Pierre-Luc Lecours

Éclats, an album by the Montréal composer Pierre-Luc Lecours, was a finalist for the Prix Opus 2020-21. Most of it is taken up by the 48-minute cycle Éclats (2014-20), four pieces in which recordings of acoustic instruments are set against sound synthesis, each one inspired by a colour assigned to it: red, black, white and purple.

Éclats | Rouge follows the intuitive method of the Automatist painters, throwing material straight onto the medium and reacting to it; its sources were recorded inside a piano, and the urgent, gestural result won the 2017 Exhibitronic award in Strasbourg. Éclats | Noir, commissioned by Musiques & Recherches and made in Ohain, starts from a session with cellist Émilie Girard-Charest and adds a modular synthesizer and field recordings from around Brussels, three protagonists taking the lead in turn. Éclats | Blanc, written in a time of upheaval with an aspiration to peace of mind, rebuilds flute recordings made with Julie Delisle and timpani into a luminous textural piece. Éclats | Violet draws on noise music: synthesizer improvisations and percussion recorded with Huizi Wang (paper, snare, timpani, bass drum), purple being the most extreme colour of the visible spectrum. The disc closes with Impacts discrets (2014), an imaginary physical system with its own gravity, which includes a day of recordings of snow and ice on the roofs of Old Québec and won 2nd prize at Destellos.

Born in Quebec City in 1983, Lecours completed a master’s in composition under Pierre Michaud at the Université de Montréal. His work draws on contemporary instrumental and electroacoustic music as much as on electronic and experimental music, and extends to video and performance.

CD in OGpak, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 21170, 2021.