Besides its numerous duet improvisation concerts and works composed for special occasions, Traces has be commissioned by artists from various art disciplines such as dance, poetry, theater, visual arts and… music, by way of other musicians interested in working with us.

Here are a few of the projects Traces has created with various audio or video examples. Included are links to some for the artists or art organizations with whom we have has the pleasure to work.
 
Traces-Gnawa - 2009

This is the newest Traces project : an encounter with mythical Morocco through five metaphoric scenes titled Thé, Désert, Afrique, Fête et Paix. The music composition is finished and we are now undertaking the second phase of the project, whic is the integration of still and animated images, and staging of the work. The final project is scheduled to be performed in 2010.  Project collaborators are: Saïd Mesnaoui, Moroccan msuician and composer; Abdlatif Abousahl, Moroccan poet and writer; Cléo Palacio-Quintin, electroacoustic composer. A video artist and play director will later be involved.

This project has received funding from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec through its research and creation program.

Audio excerpts

Saïd Mesnaoui website
Psukhô - 2008

How to define composer Jean-François Laporte? Sound installation sculptor? Plastic artist and fabulous instrument inventor? Composer? All of these! Jean-François Laporte commissioned us a sixty minutes work for a production by his own company, Totem contemporain.
In this piece, we had to integrate in our own way sound installations controled by the composer during a performance. So Traces imagined a kind of concerto grosso for three players that would render  the richness of the sound installations and the music we could draw from these, combined to our own intrumentation.

Jean-François Laporte
Totem contemporain
Faites de l'Air - 2008

This performance, initiated by Concerts M and its artistic director Michel Frigon, brought together three seasoned improvisors -Traces et Jean Derome – in a carefully prepared encounter but with with a canevas and musical form that gave the three musicians all the space needed for their spontaneity and their imagination.

Innovations en concert
Je Suis Ulysse - 2007

Traces developped this project with actor Jacques Baril. The piece was conceived to integrate music and theater around Homer’s immortal work : Odyssey. The result was a 65 minutes work with no other stage setting than Trace’s imposing instrumentation. This show dives to the heart od Homer’s text; it was adapted and staged by fantastic actor Jacques Baril, accompanied by Trace’s exuberant and evocative music.

Video excerpts