Oscillations planétaires was realized in 2017-18 at the composer’s studio in Montréal and premiered on July 13, 2018 on the radio program Klangkunst broadcast by Deutschlandfunk Kultur (Germany). Oscillations planétaires evokes geology. In all the layers that make it, from its core to its surface areas, Planet Earth is inhabited by undulatory motions of extremely varied temporal scales. Some are inscribed in a geological timeframe while others follow a daily cycle. This oscillatory ensemble contributes to the mechanisms that rule the Earth’s dynamics. These are the phenomena evoked in the work, Earthquakes, Antarctic Plate, Subduction, Oceanic Trench, Mantle Convection, Geysers, Mountain Building, Earth Tide, Geomagnetism, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Seismic Waves.

Chantal Dumas was born in Drummondville (Québec). Upon her arrival in Montréal in 1984, she embraced radio through community stations and developed a keen interest for new music, electroacoustic art, improvised music, and world music. Out of these experiences, she would develop an approach of sound that expressed itself in compositions, radio art, sound narratives, sound installations, and sound design.

The microphone is one of her most beloved tools, and she sees listening as a way to embrace the world. Dumas is fond of field recordings; she collects the sounds of her environment to use them as raw material in her productions. “Getting out of the studio allows one to meet the world, but also to risk being confronted by unpredictability and fragility.” Fond of the uniqueness of the voice, she writes narratives where voice and sounds intertwine.