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E’ ciò che emerge dalla poetica evidentemente disturbata e “dadaista” (per non dire parafisica) di Mankind (Ice Machine), vale a dire un incredibile duo femminile che sa muoversi con estrema disinvoltura tra “sospiri ritmici post-wyattiani” (Mile End Throat Singers), elettronica schizzata (Todo que tengo) e psyco-minimalismo à la Comelade (The Anti-Rules).
Ignaz Schick e Martin Tétreault (Live • 33 • 45 • 78) si presenta in un contesto ancora più radicale: quattordici tracce di radicalismo estremo dove i due musicisti si dividono non solo i canali (quello di sinistra Ignaz, a destra Martin) ma anche i marchingegni elettronici.
Nous Perçons Les Oreilles (cioè Jean Derome e Joane Hétu) con Shaman ne rappresentano - invece - il contraltare acustico attraverso dodici tracce inesorabilmente segnate dal trionfo del fiatismo improvvisativo (sax, flauti e oggetti vari e la voce stessa).
Dal canto loro Marilyn Lerner, Matt Brubeck e Nick Fraser con Ugly Beauties, pur continuando a muoversi nel campo della free-improvvisation, ci propongono patterns più delineati soprattutto con il “lirismo slabbrato” di Oubliette che, grazie all’ottimo violoncello di Matt si spinge nei pressi di certo camerismo contemporane, così come nell’intensa Figure lisse dove l’interplay “piano/violoncello” sostenuto dalla soffusa batteria di Fraser è davvero notevole.
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Duo playing is probably the most difficult kind of improvising. Not only must each player depend on only one other to modify or accompany his ideas, but unbridled creativity has to be muted to fit the other musician’s comfort zone. As these CDs demonstrate, skilled improvisers aren’t fazed by the challenge; but the instruments they choose are sometimes unusual. (…)
Glen Hall has organized the annual 416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival since 2001. Guests from the 514 area code were welcomed last year, with Montréal turntablist Martin Tétreault’s sounds most unique. Live • 33 • 45 • 78 (Ambiances Magnétiques AM 191 CD), a duo with Berlin-based turntablist Ignaz Schick, provides examples of these jangling and ratcheting textures. Unlike hip-hoppers who use LPs to insert song snatches or scratch beats, the Canadian-German duo manipulate tone-arms and cartridges as additional sound sources, while pummelling electrified surfaces for distinctive timbres. In two suites they mix granulated rubs and rattles, sharp rugged smacks and motorized rasps with beneath-hearing-level clatter and hisses to reveal textures ranging from stallion-like whinnies to forte ostinatos replicating a dentist’s drill. By the climax of Cave 12 they create a double-counterpoint showcase. The piece weaves vinyl needle rips, frenzied buzzes, static vibrating, video-game-like clanking and near-human cries into a neat package of harmonic interface, as multi-textural as it is percussive.
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Ah! Je suis sûrement le 93e chroniqueur culturel à faire ce jeu de mots facile-là en parlant de Martin Tétreault. Mais cette fois, qu’arrive-t-il si j’ajoute son équivalent berlinois, Ignaz Schick? Une mauvaise justification. Bien que l’album livre la marchandise (encore plus si écouté dans une pièce avec de très bons hauts-parleurs placés aux antipodes de la pièce en question), la médiocrité des calembours faisant office de titres d’articles d’objets culturels est en hausse depuis quelques années. La cause? L’homogénéisation d’un modèle paresseux propagé par les disciples du Voir et son étrange progéniture. Je vous entends déjà: «Mais en utilisant ce titre, n’êtes vous pas en train de participer à la continuité de cette tendance?» À cela, je vous répondrai: «Bien sûr, je suis un autre adepte de ce nihilisme montréalais de fond-de-cour».
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[Translation] Recorded in Europe in 2006, and finally out on Ambiances Magnétiques, this is the first (?) collaboration between two turntablists, Montrealer Martin Tétreault and Berliner Ignaz Schick (of Perlonex, who will be performing with Charlemagne Palestine at FIMAV 2010). Sixty minutes of textural improvisations on turntables, objects, and surfaces. Each participant is tucked in his own stereo channel, which makes it easier to identify their similarities and distinctive traits. And for those wondering, Live 33 • 45 • 78 is just as noise-based but a lot less noisy than Tétreault’s recent collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide. Abstract, demanding music, but it carries just fine. Note that Schick will be in Montréal in March.
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It’s rather amusing, at this early date, to already be able to talk about “old-school” vinyl-less turntablism, but that’s pretty much the case here. Tétreault is one of the acknowledged masters of this approach, having pioneered it along with (and often in the company of) Otomo Yoshihide, but his approach was usually activist in nature, unleashing a flurry of scratches, groans, ticks and many other sounds within a conception that owed more to free improvisation from an avant jazz stance than post-AMM electro-acoustic improvisation.
Here, he’s joined by Ignaz Schick, a younger collaborator perhaps best known for his involvement with the improvising ensembles Perlon and Perlonex. The music is presented in two series of seven tracks each. The first (titled, 1-p45 un through 7-p45 sept) is the rougher of the pair, the sounds tending toward the rudely percussive and raspy. While the dynamics and textures range widely, the activity is fairly incessant like a hive of mechanical insects scurrying about their daily tasks. The tone is hard and bleak but no less effective for that, the tendency for elements to possess a repetitive quality reinforcing the gray, industrial aspect although later in the sequence, bell-like tones are heard offering a glimmer of light. The second set of cuts, while by no means rosy, is somewhat more tonal in nature, with ringing metal of various kinds playing a larger role (again, in the later portions). There’s also less of a claustrophobic feel, more of a spatial expanse and a greater amount of “air” around the sounds. One has the impression that there’s more listening occurring between Schick and Tetreault than in the earlier suite. This makes for a slightly more satisfying set, though both have their strong points.
So, it’s “old-school” vis a vis its structure and “busyness” as compared to many more reductionist practitioners but it retains much of the power and brutality that made many of ours ears perk up a decade or so ago.
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Also available in digital format (MP3, etc.) at your favourite online store.