each performance becomes an assemblage of its parts.
Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s 1985 essay The Repeating Island set out a way of thinking borne of the postcolonial conditions of the Caribbean that challenges the binary ontologies of Analytical and Continental Thinking. An Archipelagic Thinking is one of multiplicity and polyrhythm which conceptualizes through fragmentary interrelations rather than a system or a totality. In composing this piece, I was thinking about
connectivity through isolation, and the idea that repetition brings necessarily a difference and a deferral. The kind of densely modular repetition I experiment with, where every moment is densely recontextualizable, is one that I hope offers an opportunity to collapse
binary listening.

In an archipelago was commissioned by Standing Wave.

Listen to the work as an interactive app, creating your own mix of the different instruments in any combination!
iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/standing-wave/id1601878153
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ChromaMixedMedia.StandingWave

In an archipelago - Standing Wave (full ensemble)

Jouer is an immersive composition for amplified soprano saxophone and electronics that explores sounds associated with “play”—sports, balls bouncing or being hit, playground and amusement park sounds, sounds of various children’s toys, balloons, video games, swimming pool games, trampolines, casinos, racetrack sounds, and much more. The electronics lead the listener through various soundscapes associated with the theme, while the saxophone part interacts with the evolving timbres and unifies the various sound worlds. 

Reid composed the piece at Yaddo and MacDowell as part of her Guggenheim Fellowship. The piece was composed for Kyle Hutchins and the Cube at Virginia Tech.

Performance by Kyle Hutchins.

Jouer

Composed by Alec Carrillo

Tenor Saxophone- Alec Carrillo
Piano- Asher Pereira
Drums- Jacob Mobley
Bass- Aaron Hernandez

Jack's Igloo (2023)

Among The Tarnished Stars

La fête de la huitièmme decennie weaves a fantasy about celebrations and the aftermath. It celebrates François Bayle’s 80th birthday and premiered October 27 2012 in Brussels, Belgium on a concert honoring him.

Jack's Igloo (2023)

Alec Carrillo

Related tracks