Editorial

For eContact! 10.3 — TES 2007, Guest Editor David Ogborn contributes a number of papers that were presented last August at the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium 2007.

The Symposium, an initiative of David Ogborn and co-produced by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA), brought together composers and sound artists from Toronto, across Canada and the United States. The range of presentations was an excellent indication of the diversity of practices found today in the larger — international — electroacoustic community. Barry Truax and Trevor Wishart gave Keynote Lectures at the Symposium, which led directly into the annual Sound Travels festival, where they were Composers-in-Residence.

The event was initially planned as a one-time production, but was such a success that there was unanimous interest in holding it again in 2008. The combination of this enthusiasm and the fruitful collaboration between the various bodies involved — the CEC, University of Toronto, NAISA and supporting institutions angelusnovus.net, InterAccess and the Canadian Music Centre — forms an excellent indication of healthy growth in the electroacoustic scene in Toronto and beyond. So as we launch this issue, we are pleased to announce the upcoming Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium 2008 (7–9 August 2008): there is still time to submit your proposal for it!

The CEC’s support of this Symposium follows in a long line of involvement in and with the community that goes back to its founding: conferences, symposia and festivals such as ›convergence‹, »Perspectives» and Journées ELECTRO-RADIO Days are well-known to the older generation, and in recent years the CEC has been in contact with the emerging generation of electroacousticians through projects such as the Electroacoustic Seminars 2007 and Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP).

A new column makes its first appearance here as well: “Community Reports,” an ongoing series of articles offering information about past, present and future activities in various international electroacoustic — and related — communities. Reports on Aberdeen (Bill Thompson) and Edinburgh (Owen Green) are the first installments in this resource, which aims to underscore the achievements of communities that are perhaps “off the beaten path” as much as those of the established “centres” of electroacoustic activity. Two Wiki pages (“live” and growing resources) complement these reports, with lists of Venues and Events where electroacoustics can be heard in various cities around the world.

In addition to the TES 2007 contributions, we find reflections on how the community “defines” itself (Jason Thomas) and what it understands about its “audience” (Steven Rice), as well as an exchange looking at how electroacoustic composers go about discussing, or (attempting to) understand what it is that they actually do (Barry Schrader / Kevin Austin). These articles complement and help tie together the various elements of this issue into an important ongoing sub-theme in eContact!, namely community. This important theme will be treated to a bit more attention and focus in the next two years’ issues, both directly — Concordia Archival Project, Canadian Figures [2], Canadian Regions / Atlantic, the annual JTTP issues, and of course the Community Reports column already mentioned — and more obliquely — Interviews [1] and [2], Improvisation/Live, and DIY Instruments.

Jorge Sad brings to light the importance of a lesser-known figure in Argentinian electroacoustic history, Carmelo Saitta, whom he considers to be the Argentinian “Pierre Schaeffer,” and Kevin Austin is back with another round of Kwik Picks from recent additions to SONUS.ca.

And finally, in order to pay tribute to Bebe Barron and Tristram Cary, who recently passed away, several people have offered some kind words in their memory.

Enjoy the reading and don’t forget about the June 6 deadline for Call for Proposals to TES 2008.

jef chippewa, 29 May 2008.