Highlights from fabric/que - Trajectories in Montréal, part of Codes d’accès 2024-25 Programming
In mid-February 2024, Trajectories, a collection of electroacoustic composers consisting of my dear friends Connor Cook, Malte Leander, as well as myself, performed our Canadian debut set. We were very fortunate to be invited to perform selections from our 2023 album Blood & Breath as part of 2024-25 programming hosted by Montréal’s Codes d’accès, a series for emerging composers of contemporary classical and electroacoustic fields. It was an absolutely beautiful night at the legendary Montréal venue La Sala Rossa, a place that has seen some of the world’s most exciting performers. It was such a gift to be able to perform this type of music in that space and I will never forget it. The sonic elements of this night were supported by visuals from our recent residency on Kökar, Åland, Finland in October 2023, blending our past creative efforts with our current trajectory, no pun intended.
This particular performance was dedicated to our late Trajectories member Michael Pinsonneault, who passed away in December 2023, and played a massive role in the creation of these pieces of music. He was a member of the group from the very beginning, he was a kind friend, an incredible mentor, performer, and inspiration. We truly miss him. It was an honour to be able to perform in his memory, with sounds that we spent years reflecting on together throughout some of the harshest lockdowns of the pandemic.
Trajectories collective : composition + performance (Charles Harding, Connor Cook, Malte Leander)
PROGRAMME
Was It Always There (10’33") 2023
Lobe Life (02'50”) 2023
Quiet On Kökar (08’00”) 2024
Injectionalism (05’26") 2023
Loons Over Iami' (6’43") 2023
“Through deeply personal and intimate source materials, Trajectories embarks on a sonic voyage with Blood & Breath through the sonorous landscapes of their own apartments, private journeys, and secluded spaces. These raw recordings were transformed into a communal, holographic fabric, carefully woven and shared among all members, ultimately birthing a captivating sonic narrative, directly fed through countless creative and philosophical discussions during the course of the years that it took for the album to be completed. As the pandemic continued to ravage the world, the context within which these compositions were conceived and nurtured began to shift and tilt, mirroring the evolving tides of human experience. This metamorphosis also gave rise to a profound transformation in the relationship between the artists and their creations, forging ever-shifting bonds between composer and composition.
"Blood & Breath" serves as a testament to the spirit of artistic resilience and the boundless creative possibilities that can emerge from adversity. Each track reverberates with the profound emotional depth and introspective qualities that arise from a world grappling with uncertainty and isolation. Trajectories, through their collective sonic language, offer a cathartic and immersive experience, inviting the listener to navigate the contours of their own emotions and to find solace and connection through the mixture of rich textures, field recordings and electronic soundscapes that the album presents.” - Codes d’accès
Trajectories
Trajectories is an ensemble of electroacoustic composers and interdisciplinary artists based in Montréal and New Brunswick consisting of Charles Harding, Malte Leander, Connor Cook, and the late Michael Pinsonneault. The collective centers its exploration on a vast array of multi-disciplinary projects that delve into diverse and pertinent themes. Through a dynamic interplay of collaborative insights, the collective navigates and reflects upon contemporary issues, events, and research areas, with each member's unique perspective influencing the group's trajectory and vice versa.
In October 2023, Charles Harding, Connor Cook, and Malte Leander participated in the Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence program (Kökar, Åland, Finland), a transformative experience that led to the creation of "Live on Kökar," a series of captivating performance videos, and "Quiet on Kökar," an album of etudes released on February 9, 2024. This 3-week period of intense creativity and reflection also inspired an upcoming documentary short, chronicling their immersive engagement with Kökar's history, community, ecology, and environment. This exploration into Kökar's landscape and heritage has opened new avenues for their practice-based research, laying the groundwork for exciting developments in their artistic journey.
Codes d’Accès
https://codesdacces.org/mission/
The concert company Codes d'accès is entirely dedicated to emerging new music artists. The organization fulfills its mission by producing and presenting audacious concerts of high artistic quality, representative of the diversity of trends in musical creation, and guaranteeing a strong artistic experience for its audiences.
Codes d'accès enables emerging artists to stage projects that live up to their ambitions, by offering them an optimal context in which to practice and create. From the submission of a work to its dissemination, the organization provides artists with a rewarding professional experience, as well as human, material and financial support.
Codes d'accès has established itself as a key player on the new music scene, for emerging artists and audiences alike. The values of inclusion and openness are fundamental to the organization. The organization aims for sharing, collaboration and exchange between artists, audiences and the artistic community as a whole, with a view to building and embodying a plural, effervescent and supportive community.