Category: Solo

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#synthporn on ROOM40

EP01 France Jobin is a lover of wires, electronics and sine tones. She has something special to share on ROOM40!

“This photo serves as clear evidence of my early fascination with all things cables, connections and electricity. To this day, I have nurtured this obsession with childlike wonder.

When Lawrence English and Robin Fox extended the invitation to travel to Australia, an invitation which included a coast to coast tour and a residency at MESS in Melbourne, I could not resist!

Upon arriving at MESS, I simply became overwhelmed by the amount and diversity of the collection of synths and electronic instruments. There it was, the entire history of synth, drum machines and modulars in front of me, delight! Which one will I start with? It’s complicated.

I opted to work the synths that I am unfamiliar with, therefore adding a nice learning curve to the experience but also, an opportunity to observe and learn how the technicalities and programming evolved over the years.

The 4 pieces included in the 2 ep’s are the result of recorded live improvisations during which I familiarized myself with these wonderful electronic instruments.

I strived to remain true to each synth, I did not have a compositional intent, but rather preferred to let each synth’s personality shine through and hope I manage to earn their respect in the process.

An enormous thank you to Lawrence English, Robin Fox, Byron Scullin and Matthew Watson and everyone at MESS for their kind support.”

credits

released July 3, 2020

All sounds recorded at MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio) using the Sequential Circuits Prophet 10, and the Mellotron Mini.

license

all rights reserved

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Death is perfection, everything else is relative on Editions Mego (AT)

EMEGO0276

Available on May 1st digitally Bandcamp
Physical pre-orders also open:
Vinyl transparent ships out  on or around July 3, 2020

The last two years have seen me maintaining an association with an unusual bedfellow, death. The loss of Mika Vainio, as well as three members of my own family, has had a profound effect on me and  spurred a lengthy reflection on life, death, and everything in between. 

Parallelly, while studying the philosophy of science, I came across shadow photons:
“Tangible photons are the ones we can see or detect with instruments whereas shadow photons are intangible (invisible) detectable only indirectly through the interference effects on the tangible photons.

There is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes.

They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong colour. Yet, they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon that it accompanies. This is the phenomenon of interference.
 
Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed, were it not for this phenomenon and the strange pattern of shadows by which we observe it.

Thus the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated hidden world of shadow photons has been inferred.”*

I have drawn a parallel between shadow photons and death. The interference phenomena, parallel universes, and how shadow photons affect tangible photons they accompany, offer, in my opinion, similarities, an unknown universe which is death and how we, remaining tangible human beings, are affected. This quest has led me to be more willing to accept chaos in my life and to conclude that Death is perfection, everything else is relative.

France Jobin

*The fabric of reality, David Deutsch, Penguin Press 1997. 

1. inertia
2. p
3. soar (digital only)

All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, South America and at EMS, Stockholm using the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.
soar, all sounds recorded with Klara Lewis in Montreal 2018

Mastered by Russell Haswell. January 2020
Cut at Schnittstelle, Berlin by Andreas Kauffelt, January 2020

Image : Mark Hogben
Layout: Nik Void

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Solitude on Silent Records (USA)

released April 12, 2019 

Solitude: encoded, stored and retrieved. 

Produced by France Jobin.  
Cover Image by Rossana Uribe 

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu 
All sounds recorded at various locations in Medellin, Colombia. 

Thanks to Éter (Miguel Isaza, David Escallon, Pedro Arbelaez, Jaime Zapata and Rossana Uribe), Parque Explora (Camilo Cantor), MAMM Medellin (Jorge Barco) 

Special thanks to Kim Cascone and Mark Hogben 

©2019 France Jobin

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Intrication on No.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANCE JOBIN
 Intrication

CATALOG: No.916
FORMAT: Limited edition CD and Digital release
RELEASE: Feb 22 2018

Pre order the limited edition CD or Digital release here

No. welcomes Canadian France Jobin to the label. 

The Montreal based artist will release her 9th album on No.. With her release entitled ‘Intrication’, she grapples with some truly cosmic concepts involving Quantum Entanglement (go on, Google it..) amongst other truly magical ideas which physics tend to invent these days.

Musically the release can be described as ‘microsound ambient’ but we think it’s much larger than that. It is at once comprised of microscopic sonic particles yet combines that with the warmth we know and love from the ‘Ambient’ cosmos.

Whilst the sub atomic particles of noise bounce around your mind, the total work weaves a warm blanket of audio enjoyment on both the micro and macroscopic levels revealing a world at once both too tiny to comprehend and too large to grasp. Presented here as No. 916 for your scientific scrutiny.

releases February 22, 2018 

Produced by France Jobin.
Cover Image by Mark Hogben.
Artwork by Material Object.
Mastering by Atom™.

 

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Scènes on LINE

FRANCE JOBIN
scènes

__________________________________________________________________

CATALOG: LINE_093
FORMAT: Digital
EDITION: Open
RELEASE: Nov 17 on Bandcamp / Nov 24, 2017 worldwide

Canadian sound artist France Jobin returns for her third album on LINE.
Scènes is a touching and elegant tribute dedicated to her dear friend, Finnish musician Mika Vainio
who passed away on April 12, 2017 at the age of 53.

the significance of transitions are immutable 

under the constraints of linear time

infinity will bring solace

 

for mika.

 

\\\

All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe and at EMS (Stockholm)
using the Serge and the Buchla 200 modular synthesizers as well as the Nord Modular.

Thank you Marco de Leonibus for playing guitar when I ventured into Museolaboratorio one evening to
check my email. (processed guitar recordings on scène 2 and 4).

images : Mark Hogben

Special thanks to: Richard Chartier and Mark Hogben for their constant support.

TRACKLIST:

1. scène 1 (15:42)
2. scène 2 (07:34)
3. scène 3 (08:17)
4. scène 4 (10:14)

c 2017 France Jobin / p 2017 Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd

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Singulum on LINE

 

singulum_cover

France Jobin
Singulum
LINE_075
CD + Digital
Edition of 400
February 2016

Returning to LINE after her critically acclaimed 2012’s Valence (LINE_054), France Jobin brings us the four sparse elegant works that comprise Singulum. 

Quantum physics inspires me to draw a parallel between the fundamental building blocs of physics, sounds and music. I put field recordings through a series of editing and manipulation processes which result in very different sounds from their origins. These manipulations affect time, timbre, harmonics and the essence of each sound, whereas composition influences how they relate to each other.

Singulum represents an unattainable goal, the process of decay while conserving a continuation of information.

All sounds recorded at various locations in North America, Europe, and Japan and at EMS (Stockholm) using the Serge and the Buchla 200 modular synthesizers as well as the Nord Modular.

Cover image: Mark Hogben.

Thank you to EMS (Stockholm), Sporobole (Sherbrooke), EMPAC (Troy), Andreas Tilliander, Argeo Ascani, Fabio Perletta (Farmacia 901), Ennio Mazonn (CConfin).
Special thanks to Richard Chartier and Mark Hogben.

TRACKS:
1.  n (16:58)
2.  l (06:30)
3.  m (08:55)
4.  s (13:35)

LINE

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sans repères on popmuzik records

France Jobin
sans repères
popmusikrec_002
LP (180g Heavy Vinyl)
Edition of 300
September 21st 2014

Field recordings in Fukuoka and in Yanagawa during a boat ride in the canals.

Created entirely with actual field recordings gathered while on tour in Japan, sans repères explores the possibilities brought forth in the absence of absolute points of reference.

cover photo: Eri MAKITA (http://www.erimakita.com)
artwork: Keiji TANAKA (http://www.calamariinc.com)

thanks to:
Sachiko, Shuhei, Riku, Tatsuki and Arata Miyagi, Keiichiro Shibuya, Sho Nakao, Yu Fuji, Kenta Inamasu, duenn, “quiet eating machine” (Takahiro Horie & Kennichiro Sakai), Yuki Aida, Emi Aida special thanks to Jun Iijima, who let me record his piano during sound check in Tokyo @ Super Deluxe, which i processed for this album.

BUY

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The illusion of infinitesimal on Baskaru

France Jobin
The Illusion of Infinitesimal
KARU:27
CD (digipak)
Edition of 500
February 11th 2014

Perfection and Uncertainty

The thing about France Jobin’s music that never fails to impress is that it works on so many levels. Listen to it at the threshold of perception (the way it is mastered) or at very high volume, on headphones or through loudspeakers, and you will hear new sonic relationships, new structures, a new logic every time. Things simultaneously are and aren’t as they seem; sounds you hear are and aren’t really there.

Montréal sound/installation artist France Jobin has come a long way since her days as a blues keyboardist in the 1980s. In 1999, after a hiatus that lasted a decade, during which she raised two sons, she turned to experimental electronic music of the very quiet, rumbling, abstracted kind, and started performing and releasing music under the moniker i8u. Slowly but with great assurance, she built a much-lauded career and kept on refining her art, ever digging deeper into the core of sound. When the revered LINE label offered her an album (Valence) in 2012, she abandoned her alias and started using her own name.

In her own words:

«The Illusion of Infinitesimal represents another chance to refine the unique essence of each sound and composition, in an effort to better communicate intent without influencing its unfolding, a delicate balance between perfection and detachment.

A parallel could be drawn from particles of matter, which, “as far as we know, are infinitesimal points of zero size, yet they have measurable amounts of angular momentum. Does the concept of rotation even make sense for a featureless speck? Angular momentum seems to be a more foundational concept than rotation itself. The angular momentum, or spin, of a single particle is restricted in strange ways. It can have only certain values, and not all values are allowed for all particles.” (1)

Perfection and uncertainty.»

(1) Collage of quotes from Jim Pivarski, “Spin”, Symmetry Magazine, March 2013.

Tracklisting

1   -1/2
2    0
3   +1

Baskaru 

Listen

Reviews

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Valence on LINE

France Jobin
Valence
LINE_054
CD + Digital
Edition of 500
February  14th 2012

LINE is proud to present a new work by Montreal sound artist France Jobin. Having released under her moniker i8u, Valence is her first release under her own name. Created entirely from transformed field recordings, this collection of three compositions has an elegant flowing simplicity. Slow harmonic modulations of a similar essence to the works of Eliane Radigue and Celer.
–
Valence is inspired by both the valence bond (VB) and molecular orbital (MO) theories.

An atomic orbital is a mathematical function that describes the wave-like behavior of either one electron or a pair of electrons in an atom. This function can be used to calculate the probability of finding any electron of an atom in any specific region around the atom’s nucleus. The term may also refer to the physical region defined by the function where the electron is likely to be.

Often, my compositions start with a feeling or emotional state. There is a likelihood of finding a certain emotion in a piece, but it is not guaranteed, nor do I know exactly when or where I will find it. The act of looking for that emotion in of itself will distort it. Although one would think experimental music grants complete freedom, when composing, I feel constrained by both my mental state and the way in which I build the piece.

I find an unlikely parallel in quantum theory and composing. The electron that can exist on a different orbital plain can never have it’s velocity measured or even its exact location known, due to the intimate connection between particles and waves in the wacky world of subatomic dimensions.
All sounds recorded at various locations in North America and Europe.
Special thanks to Richard Chartier and Mark Hogben.
Cover image by Mark Hogben.

S orbital   27:41
P orbital   22:12
D orbital   18:21

http://www.lineimprint.com/

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surface tension on murmur records

Surface tension　ー　i8u

out November 16.2011 on Murmur Records (Japan)

Surface tension is a new “sound sculpture” from renown audio installation artist i8u aka France Jobin. Based on field recordings taken from Canada and the EU, the prolific Jobin freely integrates digital, analog, glitch and drone into a field of aural vision that simultaneously exhibits micro and macro perspectives on a complex, yet inviting, environmental theme.

i8u’s art is about juxtapositions, analogue to digital, aural to visual, technological to philosophical. Her installations can often be experienced in live events and festivals across the Canada, the United States, South America and Europe.

Track Listing

01. water 72.86
02. toluene 28.52
03. ethanol 22.29