Monique Jean

Monique Jean, composer (born 17 April 1960 in Caraquet, NB). Monique Jean studied electroacoustic composition at the University of Montreal under Francis Dhomont. She figures among the most active and prolific electroacoustic composers of her generation.

In 1998, Radio-Canada commissioned her Symphonie portuaire, L'Appel des machines soufflantes (Harbour Symphony, the call of the blowing machines), first performed in March 1998 at Montreal's Old Port. In 1999, she was the guest composer in the concert series "Rien à voir (5)," produced by the broadcasting organization Réseaux, with whom she has collaborated regularly. In 2003, a recording devoted entirely to Jean's music, titled L'adieu au s.o.s, was released on the label empreintes DIGITALes. In 2005, she became a member of the electroacoustic improvisation group Theresa Transistor.

Jean is also a composer of mixed music (electroacoustic music with live instruments), and she has collaborated with such instrumentalists and ensembles as flutist Claire Marchand, clarinettist Lori Freedman, and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet. Jean's purely electroacoustic work dramatizes sound (technically, sound objects) within a formal and unified narrative, an approach that contrasts, for example, with the more hachured tendencies of some electroacoustic music of the 1970s. Similar to many other composers of her generation, Jean is an artist resolutely concerned with multidisciplinarity, and her works often involve other art forms, particularly video, dance, experimental film, installations, and improvised collective works.

Monique Jean has been a finalist in several international competitions, including Ciber@rt (Valencia, Spain, 1999), Musica Nova (Prague, Czech Republic, 2001), and the International Electroacoustic Competition (Bourges, France, 2002). Her album L'adieu au s.o.s was a finalist for the Opus Prize in 2003.

Selected Compositions

Embrace. 1994. Electroacoustic

IF. 1995. Electroacoustic

Lacrimous. 1996. Electroacoustic

13'13 pour voix défigurées (13'13 for distorted voice). 1997. Electroacoustic

L'Appel des machines soufflantes (The Call of the Blowing Machines). 1998. Boat sirens, train, church steeple

Figures du temps (Figures of Time). Monique Jean and Denise Desautels. 1998-9

Danse de l'enfant esseulée (Dance of the Lonely Child). 1999. Electroacoustic

Low Memory #1. 2000. Electroacoustic

Low Memory #2. 2001. Bass flute, piccolo, 4-track tape

Point d'attaches ou les infidélités rotatives. 2003. Sound installation

Stabile. 2003. Saxophone quartet, processing, 4-track tape

Low Memory #3. 2005. Bass clarinet in E-flat, processing, fixed sounds

Ricochets. 2006. Tenor saxophone, processing, fixed sounds (4-track tape)

Cristaux de temps: hiver (Crystals of Time: Winter). 2007. Electroacoustic

Dancing on the Edge of Silence. 2007. Electroacoustic

Misfit. 2007. Electric guitar, processing, fixed sounds

Darkness Shades Me. 2008. Bass clarinet, processing, fixed sounds

Au bord de l'espace (On the Edge of Space). 2009. Electroacoustic

Espèces d'espaces (Kinds of Space). 2009. Electroacoustic

Selected Discography

Miniatures concrètes: Électro clips 2. 1998. empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9837

Métamorphoses 2002: 2nd Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition. Musiques & Recherches Étiquette MR 2002/2003

L'adieu au s.o.s. 2003. empreintes DIGITALes IMED 0366

Lori Freedman: Bridge. 2009. Étiquette Collection QB CQB 0909