Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP)
The text below details the various aspects of the CEC’s annual project for young and/or emerging sound artists/composers from (or living in) Canada.
Project Overview
Mandate of the Larger JTTP Project
As well as upholding the mandate and role of the CEC this project aims to encourage the production, creation, dissemination and promotion of newly- or recently-created Canadian electroacoustic works from younger and emerging composers and sound artists working in electroacoustics by:
- issuing a call for newly- or recently-created works;
- incorporating all submissions into a respected, established and supportive context for their (re-) presentation;
- framing the submissions within a composition competition awarding prizes to the top five selections and special Thematic Awards to seven more;
- forming a large jury of established international composers, performers and other individuals to evaluate submissions and provide critical feedback to the composers who have submitted works;
- publishing all submissions on the JTTP website;
- co-ordinating several informed presentations of the top works in concerts and international radio broadcasts and webcasts;
- building an accessible, resource-efficient project to support Canadian electroacoustic creation, and promote this creation within the Canadian and international scenes of electroacoustics and related arts.
Call for Works
A Call for Works is made to the greater Canadian electroacoustic community several months ahead of the deadline through an extensive communications network. This network includes CEC members, individuals, educators and institutions who are in any way involved in electroacoustics. Regular reminders follow. Every effort is made to ensure that this call is as far-reaching as possible. The call is aimed at young and emerging composers and sound artists and specifies that works submitted must be new creations.
The deadline for submissions to the annual project is May 1.
Jury and Judging Process
The jury is built anew each year by the project administrators, who invite individuals from around the world — professionals, sound artists, composers and performers — to participate in the jury. The jury is built to ensure a good balance of background and experience, æsthetic interests, and gender, the diversity inherent to the CEC’s juries allowing for an objective and fair ranking of the works.
All submitted works are uploaded to the CEC’s website for the jury members to review individually. Only the titles and programme notes are given to the judges; the composers remain anonymous for the judging process. Discussion among the jury members ensues on a closed email list and concerns various æsthetic, formal and technical issues of the works. At the end of the judging stage, the jury members individually provide numerical scores and commentary for each of the submitted works.
The results are released in July to composers and announced publicly in September.
Prizes and Awards
The composers of the top five works selected by the jury are awarded CEC memberships, cash prizes, and CDs, DVDs, books, and journals donated to the project by individual and institutional Project Partners.
Seven works selected by the jury for the Thematic Awards are awarded cash prizes.
International Visibility
Exposure via JTTP.ca and SONUS.ca
All submissions to the project are housed on the JTTP site and audio works in SONUS.ca, the CEC’s online Jukebox of electroacoustic works. Programme and biographical notes for all submissions are featured, as well as a list of the jury members and Project Partners.
Presentation of the Top-placing Works
Radio Broadcasts
The CEC receives ongoing support from a number of international radio stations; JTTP Media Partners broadcast the top works from the competition. The following list contains JTTP Media Partners as well as a few long-time supporters.
CANADA
CKUT 90.3 FM — Where’s The Beat? (Montréal), Eliot Handelman. Host of the Official JTTP Launching since 2002.
CIUT 89.5 FM — The Audible Woman (Toronto), Sarah Peebles (until 2006) and Stephanie Moore
CKLN 88.1 FM — A Missing Sense / Electric Storm (Toronto), James Bailey
CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver Co-op Radio — Musica Nova, Andrew Czink
CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver Co-op Radio — Soundscape, Jean Routhier
CHILE
Radio Universidad de Chile — Perdidos en el Espacio (Santiago), Jaime Baeza
CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech Radio — Radiocustica (Prague), Michal Rataj
FRANCE
Elektramusic Radioshow for Experimental Music (Paris), Paul Clouvel
GERMANY
DEGEM WebRadio
SPAIN
Radio Clásica — Ars Sonora (Madrid), Miguel Álvarez-Fernández
SWEDEN
Sveriges Radio — Monitor (Stockholm), Erik Mikael Karlsson
USA
WDBX 91.1 FM — It’s Too Damn Early (Carbondale IL), Dave X
WGDR 91.1 FM — Kalvos & Damian’s New Music Bazaar (Plainfield VT), Dennis Báthory-Kitsz & David Gunn. (Off-air since 2005)
WMBC — art@radio (Baltimore MD), Steve Bradley
WOBC 91.5 FM — Foldover (Cleveland OH), Tom Lopez
Most radio stations these days have simultaneous webcasts, and the CEC sends out promotional announcements prior to all broadcasts through an extensive communications network, thus assuring a large international audience can tune into the broadcasts online.
The CEC is extremely grateful to our media partners for their help in promoting Canadian electroacoustics internationally.Concert Diffusion
All top-placing works are played in concert presentations in Canada and abroad.
International Recognition of JTTP Participants on the Cache CDs
Until 2014, the composers selected to appear on the Cache CDs were internationally recognized for the outstanding quality of their work, as is evidenced by the numerous prizes and awards they have received. A sample of prizes awarded to composers for the works included on the Cache series can be found here.
Administrative and Production Support
Key Personnel
Project Managers: Yves Gigon (since 1997); Etienne Mason (since 2026); jef chippewa (2005-25); Ian Chuprun (until 2005)
Webmaster: Yves Gigon
Contact the JTTP Administrators by email.
Support
Since its inception in 2000, JTTP has received direct and indirect support from a number of sources. Without the generous and continued support of these individuals and institutions, JTTP would not have been possible.
Productions électro Productions (PeP) was the arms-length production team working on behalf of the CEC. The team’s expertise advises and acts as an information resource to the CEC volunteers and administrators regarding technical matters, production details and more. As with most CEC projects, JTTP benefits from the experience and knowledge of this group of almost 40 people.
Concordia University’s Department of Music made studio spaces and computers available to the CEC in the early years of JTTP, before many of the production tasks could be done in the Project Administrators’ own workspaces.
Jean-François Denis and DIFFUSION i MéDIA provided technical support and graphic design for the production of Cache.
The Canada Council for the Arts, Writing & Publishing Section has supported eContact! since 1998, for a number of years.
The SOCAN Foundation has supported the CEC since 2001.
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