Robert Normandeau - Figures (1999) REPOST

Normandeau is one of the leading contemporary musique concrète artists, and this, his third solo release, makes it easy to see why. His attention to sonic detail is unmatched, and each of his pieces amply rewards repeated and careful listening. The opening piece continues a cycle started on his previous Empreintes Digitales release Tangram. "Le Renard et la Rose" is the third part of a cycle that includes Tangram's "Éclats de Voix" and "Spleen," based exclusively on the use of the human voice. Each of its five parts associates an emotional state with a sonic framework, from the opening laughter of Babbling and Rhythm to the closing Serenity and Texture. "Figures de Rhétorique" is Normandeau's first recorded work for instrument and tape, in this case the piano, where he created a pianist's score during the final stages of composition, and where the pianist is free to interpret a number of the passages. "Ellipse" also exists in a version for tape and guitar, although a tape-only version is presented here. For many listeners, the highlight of this collection is "Venture," where Normandeau mines sounds from pop music of the 1960s, similar in origins to fellow Canadian John Oswald's famed plunderphonics. However, where Oswald intends to let the listener make the connections between the plunderphonic piece and its sources, Normandeau blurs the memories, and except for a few unaltered moments of the Beatles' "Revolution No. 9," most of the excerpts are too obscured to recognize. Nevertheless, "Ventures" is a fascinating piece, showing the variety of responses contemporary composers make to the explorations made by the pop musicians of our formative years.

By François Couture in All-Music Guide (USA), August 1, 2001

Figures

The first meaning of the French word ‘figure’ is ‘the body.’ To describe its form in sound, to interpret it. Volumes, surfaces, lines and points studied for themselves. ‘Figure’ also means the human face. Like the one on the cover of this disc, like the human presence that we find all too often absent in this music. Finally, the figure is the element that stands out from the background. The figure is the significant element and the author’s signature; in the background we usually find elements that are less personal and more obvious. When I am working on a piece it is the figure that I look for, the sound or family of sounds that will characterize it in a significant way, and indelibly.
Laughing figures for Le renard et la rose. Irresistible laughter, the wild joy that we need so much and which is too often lacking in concert music. Figures of meaning in Venture, where figurative elements belong to another era and another musical genre: rock. The aims are so different, but in many other ways we are so alike. Figures of speech, in Figures de rhétorique, describe the relationship between the tape and the piano, and how the latter always moves from the foreground to the background in this music constructed from a set of instrumentalist’s materials that is recorded and transformed, or played live. Figures and grounds for Ellipse and the way it is marked by the figures the guitarist sketched from the moment of the initial studio work over the grounds made of electronic music.

Robert Normandeau, Montréal [English translation: Tom Carter, v-99] - from linear notes on CD "Figures - Robert Normandeau" -


TRACKS:


1. Le reynard et la rose (The fox and the rose) - Odile Magnan / Robert Normandeau 14:54
2. Figures De Rhétorique, for tape & piano - Jacques Drouin / Robert Normandeau 13:43
3. Venture - Robert Normandeau 19:21
4. Ellipse - Robert Normandeau / Arturo Parra 11:58




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