Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) & Cache

The text below details the various aspects of the CEC’s annual project for young and/or emerging sound artists/composers from (or living in) Canada.

Project Overview

Mandate of the Larger JTTP Project

As well as upholding the mandate and role of the CEC this project aims to encourage the production, creation, dissemination and promotion of newly- or recently-created Canadian electroacoustic works from younger and emerging composers and sound artists working in electroacoustics by:

• issuing a call for newly- or recently-created works;
• incorporating all submissions into a respected, established and supportive context for their (re-) presentation;
• framing the submissions within a composition competition awarding prizes to the top five selections;
• forming a large jury of established international composers, performers and other individuals to evaluate submissions and provide critical feedback to the composers who have submitted works;
• publishing an issue of eContact! (CEC’s Internet-based electroacoustic journal) focussing on JTTP, contextualizing all submissions within an international and historical framework on the CEC’s website;
• co-ordinating several informed presentations of the top works in concerts and international radio broadcasts and webcasts;
• producing a CD (Cache) highlighting the top-placing pieces, and distribute this CD internationally to individuals and institutions actively involved in the production and/or promotion of electroacoustics;
• building an accessible, resource-efficient project to support Canadian electroacoustic creation, and promote this creation within the Canadian and international scenes of electroacoustics and related arts.

Call for Works

A Call for Works is made to the greater Canadian electroacoustic community several months ahead of the deadline through an extensive communications network. This network includes CEC members, individuals, educators and institutions who are in any way involved in electroacoustics. Regular reminders follow. Every effort is made to ensure that this call is as far-reaching as possible. The call is aimed at young and emerging composers and sound artists and specifies that works submitted must be new creations.

The deadline for submissions to the annual project is May 1.

Jury and Judging Process

The jury is built anew each year by the project administrators, who invite individuals from around the world — professionals, sound artists, composers and performers — to participate in the jury (the average is approx. 30 jury members). The jury is built to ensure a good balance of background and experience, æsthetic interests, and gender. The diversity inherent to the CEC’s juries allowing for an objective and fair ranking of the works.

All submitted works are uploaded to the CEC’s website for the jury members to review individually. Only the titles and programme notes are given to the judges, the composers remain anonymous for the judging process. Discussion among the jury members ensues on a closed email list and concerns various æsthetic, formal and technical issues of the works. At the end of the judging stage, the jury members individually provide numerical scores and commentary for each of the submitted works.

Following the release of the results in early July, the composers may request feedback so that they might learn from the collective wisdom of the jury.

Prizes and Awards

The composers of the top five works selected by the jury are awarded CEC memberships, cash prizes, and CDs, DVDs, books, and journals donated to the project by individual and institutional Project Partners.

Cache CD

The top 10–11 pieces from each year’s JTTP project (the number of works which will fit onto a single CD), are pressed to the Cache compilation CD, which is distributed and promoted internationally (see below).

International Visibility

Exposure via eContact! and SONUS.ca

The project gains important exposure from the intimate relationship it has with eContact!, the CEC’s online quarterly journal for electroacoustics. Each year an issue of eContact! highlights the larger JTTP project. Programme and biographical notes for all submissions are featured, as well as a list of the jury members and Project Partners. All submissions to the project are housed in SONUS.ca, the CEC’s online Jukebox of electroacoustic works.

eContact! is recognized in Canada and internationally as a significant resource for information regarding electroacoustics.

As an increasingly important international resource for electroacoustics, eContact! provides still another way for the general public to get to know the works appearing on Cache.

Marketing and Distribution

Cache provides a unique opportunity for young and emerging composers in Canada to rapidly gain important international exposure in a variety of contexts. Promotional distribution of Cache by the CEC results in numerous international radio broadcasts (with simultaneous webcasts), concert play (also with webcast) and exposure to a select group of around 300 individuals and institutions involved in the support and promotion of electroacoustics on an international level. There are few examples — on a national or international level — of such a degree and quality of sustained and dedicated support as the CEC offers to young and emerging composers through the Cache CD series.

Cache Sold Internationally

Cache is available for sale through the two most important distributors for electroacoustic music: Montréal’s DIFFUSION i MéDIA and The Electronic Music Foundation, in New York. Both distributors have their own extensive international promotional networks, from which the CEC benefits immeasurably.

Promotional Copies of Cache

Promotional copies are sent directly by the CEC to people and institutions active in the production and support of electroacoustics in Canada and internationally: CEC members and other individuals, radio programmes and stations, concert promoters and various important cultural organizations.

Cache, as with other CEC CD projects, is received warmly and reviewed by important journals and magazines around the world who are also on our promotional mailing list.

Copies of Cache are made available to our Media Partners for “give-aways” on their radio shows, as well as to producers of concerts featuring electroacoustic music (eg.the EuCuE concert series in Montréal).

Presentation of the Top-placing Works

Radio Broadcasts

The CEC receives ongoing support from a number of international radio stations: JTTP Media Partners broadcast the top 5 works from the competition as well as selections from, or in many cases, the entire Cache CD once it is realeased. The following list contains the current JTTP Media Partners as well as a few long-time supporters.

CANADA
CKUT 90.3 FM — Where’s The Beat? (Montréal), Eliot Handelman. Host of the Official JTTP Launching since 2002.
CIUT 89.5 FM — The Audible Woman (Toronto), Sarah Peebles (until 2006) and Stephanie Moore
CKLN 88.1 FM — A Missing Sense / Electric Storm (Toronto), James Bailey
CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver Co-op Radio — Musica Nova, Andrew Czink
CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver Co-op Radio — Soundscape, Jean Routhier

CHILE
Radio Universidad de Chile — Perdidos en el Espacio (Santiago), Jaime Baeza

CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech Radio — Radiocustica (Prague), Michal Rataj

FRANCE
Elektramusic Radioshow for Experimental Music (Paris), Paul Clouvel

GERMANY
DEGEM WebRadio

SPAIN
Radio Clásica — Ars Sonora (Madrid), Miguel Álvarez-Fernández

SWEDEN
Sveriges Radio — Monitor (Stockholm), Erik Mikael Karlsson

USA
WDBX 91.1 FM — It’s Too Damn Early (Carbondale IL), Dave X
WGDR 91.1 FM — Kalvos & Damian’s New Music Bazaar (Plainfield VT), Dennis Báthory-Kitsz & David Gunn. (Off-air since 2005)
WMBC — art@radio (Baltimore MD), Steve Bradley
WOBC 91.5 FM — Foldover (Cleveland OH), Tom Lopez

Most radio stations these days have simultaneous webcasts, and the CEC sends out promotional announcements prior to all broadcasts through an extensive communications network, thus assuring a large international audience can tune into the broadcasts online.

Concert Diffusion

All works selected for inclusion on Cache are played in concert in the Fall EuCuE series of electroacoustic concerts in Montréal, at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, Concordia University. Other concert presentations  are made elsewhere in Canada and abroad.

Administrative and Production Support

Key Personnel

Project Managers: Ian Chuprun (until 2005); Yves Gigon (since 1997); and jef chippewa (since 2005)
Webmaster: Yves Gigon

Contact the JTTP Administrators by email.

Support

Since its inception in 2000, JTTP has received direct and indirect support from a number of sources. Without the generous and continued support of these individuals and institutions, JTTP would not have been possible.

Productions électro Productions (PeP) is the arms-length production team working on behalf of the CEC. The team’s expertise advises and acts as an information resource to the CEC volunteers and administrators regarding technical matters, production details and more. As with most CEC projects, JTTP benefits from the experience and knowledge of this group of almost 40 people.

Concordia University’s Department of Music made studio spaces and computers available to the CEC in the early years of JTTP, before many of the production tasks could be done in the Project Administrators’ own workspaces.

Concordia University continues to provide internet server space to the CEC to house the massive amount of data — sound files and other media, webpages, etc. — needed for its various projects.

Jean-François Denis and DIFFUSION i MéDIA provide technical support and graphic design for the production of Cache.

The Canada Council for the Arts, Writing & Publishing Section has supported eContact! since the first issue was published in 1998.

International Recognition of JTTP Participants (CV)

The composers selected for the inclusion on the Cache CDs continue to be recognized internationally for the remarkable quality of their work, as is evidenced by the numerous prizes and awards they have received. A sample of prizes awarded to composers for the works included on the Cache series can be found here.