France Jobin & Richard Chartier^US/CA/QC

Ambient sounds intermingle within an intricate and delicate spatial and temporal-meets-“intemporelle“ system in DUO, the first collaborative project from artists France Jobin and Richard Chartier. Originally released on the Tokyo-based mAtter label, DUO reverberates with tension, an ominous suspense building throughout five long tracks composed of static electrical signals, multi-level drones and serene synth melodies.

Both prolific artists with a focus on audiovisual environments, new technologies and modular components, France Jobin and Richard Chartier met at MUTEK Montréal in 2000 and went on to form a collaborative friendship and professional kinship. The sounds of everyday life become sculptural and enveloping in the multidisciplinary work of award-winning artist, composer and curator France Jobin. Since the mid-'90s, she's crafted meticulous compositions that merge analog rumblings with digital precision, modular with field recordings, musical with visual. Applying a minimalist approach to her site-specific sound environments, she creates installations and performances inspired by the architecture of physical spaces, deeply immersing listeners in subtly textured variations, often inducing physical effects that go beyond the ear.

Alongside his visual art practice, Richard Chartier has produced multiple minimal electronic pieces, exploring the interrelations between the natural spatiality of sound, silence, focus, perception and the art of listening itself. He's collaborated with composer William Basinski, sound artists ELEH, CoH, Matmos, German electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens and many more sound and multimedia artists. Chartierʼs sound works/installations have been presented in museums, galleries and performance contexts all over the world.

After the release of DUO on mAtter label, Jobin and Chartier created an exhibition of prints based on the concept, re.DUO, held in February at Tokyo's gift_lab GARAGE gallery. Jobin and Chartier premiere DUO's first-ever live performance at MUTEK, combining sound with seamless live visuals by artist Markus Heckmann to create a wholly immersive and spatially dynamic atmosphere.