Additional Information
This Sunday, April 26, at the Sala Rossa, the organization Codes d’accès presents *Constellations corporelles*, a program featuring emerging composers from Quebec who explore “the body and the unusual aspects of staging.”
Gabo Champagne and Rebecca Gray have collaborated on a musical theater piece that pushes the emotional boundaries of the audience and the physical limits of the singer, blending classical singing with performance art.
“Assembly Line Apparitions,” by Nicholas Ma, is a work for cello and electronics. All electronic elements are created from cello recordings, edited to appear as ghostly apparitions during the live performance. This piece is presented in collaboration with the Vivier Interuniversitaire (ViU).
The duo Gabriela Tomé and Christophe Lengelé present Caos Celestial by Archivos for electronics, guitar, and voice, 2024 (25 min), a performance blending electronic music, guitar, visuals, and voice, inspired by the theory of black holes and cosmic forces.
Alexis Blais presents Crowdwork, for violin, viola, and speakers placed on the audience’s laps, inspired by the interactions observed between a performer and their audience.
Alexis explains the ins and outs to us.
PAN M 360: Tell us about your background!
Alexis Blais : After training as a classical pianist, I earned a bachelor’s degree in electroacoustics at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Louis Dufort. There, I learned the fundamentals of acousmatics and developed my own edgy, raw compositional style, with pieces such as *Skand* (2021) and *animal_farm* (2022). I then completed a master’s degree in composition and sound design at the University of Montreal with Ana Dall’Ara-Majek. There, I conducted research on types of collaboration in electroacoustic music and began composing mixed-media music, a practice I had not previously pursued. Crowdwork is one of the pieces I composed during this period. I also compose for the stage, creating music for dance and theater productions.
PAN M 360: What are your aesthetic preferences in music?
Alexis Blais : In electroacoustic music, I appreciate works that emphasize the malleability and abstraction of the material, using an organic approach.
PAN M 360: You’ve composed a piece for viola and speakers placed on the audience’s laps, and you say you drew inspiration from the interactions between a comedian and their audience. Can you explain the reasoning behind these choices? What kind of speakers are they? How does the interaction between a comedian and their audience inspire you?
Alexis Blais : Crowdwork was conceived as a reimagining of a classic comedy routine, alternating between moments of monologue and moments of interaction with the audience. Hélios, on the violin, plays the role of the comedian on stage and cracks jokes at his instrument, to which the eight speakers in the audience—which I operate live—respond.
These speakers are old living room speakers I found for a few dollars at a thrift store. They play electroacoustic transformations of studio recordings of Hélios’s instrument, serving as reactions to his jokes. The inspiration for the piece came to me while I was thinking about the audience’s role in contemporary music. I wanted to find a way to integrate the audience into the piece’s narrative. The parallel with stand-up comedy came quite naturally.
In this type of performance, audience participation and their reactions are almost as important as the performer’s role on stage. The audience chuckles, is surprised, takes offense, or walks out, sometimes even influencing the course of the act. I felt there was something truly musical about these interactions, which is why I wanted to set them entirely to music.
PAN M 360: What are your upcoming projects?
Alexis Blais : I am currently working on the presentation of a collaborative acousmatic work titled *Les brasiers mobiles*. It is a semi-narrative piece featuring Amaryllis Tremblay reading texts by Hannah Arendt, drawn from her book *The Nature of Totalitarianism*. I am also working on the composition of a new semi-narrative long-form piece in the same vein, which can be experienced in a concert hall like a film without images.
PROGRAM
Nicholas Ma, Assembly Line Apparitions, for solo cello and electronics (6’30”). 2025.
Jaeyoung Chong, cello
Gabo Champagne/Rebecca Gray “Funnelleries,” 2025 (25’)
Gabo Champagne, composition
Rebecca Gray, composition and vocals
INTERMISSION
Alexis Blais “Crowdwork” for violin and electronics, 2025 (10’)
Alexis Blais, composition
Hélios Paradis, violin
Gabriela Tomé and Christophe Lengelé “Caos Celestial de Archivos” for electronics, guitar, and voice, 2024 (25’)
Gabriela Tomé, composition and guitar
Christophe Lengelé, composition and electronics
