File 39 - Gwendolyne descendue

Bernard Gagnon was born in 1953 and participated in the Quebec avant-garde electroacoustic music scene for two decades. As a young Montreal-based musician, he participated in a seminar on music theory, with Iannis Xenakis, and during a performance project met John Cage. Bernard formed MergélèpeGuorismogue and joined Atelier de musique expérimentale (AME), an organization created by Raymond Gervais, Michel Di Torre, Yves Bouliane, and Robert M. Lepage to promote improvised music in the 1970s in Montreal. Gagnon began experimenting with electronic sounds as a member of Kevin Austin’s MetaMusic and in the 1980s studied under Alcides Lanza, Mariano Etkin, and Paul Pedersen at McGill University, composing and recording his first electroacoustic pieces at the university’s Electronic Music Studio (EMS). In 1981, Gagnon was awarded both the CAPAC Hugh Le Caine Award and Radio-Canada’s Prix national de composition électroacoustique for works composed at McGill University. The compositions he recorded at EMS were released by Tenzier in 2012 on vinyl entitled: Bernard Gagnon: Musique Électronique (1975-1983). Gagnon’s composition “Gwendoline descendue!” was recently featured on the compilation album “Dream Into Dream” by Japan’s DJ Nobu and “GololoMashta” served as the soundtrack for a dance performance by Canadian choreographer Dana Gingras in 2013. Bernard Gagnon currently (2016) resides in Montreal.