Blogue ›› Archives ›› Par date ›› 1999 ›› Juillet

19 juillet 1999
Par Dolf Mulder in Vital #182 (Pays-Bas), 19 juillet 1999

Texte

«Well done.»

Three new releases from the never resting Ambiances magnétiques label (Québec, Canada). The first one is a meeting between two turntable wizzards. It’s the first meeting between Martin Tétreault and Otomo Yoshihide. On 3 days in december 1997 they recorded 21 situations in a studio in Montréal. Through scratching records, manupaliting turntables and associated techniques they work out their ideas in pieces that only in two cases takes more than 3 minutes. Well done.

blogue@press-1087_101 press@1087_101
19 juillet 1999
Par Dolf Mulder in Vital #182 (Pays-Bas), 19 juillet 1999

Texte

«Everybody who is into this kind of music and is curious to what new names make of it, should check this one out, as it is an example of good collective playing.»

With the cd by Goldstein, Heward and Wiens three new names appear on Ambiances Magnétiques. This happens not that often, as most releases carry the names of Lussier, Duchesne, Hétu, Derome and their many friends. This trio is also from Canada and as the included information tells they already exist a long time. Goldstein is known as a performer of new music since the 60s. John Cage and Ornette Coleman composed for him. Heward is also active in painting and sculpture. Wiens works a lot in theatre. Wiens, Heward and Goldstein on guitar, drums and violin respectively present their first album here. It’s the result of playing together several years now. Their type of improvisation reminds me a lot of the european way of improvising as this came up since the mid sixties, when european jazz musicians started to develop their own idiom of jazz and impro music. It is hard to judge whether new territory is discovered here. Everybody who is into this kind of music and is curious to what new names make of it, should check this one out, as it is an example of good collective playing.

blogue@press-1087_102 press@1087_102
19 juillet 1999
Par Dolf Mulder in Vital #182 (Pays-Bas), 19 juillet 1999

Texte

Derome who composed for dance and theatre in the past, here presents his first soundtrack. A first soundtrack by known musician makes me always curious. Will it show the artist from a totally other side or not, as making filmmusic has its own possibilities and restrictions? The following quote gives a little insight into how Derome copes with this: “To compose music for a film is to translate a film into music. […] When I compose a soundtrack, I start by listening closely to the sounds that are already there. I listen to the texture of the voices, ambient noises, extraneous sounds, snatches of music that are already there, I observe how the actors move, how they dance on the screen; I ask myself if they really mean what they say. ” Orchestrated for a large ensemble of strings, winds, percussion and voice, this cd presents 18 compositions that show the range of Derome’s compositional work. It’s a soundtrack to the film Strand under the Dark Cloth by John Walker. It’s a film on the work of the famous photographrer Paul Strand. The film has many and long sequences of photographs. The included booklet gives some info on this photographer and some of his photos’ are printed here.

blogue@press-1087_103 press@1087_103
19 juillet 1999
Par George Zahora in Splendid E-Zine (ÉU), 19 juillet 1999

Texte

If your listening tastes run to punk rock or wilder jazz, Tête à queue will be the best and most enjoyable opportunity to get your foot in the Ambiances Magnétiques door, figuratively speaking. This musique-actuelle ensemble, based in Montréal, deals heavily in improvisation; material is created and recorded on the fly, then dismantled, reassembled, sampled, manipulated and augmented by further improvisation. While such a process could easily produce compositions that sound less like music and more like a brain-damaged giraffe loose in a cookware shop, Papa Boa’s recognizable use of rock and jazz trappings — conventional applications of guitar, bass, keyboards, sax, flute, etc. — should make it easier for new listeners to understand and appreciate the creative methodology involved in the bi-directional transition from chaos to order. Tête à queue frequently rocks, albeit in a lurching, chaotic and exhilarating fashion (and isn’t that the best way?), as on the frenzied Champêtre or the syncopated seether La mer à boire. There are quieter and more esoteric moments, too, but the overall approachability of the disc makes even its less distinctly musical elements seem far more immediate. If you’ve ever been curious about musique actuelle, electro-acoustic composition or Ambiances Magnetiques, you’ll find Tête à queue to be a perfect diving board, plunging you into a deep and fascinating pool of music and ideas.

blogue@press-1675 press@1675
1 juillet 1999
Par James Hale in Coda Magazine #286 (Canada), 1 juillet 1999

Texte

«… it’s a guitar-lover’s dream come true.»

In addition to their ability to compose memorable lines of music (and song titles), the members of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet—Frith, Nick Didkovsky, Mark Stewart and René Lussier—share a passion for exploring the sonic possibilities of the amplified guitar. Indeed, Up Beat is characterized in equal parts by catchy phrases and speaker-shredding sound. Recorded in Europe, live and in the studio during 1997, Up Beat gives each of the members a solo spot along with the close, if discordant, harmony of the quartet. Thereal power of the band is that none of the players seem to have forgotten the fun of plugging in an electric guitar for the first time. When they all pick up on an idea and begin extrapolating —as ln the middle of Stewart’s Manic Speedy Feety —it’s a guitar-lover’s dream come true.

blogue@press-1054 press@1054
1 juillet 1999
Par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 juillet 1999

Texte

«… Bernard Falaise, a new creative force to reckon with.»

The first album from the avant-rock quartet Papa Boa, Tête à Queue (“Tailspin”) is a rollercoaster of energy and surprises. The group featured Bernard Falaise on guitars, Pierre Labbé on saxophone and flute, Rémi Leclerc on drums and Frédéric Roverselli on bass. This CD presents twelve short songs (nothing over six minutes), twelve examples of twisted, deconstructed, revisited rock, twelve anthems dominated by Falaise’s screaming guitar and Leclerc’s octopusian rhythms. Papa Boa benefited from guests on this record. Acadian singer Marie-Jo Thério lends her voice and exaggerates her accent on Un lutin, while storyteller Michel Faubert screams the story of Jean Baribeau. Song structures and melodies recall Miriodor’s album Elastic Juggling (Falaise and Leclerc make two thirds of that band) and bands like Etron Fou Leloublan and Volapük, but going beyond the cliches and further integrating improvisation in compositional and interpretational processes. Tête à Queue delivered a strong punch and reminded us all that the song format is also a field for avant-garde exploration. It also marked the arrival at Ambiances Magnétiques of Bernard Falaise, a new creative force to reckon with.

blogue@press-2066 press@2066