Realized partially for the seminar 'Curating Difficult Knowledge' with Erica Lehrer (Ph.D. in Humanities, Concordia University), during Winter 2015.

Inspired and dedicated to a friend who committed suicide, this project exemplifies how research-creation can address difficult knowledge (here understood at the confluence of sonic study and political depression) due to its proximity to lived experience. A musical and poetical improvised performance around the sounds of politics of the recent (student) strikes in Quebec. The project was affirmatively interrupted and opened in a new way by the strike movement of Spring 2015, in generative a mise-en-abîme. See Gendron-Blais, H. (2016) ‘Dimensions sonores du politique : recherche-création autour des sons des mouvements’, Cahiers Echinox, 30 : 135-147.

Image by Nico Las (1990-2013), from 'Théâtre de souffrance'

*

"A subjective ecology would need to sustain the disparity of worlds, forms of life,
points of view, rhythms, gestures, intonations, sensations, and encourage its proliferation rather than seize it in a universal modulation, such that each singularity preserves, not its identity, but its power of affectation and envelopment in the immense game of the world. Without that, every being sinks
into the black hole of its solitude, deprived of its connections and the sympathy that makes it live."
-Peter Pàl Pelbart (Cartographies of Exhaustion. Capitalism Inside Out)

"In the absence of amenity, in exhaustion, there’s a society of friends where
everything can fold in dance to black, in being held and flown, in what was never silence. Can’t you hear them whisper one another’s touch? […] What you listen to […] is still moving and still living. It’s still forming.
-Stefano Harney & Fred Moten (The Undercommons. Fugitive Planning and Black Studies)


the echoes of the demonstration the call of the gathering that takes the bodies reached
them at full speed these echoes that moves through the solitude which
when they’re not audible anymore
the silence, the tension
affected, leadweighted
rest in scattered pieces still vibrating their collective tremor
of missing the strength to become from injuries
on the way we become

*

Special thanks to Joel Mason for the inspiring sharing,
and Alex Obomsawin for the technical support

Traces of an Absence

In December 2016, the SenseLab ("a laboratory for though in motion" - https://senselab.ca) organized an event untitled 'Distributing the Insensible', around the thought of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. For the opening of the event, a 'gift to the event' session was organized. 
Here's my contribution: a short assemblage of sounds captured during our passage at Claremont, California.

"Dear event,

You were already, in your nascent state, with us at Claremont. So for your opening, I would like to offer you some traces of the ecology of that moment. Even if you know more than anyone that this gift is just modest set of particles shadowing your wonderful companion."

Anarchiving Claremont - A Gift for the 'Distributing The Insensible' Event

Une réflexion musicale sur la détresse politique, les communautés affectives, les territoires existentiels et les devenirs-moléculaires. La pièce figure sur la compilation "Vivre: le futur nous appartient 2k19", du label Jeunesse Cosmique. /
A musical reflection on political distress, affective communities, existential territories, and molecular-becomings. This piece stands as the main part of a contribution to the forthcoming issue of the ephemera journal, on the theme "Repair Matters".

Vivre: le futur nous appartient 2k19

Le désir est un exil, le désir est un désert...

The Dark Outside project broadcasts sound pieces never heard before during 24 hours in the Epping Forest (England). This contribution to the 2019 edition (that occurred during the summer solstice) is partly composed of a field recording captured at the Île-aux-Lièvres, an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river, in Quebec, Canada.

Contribution to the Dark Outside

During the pandemic’s first week of confinement a call was sent to gather – in shelter – and produce drone to ring out from our balconies and windows. This seemingly strange request reverberated through the chill streets to reach distanced lovers of experimental sounds. The initial positive response led to the continuation of the Friday night drones until the end of the lockdown. This series compiles some of the balcony drones created in that context, between March and May 2020. 

Pieces #3 and #4 figure on a compilation album produced by the collective Mtl.Drone (https://facebook.com/) and released on Cuchabata records (https://cuchabatarecords.bandcamp.com) in November 2020. This compilation, a sampling of those distant drones of solidarity from the deep winter (and cold spring)of confinement, is available here: https://mtldrone.bandcamp.com. All the sales from the album will be donated to On ne laisse personne derrière/Nobody Left Behind, a campaign launched by Montreal community groups to support the persons in situation of homelessness that remain outside during these difficult times. To know more or support the campaign: www.gofundme.com/f/on-ne-laisse-personne-derriere?fbclid=IwAR3RbKQsXwTni1wffNqBQYW3Ohi1CiqpLknmR9D20hXU-LoT6R6bTVLqKDY   

The inspiration behind the project came from the viral videos of Italians performing from their windows in courtyards during their lockdown. But Montreal is not Italy, our architecture is more spread out so we couldn’t perform in the same manner. This singularity – populating the empty streets with strange continuous tones – allowed the balcony drone performances to bring some strangeness in the experience of the confinement, calling for an attention to what vibrates beneath the habitual forms, inviting to a relation with the ineffable intensity that cannot be enclosed.

The hope was that the tones would echo out and form a sonic web of solidarity. The idea of solidarity is inherent in the drones singular focus of tones and reverberations – no individual stands out. Drone music allows to focus on the multiplicity of the collective musical expression: a delicate polytonality. This collective musical act also has roots in traditional music across the globe: it is in the sacred and the profane. In this instance it was a way for the sheltered to reach out to others within hearing distance an expression of affective resonance, a common way to share a vibrant intensity, which takes things and beings in a shared becoming.

Bandcamp

Montreal Solidarity Drone 7

Montreal Solidarity Drone 6

Montreal Solidarity Drone 5

Montreal Solidarity Drone 4 (ft. an unknown neighbour)

Montreal Solidarity Drone 3

Musician, author and researcher working at the confluence of philosophy, music and politics, with a particular attention to the concepts of affect, community and acoustic ecologies.
Coordinator of the Devenir-ensemble (https://soundcloud.com/devenir-ensemble) and member of the band - ce qui nous traverse - (https://cequinoustraverse.bandcamp.com)

Hubert Gendron-Blais

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