Ecomimetism or Reflections of Sonic Manifestations of the Environment
Composer Charles-Antoine Fréchette presents the challenges involved in what he terms “ecomimetic” compositional style. This technique involves analyzing ambient environmental sounds using sonograms to measure frequencies, dynamics, and rhythms. These data are collected and classified according to various typological axes, distinguished and superimposed, while several formal processes are developed to gradually connect these various components. Through this method, all structures and structural processes flow from the manipulation of data from environmental sources. This rigorous process distinguishes ecomimetism from traditional anecdotal naturalisms. The result of such analyses also allows the exploration of musical instruments in order to discover mimetic instrumental techniques that metaphorically reveal environmental sounds. The idea of metamorphosis thus lies within the transfer from sonic sources to instruments, and also the progressive transformation of materials, continuously deduced from one another. Formally, the technique involves viewing immersive musical situations as concrete, virtual, or abstract territories.