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For this 15th edition, Totem has commissioned five new works by talented composers: Myriam Boucher, Adam Basanta, Émilie Payeur, Carlo Barbagallo and Diego Bermudez Chamberland.

This concert will be supported by Groupe Le Vivier as part of a creative residency and is presented in collaboration with Mutek.

On September 26, during the To Listen To festival in Turin (IT), our performer Jean-François Laporte will present five works by talented composers: Stefano Bassanese, Benjamin Thigpen, Carlo Barbagallo, Stephane Roy et Jean-François Laporte.

This Sunday, October 9, 2022, we invite you to the Wilder Blue Space at 7:00 pmto experience a unique immersive concert featuring two Tu-Yo, a solo Siren specially designed for this concert and the Siren Organ!

PTC presents two works by the duo Rust (Jean-François Laporte et Benjamin Thigpen) to celebrate their album launch and a work by renowned composer Phill Niblock.

Two world premiere and a classic work from the Rust repertoire!

Part 1 - Duo RUST

1- Rust (2010), 20min - work for 2 Tu-Yo and real-time digital audio processing.

2- Création (2022), 25min, world premiere - work for a siren and real-time digital audio processing.

Intermission

Part 2 - Phill Niblock

3- Exploratory - Siren Organ version (2022), 30min40, world premiere - new version of the piece Exploratory for Siren Organ and tape. 

Exploratory - Siren Organ Version is a new version of Exploratory which was commissioned to the Phoenix Ensemble in 2019. The new version was made from 300 different recordings of heavy truck sirens and will be presented under a loudspeaker dome accompanied on the Siren Organ by our performer Jean-François Laporte!

In an evocation of time and history, Isak Goldschneider at the piano and Jean-François Laporte at the Table of Babel will transport you from liminal spaces inspired by a Babylonian palace  to the traces of the memory. Palais de Mari, Morton Feldman’s last piece for solo piano, and Nacht, a creation by Pierre-Luc Senécal, will be gently enveloped by the visual worlds of artists Elysha Poirier, Tiffany Moore, and Xavier Madore.

From the very first notes, Feldman’s piece slowly opens the door to the mysterious world inspired by the Palace of Mari during the time of King Zimri-Lim. An introspective work of infinite gentleness, Palais de Mari unfolds like a delicate shimmer, where motifs are repeated in a seemingly identical manner, varied by slight changes in rhythm or pitch. Fascinated by ambient and drone music, Pierre-Luc Senécal plunges us into a deep and dark pool of sonic material, creating the sensation of frozen time. Enriched through artistic collaboration with Jean-François ...

Source le vivier: https://levivier.ca/en/concert/2022-23-season/nacht

Our performer and artist director Jean-François Laporte will be on tour again for two dates in England! He will present new works, but also workshops on his instruments!

Program

- Stéphane Roy : Bestiaire à hauteur d'oreille - 2022 (Babel Table & tape - 13 min)

- Savannah Agger : Quicksand - 2015 (Bol & tape - 9 min)

- Carlo Barbagallo : Drowning (Babel Table & tape - 8min45)

- RUST (JF Laporte, B. Thigpen) : Maelstrom (Boat horn & live Electronics - 22 min Premiere)

- Jean-François Laporte : Rituel (FlyingCan solo - 7 min)

Our performer and artist director Jean-François Laporte is back on tour for two dates in England! For the Totem Électrique Hudderfields event, three new works will be premiered as well as two original works from the repertoire to be played on the instrument, the Table de Babel and the Bowl!

Program

 - Jakob Bragg : Three folk songs - 2022 (7min30 Premiere) 
 
- Anthony Stillabower : Hermaetic, Babelesque and Folly - 2022 (20min Premiere)

- Lucio Mastrogiovanni Tasca : Creation - 2022 (15min Premiere)

- Diego Bermudez Chamberland : Manic - 2021 (Babel Table and tape 13min)

- Savannah Agger : Quicksand - 2015 (Bol & tape - 9 min)

PTC joins Ensemble Cairn to perform three works by composers chosen for the originality of their approach. This unusual instrumentarium - two Babel Tables and a Siren Organ - responds to the classical instruments in an unprecedented junction between raw materials and sound materials. The result is a delightful performance in which the vitality of the colors and the plasticity of the sound bring out unexpected sonic perspectives. As a prelude, the three performers of Totem propose an improvisation to let the Totem instruments be heard in their natural state.

This concert takes place as part of the Montreal / New Music Festival on Thursday, February 24, 2023, 9:00 pm at the BlackBox of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Concordia University - EV Building - Concordia University.

- Close Encounter of the second kind, Jesper Nordin - 2022
- Improvisation par Jean-François Laporte, Émilie Girard-Charest et Francis Leduc - 2023
- Limaille, Émilie Girard Charest - 2022
- I.M.O.R.F. (Impetus Machine Overflow Rush Fallout), Samuel Sighicelli - 2022

This concert, for the Montreal/New Music Festival, will be the Canadian premiere of this unique collaboration.

Distribution

Ensemble Cairn : 

Christelle Séry : guitare électrique 

Sylvain Lemêtre : percussions 

Ayumi Mori : clarinette 

 Productions Totem Contemporain : 

Jean-François Laporte : Babel Table

Emilie Girard-Charest : Babel Table

Francis Leduc : Siren Organ

Max Bruckert : Sound engineer

Totem-Cairn project is an international co-production between Ensemble Cairn(FR), Productions Totem Contemporain, the Grame of Lyon and the SMCQ from Monteal.

The new works by Iris Lancery (Fr), Julie Delisle (Ca), Giovanni Corgiat Mercio (It), Francesco Bianchi (It), Andrea Laudante (It), Pablo Geeraert (Be), Dominic Walther-Battista (Ca) and Cal Lyall (Jp) will be premiered at the Grande Nuit GRMS.

The concert will take place on February 25, 2023 from 6:30 pm to 8:10 pm at the Agora Hydro-Québec, Coeur des Sciences, as part of the Montreal/New Music Festival (MNM). La Grande Nuit GRMS 2023 concert is the result of a partnership between GRMS, SMCQ, Matralab and Hexagram. For more info its here.

This concert will also include, following the jury's deliberation, the presentation of the 6 prizes of the contest: the three Totem prizes, the Akousma prize, the VIU prize and the public prize.

Here are the names of the works in alphabetical order :

- AMA Lga, Pablo Geerart (Be)

- Climax room, Dominic Walther-Battista (Ca) 

- Density, Francesco Bianchi (It)

- Kiss, Iris Lancery (Fr)

- Perception of Pakriti, Andrea Laudante (It)

- Pipa Aura Suichi, Julie Delisle (Ca)

- Practice of waves, Cal Lyall (Jp)

- Rekhale, Giovanni Corgiat Mercio (It)

"Exploratory reinvents and digs deeper than ever before into the ocean of possibilities of drone music." *1

Exploratory - Siren Organ Version is a monumental work by composer Phill Niblock for Siren Organ and electroacoustic tape that plunges the listener into the heart of an immense wall of sound. It is a journey through a mass of drones and held notes that drone, stretch in time, evolving almost imperceptibly, and immerse us in a world of vibrations rich in harmonics and movement.

This is an immersive sound experience that will be presented under a dome of 32 speakers installed at the Agora Hydro-Québec. During this concert, the Siren Organ and the electroacoustic tape will be played at a very high volume, so that the sound fills the whole space and enters in resonance. The sound will envelop the audience, allowing all the harmonic potentialities to be expressed.
Exploratory promises to give listeners a unique and memorable experience in which every particle of the body will vibrate with the sound. For composer Phill Niblock, "the idea is to create a kind of floating environment," in which the listener drifts, gradually losing touch with reality, especially with time. *2

The instrumental part of Exploratory will be performed on the Siren Organ by Jean-François Laporte while the electroacoustic tape (made from 300 different recordings of heavy truck sirens) will be played by Diego Bermudez Chamberland. This is a new version of the work of the same name that was premiered in 2020 by the Phoenix Basel Ensemble (Switzerland).

The Siren Organ *3 is an acoustic and pneumatic instrument featuring several heavy truck sirens operated by valves or pedals.

*1 - Les presses du réel : https://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=9082&menu=0

*2 - Fragil magazine : https://archives.fragil.org/focus/876.html

*3 - Vidéo descriptive de l’instrument l’Orgue de sirènes : https://totemcontemporain.com/fr/totem-numerique/totem-instruments/orgue-de-sirenes

Les chants de l'inaudible is a new sound installation featuring the organic humming and whistling of various compressed-air powered instrument.

The installation seek to present the multiple manifestations of air through processes of sound vibration. These vibratory phenomena, produced acoustically by the agitation of the wind in the various sound devices, generate an impressive quantity of organic sound materials. These materials, more commonly known as "drones", are organized by accumulation and proliferation to give rise to a very rich and abundant sound universe. The result is a timbral polyphony that becomes a global harmony and a total tonality. Behind this almost static mass of sound, it is possible to capture a multitude of sounds full of vitality. It is an installation that exploits the apparent simplicity of these 'drones' so that their minimalism leaves room for the imagination and gives it unparalleled freedom. This makes it possible to experiment with the plasticity of these sound materials.

In this installation, there is no development in the musical sense, no melody, no harmony, and no rhythm. The installation leaves room for these sound materials to be set to music, which are surprisingly rich, with a "hyper-realistic" character that approaches unreality. The resulting music is close to the minimalist movement, using drones and held sounds that stretch endlessly, evolving almost imperceptibly, and from which emerge an infinity of shimmering harmonics.

The artist of the installation, Jean-François Laporte, will be on-site for the duration of the project and will modulate these sound devices live to create a unique and dynamic experience!

The first stop of the tour is in Brussels, Belgium for a concert on May 6, 2023 organized by the Fenêtre Ovale collective and ZonneKlopper. Our performer Jean-François Laporte will present works by Stéphane Roy, Savannah Agger, Jean-Baptiste Zellal and Rafael Muñoz Gomez.

    Program: 
    Bestiaire à hauteur d'oreilles (2022), Roy Stéphane (CA) 
    Quicksand (2016), Agger Savannah (Se)
    Fractures (2019), Zellal Jean-Baptiste (BE)
    Styx (2018), Muñoz Gomez Rafael (BE)

    Programme: 
    Bestiaire à hauteur d'oreille (2022), Roy Stéphane (CA) 
    Quicksand (2016), Agger Savannah (Se)
    Fracture (2019), Zellal Jean-Baptiste (BE)
    Styx (2018), Muñoz Gomez Rafael (BE)

Lieu : Atoma, 110 rue Pierre Decoster

Jean-François Laporte will premiere on May 12, 2023, five new works composed by the students and a teacher of the University of Edinburgh. These works are the continuation of the workshop that was conducted in October 2022 with the Babel Table.

    Program: 
    World premiere (2023), Jenkins Hayley (UK)
    World premiere (2023), Barker Charlie (UK)
    J'arrive pas à traduire ça (2023), Davies Ethan (UK)
    World premiere (2023), Cheng Elaine (UK)
    Unfinished swan (2023), Parker Martin (UK)

Jean-François Laporte will premiere on May 17, 2023, two new works composed by the students of the Folkwang University of the Arts. These works are also the continuation of the workshop that was conducted in October 2022 with the Babel Table.

    Program: 
    Haku (2023), Ray Porst Clarissa (DE)
    Prompt # 1 (2023), Voerste Theo (DE)
    Unfinished swan (2023), Parker Martin (UK)
    Bestiaire à hauteur d'oreilles (2022), Roy Stéphane (CA)
    Quicksand (2016), Agger Savannah (Se)

Lieu : Campus Essen-Werden
          Nouvelle salle d'auditorium

Dancing by night, dancing the night away. With La Belle Humeur, compagnie La Zampa turns the night into a place of choreographic explosions and metamorphoses, where nature reclaims its rights. Free but conscious, lucid but disrespectful, this choreographic night is carried away by the intensity of contemporary gesture and incessant movement in permanent decomposition and recomposition.

Led by Magali Milian and Romuald Luydlin, Compagnie La Zampa's dance explores new territories and forms through movement. Their choreographies are nourished by a constant physical engagement, crossing sensations and incongruities, desires and mysteries. With five dancers and music by composer Jean-François Laporte, La Belle Humeur questions our relationship with the night. Are space and time different? Are we all the same in the darkness that is the flip side of day? La Belle Humeur is a consent to the night, a time of all possibilities, strange mutations, troubling daring and many mysteries, transcended by a very free, very physical choreographic writing, far from all rules, all agreed grammars.

Dancing by night, dancing the night away. With La Belle Humeur, compagnie La Zampa turns the night into a place of choreographic explosions and metamorphoses, where nature reclaims its rights. Free but conscious, lucid but disrespectful, this choreographic night is carried away by the intensity of contemporary gesture and incessant movement in permanent decomposition and recomposition.

Led by Magali Milian and Romuald Luydlin, Compagnie La Zampa's dance explores new territories and forms through movement. Their choreographies are nourished by a constant physical engagement, crossing sensations and incongruities, desires and mysteries. With five dancers and music by composer Jean-François Laporte, La Belle Humeur questions our relationship with the night. Are space and time different? Are we all the same in the darkness that is the flip side of day? La Belle Humeur is a consent to the night, a time of all possibilities, strange mutations, troubling daring and many mysteries, transcended by a very free, very physical choreographic writing, far from all rules, all agreed grammars.