NICOLAS BERNIER INSTALLATIONS, PERFORMANCES, MUSIC FOR FILM & STAGE
Visions couleurs
• Label formes • ondes (CA), October 2024, digital

VISIONS COULEURS is solo for synthesizer and colors. This multi-part project is nourished by scientific and experimental readings on flicker-induced hallucinations and other consciousness expansion (notably Walter 1953, Huxley 1956, Kast 1964, Blewett 1969, Bartossek & al. 2021, Makin & al. 2023).

→ Pre-order on Bandcamp
→ Pre-save on Spotify
→ Pre-Order in iTune Store

Lueurs oniriques (bande originale)
• Bureau des fréquences (CA), June 2024, digital

Original music for the exhibition/performance/installation LUEURS ONIRIQUES by visual artist Manon De Pauw in a collaboration with choreographer Pierre-Marc Ouellette. Photo of Manon De Pauw installation by Guy L'Heureux.

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→ Listen on Spotify
→ Listen on Apple Music

Science_Fiction
• Bureau des fréquences (CA), June 2022, digital

Collaborations with poets/vocalists around the theme of science fiction and it's anchor to our reality. Featuring Beans, Av3ry, Gabrielle HB, Eleuthera, Léa Boudreau, Dubline, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Dominic Thibault. Mastered by Alexandr Vatagin.

«  a uniquely surreal sound collage  »
- Electronic Sound [Issue 90]

→ Buy on Bandcamp
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Danses kaléidoscopiques (Bande originale)
• Bureau des fréquences (CA), February 2022, digital

Original music for a performance from Manon De Pauw (visual art) and Pierre-Marc Ouellette (danse) + 2 music for short pandemic videodance created for the web by Pierre-Marc Ouelette.

«  This EP is quite the ride so toughen up and strap yourself  »
- The Slow Music Movement

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M. Carreaux (Bande originale du film)
• Bureau des fréquences (CA), April 2021, digital

Soundtrack for the animation film M. Carreaux directed by Marie-Hélène Turcotte. embuscadefilms.com/m-carreaux

«  Minimaliste, cinématographique.  »
- Signal intermittent

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2 Transcriptions (Oliveros • Pade)
• LINE (US), October 2021, digital+book

Adaptation for ten oscillators of two seminal early electronic music pieces. First is an excerpt of 'Jar Piece' composed by Pauline Oliveros in 1966 followed by 5 movements of 'Faust' composed by Else Marie Pade in 1962. This process of transcription and interpretation is detailed in the 145 pages book accompaniying the release.

«  The music itself is quite remarkable  »
- Boomkat

«  a huge accomplishement  »
- Damian Van Denburgh

→ Buy on Bandcamp

Sur le diapason
• Les presses du réel (FR), October 2019, book 152 p.

Nicolas Bernier usually does not write with words, but with sounds. For a decade, the sound of the tuning fork was at the center of a creative cycle composed of ten works shared between musique concrète, sound performances, instrument making, photography and installation. Accompanied by texts [in French] by physicist Dominique Bernard and curators Marie-Hélène Leblanc and Damien Simon, Nicolas Bernier delivers the premises which led to these works around the tuning fork.

→ Buy on Les presses du réel

«  Nicolas Bernier réalise un ouvrage didactique par sa clarté et poétique par son iconographie. Une réelle invitation à découvrir l’œuvre !  »
- Stewen Corvez

«  L’artiste présente au lecteur un surcroît de matière et de réflexions à travers neuf brefs chapitres augmentés de citations textuelles et d’une riche iconographie.  »
- Fanny Gribenski, Revue Circuit

frequencies (a / archives)
• 901 Editions (IT), March 2019, cd+digital+art object

The piece frequencies (a / archives) is a composition based on sounds from the scientific archives of Rennes 1 University (France). This impressive collection of antique scientific apparatus includes one of the few remaining "Grand Diapason" built by Rudolph Koenig circa 1880. The piece is metaphorically building a sonic bridge between past and present, like a lullaby in memory of those scientists, inventors and objects to whom we owe the history of sonic research. Mastered by Alexandr Vatagin.

The artist also took that project as a performative gesture, giving away is own collection of tuning fork with the (sold out) limited edition of the CD. Each tuning fork was unique and packaged with a laser cut acrylic base with the frequency engraved.

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4 compositions
• LINE (US), October 2018, digital

The first four compositions interpreted by the ensemble of ten old school analogue oscillators founded in 2016 by Nicolas Bernier. Four completely different takes on the same reductionnist sound matter : the sine wave. The beating pattterns, articulations, slow ascenscions and internal rhythms imagined by the composers are interpreded following graphic scores, producing a lively music despite de austerity of the instruments. Compositions by Kevin Gironnay (FR), Francisco Meirino (CH), Xavier Ménard (CA) and Candas Sisman (TR). Mastered by Alexis Langevin-Tétrault.

→ Buy on Bandcamp

«  compelling sonic sinewaves  »
- Toneshift

Transfert / Futur
• ACTE (CA), November 2017, cd + digital

Transfert/Futur is marking a shift from Nicolas Bernier’s rather reductionnist approach of the previous frequencies series to a more expressive an colourful aesthetic. Drawing from science fiction, sound textures are artificialized within abundance of synthesizers superimposed, creating exceptionally organic compositions. This record is a transfer into an hypothetic future. Mastered by Dominic Thibault.

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« brittle and mercurial post techno tones in polymetric structure  »
- Boomkat

frequencies (sound quanta)
• farmacia901 (IT), September 2015, art object + digital files + software

frequencies (sound quanta) is the audio version of sound and light installation frequencies (light quanta), inspired by basic quantum physics principles : particles, probabilities, wave/particle duality and discontinuity. Structured around these notions, the composition stems from 100 sound fragments that develop themselves aleatorically, generating an ever expanding, disruptive form.

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→ Limited edition art object (SOLD OUT)

« Truly on the cutting edge of digital experimentation [...] an immersive experience. »
- Beach Sloth Magazine

frequencies (a / fragments)
• LINE (US), February 2014, CD

frequencies (a / fragments) is based on sound fragments that lead to the sound and light performance frequencies (a). These sounds are generated with a system of custom made device enabling to computer-control tuning forks with solenoids. The results is articulated with synthetic sine waves, creating frictions between the acoustic and electronic elements. Mastered by Taylor Deupree.

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« Tonal generation and digital processing that go straight to the synapses »
- Cyclic Defrost, AU

frequencies (synthetic variations)
• Entr'acte (UK), September 2013, CD

Nicolas Bernier's first piece entirely made out of synthetic sounds, breaking with his musique concrète/field recording tradition. The result comprised 15 short movements of warped and crackling textures, of vividly articulated sine wave and of rythmic pattern bursts m ade to be listened to in random mode. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

→ Buy digital on Bandcamp

« It crackles, rumbles and grooves. [...] 24 minutes, 15 very short tracks to be listened to in random mode, a surprising record. »
- Monsieur délire, CA

Music for a Piano / Music for a Book
• Home Normal (JP), July 2012, 2 CDs

Double album, the first part being ‘Music For A Piano’. The second part ‘Music For A Book’ was written as a soundtrack for Marc-André Moutquin's third novel ‘Entre l’aurore et la nuit’. Mastered by Thierry Gauthier.

→ Listen on streaming platforms
→ Buy on Norman Records (SOLD OUT)
→ Buy at Home Normal (SOLD OUT)
→ Buy on Electrocd (SOLD OUT)
→ Buy on Boomkat (SOLD OUT)

« an incredible place to be  »
- Norman Records, UK

Travaux mécaniques
• empreintes DIGITALes (CA), February 2012, DVD 5.1

Mostly known for his performances, installations, and atmospheric music, he signs here a first album of pure musique concrète. We will again find his clever amalgam of aesthetic influences to which he has accustomed us, but in his most daring bill. Mastered by Dominique Bassal.

→ Buy on Electrocd

« vibrant music, swiftly moving about with a great sense of drama.  » - Vital Weekly, NL

« a highly complex soundworld [...] not a single second of downtime.  » - Monsieur Delire, CA


usure.paysage
• Hrönir (DE), February 2011, LP

An expressive mix of lively field recordings, tiny and massive electronics and sparkling relocations. The docker barks out aloud, the little insect crawls through the 19th century woodworker's atelier, forgotten voices vanish and the rest is no silence. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

→ Buy on Electrocd
→ Buy on Metamkine (SOLD OUT)
→ Buy on Rumpsti Pumsti (SOLD OUT)
→ Buy on Boomkat (SOLD OUT)

« utterly compelling  » - The Wire, UK

« crunched abrasions and eerie footsteps, ruptured by ghostly noises. Excellent, through and through!  » - Aquarius, US

strings.lines
• Crónica (PT), October 2010, CD

strings.lines came to life from an obsession for old and forgotten object, the tuning fork. Between the new and the old, the composition developpe itself like a series of thin to thick lines in a dialogue between the tuning forks, the strings and the digital. Viola da gamba : Pierre-Yves Martel. Violin : Chris Bartos. Mastered by MC.

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« Sublime.  » - Boomkat, UK

« a marvellous recording  » - Cyclic Defrost, AU

The Dancing Deer EP
• Home Normal (UK/JP), December 2010, CD

The Dancing Deer is a « pop concrète » collage, rhythm being the cornerstone of the work, built around a constant pulse. It brings together elements of drones, clicks, minimalism, maximalism, song writing, poetry, post-rock, electronic and instrumental music in a strange atmospheric collage. The project is a musical translation of months spent in the Canadian West.

→ Buy on Bandcamp

« dreamy and destabilizing  » - Monsieur Délire, CA

« totally unusual and exceedingly strange  » - Boomkat, UK

courant.air
• ahornfelder (DE), November 2010, CD

courant.air is a work intertwining folk acoustic guitar and electronic music. Conceptually, the piece is wind powered. Wind is used as a constructive/destructive agent. Wind as a propulsion engine of particles in constant movement in the air. Wind as noise. Wind as sound, invisible. Acoustic guitar : Simon Trottier.

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→ Listen on Spotify
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« one of the more engaging electroacoustic pieces I've heard » - Emissions.com (US)

silence.musique
• leerraum[] (CH), February 2010, DVD

silence.musique is an essay on silence.

→ Buy on Bandcamp
→ Buy on Leerraum[] (SOLD OUT)

ultra limited surround sound DVD edition, 60 copies.

Les arbres
• No Type (CA), June 2008, CD

Sonic landscapes and slow textures meet with precise articulations, resting on a minimal orchestration made of guitars, brass instruments, vibes, accordions and strings. A stimulating record, a remarkable attention to detail and excellent production quality, making for an unfailingly rewarding listening experience. Mastered by Paul Dolden.

→ Buy on Bandcamp
→ Buy on Electrocd

Mention Prix Ars Electronica, 2009, AT

« an amazing CD, with great ideas, perfect execution » - Vitral Weekly, NL

Compilation

2011: Just a Moment, Digital, Audio Gourmet / UK
2011: One Minute For The Stars, Digital, SEM / FR
2010: Essmaa, CD, Tsuku Boshi / FR
2010: Chroniques, CD, Perte de signal / CA
2009: trans_canada, DVD-A, empreintes DIGITALes / CA
2009: Luigi’s Avatar, CD + DVD, OHM / CA
2009: So Much Achieved.So Much Left To Do., CD, 12rec / DE
2008: Música Maximalista 14, CD, PANaroma / BR
2008: Ostinato 21, CDr, Oral / CA
2006: Pueblo Nuevo Primer Aniversaria, Digital, Pueblo Nuevo / CH
2006: Morceaux d’Ekumen, CD-R + Digital, Ekumen / CA
2006: Dagens Bilaga, DVD, Ruga / SP
2005: Cache 2005, CD, CEC-PEP / CA
2004: Métamorphoses 2004, CD, Musiques & Recherches / BE
2004: Dotmov Festival, DVD, Dotmov / JP
2004: Cache 2003, CD, CEC-PEP / CA

Remix

2020: Distance Raisonable, Ida Toninato / CA
2015: Mt. Mitake, Celer & Machinefabriek / NL
2014: Super Silent Gipsy, Tout croche / CA/UK
2011: Cructacé, for d'Incise / CH
2011: Becquerels, for Érick d'Orion / CA
2010: Oyikust, for Mokuhen, Tsuku Boshi / FR

Collaborative recordings

2021: + Simon Trottier, Les éternités vibrantes / CA
2019: + Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, Music for Standard Oscillator Ensemble / CA
2015: + Francisco Meirino, Fiction, Vinyl, Misanthropic Agenda / US
2015: + Simon Trottier, ○ , Cassette, E-Tron Records / CA
2013: BOLD, fmv/shr, Cassette, E-Tron Records / CA
2010: BOLD, Duel second, Digital, Cronica / PT
2010: + Simon Trottier, The Market Fresh, Digital, Zymogen / IT
2009: + Simon Trottier, …et retrouvé en forêt, Digital, 12rec / DE
2009: + Jacques Poulin-Denis, sur fond blanc, CD, Ekumen / CA
2007: BOLD, Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo: Études, Digital, No Type / CA
2007: + Simon Trottier, objet abandonné en mer, Digital, 12rec / DE
2007: + Jacques Poulin-Denis, étude No.3 pour cordes et poulies, CD, Ekumen / CA
2007: Millseconde topographie, Tricycle, DVD, Ekumen / CA
2007: Milliseconde topographie, Paperasses éparses, Digital, No Type / CA
2006: Milliseconde topographie, Poster musique, CD-R, Ekumen / CA