Nour Symon — je suis calme et enragé•e
Nour Symon's je suis calme et enragé•eis the égypto-québécois·e multidisciplinary artist's second recorded outing for Ambiances Magnétiques following 2020'sVoir dans le ventqui hurle les étoiles rire, et rire (l'un·e sans l'autre),a disc that justifably prompted Revue et Corrigée's Pierre Durr to aptly characterize Nour as"un personnage assez singulier" (a rather singular character).Not only does their practice span poetry, visual art and music, they have also garnered considerable recognition in each of these spheres. Their visual work has been exhibited at Usine C, at the Charpente des fauves (Québec), at the Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal, at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur as well as at at the Palazzo Ducale di Lucca. Their poetry was nominated for several coveted awards —Prix du récit and Prix de poésie Radio-Canada, the Governor General's Award and the Émile-Nelligan Prize. Musically, they are currently working on the fnal version of their operatic rendition of Nicole Brossard’s novelLe désert mauve.Preliminary versions have been mounted variously in Stockholm, Calgary, Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Québec City, Jonquière, Edmonton, and Oulu, Finland.
Nour infuses their musical compositions with this spirit of collaborating across boundaries. They employ beautifully crafted graphic scores as a means to communicate with the musicians and according to them this permits participation from a diverse array of artists rather than speaking exclusively to those with specifc forms of training. It opens up a space of celebration of each musician's specifc knowledges and abilities and also one that elicits exploration. When selecting collaborators, Nour likes to not only mix players coming from different artistic realms but also prefers to balance artists that have previously partnered with them with fresh collaborative voices.
On je suis calme et enragé•e, this collaborative framework also takes on a certain symbolism, refecting the work's underlying inspiration. The genesis of the project happened during thePrintemps érableof 2012, a mass student protest movement in Québec responding to the provincial government's intention to nearly double tuition fees. As the movement evolved, it came to encompass a wider array of grievances with the present government, with leftist and environmentalist political groups, labour unions, and various marginalized populations joining the fray. A quarter million demonstrators participated during its peak. For Nour, this movement was heartening in its complex and galvanizing intersectionality "Indeed, we were all deeply marked by the exaltation and idealism, but also by the resignation and resilience that nourished everyone's refections in response to the social movement."
Wondering about how to transfer this energy into the musical realm, they set about reaching out to noted poetRoxane Desjardins to commission texts for the project, based both on the poet's own experiences and aspects drawn from the poetry of celebrated Québec poets Denis Vanier and Josée Yvon, whose writings underpinned the province's counterculture of the 1980s and 90s.
Nour's lavish score was, at the time of its completion, their most ambitious one to date. The fnished product was a video score that animates a series of abstract hand-drawn images made with graphite, pastel, acrylic and charcoal on everything from rolls of rice-paper to pieces of cardboard. Initially conceived for l'Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de la Montérégie, this frst plan was abandoned on account of the pandemic.
Ultimately, the nucleus of the group found on the present recording comprises an eclectic quartet of vocalists, including Vincent Ranallo, a baritone grounded equally in contemporary music and the operatic tradition, as well as the imaginative and unclassifableGabriel Dharmoo, a composer and versatile vocalist known for his extensive palette. There's alsoZéa Beaulieu-April, a curious-minded singer who trawls the darker fringes of electronic pop under the pseudonymZéa Calla, and fnally renowned queer poet and spoken word artistLaura Doyle Péan. The voices are fanked byEnsemble SuperMusique—the all-star, award-winning Montréal musique actuelle collective founded in 1998, and presently featuring Cléo Palacio-Quintin (fute), Craig Pedersen (trumpet), Guido Del Fabbro (violin), Émilie Girard-Charest (cello), Stéphane
Diamantakiou (double bass), Corinne René (percussion). Joining the instrumental forces are soloistsÉmilie Mouchous— known for her dynamic, noise-adjacent electroacoustics—on synthesizers, andBenjamin Tremblay Carpentier, who can be found in various circles from trad to experimental, performing on harmonica and electronics.
Nour, who also directs the ensemble on the present recording, makes brilliant use of the sizable sonic range of each ensemble member, weaving dense tapestries, or producing bold momentary alloys of shimmering sound. The fundamental thrust of the work is abstract, richly textured but this elusive foundation permits more clearly defned voices and texts variously waft or explode forth from the simmering masses of sound. In reviewing the work’s premiere, Catherine Harrison- Boisvert concluded:“Je suis calme et enragé·e translates the profusion of possibilities in contemporary musical creation,
through a total approach which challenges the senses in an acute way – let us underline in this regard the great beauty of Nour Symon's graphic scores, which are suffcient as works. While many might feel left behind by the approach, giving in to it is certainly worth it, if only to allow questions and uncertainties to emerge.”
