Post Audio

Various Artists

Curator : Sylvain Campeau

PHONÉSIE

POSTE AUDIO /
JANUARY 14 TO FEBRUARY 20, 2016

OPENING /
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 8PM

With : 
SYLVAIN CAMPEAU, CHANTAL DUMAS, MARTINE AUDET, JOSÉ ACQUELIN, MICHEL F. CÔTÉ, FORTNER ANDERSON, CHRISTIAN CALON

 

HAVRES (2014) 17:32
Sylvain Campeau and Chantal Dumas

PERSONNE NE SAIT QUE JE T'AIME (2006) 44:39
Martine Audet, José Acquelin and Michel F. Côté

IN THE TIME (2013) 09:53
Fortner Anderson and Christian Calon

 

In 2014, I produced a poetry CD in collaboration with sound artist, Chantal Dumas. Titled Havres, it consists of a three-person narrative played by José Acquelin, Catherine Kidd, and myself, respectively, and is enriched with phrases borrowed from Irish and Mohawk languages. Our starting point was the redesigned sites that make up part of Old Montreal. I chose to imagine three periods in our history: the arrival of the first newcomers who came into contact with the original inhabitants of this land; the construction of the Lachine Canal carried out by the newly-arrived Irish immigrants, and Expo 67. 

I did not undertake this work without the benefit of a few reference points, of works and writings that have influenced me. These are all works where the audio is more than just background music, where words and sounds blend together to form a unique aural experience. In Phonésie, I brought together pieces where poetry and sound are interlaced, where music isn’t merely a decorative element in support of the poetic word, but where the two meet each other in dialogue through daring explorations, in mutual support of one another. 

Personne ne sait que je t’aime unites the voices and poems of Martine Audet and José Acquelin. Published by Planète rebelle, the work is part of a collection titled Hôtel central, known for its focus on the performance of politically-engaged texts that favour the unique meeting of words and experimental music. The recording took place in a location with a particular acoustic character, skilfully captured by Michel F. Côté. (Book with CD published by Planète rebelle : planeterebelle.qc.ca)

In the Time is a track from Fortner Anderson’s triple CD titled Annunciations, which features nine pieces, each by a different composer. The result is an astonishingly diverse collection of audio works. The selected track’s sound design is by Christian Calon. Fortner Anderson is a pioneer of this type of performance, having collaborated with many other composers. 

 

 

CREATORS
 

Havres
(Havres ONLINE texts)

Sylvain Campeau is an art critic, writer, curator and poet.  He has published five books of poetry (including Planète, Organes), an essay on photography and an anthology of Quebecois poets. Two of his essays were recently published: Chantier de l’image, by Les Éditions Nota Bene, and Imago Lexis. Sur Rober Racine, by Les Éditions Triptyque. He is also the author of several catalogue essays on the work of visual artists. In 2015, he was co-directed the publication Quinze classiques de la littérature québécoise, with Patrick Moreau, published through Les Éditions Fides. He is currently the president of the Maison de la poésie in Montréal. 

Sound artist, Chantal Dumas explores the medium of sound through the production of audio fiction and docufiction, sound installation, composition and sound design. Her work includes a participatory dimension. She has produced over 30 narrative works heard and commissionned by european radios (BBC, Deutschlandradio Kultur, France Musique, Sveriges Radio, KunstRadio), Radio-Canada and art centers. Her work has received various awards, including the Opus Prize in music (Montreal) and the Bohemia and Phonurgia Nova prizes in radio.

 

Personne ne sait que je t’aime

Born in Montreal in 1961, Martine Audet has published six volumes of poetry, including Orbites (Éditions du Noroît) and Les Manivelles (Éditions de l’Hexagone). A previous winner of the Alphonse-Piché Prize, the Terrasses St-Sulpice Prize of the journal Estuaire, and the Alain-Grandbois Prize, she has contributed to several collective works, journals and literary events. In 2000 and 2007, she was nominated for General Governor Prize in Poetry as she was last year for Tête première / Dos / Contre dos (Le Noroît).

José Acquelin was born in Montréal of Occitan parents. Since 1987, he has published over twenty books, mainly through Éditions Les Herbes rouges. From titles such as Tout va rien, to Le Zéro est l’origine de l’au-delà, his trajectory never ceases to astound with its mixture of urbanism and fantasy, of Orient and Occident, giving free reign to verbal associations that do not exclude the tragic conscience of the world. His book, Anarchie de la lumière, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award in French language poetry, is a suite of prose poems that succeeded his trilogy, Critique de l’horizon pur. As the creator and host of several poetry and music events, Acquelin’s fundamental belief is that every real poem is both the first and final poem, it is a last will and testament and a birth announcement. 

Half a century later, now a grown-up, Michel F. Côté still doesn’t understand why he chose a career as a musician and composer instead of something else. With fluidity and idiocy, he gets involved with whomever he wants, thus avoiding any and all reductive labeling attempts. A Montréaler and a co-founder of the &records label, he stumbles around in various bands: bob, Klaxon, Pink Saliva, (juste) Claudette, and Mecha Fixes Clock. A designer associated with stage arts, he refuses to grow softer. As proof, in dance he adds his ear to the choreographies of Catherine Tardif, Sylvain Émard, Louise Bédard, Shanti Wadge, and José Navas; in theatre, he scratches his head alongside Wajdi Mouawad, Robert Lepage, Brigitte Haentjens, Éric Jean, and Martin Faucher.
 

In the Time

Originally from the American Midwest, Fortner Anderson has lived in Montréal since 1976. Known for the performances of his poems, he has been an active member of the Montréal spoken word scene for years prior to the use of the term “spoken word.” His poems have appeared on his solos discs: Sometimes I Think (Wired on words, 1999), Six Silk Purses (Wired on words, 2005) and He Sings (Wired on words, 2006). His newest disc Solitary Pleasures appears on &records in November 2011. He has performed his work at the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, Poesiefestival Berlin (Germany), Live Biennale (Vancouver) and at Festival Internazionale di Poesia di Genova (Italy).

Christian Calon has been pushing boundaries since his adolescent years. The encounter of significant musical works and major artists encouraged his career path in sound, and the exploration of the listening experience and spatiality have since formed the core of his work.  Marking his career as an independent artist, creative residencies led him to work in various institutions throughout North America and Europe. He was a guest composer at the GMEM (France), and lived in Berlin for several years thanks to an invitation from the DAAD, where he designed a digital spatialization matrix (1996) with a team of researchers from TU Berlin.