Mont des borgnes is a highly critical representation of cultism. The piece begins with a presentation of the classic contemporary missionary pretense: the post-industrial context, cold and dehumanizing, foolish and superficial. However, the new convert’s exhilaration is short-lived, as he must embark on the ascension of the sacred One-Eyed Men’s Mountain, an initiatic journey to be accompanied by grotesque psalms and pretentious incantations. As he is nearing the moment of revelation, our pilgrim starts suspecting that behind the vulgar ersatz of mysticism lies the corrupted and cynical reality of a highly profitable operation. The community throws him out on the count of his clearsightedness, and he is forced to go back to where he came from, lonelier and more desperate than ever.

The source materials for this piece were developed over a long stretch of time. The “harmonic” sounds were generated on a Synclavier II in 1995, then sampled and manipulated on a Emu Systems e64 sampler in 1997, and worked into a compositional process three years later. Recordings of concrete sounds made between 1986 and 2000 are also used, along with granular resynthesis elements.

— Dominique Bassal [English translation: François Couture, vii-09]

Mont des borgnes [One-Eyed Men’s Mountain] was realized in stereo in June 2001 at the Main gauche studio in Montréal, then completed at the composer’s studio in Montréal. The first major revision took place in July 2004 with the participation of Ian Chuprun, and the transfer to 7.1 was realized in January 2006. The piece premiered on February 10, 2006, during an ÉuCuE concert at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall of Concordia University, Montréal. The final versions (stereo and 5.1) was revised in January 2009 with help from Marcelle Deschênes.

Premiere

• February 10, 2006, ÉuCuE XXIV: Concert 13, Salle de concert Oscar-Peterson — Campus Loyola — Université Concordia, Montréal (Québec)