[CP 143 CD] Electronic Music by Caron, Perron, and Dawson; Portrait Musical, Portrait No.8

2021 reédition, now including the art & audio of Ted Dawson's CAPAC single (with the pieces "Binaries," "Chameleon,", & "Close-Up") following his piece "Concerto Grosso I (For Tape)" at the end of the disc!

Reproduction of this 1981 collection, issued by McGill University (making it the other covetable French-Canadian collegiate-issue Electro-Acoustic side ... along with the Bengt Hambraeus “Concrète & Synthesizer Music” set) covering the work of three Québécois composers :: Claude Caron, Serge Perron, and Ted Dawson.

Caron’s side-length “Japa” is a gorgeous (extended) stretch of post-Philip Glass modal fury, replete with churning arpeggiated analogue synths & a nice, light, wafting tonality. On the flip, Serge Perron’s “Fusion” (his only issued work) is a performance work for piano & tape (with the former handled admirably the composer Alcides Lanza.)

But the real star of the LP is the 13-minute piece by Ted Dawson, a tour-de-force of light-speed Concrète & synthesizer grappling, a jagged & at times violent outburst of electronic sound that rivals prime-era Parmegiani for edit-per-second density - it’s an incredible one-off (essentially Dawson’s graduate-year piece during his time at McGill) that, along with the other two pieces herein, has been excavated from the vinyl graveyard by Mr. P.C. C.P. & given its time to shine anew.