Robert Normandeau

Lieux Inouïs gathers five acousmatic works composed by Robert Normandeau between 1984 and 1989, the pieces he chose to present after more than ten years of full-time work. The booklet texts, by the composer and by Georges Nicholson, date from 1990. Normandeau calls his approach a “cinema for the ear”, where meaning and sound are both material for the work.

Jeu (1988-89), commissioned by the GMEB and realized in Bourges and Montréal, plays on the French word that means both game and play: rules, gambling, the play of a spring, organ stops, stage directions. Paris metro buskers, an excerpt of Stockhausen's Hymnen and Perotin's Viderunt Omnes pass through it. Mémoires vives (1989) is built exclusively from requiems, from Gregorian chant through Ockeghem, Mozart and Berlioz to Fauré, Ligeti and Michel Chion; it took second prize at the Luigi Russolo competition in 1990.

Rumeurs (Place de Ransbeck) (1987), dedicated to Annette Vande Gorne, was made at the Métamorphoses d'Orphée studio in Ohain and won a second prize at Bourges in 1988. Matrechka (1986), named after the Russian nesting dolls and dedicated to Lucie, and Le cap de la tourmente (1984-85) both come from sound material created for holosculptures by Georges Dyens. The latter is one of the five soundtracks of Musique holographique, which visitors mixed themselves by walking through the exhibit; the holosculpture and soundtrack belong to the Museum of Holography in New York.

Born in Quebec City in 1955, Normandeau completed the first doctorate in electroacoustic composition at the Université de Montréal under Marcelle Deschênes and Francis Dhomont, and has taught there since 1999. His work has won prizes at Bourges, Ars Electronica (a Golden Nica in 1996) and Prague.

CD in Opak, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9802, 1998.