Francis Dhomont studied under Ginette Waldmeier, Charles Koechlin and Nadia Boulanger. In the late 40’s, in Paris (France), he intuitively discovered with magnetic wire what Schaeffer would later call “musique concrète” and consequently conducted solitary experiments with the musical possibilities of sound recording. Later, leaving behind instrumental writing, he dedicated himself exclusively to electroacoustic composition.

An ardent proponent of acousmatics, his work (since 1963) is comprised exclusively of works for tape bearing witness to his continued interest in morphological interplay and ambiguities between sound and the images it may create. Giga-Hertz Prize 2013, Grand Prize for Electronic Music, ZKM Karlsruhe Germany. In 2007 the “Université de Montréal” gave him a Doctorate Honoris causa. Prize of the SACEM (France) 2007. The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec has awarded him a prestigious carreer grant. In 1999, he was awarded five first prizes for four of his recent works at international competition (Brazil, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Czech Republic).

In 1997, as the winner of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Lynch- Staunton Prize, he was also supported by the DAAD for a residence in Berlin (Germany). Five-time winner at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France) — the Magisterium Prize in 1988 — and 2nd Prize at Prix Ars Electronica 1992 (Linz, Austria), he has received numerous other awards. He was the editor of special issues published by Musiques & Recherches (Belgium) and of “Électroacoustique Québec: l’essor” (Québec Electroacoustics: The Expansion) — for Circuit (Montréal). Musical coeditor of the Dictionnaire des arts médiatiques (published by UQAM), he is also lecturer and has produced many radio programs for Radio–Canada and Radio–France.

Since 1978, he has divided his time between France and Québec, where he has taught at the Université de Montréal from 1980 to 1996. He is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC, 1989) and a Founding Member (1986) and Honorary Member (1989) of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC). He participates in sevral juries. An author of theoretical texts and essays, he is the editor of L’espace du son (“The space of sound”), a series of special issues of the journal Lien published by “Musiques et Recherches” (Belgium) and CIRCUIT, Vol 4, #1, 2 (“Électroacoustique-Québec : L’essor”) published by Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal (Canada). He has produced radio-programs for INA-GRM (Radio-France, Paris) and co-produced with Diane Maheux the radio-series Voyage au bout de l’inouï (“Journey to the Unheard- of) (Radio-Canada, Montréal). In the 40’s he wrote articles about the music of the time in « Resistance », journal de -Neuilly-sur-Seine- (Paris)

OEUVRES INSTRUMENTALES

1944-53 • Composition d’une dizaine d’oeuvres pour voix, instruments solistes ou pour formations de chambre et une oeuvre pour orchestre. La production électroacoustique débute réellement en 1960 par quelques études et oeuvres à caractère didactique. Le catalogue proprement dit commence en 1972, toutes les oeuvres antérieures, aussi bien instrumentales qu’électroacoustiques, n’étant pas jugées dignes d’intérêt par leur auteur.

OEUVRES ÉLECTROACOUSTIQUES

JUSQU’EN 1979
Cité du dedans, Assemblages, Syntagmes, Puzzle, Asie, La liberté ou la mort, Espaces sonores pour des textes de Jean Tortel, Métonymie ou Le corps impossible, Cathédrale d’images, A cordes perdues pour contrebasse et bande (avec Henri Texier), Zones et rhizomes, Jeux synthi-mental 1 et 2., 34

DEPUIS 1979

• Mais laisserons-nous mourir Arianna ?, Sous le regard d’un soleil noir, Points de fuite, Transits élémentaires, …mourir un peu, Drôles d’oiseaux, Signé,Dionysos, L’electro, Les traces du rêve (film soundtrack, Les Traces du rêve by J.D.Lafond), Chiaroscuro, Poe Debussy Autour de la Maison Usher (incidental music for a musical theater by Marthe FORGET), Chroniques de la lumière, Novars, Espace/Escape, Qui est là ?, Simulacres un autoportrait, Figures de la nuit/faces of the night, Studio de nuit, Lettre de Sarajevo, Nocturne à Combray, Forêt profonde, Convulsive !, Objets retrouvés, Frankenstein Symphony, CPH Pendler Music, L’air du large, Ricercare, En cuerdas, AvatArsSon, Phonurgie, Cycle du son, Glank 50, Les moirures du temps, Je te salue vieil océan!, Vol d’arondes, Un autre Printemps ,Corps et âme, Here and There, Voyage-miroir, Brief an den Vater, Premières traces du Chucas, Le floux des sons, Á propos de K, Dénaturé Parmé sons, Sixtysec, forte-piano, Quelques éclats, Le travail du rêve, Machin de Machine (octophonique), La Bayle music, Le cri du Choucas, Phoenix XXI, Mutamuons, Petit souper magazine, Happy New Half Centrury Adrian, Perpetuum mobile (Pluies fantômes), Tintamarre !, In memoriam SD, Somme toute.

VIDÉO MUSIQUE :

(collaboration avec Inés Wickmann, video) Un autre le même, Triste Tropisme,Sisyphe, Solipsisme, The Sunken Island, L’ailleurs toujours, Disparition, Le silence du Léthé, Derrière la fenêtre, Passages, Dérives, Temps Bleu, Moirures, Reflets LR, Microcosmo.