This collection of electroacoustic music consists of eleven works spanning the years between 1966 and 2008 by ten Canadian composers. All composers are members of the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society (ECCS) and the Canadian Music Centre (CMC). Due to the nature of the sponsoring, funding and philosophies of both organizations, all the composers included needed to belong to both organizations. The CD is available through the ECCS and the Distribution Service of the CMC and may be ordered via either organizations web site as well as any online store that carries the Centrediscs label.

Jerry Ozipko’s essay cum liner notes, Musical Abstractions, Electroacoustics and Cult Figures, is an excellent primer on the history and techniques of the medium. As well, he has very skilfully interwoven the discussion of the works into the essay. This is a great idea that I wish more liner note writers would do. It’s just so much more interesting to read than the usual tedious info about composer X’s work modulating to the subdominant for the third theme kind of stuff. Then again, electroacoustic music is non-traditional from the start, so the “music theory” approach wouldn’t work well anyway. Nevertheless, to incite is far better than analysis.

Commenting or reviewing electroacoustic music presents other kinds of writing challenges. In the absence of those traditional structures, methods, harmonies, etc., I’m drawn to talk (and think) about the music more from the timbral than a technical perspective, since the technical (and talent) begets the timbral. However, in a simplistic way one can discuss the “how” and “how successful” a composer is at using the equipment at his/her disposal with respect to and within the confines of a particular style or technique. It’s a bit of “what does s/he do with what s/he’s got?” The danger, however, is that one can then criticize that someone didn’t really use the total gamut of possibilities inherent in the devices used. This was a comment I received years ago from a noted Canadian composer attempting to justify why my work would not be selected for a radio broadcast. Additionally, the reviewer must be as familiar with said devices as a classical reviewer must be with violins, oboes, timpani, et al. While I think I know my way around a Moog or a 4-track tape recorder, I am not going to pretend I’m “up” an all the latest gizmos and gadgets. So my approach to a disc like this is a kind of midway position between a novice or lay listener and the composer/technician who intimately understands all that a device, computer, piece of equipment, etc. can do. OK, I’m just more subjective here.

Another area of electroacoustic commentary is too much reference to those common adjectives that seem to “define” the medium such as spacey, atmospheric, weird, murky, ethereal, and (unfortunately) stoned. The other end is wild paroxysms like “cosmic, hallucinogenic abandon”, “cerebral meltdown”, “like a SETI invasion” or some such dribble. You get the idea. It’s rather easy to give EM a pedigree in strangeness. All the more reason for Ozipko’s objective approach, thereby letting the music speak for itself.

From my perspective, then, I’ll hover toward the general. I am impressed with the variety of works, the ways they were created and the inclusion, accidentally perhaps, of works from so many different styles within the EM medium. Yes, different styles. It is already interesting that such a relatively “new” medium has quite a few branches from the found-sound, musique concrète approach as in my own Monday Afternoon (1966), to the electronics with live (or seemingly live) musicians – more overtly the clarinet in Don Ross’s My Dad’s Story (2006), more subtly the instrumental ensemble in Rolf Boon’s Waves (2006), to the computer generated as in Michael Matthews’s On the Outer Edge (2001). Electroacoustic music is now so broad and varied, that it is possible–and welcome–to discuss any given work in its sub genre. That being said, and to pick apart my own work here, one could ask and/or argue if Horwood effectively utilized the equipment and “sounds” at his disposal. Still, I don’t think that is quite the question. Instead it becomes more toward, and balanced somewhere between, the “what’s the work about” and “do I like what I hear.”

Perhaps even more than percussion, EM has the possibility for extremes in dynamic range: threshold of audibility to threshold of pain as acousticians would refer to them. Indeed this is one of the liberating benefits of EM, that ability to maximize dynamic contrast (minus the pain hopefully). Taking good advantage of this possibility is Ian Crutchley’s Arco/Lyrically (2008). At the other end are two works which explore the beauty and subtlety of the very quiet: Reinhard von Berg’s stark and sparse Cult Figure (1988) and Rolf Boon’s denser Waves (2006).

Extremes in frequency range are also possible and another hallmark of EM in general. Witness the near boom-box bass of Piotr Grella-Mozejko’s WOW! (Is My Cat a Rock’n'Roller?) (1990) or the rich depths of Robert Morin’s Blue Evening (2003). For the advanced technology lover, enjoy Helve Sastok’s occasional upper end bursts in her Sailing the High ‘C’ (2002) or the more continuous energy of the modified violin and voice in Crutchley’s Arco/Lyrically.

Still another possibility for EM is timbral variety and I’m quite taken by the range of sounds in both Aris Carastathis’s Full of Stars (2003) and Rolf Boon’s System 2.3/7 (1985). Both works have a surfeit of colour. This is particularly noteworthy in that they are the two shortest works on this CD at just a bit over three minutes each. At that length they certainly make their point without outstaying their welcome. Although I could definitely remain interested even if they were three or four times as long.

In sum, a very listenable and enjoyable collection. A sampler full of divergent takes on the wide-ranging realm of electroacoustic music. Kudos to everyone and thanks to the ECCS and CMC for making it a reality.

Michael S. Horwood