For this great Sine Fiction comeback (after way too long!), we welcome back A_dontigny himself, carrying us into depths of underwater desolation, following JG Ballard’s post-apocalyptic (& worryingly realistic) novel…
Cookbook attributed to Guillaume Tirel, dit Taillevent, enfant de cuisine under Jeanne d’Évreux, queux of King Philippe de Valois and of Duke of Normandie, first queux and sergent d’armes of…
In addition to the tracks from the Free transgénique album and several live recordings, the Napalm Jazz collective has also produced a number of “home recordings” that were never released…
“Today, when we can eat Tex-Mex with chopsticks while listening to reggae and watching a YouTube rebroadcast of the Berlin Wall’s fall - i.e., when damn near everything presents itself…
For his third volume in the collection, A_dontigny presents a playful and quirky adaptation of Lies, Inc. written by Phillip K Dick in 1966. Here, the psychedelic adventures of Rachmael…
On this live 2003 recording in Montréal, morceaux_de_machines are joined by multidisciplinary artist Dominic Gagnon. This noisy audio performance was the soundtrack to a live video montage by Gagnon.
Camp socialiste no 1 (Montréal), by David Turgeon, is a modular composition for prepared CDs. Performed in solo as well as in groups of 2 to 5 participants, it is…
L’orchestre de granulation was a longtime dream project of A_dontigny. After many failed attempts due to lack of funding or of an appropriate venue, L’orchestre de granulation finally took the…
This album documents an afternoon spent at James Schidlowsky’s “Sound of Rust Studio”, a series of improvisations recorded the day before Jon Vaughn returned to Saskatoon from Montréal during his…
Beware, electronic music fundamentalists: morceaux_de_machines are back! Yeppers, like that, with no warning… And they are quite ready to spoil your party. Hey, what did you expect? That they would…
Live at the Espace Ecube, May 2003. “Un microphone dans une tempete de noize” was an evening of music curated by Esther B - in addition to Napalm Jazz, themoonstealingproject…
A harsh and no holds barred session by four uncompromising improvisers with Alexandre St-Onge, Martin Tétreault, Érick D’Orion and A_dontigny. Live at the Casa del Popolo, July 2002.
Sam Shalabi brought an unsuspected mood to the night, using mostly electronics. Philémon’s use of an amplified metal box, added to A_dontigny’s distorted CD skipping and Érick Dorion’s signature audiomulch…
The first encounter of radical turntablist Martin Tétreault with the Napalm Jazz posse turned into an alcoholic mayhem of scratches, digital noise, drunken rap and obvious borrowings from Prince, Black…
A noisy act of resistance, Duophone is Chantal Dumas and A_dontigny’s answer to the 2001-2003 war propaganda. Recorded and mixed by Chantal Dumas in April 2003 at Avatar, a Québec…
A sound travelogue of Saskatoon (SK) by A_dontigny, inspired by his presence at the Digidome event, held in September 2002. Featuring Paul Dolden (electric guitar) on Saskenergy. Huge thanks to…
Various improvisations from 1999-2001 edited, remixed and processed in 2002 by A_dontigny (turntables, CD players, computer, effects). With special guests Érick Dorion (computer), Philémon (CD players, turntables) and James Schidlowsky…
Recorded in early 1999, during Napalm Jazz’s most prolific period, this is the first solo project by A_dontigny. Executed live on radio as a single improvisation using three turntables, prepared…
Following Eucci and Kevin M Krebs, A_dontigny releases the final Sine Fiction installment of Burroughs’ cut-up trilogy with ten tracks full of sparks and glitches that fight your other half!
Recorded live on April 20, 2002 under the original title “Fragments, segments, séquences,” here is a surprising new collaboration between A_dontigny (Napalm Jazz, morceaux_de_machines) and Diane Labrosse (known for her…
Five free tracks to supplement the Liberum arbitrium full-length.
So here’s the latest happenstances of our favourite miscreants of improvised music. If you thought “speed jazz” & “death ambient” musics were never really what they claim, if you think…
An impromptu improv session between A_dontigny (turntable), David Turgeon (computer processing) & Kaia Wong (Korg keyboard).
Amazingly powerful debut maxi-EP from improv mavericks morceaux_de_machines, which are two members from Napalm Jazz. Heavy noisebleed psychedelia like nowhere else in the world. Includes one track from their juggernaut…
The initial Sine Fiction installment, by its curator A_dontigny (Napalm Jazz, morceaux_de_machines). This bleepy ep is meant as an imaginary soundtrack to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s genre-defining utopia-gone-bad novel We. Each track…
L’île de béton is the duo of David Turgeon (Camp, Period Three) & A_dontigny (Napalm Jazz, Morceaux_de_machines), alternately playing a Casio keyboard & an old turntable. As is to be…
Full-length release from the Napalm Jazz collective, compiling 16 of their greatest radio experiments from 1997-98. No-holds-barred improv, scathing mixing & law-defying styles is what you may find on this…
Self-taught composer, Aimé Dontigny is one of the founding members of the ‘free noise’ collective Napalm Jazz (Free transgénique, 1998), and of the duet morceaux_de_machines (liberum arbitrium, 2002; Estrapade, 2004).
He devotes himself eagerly to the numerous challenges offered bu the new forms of modern and contemporary improvised musics, and is particularly interested in the development and recognition of those expressive artforms. Since 2003, he has been actively involved in the creation of the Canadian New Music Network, a national, bilingual organization aiming at promoting and widening the horizons to ‘new music’ (in its broader definition).
His works comprise multiple subltes quotes and references, and his acoustic palette adapts to many different aesthetics, as demonstrate his projects with Diane Labrosse (Télépathie, 2002), Chantal Dumas (Duophone, 2003) and his ongoing yet unreleased collaboration with composer Paul Dolden.
As did numerous western composers of all times, Dontigny frequently finds his inspiration in literature. One of his projects, titled Sine Fiction, has for a daring premice the creation of ‘original soundtracks’, not for films but for books; in that very case, science fictions novels among the most groundbreaking and popular of the genre. One can also perceive in many of his works the direct influence of writers as diverse as William S Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Guy Debord and Denis Vanier.
Another characteristics of Dontigny’s compositions is the prevailance that is therein granted to a meditation on the history of music, literally: in that sense, his work is really one of ‘reflexive’ purpose, as through it the musician questions his own role as an artist, the conditions of possibility of an understanding of music and of the limits of its experience, inviting the listener to ‘think’ as well. Dontigny reflects both on practice and on musical theory; in that perspective, the quotes in his pieces are not accidental. Dontigny directs his research towards a rooting of art in history: can we deny for much longer that music, while so profoundly linked to technological advances and innovations, and embedded in telecommunication industries themselves subordinated to certain economic factors, that music is a direct product of its community? Can an artist claim heteronomy, or does he have to endorse political responsabilities? Aimé Dontigny makes the choice of commitment; his works provoque debate and exchange of ideas, yet they put the sensible experience first. Dontigny speaks as a musician and as a modern and post-modern music historian.
Dontigny regularly presents his work in live settings and in various festivals, such as Rien à voir, Mutek, Périphériques and AlgoRythm(e)s (Montréal), Clonk (Toronto), Digidome (Saskatoon), Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, Résonances (Saint-Nazaire, France), Haunted Folklore (Brussels, Belgium), Totally Huge New Music Festival (Perth, Australia), and Electrofringe New Media Arts Festival (Newcastle, Australia).
bio@a_dontigny_
generated in Montréal by litk 0.600 on Saturday,
February 9, 2019. Development & maintenance: DIM.