live@CIRMMT: A Search for Perceptual Spaces: From the Womb to the Latent Spaces

live@CIRMMT: A Search for Perceptual Spaces: From the Womb to the Latent Spaces

Live@CIRMMT presents a concert featuring works by composers Jean-Philippe Jullin, Philippe Macnab-Séguin, Dominic Walther Battista and Nicolas Lalonde

Ticket Reservations

This event is open to the general public and free with seat reservation.
For CIRMMT students wishing to have their attendance tracked for awards eligibility, please ensure to reserve your own seat.
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Program

Dominic Walther Battista & Nicolas Lalonde: HE/ART BE/AT

- an abstract short-film merging analog video synthesis, VHS archives and sound design

- duration: 9:12

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HE/ART BE/AT is a contemplation of life's initial moments. The piece intricately explores the idiosyncrasies of electronic modular systems, aiming to replicate an analog multimedia womb, immersing the viewer within a conscious space proper for meditation. This analog dialogue orchestrates a harmonious interplay between two modular systems—audio and video—steered by human intuition. The culmination involves meticulous post-processing techniques applied to an aged VHS copy of Nicolas' echography, adding layers of depth and resonance.

Jean-Philippe Jullin: Qualia

- live electronics

- duration: 20:00

Qualia are the subjective properties of experiences, the way they appear to us. These attributes are at the root of differences in sensations, be they perceptual experiences, bodily sensations or affects. The sight of a red flower will not provoke the same sensation as a purple one, just as a piano note will not affect us in the same way if played by a violin. These sonic differences are explored using machine learning algorithms in a continuity-based performance, where timbral and spatial characteristics are explored in collaboration with the machine.

Philippe Macnab-Séguin: Gone for Eggs

“Just as life gestates in the egg, so in ancient healing rituals would initiates withdraw into a dark cave or hole to “incubate” until a healing dream released them reborn into the upper world, in the same way the chick crawls out of the egg.”
- The Book of Symbols, The Archive For Research In Archetypal Symbolism

Every night, we experience a small taste of death when we lose consciousness in the depths of sleep. Every morning, we are born anew.
Gone For Eggs takes this basic fact as a starting point to explore the oscillation between day and night, consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death.

Artists' Biographies

Dominic Walther Battista & Nicolas Lalonde

Nicolas Lalonde
Nicolas Lalonde

Nicolas Lalonde, a poet-composer-performer and graduate of the École nationale de la chanson, and Dominic Walther-Battista, a Concordia alum specializing in Electroacoustic studies, boast over a decade of individual artistic development. Since 2020, their combined forces have harmonized, merging their skills, sensibilities, and artistic pursuits to craft mesmerizing analog audiovisual experiences.

Dominic Weather-Battista
Dominic Weather-Battista

In their collaboration, Dominic's mastery in sound sculpting and diverse aesthetic nuances seamlessly intertwines with Nicolas' adeptness in conjuring vivid imagery and pioneering analog glitch concepts. While both artists thrive in multidisciplinary approaches, their partnership illuminates a synthesis of depth, inviting audiences to embrace experiences that provoke both healing and disruption.

Jean-Philippe Jullin

Jean-Philippe Jullin in 2024. © Inès Viollet, 2024
Jean-Philippe Jullin in 2024. © Inès Viollet, 2024

Jean-Philippe Jullin, a sound and audiovisual artist, is at the intersection of art and technology, where he explores the possibilities of co-creation with machines through interactive and immersive systems. Funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQSC), his compositional work has been acclaimed by Musicworks magazine and the JTTP competition. He also took part in the latest conference on musical creativity through artificial intelligence. Jean-Philippe is actively involved in collaborative artistic projects, using emerging technologies to create experiences of active contemplation that question our perception of space and time.

Philippe Macnab-Séguin

Philippe Macnab-Séguin
Philippe Macnab-Séguin

Philippe Macnab-Séguin is a composer of instrumental, electroacoustic and mixed music whose work aims to create a new musical language at the crossroads of popular musics (especially electronic music, jazz and metal) and contemporary classical music. His music is rhythmically driven, complex, and reflects his eclectic musical background as an electric guitarist in metal and jazz, his study Nancarrow’s music, his lessons in konnakol (south Indian vocal percussion) with Ghatam Karthick, his experience in Barbershop singing and arranging, and his study of Hyperglitch music and production with the producer Woulg (Greg Debicki). He and producer Nicolas Gaumond form the prog-pop duo Greetings From The Hole.
One of his primary research interests is Aural Sonology, a method developed by Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen, which aims to transcribe, describe, and analyze music-as-heard, without the support of a score, and independently of style. He has given over to participants of all levels of musical training, often with his colleagues Dominique Lafortune and Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière. This research informs his compositional work immensely, keeping it firmly grounded in perceptual principles, and allowing him to make cross-stylistic comparisons using the same conceptual framework.

He has received over 20 scholarships and awards for his work, including the Prix d’Europe, a BMI award, four SOCAN young composer awards, and funding from the SSHRC and FRQSC. He is currently completing a D.Mus in composition at McGill University under the supervision of Jean Lesage, and has received mentorship from Denys Bouliane, Lasse Thoresen, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Matthew Shlomowitz, Philippe Leroux, Du Yun and Steve Takasugi, among others.