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Artist
Jocelyn Robert
12+ albums
field recordingssound artmusique concrèteexperimental field recordingacousmatique
about
Jocelyn Robert is first and foremost a sound artist and post-modern experimentalist. Since the mid-'80s, he has released a string of daring albums most people would describe as containing no music at all. His main themes have been silence, the trivial, miscommunication, and the recycling of pop culture. With Pierre-André Arcand and Christof Migone, he co-founded the collective Avatar in Quebec City in the early '90s, which became the province's flagship in sound art. Robert has created radio works and presented installations in North America and Europe. Born in Quebec City, Robert studied pharmacology and completed a degree in architecture before escaping into music. His approach to the medium came from plastic arts, he would always seize sound like a raw material to sculpt and integrate to intermedia works rather than collections of notes and beats. He presented his first installation in 1987, the year a short track of his appeared on Ré Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 2, a compilation curated by British drummer and ex-Henry Cow Chris Cutler. A year later, the latter's label, Recommended, released Stat Live Moniteur, followed in 1991 by Folie/Culture, two interesting first attempts that sadly had little impact. In 1991, after studying at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), Robert came back to Quebec City and hooked up with a number of similarly minded artists. With Louis Ouellet, Gilles Arteau, Georges Azzaria, and Fabrice Montal he formed Bruit TTV, a Dadaist noise composi
