Soliel Vert « Intrinsic Expression

Soliel Vert

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Soleil Vert: Getting In Contact with Nature

“Music is communication. Music is magic. Music carries a lot of emotions; lots of information.” - François Giroux

Soleil Vert - Getting In Contact With Nature

by François Giroux

Soleil Vert, a multimedia artist, is composed and performed by, François Giroux. Soleil Vert makes electronic ambient music. It is a surreal voyage into sonic lanscapes. The ambient soundtrack of a polluted planet.

The name comes from the French translation of the old sci-fi movie called “Soylent Green”, one of the first widely distributed commercial movie anticipating a dark future. Other than the reference to the movie, the name can make a general reference to environment issues, which are at the core of my preoccupations Music is communication. Music is magic. Music carries a lot of emotions; lots of information.

I love synthesizers. I have this memory of watching a live music show on the TV while being a young child; I was very impressed by some musician playing a big modular synthesizer. Of course I did not know what it was back then but the sound and the performer made me say to myself: “that is what I want to do later…”

Since 1982 I have been living in Montreal. I started performing live electronic music in 1984 with the band Biohazard (Montreal) and I also performed solo in the following years for some 30 different events. I learned about producing video art as an artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Science and Technology in 1985.

While composing music for films untill 1989 I learned about computer graphics and multimedia. I presented an interactive multimedia installation (III) and a multimedia performance (Skizoïde) both using a network of 3 computers using virtual reality in 1990 and 1991.

I played a few live techno music concerts in 1993 but then switched to a post-production, multimedia and 3D animation career untill 2003. A one year stay in North Carolina caused me to reunite with electronic music. It was there where I co-founded “The Mother Earth Starship” for a live presentation. Since I came back to Canada in 2004 I am still composing instrumental electronic music.

How hard has it been to gain exposure?

How easy it is for a particular grain of sand to gain your attention on the beach? It is pretty much how I feel rationally.

However, I have faith in the order of things in this world and I keep saying to myself that by being true to myself and working hard I will end up somewhere…

I am composing, releasing my music on the net, and playing live …while thinking about the pertinence of making a CD album…?

Self-releasing my own album feels like it is something someone else should do for me!

For a musician that composes, records, and mixes by himself I would love to work with some organization for the release of a physical CD. You need manufacturing, distribution and marketing to sell it. I obviously need assistance!

I am from the DIY generation, I will do it myself if I have to, no problem, but I would rather compose new material than worry about the printing of the cover, and actually selling the thousands of units!

I also question myself about the pertinence of the CD as a format and of record stores as a valid way to get music. I have not been served well by the system currently in place as a customer and the technology may render that industry obsolete pretty soon. It all may be a good thing if we musicians can get direct customers thru the web. No more CDs to manufacture… but I agree we aren’t there yet; the net still does not pay musicians much.

But it is not to say that I do not think about albums when I think about my music. The album as a concept is not dead. It is fun to match a group of pieces and put them on a CD with an image cover and a concept or musical continuity.. In fact it is what I do in a limited scale of 100 or so CD’s that I duplicate and make the cover myself. It is for friends and promo. “Du déluge au désert” is available thru bluetracks.ca as a physical CD and I will ship it to you direct myself if you order it. But I am more interested as how the web album will go in terms of acceptance for the consumer. For a small price a customer can download quality tracks and burn a CD (or not, as the mp3 player is everywhere) and print the cover art himself. So it is very exiting to me, more so than going the traditional physical CD route.

I stay close to each of my compositions thru all the production cycle… I cannot pick favorites myself but the ones that transmits emotions to the listeners the most will be my favorites… some prefer “Sous la mer.” Others prefer “Ozone”… all of them encapsulate deep emotions, and paints a surrealist picture… it is up to you and to what mood you desire at a given moment…

I dream of a life without cars and pollution, about how life would be if based around bicycles and green technologies for example… collective dreams of justice and peace are important to maintain alive, and more than ever. On a personal and much smaller scale, I have this dream of living in a mobile studio, composing and recording while being in great natural locations.

I want to sell my music direct on the Internet, play live and tour in other countries; and record more music. My home is my studio; the world is my stage (as some say…)

I like to listen to independent music on the web. Like some NetLabels. There is incredible electronic music online but it is hard to find. I do search and sometimes find treasures! Apart from that, I enjoy some well known current acts like Boards of Canada and Caribou… still enjoys my electronica classics of the past 2 decades. The main fun is to try to guess where it is going….

What Separates Soleil Vert from the others

It’s funny because most of the time when I think about other musicians I try to find what I do have in common. I haven’t looked the other way around much. But maybe that is because what I am doing is so personal to me that I cannot imagine someone else sounding the same. To each is own voice, and that is part of the magic.

New Soleil Vert tracks will appear in April on my SoundClick website. And a third Internet release EP for Soleil Vert is on the way. Then lots of live concerts!

I am working on other acts as well, that diverge widely in musical style. WaveRider is an ongoing electronica experiment; I am currently making dubs and downtempo music with a breakbeat frame of mind, and will be playing some wicked ethnotronics, live at the SAT on April 26th on a special India themed night. Legions of Laptops is the younger crazier brother, I will have to expand its repertoire but I can’t wait to make it into a live show.

Soleil Vert is the result of getting in contact with nature. I spent a lot of time in the forest in the last few years. I am mostly camping and exploring trails on a mountain bike.

This experience made me realize how we human beings relate to nature. We are made in our bodies to be inhabitants of planet Earth, We are biological beings, dependent on Earth’s ecology. There isn’t anything that can replace our natural environment as our life support system. Nature is also a source of deep emotions and a feeling of connectivity to the elements that are often overlooked.

Which brings me to our current post-modern life—Our core values and collective choices. The destruction of nature for profitability—Our collective alienation before the powers of money and politics. I have seen unbelievable devastation and pollution going on around me in the last 30 years and that was while we knew all about the issues. It is all a big lie, and the lie is going even bigger as corporation owned politicians start to talk green. We even lie to ourselves, as we are not even able to imagine a life without cars and frenetic consumption. The turn around we have to do is so important it will take generations to realize.

We are left here today to contemplate the mess, living in what is getting closer to a giant dumpster without any exits. Toxic man-made chemicals are found in our blood, in all animals and can be found in all places. Air, and water within most areas we are living are seriously polluted. The food chain is getting precarious and poisoned, there are less fish in the sea, and there are less available land and water. Forests are being depleted all around the globe.

I am playing the soundtrack against that desolation. There’s always that little hope, that flower in the middle of the asphalt.

I paint the picture of the catastrophe, you see it, you agree. Let’s contemplate the mess our civilization has made. And then watch the force of nature still growing in places, still going strong within us. My music is all about that contrast.

Let’s travel together, imagine landscapes of the past and future in a surreal voyage. I make the sounds you listen. Come aboard!

Please support independent musicians on the Internet. Buy some MP3 albums you like!

Soleil Vert Discography:

(promotional or mail-order CD-R only)

-Du déluge au désert, EP, 45:38, December 2006

-La source, EP, 30:56, May 2005

Past Concerts:

-Thurday Feb.16th 2006, SAT, Montreal

www.soundclick.com/soleilvert (where you can buy some mp3)

www.myspace.com/soleilvertmusique

www.bluetracks.ca/artistes/soleilvert (you can buy mp3 or order a CD-R)

WaveRider