To Sabrina

“When we walk, as time passes, we enter into an interior rhythm and pass into another state which is much more receptive and pensive.”

— Knud Viktor, sound artist

In Marche sonore I (Le matin du monde) I questioned the nature of listening and the multiple definitions of acoustic ecology by means of recordings of testimonies of friends, colleagues and family about the soundscape. Five years later, having found answers to these questions, I composed this second radiophonic soundwalk, El medio ambiente acústico de México (The Soundscapes of Mexico), which calls upon the musicality and poetry of the soundscapes I recorded in the fall of 1995 in Mexico City and the state of Oaxaca.

I worked like a photographer who studies and chooses his subject carefully, tries to document the magic of the moment, processes his captured images in studio and composes them into a collection of memories and sensations.

El medio ambiente acústico de México was drawn from Marche sonore II, a 50-minute radio work produced for Radio-Canada.

[ix-97]

El medio ambiente acústico de México was realized in my home studio in March, 1996 (radiophonic version) and revised in March, 1997 (disc version). The radiophonic version of the piece premiered on Saturday, March 16, 1996 at 11 pm on Le navire «night» radio program of the FM cultural network of Radio-Canada (Hélène Prévost, producer). I thank all of the participants in this composition, many who have been recorded without their knowledge. I hope I have presented their soundscapes with dignity. A special thanks to Hélène Prévost for her support and encouragement. Thanks to Studio XX, Aline Barnoti, Gilles Gobeil, Jean-François Denis, Katharine Asals, Kathy Kennedy, Laurie Radford, Ned Bouhalassa, Oboro Gallery and Oscar Hernandez. Special thanks to Sabrina Mathews, to whom this piece is dedicated, who recorded some of the sounds in this composition and helped me bring the piece, and its process, to life.

Premiere

• March 16, 1996, Le navire «night», Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada, Canada