Rebonds, 2021, 12:50
- Fixed-media music, version for Sound Window of the Sporobole art center, in Sherbrooke, Canada.
- Fixed-media music, version for 3D speaker configurations.
- Fixed-media music, stereo and binaural versions.
Rebonds is a playful piece that explores the boundaries between rhythm, pitch, texture, and space. The work is inspired by the rhythmic figure of the rebound, a recurrent figure in electroacoustic music characterized by the repetition of an element at increasing speed. It was initially composed for the Sound Window of the art center Sporobole, a 16-speaker sound device installed on the external facade of Sporobole, in a space characterized by its own soundscape.
I had started composing the work at the Université de Montréal. However, when I arrived at Sporobole, I realized that what I had composed did not fit in with the existing soundscape. So, I walked around the art center for two days to listen and make sound recordings. Birdsong and the sound of an electric generator caught my attention. I went back to composing starting from these materials, without using the recordings directly but letting them guide me in creating the synthesis materials. I then reintegrated previously prepared material: the bounces of a ping-pong ball. The goal was to superimpose the composed sound world onto the existing soundscape, creating a mixed reality.
The temporal context was also crucial. The residency, held at the end of May 2021, coincided with easing pandemic-related restrictions. I felt the need to create something extremely joyful and playful.
I wanted to create sound choreography by exploiting the spatialization possibilities of the Sporobole Sound Window, imagining a dialogue between birds, electric generators and ping-pong balls, an auditory memory of summers spent with a racket in my hand.
I also worked to create a relationship between sound spatialization and other musical parameters. The rebound technique allows transitioning from a rhythmic texture to a sound with a recognizable pitch by changing the musical elements’ repetition speed. Mapping those variations to the speeds of spatial trajectories allowed us to connect rhythm, pitch, timbre and space.
I also created a concert version for 3D loudspeaker configurations aiming to transport the Sporobole sound context and atmosphere into other spaces.
Rebonds obtained the Public Prize, the Micheline-Coulombe-Saint-Marcoux Prize, at AKOUSMAtique, the multi-channel immersive music composition competition organised by Akousma, Canada.
The piece was selected as a finalist in the Métamorphoses competition organized by Influx – Musiques & Recherches.
The piece is included in the Métamorphoses 2022 compilation by Influx – Musiques & Recherches.
The piece is part of Déjà-Vu, the sound immersion platform of the Sporobole Art Center.
Rebonds – Performances
- Sporobole, Sherbrooke, Canada, 04/06/2024
- Akousma, Usine C, Montreal, Canada, 10/20/2023.
- PHI Centre, Montreal, Canada, from 09/30 to 10/22/2023.
- Conservatory of Florence and Bologna, Italy, 09/27-28/2023.
- Everyday is Spatial, University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, 06/16/2023.
- 4 – Sonic Summit – University of Colorado, 03/10/2023.
- Espace du Son, Brussels, Belgium, 10/19/2022.
- Ars Electronica – Anton Bruckner University, Linz, Austria, 09/09-10/2022.
- Sporobole Sound Window, Sherbrooke, Canada. From 03/18 to 04/22 2022.
- live@CIRMMT, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 03/16/2022.
