Corie Rose Soumah & Hypercube at Le Vivier: So Much Material… Skill

Genres and styles : Electroacoustic / Electronic / expérimental / contemporain

Additional Information

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Transplanted to New York, where her career is progressing alongside her graduate studies at Columbia University, composer and curator Corie Rose Soumah returned home to Montreal to perform for the second time since the beginning of 2025, when she was invited to perform in the context of Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques, where the vocal ensemble Ekmeles performed her music – watch the interview with Frédéric Cardin. She’s back for this invitation from Le Vivier, where her work will be featured alongside that of her Hypercube colleagues. Since PAN M 360 holds this artist in the highest esteem, Alain Brunet proposes this other interview, this time in advance of the program presented in the Salle Bleue of the Wilder Building, this Wednesday, April 30: Aptitudes Matérielles.

“Corie Rose Soumah invites Hypercube sound artists Erin Rogers, Antoine Goudreau and Antonin Bourgault for a concert where new technologies, visual arts and sound spatialization meet.”

PAN M 360: How did you come to work with Hypercube?

Corie Rose Soumah: I was lucky enough to collaborate with Hypercube for the first time in 2022 during the 2021-2022 season of Columbia Composers, a student organization developing a professional concert series taking place in New York. It was then that I discovered the rich potential and incredible quality of improvisation and interpretation that each member of the ensemble (Erin Rogers, Andrea Lodges, Jay Sorce and Chris Graham) brings to the table in their own very personal way. The collaboration culminated in my piece “SPINNING, TOUCHED, UNDREAMT; SNOW-”, which explores several sonic palettes between acoustic sounds and analog synthesizers. Since then, the ensemble has taken the piece to several concert halls in the U.S., and an album recording of it is currently in the works. For the “Aptitudes matérielles” concert, I wanted to bring this New York sonic sensibility to the Montreal scene, while blending in Montreal’s unique artistic richness.

PAN M 360: What is your professional affinity with your three colleagues, Erin Rogers, Antoine Goudreau and Antonin Bourgault?

Corie Rose Soumah: As a saxophonist, Erin Rogers is a member of Hypercube and an accomplished composer and improviser. In addition to working with her on SPINNING, I’ve had the privilege over the past few years of hearing her perform in concert on several occasions, across multiple varied aesthetics. The concert will feature a new piece written by Erin for ensemble and electronics.

I discovered Antoine Goudreau’s work more recently, at the end of 2023. I was struck by his creative use of technology in his artistic process, as well as the sonic particularity that emerges from it, a very unique touch of his own. For me, his work is a fine example of the richness of Montreal’s new generation of creators. I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to commission a new mixed-media piece from him for Hypercube.

As for Antonin Bourgault, we both studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in 2015. Antonin was one of the first students to play my music, and since then we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on new pieces, including a premiere that will take place at this concert. He is also a gifted composer and improviser, playing in Montreal’s experimental venues. I owe a great deal of my ease and mastery of saxophone writing to him, thanks to all his advice and attention to detail.

“This convergence of two metropolises with tremendous creative dynamism, New York and Montreal, offers an ideal pretext for the encounter between new technologies, visual arts, theatricality and sound spatialization.”

PAN M 360: We know you’re currently studying at Columbia, and the program notes speak of a New York/Montreal convergence, but tell us more? Are we talking about New York, where you’re currently studying, and Hypercube, Montreal?

Corie Rose Soumah: My interest in this project was to create relationships between artists in New York and Montreal, two cities very close to my heart. The project began with an extensive multi-day workshop with Hypercube in New York, inviting Antoine and Antonin to participate in person. The concert in Montreal is the culmination of this initial sound research, and this Wednesday will feature three new pieces as well as two works composed in 2020 and 2022.

The Montreal scene is, in my opinion, one of the richest in North America, as is that of New York. There’s a wide range of styles and a very strong experimental music ecosystem. Some New York artistic directors are already amplifying the similarities between the two metropolises by inviting established Montreal ensembles to major new music festivals such as TIME:SPANS. With Aptitudes matérielles, I wanted to bring New York to Montreal and make this music accessible to a different audience.

PAN M 360: Since we’re on the subject of Columbia, how have you been coping with the current presidency’s threats against your university? Do you prefer not to talk about it in case you become a victim of repression? Do you feel comfortable with this question?

Corie Rose Soumah: I won’t comment on that.

“Featuring analog instruments and a myriad of graphic and acousmatic landscapes, the concert program summons plural universes representative of contemporary sonic diversity.”

PAN M 360: Could you describe the main theme of this program in terms of aesthetics and choice of expressive tools, if we go by the official description in the program notes?

Corie Rose Soumah: The idea of material aptitudes is to demonstrate the ability of the artists involved to manipulate materials rich in texture and gesture. The concert program is based entirely on mixed or electroacoustic music. One of the advantages of the blue room at Agora de la danse is the possibility of creating a different scenic layout from the classical concert. This will be the case this Wednesday, where eight loudspeakers will be placed around the audience and the ensemble will be located in the middle of the room, offering a totally immersive experience.

Each piece employs new technologies and spatialization movements of its own, such as the transformation of sounds by real-time processing or analog instruments built especially for the occasion. Most of the pieces also use elements of notation outside classical notation, either graphic or hybrid scores, inviting the performers to develop material under guided improvisation. This is the case with Antoine’s work, which uses a scrolling score in addition to electronic elements.

It was also important for me to dismantle this strict division between composer and performer. There’s this annoying tendency to believe that once you specialize in the artistic practice of composition, you don’t have the ability to be an excellent performer – which is completely false, of course! All the members of this project work through these two practices. That’s why I’ve chosen to present Antoine and Erin’s compositional work alongside their performance practice.

PAN M 360: Could you please give us a brief overview of each of the works on the program?