”

-Giuseppe Angelucci,

Valence, Line 054

Spiritual archives (March 30, 2012)

FranceJobin (b. 1958) is a sound / installation / artist, composer and curator residing in Montreal,Canada. Her audio art can be qualified as "sound-sculpture", revealing a minimalist approach to complex sound environments where analog and digital intersect. Her installations express a parallelpath, incorporating both musical and visual elements inspired by thearchitecture of physical spaces. Her works can be “experienced”in varied music venues and new technology festivals across Canada,the United States, South America, Europe and Japan.

Jobin has created solo recordings for bake/staalplaat (NL), ROOM40 (AU),nvo (AT), DER (US), ATAK (JP), murmur records (JP), and theprestigious LINE label (US). Jobin’s sound art is also part ofcountless compilation albums, notably on the ATAK (JP),bremsstrahlung (US), Mutek (CA), murmur records (JP), and/oar (US),tsuku boshi (FR), everest records (CH), and Contour Editions (US)labels. She is also featured in the influential book and recording,Extract,Portraits of Soundartists(book + 2 cd), released on the nonvisualobjects label (AT). Thecollaborative album ligne,created with sound artist Tomas Phillips, was released on the ATAKlabel (JP).

Her installations and screenings have been shown at museums and festivals. An invitation to the AIR Artist-In-Residence program in Krems, Austria enabled her to create und transit,a sound installation set in the MinoritenKirche cloister in Stein(AT). A recent collaboration with artist and musician Cédrick Eymenier (FR) resulted in "EVENT HORIZON", an audio/video piece, which was screened in Paris (2010) and the Venezuela Biennale in Merida state (2010), and performed live at the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles (2010), as well as at ISEA RUHR 2010 (DE). In 2011, Jobin was one of five international artists selected to present her sound installation, Entre-Deux, in the new media exhibit Data/Fields, curated by Richard Chartier at Artisphere in the Washington, DC area, along with Ryoji Ikeda, MarkFell, Caleb Coppock, and Andy Graydon. Her proposition received critical acclaim from the national press.

She has also participated in numerous music and new technology festivals such as Mutek (Montreal, 2001, 2004 - 2009), le FIMAV de Victoriaville (2002), Ver Uit de Maat (Rotterdam, 2002), SEND +RECEIVE (Winnipeg, 2003, 2005), Les Digitales (Brussels, 2004), Club Transmediale (Berlin, 2004), Shut up and Listen (Vienna, 2009), ISEA RUHR 2010 (Germany), EMPAC (US 2011),surface tension tour (Japan, 2012). A soundtrack composed by Bubblyfish andi8u for the silent movie Swords woman of Huangjiang / Huangjiang Nuxiawas presented at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Walter ReadeTheater in the UCLA tribute tour of Chinese martial arts, “HeroicGrace: the Chinese Martial Arts Film” (USA, 2003).

She initiated“immersound”, a concert event/philosophy, which proposes the creation of a dedicated listening environment by focusing on the physical comfort of the audience within a specifically designed space. The premise of“immersound”is to seek out/explore new perceptions in and experiences of the listening process by pushing the notion of “immersion” to its possible limits. She produced the first “immersound”in 2011 at Oboro in Montreal and continues to curate / produce the event.

In January 2013, the Conseil québécois de la musique awarded FranceJobin with the prestigious Opus Prize for Concert of the year –Category Musiques Actuelle, ?lectroacoustique for her concert atAKOUSMA 8.

France Jobin’s work continues to evolve as technologies enable her to create new environments.