(Absolute Value of Noise is a sound artist from Vancouver. He creates radio, installations, network projects, performances, curatorial projects, and handmade CD editions.)
Solar Radio an outdoor solar powered radio installation that streams when the sun is bright. It imitates the sounds of insects, birds, frogs, magnetic phenomena, the wind moving through the trees, rain falling, and waves on the ocean.
Tapeloping: 30th Anniversary radio stream a generative radio stream for Art's Birthday 2018 and the 30th Anniversary of Absolute Value of Noise. Featuring the sounds of many artists that I've worked with (or been inspired by) over the years.
Bio-electric Radio a collection of pieces from an outdoor installation featuring the sounds of bees and living circuitry. Most of the recordings were made in Halle at Radio Revolten in October 2016. (Released November 2016).
Crown XXI with Absolute Value of Noise and Roberto Paci Dalò. Performed live March 21, 2020 over the net for USMA Radio.
Muted Stories 3 on and/OAR. A compilation featuring sounds that are muffled, dampened, and somehow narrative. Released May 30, 2019.
No Other Possibility compilation on IFAR Musique Concrète. A compilation featuring odes to Negativland. Produced by Shaun Robert. Released July 30, 2018.
Homage for Heidi Grundmann - a collaborative network radio event with participants at Kunstradio in Vienna, ESC in Graz, Usmaradio in San Marino, and the ABC:V collective at the Western Front in Vancouver. Local Vancouver artists include: Deanne Achong, Hank Bull, Peter Courtemanche, Ann Friz, Igor Santizo, and Sarah Shamash. Deanne Achong's blog post about the event can be found here. Live event 1pm - 3pm PST July 1, 2018.
Radio
Solar Radio (an outdoor solar powered radio installation) is currently streaming when it is awake on NoiseartRadio.
NoiseartRadio - Solar Radio streams when the AI is awake.
absolute value of insomnia - a four hour generative radio show - airs every Sunday morning from 2 am to 6 am on CITR FM 101.9 in Vancouver.
About
Welcome to the Absolute Value of Noise web-site. Here you will find sounds, writing, radio pieces, and information on installation works and other projects from 1988 to the present. I like to think of the site as an audio diary. When I work with sound, I often spend a few months listening to the same materials. After a while, the sounds become familiar to me in a way that evokes memories when I hear them again at a later date - just like the writing in a diary. Most of the pages on this web-site contain sounds of some sort - either links to my albums on Bandcamp, or embeded sounds that you can listen to right here.
This site is updated with new works about 2 or 3 times a year (sometimes more if the muse is working). To get notices via Twitter when things change, check the links at the bottom of the page. The links at the top of the page will take you on a chronological tour of all the pages on the site. The left hand spins off to the past and around to the future. The right hand goes from the future to the past. It's all very circular.
Biography
Absolute Value of Noise (Peter Courtemanche) is a contemporary sound and installation artist from Vancouver. He creates radio, installations, network projects, performances, curatorial projects, and handmade CD editions. He likes to work with "gadgetry" - custom turntables, lamp filaments, wire coils, high voltage ionizers, magnetic transmitters and receivers. His art works often have a literary basis - inspired by narrative texts and the history of specific installation sites. He has done numerous projects for Art's Birthday - an annual celebration and "network event" on January 17th. In 2007 he founded Second Site collective - a group of artists creating electronic art for outdoor spaces.
Playing with the "tripreamp" during a performance of Somewhere a voice is calling, January 2007.
Links
Second Site collective - creating electronic art for outdoor spaces.
Art's Birthday - an annual celebration of Art as proposed by Robert Filliou in 1963.
absolute value of insomnia - a four hour generative radio show - airs every Sunday morning from 2 am to 6 am on 
