(Absolute Value of Noise is a sound artist from Vancouver. He creates radio, installations, network projects, performances, curatorial projects, and handmade CD editions.)

Recent Audio Releases + Installations

Music for magnolias an outdoor solar powered sound work that inhabits the lower branches of a Magnolia.

 

Water Line / Estuary Almanac a 365 day generative radio stream for KONTINUUM, April 2023 - June 2024. By Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.

 

Morse Mountain a late night generative radio stream for Festival Tsonami, December 2022. By Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz. Transmitting on Radio Lada from December 1st, 2023 into the new year.

 

Solar Radio Wave Farm an outdoor radio installation for Wave Farm, August/September 2022. By Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.

 

The Talking Tree a generative radio stream for Radio Art Zone, July 2022.

 

Current Connections

The Conduction Series on WGXC Wave Farm. Live collaborative radio on the first friday of every month.

Seagulls flying flock on 1 minute autohypnosis #55: PAX by Pedro Bericat, November 2024.

Circuits that wake up with the sun released on Sounds of the Sun, Volume I Cassette by UNIT/PITT July 2023.

Various pieces on IFAR Musique Concrète compilations. Produced by Shaun Robert.
 · movimiento catorce, released October 3, 2024.
 · magnetism coils, released January 2, 2021.
 · Bubbles, released October 3, 2020.
 · 15 records with dirt and locked inner groove, released August 26, 2020.
 · shortwave silence, released July 10, 2020.
 · flexi scissor exacto, released February 12, 2020.

Crown XXI with Absolute Value of Noise and Roberto Paci Dalò. Performed live March 21, 2020 over the net for USMA Radio.

 

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.

Music for magnolias streaming 24/7 on NoiseartRadio2, starting January 16, 2025.

NoiseartRadio2 - Morse Mountain.

 

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 sound artist from Vancouver, Canada. He creates radio, installations, network projects, performances, and curatorial projects. He likes to work with "gadgetry" - bio-electric analog circuits, custom turntables, lamp filaments, wire coils, high voltage ionizers, magnetic transceivers, and "little electronic brains" that observe and respond to local phenomena. He often works outdoors making installation pieces that comment on bio-diversity, extinction, and fragile eco-systems. 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 who created electronic art for outdoor spaces from 2007 - 2015.

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.

Links to collaborators and other inspiriations ..

Anna Friz sound / radio artist and collaborator, originally from Vancouver.
Roberto Paci Dalò multi-disciplinary artist from Rimini, Italy.
Wave Farm in New York State, Upper Hudson Valley.
GX Jupitter-Larsen's On-Line Amathopaedia.

Contact   noiseart (at) gmail (dot) com

Chronology

This is a (more or less) chronological list of all the works on this site - starting in the present and going back to 1988.

 
Music for magnolias 2024.
(A solar powered outdoor sound piece that lives in a Magnolia.)

 
Water Line / Estuary Almanac 2023.
(A 365 day radio stream for KONTINUUM by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
Morse Mountain 2022.
(A radio stream for Festival Tsonami 2022 by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
Solar Radio Wave Farm 2022.
(An outdoor radio installation for Wave Farm 2022 by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
The Talking Tree 2022.
(A radio stream for Radio Art Zone 2022.)

 
Key Clicks 2022.
(A radio stream for Art's Birthday 2022.)

 
Mechanical Velocities 2020.
(A radio stream for Radiophrenia 2020 and Art's Birthday 2021 by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
Solar Radio / Embodie Radio Device 2020.
(An album by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
Solar Radio 2019.
(A solar powered radio station that lives outdoors.)

 
Embodied Radio Device 2019.
(A radio stream for Art's Birthday 2019 by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
Tapeloping 2018.
(A radio stream for Art's Birthday 2018 and the 30th Anniversary of Absolute Value of Noise.)

 
Tuning (Terrestrial | Transcendent) 2017.
(Two mellow radio pieces to close out the summer in the northern hemisphere.)

 
Luminiferous Noise Machine 2017.
(A generative radio piece for Art's Birthday 2017 featuring Absolute Value of Noise and Gívan Belá.)

 
Rain Motors 2016.
(An audio release featuring magnetic recordings of motors .. film projector, electric bicycle, autobus, etc..)

 
Bio-electric Radio 2016.
(An outdoor installation featuring the sounds of bees and living circuitry.)

 
Whirlwind 2015.
(An outdoor sound installation using wind-power.)

 
Radio with Everything at Hand 2015 / 1992 - 1996.
(A radio show, essay, and performance about the history of 24 Hours of Radio/ART.)

 
Somewhere a voice is calling 2014 / 2007.
(An audio CD and performance by Absolute Value of Noise, Anna Friz, and Glenn Gear.)

 
Republic of the Southern Cross 2014.
(A double CD of sound works made with my ELF "magnetic radiation" rig.)

 
Shadow Machine: The Granaries 2014.
(A late-night, five hour generative radio piece.)

 
Drop=Blip=Clatter (Rain Stick) 2013.
(An outdoor sound installation that uses rain-power and solar-power.)

 
Possession 2013.
(An eleven channel sound installation that uses hand-made four foot tall speaker trumpets.)

 
Magnetic South 2013.
(A generative radio piece for Süden Radio.)

 
Café ELF 2012.
(A generative radio piece for Art's Birthday 2012.)

 
Illuminated Shroom 2011.
(An outdoor electronic installation for Second Site at MOP and Time Inventors Kabinet (at OKNO).)

 
Shadow Machine 2010 / 2000.
(An interdisciplinary dance piece produced by Co. Erasga Dance.)

 
The Silent Speaker 2010.
(An installation piece using four ELF transmitters and a receiver.)

 
Resonant ELF 2010.
(A generative radio piece for Art's Birthday 2010.)

 
Poison Mentor 2009.
(An outdoor sound installation for Second Site 2 at VanDusen Botanical Garden.)

 
Extremity Cassette 2009.
(A generative radio piece by Absolute Value of Noise and Anna Friz.)

 
The Laughing Dress 2008.
(A sound installation by Absolute Value of Noise and Lori Weidenhammer.)

 
Preying Insect Robots 2006.
(A group of four insect robots that coreograph their movements and write virtual poetry.)

 
Magnetic Focus 2006.
(An audio CD and "magnetic radiation" instrument.)

 
AVN+RPD_05 2005.
An audio CD by Absolute Value of Noise and Roberto Paci Dalò.

 
Spark-Writing 2004.
(A sound installation about fantastical musical instruments.)

 
Groove: hand-cut 2004.
(A performance and audio CD using hand-cut record grooves.)

 
Light Bulb 2004.
(An audio CD using the sounds of lamp filaments.)

 
SK-46: Ribbon Velocity 2002.
(An audio release featuring ribbon microphone feedback.)

 
.. devolve into .. 2000 - 2002.
(A collaborative network radio, performance, and installation project commissioned by Kunstradio ORF.)

 
Silence Descends 1999.
(A collaborative audio CD project produced at the Western Front.)

 
Monster Audio 1998.
(An online generative audio piece that was built using sounds from the 24 Hours of Radio/ART archive.)

 
Divining for Lost Sound 1996 - 1999.
(An outdoor sound installation by Absolute Value of Noise and Lori Weidenhammer.)

 
Memory 1998 - 1995 / 2007.
(An audio CD and fax-art scroll. Made in 2007 with materials from the Absolute Value of Noise archives.)

 
Noise Speak'r 1991.
(A cassette release that was originally packaged in a small reel-to-reel tape box.)

 
BLACK 1989 / 2006.
(A radio piece, audio CD, and essay.)

 
Alignment 1988 - 1991 / 2004.
(An audio CD .. the origins of Absolute Value of Noise.)