Biography(ies)

A Montreal-based sound artist, Louis-Olivier Desmarais enjoys navigating through different creative playgrounds around the medium of sound. His work as a composer is mainly rooted in a writing of the imaginary where the play on meaning serves as a springboard to the elaboration of poetry through sound. Inspired by the connections between music, visual arts and cinema, he likes to use the areas between realism and abstraction as artistic material. He is very interested in the connections between art and spirituality. In 2019, he launched on RTBF La Première a contemplative documentary on the Benedictine community of St-Benoît-du-Lac entitled Abbaye, which in 2022 became PAX, a contemplative multimedia installation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in digital music from the Université de Montréal and is a candidate for a master’s degree in composition and sound creation under the direction of Georges Forget. His work is internationally recognized (Phonurgia Nova, RTBF, Gulliver grant, Festival Longueur d’ondes). He has also received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

LOUIS-OLIVIER DESMARAIS | SOUND CREATION

LOUIS-OLIVIER DESMARAIS

Louis-Olivier Desmarais, a student in the master’s program in sound creation at the Université de Montréal, was offered a two-week artist residency at Sporobole from January 9 to 22, 2023. The work resulting from this residency will be played in the sound showcase from May 19 to June 18, 2023.

FLOTS

Flots is a multi-channel contemplative sound installation project that focuses on the notion of “ocean feeling”, this fleeting impression of being one with the world around us. We live in a time of anxiety where many feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the world. Many feel restless, searching for a balance that always seems harder to find. This installation aims to create a haven, in the heart of the city, where those who feel the need can rest for a while.

The poetic and musical language of the installation is based on the archetype of the oscillating movement of waves. This is everywhere in the fabric of the sound that composes the work: frames, melodies, spatial movements and mixing processes respond to these oscillatory dynamics. Musically, the installation is a sound mass with a changing profile sometimes punctuated by overall forces that create a paradoxical tension between dynamism and stasis. To this effect, polyrhythms, polyphonies and experimentation on the timbre are at the heart of the articulations of the discourse. These same articulations movements are well seated on broad, telluric movements that change the conditions within which the musical elements evolve.

Photo credit : Daniel Boisclair