Picture yourself out on a brisk walk through pastoral surroundings, maybe in the city’s river valley. It’s that special twilight time at dawn when everything seems very still and quiet, save for your own lungs breathing rhythmically in and out, and the counterpoint of falling footsteps on a gravel path. Suddenly a distant tone catches the ear. It could be the blunt horn of a diesel locomotive or the call of a lonely animal, mechanical or organic in origin.

Then imagine all the stark atmospheric intensity of the experience magically crystallizing in sound.

Claude Schryer might call it a “cinema of the ear,” just one of the creative options he and a growing body of composers are working with in the field of “electroacoustic” music.

That term denotes a certain artistic intent to create within the confines of electronic technology and the studio using both acoustic, electronic and “found” or sampled sources of environmental sound. It’s a weirdly technical method used to shape natural soundscapes, often inspired by common every day experience, and it can be very subtly effective.

Schryer and his colleague Jean-Francois Denis are two Montréal musicians, both classically trained to begin with, who have been helping to further the electroacoustic movement in Canada.

They’re currently on a threeweek cross-country tour of major centres with four other like-minded composer-musicians. Called Electro Traces, the tour uses fresh sonic palettes and new means of manipulating the space in which we hear.

Wednesday afternoon, Schryer and composer Daniel Scheidt (Edmonton-born, now living in Vancouver) host a workshop/performance in Convocation Hall at the University of Alberta.

As Schryer plays clarinet, Scheidt will man a computer sound console that’s set to interact with the immediate sonic environment.

Just last year, Schryer and Denis formed the independent record label empreintes DIGITALes (digital imprints) with the intent of putting more electroacoustic music and musicians on the map.

The first four compact disc releases issued over the past six months use an amazing array of sources to pique the listener’s awareness, pushing at the conventions of what music is all about. Certainly it’s not the first time experimental music has made it to disc, but along with the tour, it does involve one of the most ambitious, carefully produced ventures in the field.

Three solo projects by Christian Calon, Robert Normandeau and Alain Thibault head the roster, along with a special compilation, Électro clips.

As that title implies, the producers wanted short musical pieces that might help the listener envision a series of sonic images, like film clips. Twenty-five electroacoustic artists from Canada the United States and Mexico were asked to submit works of about three minutes duration, a time set deliberately to challenge the notion of the pop single.

The resulting 75-minute disc presents what must be one of the finest overviews of the medium aviilable. Twenty-five black-and-white inserts by photographer Joanne Tremblay accompany the disc, matched with background notes on the artists and music for a beautifuL intriguing release.

Schryer stresses that while better technology has expanded the possibilities, the artist mustn’t lose his or her soul in the machine, but master the tools.

“The most interesting electroacoustic artists are the ones who are able to go beyond the technology and — like any interesting artistic medium — say something in a universal way.”

The future of the music remains to be seen. Schryer agrees that tbe increasingly sophisticated use of sounds and effects in various broadcast media is helping to make the public more receptive to different ways of seeing through sounds, but don’t expect to find his releases on the Billboard pop charts anytime soon.

Do try them out if you’re looking for a stimulating new sonic perspective on the world around you.

Some editions of new music are more moving than others. With a brave new concert tour called Electro Traces that concept applies in several ways.

For one thing, with four composers and a small squad of performers, the national concert tour of new Canadian electronic/acoustic music, which stops here Friday night for one performance at Centre culturel franco-manitobain, looks more like one of those old rock ’n’ roll package jaunts than a mobile promotion for new music.

“We’re covering all the bases with this,” enthused tour co-producer Jean-François Denis recently between rehearsals for the tour’s third performance, at The Banff Centre for the Arts.

The concerts are only part of it. Electro Traces also promotes the new Montréal label empreintes DIGITALes, which has just issued CDs by the four touring composers — Christian Calon, Robert Normandeau and Alain Thibault, all from Montréal, and Vancouver’s Daniel Scheidt.

For this tour, the composers will appear with Claude Schryer (clarinet), Trevor Tureski (percussion), Jacques Drouin (piano) and Catherine Lewis (soprano). An untimely attack of flu prevented another performer, the visionary American trombone, electronics expert George Lewis, from appearing.

Denis, 31, whose own musical training includes seven years of classical guitar studies in his native Montréal, followed later by formal studies in electroaoustic music, formed empreintes DIGITALes with Claude Schryer about a year ago.

At first, he said, the idea was to stage one showcase concert at Vancouver’s Western Front Society to promote the CDs. Then came the chance to do another gig, and soon the troupe found itself “just hopping off around the country.”

The first shows last weekend in Vancouver went well, he said. “The public was good, the reception was good.”

The challenge, however, is to reach the mainstream audience that has little or no exposure to modern avant-garde music, especially in Canadian cities where there is no concentrated community of instruction and performance to support it.

Unlike many electronic-based works, which depend on prerecorded tapes and are thus essentially an audio experience, the music in Electro Traces is designed for live performance.

Some of the music is performed completely live, with conventional instruments. Other entries mix live performance either with tapes or with an interactive computer system. “We’re having all the types of electroacoustic music on this tour.”

With eight speakers and a mixing board, the tour sound can be arranged for any performance dimension — it sounded fine in the demi-sphere of the Montréal Planetarium, he noted — and also changed in terms of dynamic and spatial relationships, with the expressiveness of a pianist. “You can have a really different experience with the sound,” Denis said.

It should also be a different experience for those who expect such sonic explorers to be a grim and scholarly lot. “We’re very nice people,” he said chuckling.

Pour ceux qui cherchent une expérience musicale hors de l’ordinaire, la Plug-In Gallery et le Centre culturel franco-manitobain vous donnent rendez-vous le 1^er mars à 19h30 à la salle Jean-Paul-Aubry (CCFM) pour écouter de la musique électroacoustique.

«De la musique électroacoustique, c’est de la création sonore artistique avec appui technologique,» décrit Claude Schryer, un des six compositeurs-diffuseurs et interprètes qui seront à Saint-Boniface.

Le groupe de six entreprend la tournée pancanadienne Traces électro, pour promouvoir cinq disques de l’étiquette empreintes DIGITALes, la seule compagnie qui enregistre sur disques compacts de la musique électroacoustique.

Les compositeurs profitent aussi de la tournée pour promouvoir le médium peu connu de la musique électroacoustique, même si ce genre existe depuis 40 ans environ. «A Montréal et à Vancouver, il y beaucoup d’activité dans le domaine, mais dans le reste du Canada, c’est encore en évolution. Suite au concert, les artistes seront disponibles pour répondre aux questions.»

Les organisateurs de Traces électro emmènent avec eux en tournée un orchestre de huit haut-parleurs. Ces boites de son seront placées séparément dans la salle de concert pour permettre la spatialisation des sons. Cette technique se nomme «acousmatique» et offre une troisième dimension aux œuvres.

En plus des haut-parleurs, les musiciens seront là avec leurs instruments respectifs. «Par exemple, je suis clarinettiste et je vais interpréter une pièce pour clarinette et ordinateur. Un autre va jouer une pièce pour piano et bande, ou encore pour voix et ordinateur» ajoute Claude Schryer.

Selon lui, le concert attire ceux qui aiment la musique de concert contemporaine et la musique expérimentale.

Electro Traces, the first ever cross Canada tour of electroacoustic music, comes to the Margaret Greenham Theatre on Monday, February 25 at 8 p.m.

This tour brings together several prominent Canadian composers and performers who have strong connections with The Banff Centre.

Composer Claude Schryer, a former participant in the Music program, has also held various staff positions in the now defunct Inter-Arts program. Daniel Scheidt, who is also a composer, has been involved with the Centre as well. He recorded his soon to be released compact disc, Action/ Réaction, here and was a participant in a number of programs. Finally, percussionist Trevor Tureski and soprano Catherine Lewis have both been participants here.

The concert will consist of 10 pieces which combine taped music with live instrumental and vocal music. Electroacoustic music is usually described as “music that is heard through loud speakers.” Generally, the instruments used in this genre are less traditional and more electronic than in other fonns of music.

“To prepare yourself for an electracoustic experience, you must throw away preconceptions about traditional instruments and music and grasp the idea that music is structured sounds,” explains Kevin Elliott, head, Audio Recording, Media Arts, The Banff Centre.

Although electroacoustic music has been around since the 1950s, it has taken a quantum leap in the last few years. The systems, instruments, and technology have advanced greatly, spreading the parameters in which the performers and composers work. In doing so, room has been made to create exciting works that are breaking new musical ground.

The sounds can be rich and soothing with one unique tone flowing into another or they can be sharp, percussive, and dynamic, moving with untimely changes.

The electroacoustic music presented through this tour is of the highest quality in the world. The system being used is specially designed to project sound in a way that envelops the entire room and offers a third dimension to the works. This technique of sound projection is called “acousmatics”.

The opportunity to experience electroacoustic music will be yours this February 25 at The Banff Centre. Take a chance and open yourself to a new dimension in music.

[…] Chercherait-on dans le domaine du disque québécois quelque chose comme l’«événement de l’année» qu’il faudrait regarder du côté de la musique électroacoustique. La qualité exceptionnelle du contenu musical, de la réalisation technique et de la présentation des quatre premiers compacts d’empreintes DIGITALes imposent cette jeune maison artisanale comme un modèle du genre.

Ligne de vie: récits électriques de Christian Calon (IMED 9001) et Lieux inouïs de Robert Normandeau (IMED 9002) devraient faire partie de la discothèque de tous les mélomanes curieux. Faut-il ajouter que la découverte de ces deux excellents musiciens engendrera sûrement la curiosité de connaitre un Alain Thibault que semble fasciner la rythmique pop (IMED 9003). Les 25 Électro clips (IMED 9004) pourront susciter des parcours d’écoute aussi variés qu’amusants. […]