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Ambiances Magnétiques (Québec): articles

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Recensione

par C M in Il Manifesto (Italie), 25 février 2006 |3033|


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Ambiances Magnetiques tra avanguardia, elettro-acustica e sperimentazion

par Francesca Odilia Bellino in All About Jazz Italy (Italie), 1 décembre 2005 |2958|

L’etichetta canadese Ambiances Magnétiques — un crogiolo di produttori indipendenti — è nata a Montreal nel 1983 per volontà di Michel F Côté, Jean Derome, André Duchesne, Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, Robert Marcel Lepage, Lussier, Danielle Palardy Roger e Martin Tétreault, musicisti e compositori convinti che la loro idea di musica portasse nella stessa direzione (che importa che le strade intraprese siano differenti!) e che quindi valesse la pena unire le forze per non scomparire. Creativa, indipendente, determinata, eterogenea, ecco dunque l’anima che disegna il profilo multicolore e di assoluto interesse di questa etichetta.

In questo speciale ad essa dedicato, abbiamo pensato di presentare un’intervista a Joane Hétu [per leggerla clicca qui] — direttrice della casa di distribuzione DAME, condirettrice di Productions SuperMusique, nonché membro dell’etichetta Ambiances Magnétiques — che ci sembra essere una figura "chiave" di questo movimento musicale.

Insieme all’intervista alla Hétu, abbiamo pensato ad alcune novità del ricchissimo catalogo dell’Ambiances Magnétiques che vi permettono di conoscere la scena della musica attuale promossa dall’etichetta canadese.

Pur non essendo canadese di nascita, Otomo Yoshihide sembra essersi perfettamente integrato nell’"ambiente magnetico" canadese diventando quasi uno dei pilastri poetici cardinali di questa scena. Recentemente sono stati pubblicati una serie di lavori frutto di una tournée di 15 concerti e 16 giorni effettuata in Europa nella primavera del 2003 insieme al platiniste improvvisatore di Montreal Martin Tétreault. Di questi concerti, sei sono stati registrati su diversi supporti (cdr, dat, mini-disc) e costituiscono la base delle quattro registrazioni 1.Grrr, 2.Tok, 3.Ahhh e 4.Hmmm.

Sempre sperimentali, ma su altre "corde", sono Oralizations di Paul Dutton, tutto improntato sulla ricerca vocale multi-fonica, Leaves and Snows del trio di Berthiaume, Sirjacq e Teale, con nettissimo richiamo alle sonorità e alla poetica del chitarrista Fred Frith (che tra l’altro ha inciso parecchio per l’Ambiances Magnétiques), e A Global Taxonomical Machine del trio Taxonomy, di stampo nettamente elettronico, animato da un effervescente Elio Martusciello.

Di stampo più jazzistico Mingus Erectus del Normand Guilbeault Ensemble e Jardin d’exil dell’Ensemble en pieces.

Accanto alle produzioni dell’Ambiances Magnétiques, vanno ricordati i lavori distribuiti da DAME (Distribution Ambiances Magnétiques, etc.). Fondata nel 1991 da Joane Hétu, questa distruzione è nata per promuovere su più larga scala diverse produzioni che lavorano nell’ambito della musica attuale. DAME conta oggi oltre 175 titoli e include le più importanti etichette indipendenti di musica attuale del Quebec e del Canada. Insieme ad Ambiances Magnétiques e Monsieur Fauteux m’entendez-vous?, ricordiamo anche Ohm éditions e AMIM.

Dell’etichetta Monsieur Fauteux m’entendez-vous? suggeriamo in particolare il nuovo lavoro di una delle band più rappresentative della scena rock-impro canadese, i Rouge Ciel, Veuillez procéder.

La distribuzione di DAME è di portata davvero incredibile e per tutti quelli interessati ad approfondire o a scoprire l’universo canadese non puo’ mancare un giro nel portale su cui opera, ovvero Actuelle. Qui potete trovare di ogni riguardo alle novita’ [ma anche le ancor ottime chicche del “passato”] di musica attuale canadese, avanguardia, nuova musica d’ensemble, musica per fanfare e rock attuale, musiche improvvisate, elettronica e rumorismi, jazz, musica contemporanea, canzoni e poesie.

Le etichette piu’rappresentative che DAME distribuisce sono l’Ambiances Magnétiques, Ambiances Magnétiques Jazz, ma non mancano "amici di lunga data" come Collection QB, Monsieur Fauteux, m’entendez-vous?, quelle che vengono definite le étiquettes maison.

Accanto a queste ci sono le cosiddette étiquettes vedettes ovvero la AMIM dell’Association des musiciens improvisateurs de Montréal che promuove e diffonde musiche improvvisate, le etichette canadesi &Records, Fred Records, le francesi Oreille électronique e Ouee-dire, l’etichetta canadese dedita all’improvvisazione Spool, la Squint Fucker Press e l’ottima Victo, nonché numerose altre etichette, più o meno note, attive nell’improvvisazione, nella musica elettro-acustica e nella sperimentazione.


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Soundcheck Review

par Brian Marley in The Wire (RU), 1 août 2005 |2858|

«…Leaves and Snows is a great success.»

Of the three players on Leaves and Snows, only guitarist Antoine Berthiaume is known to me, from Soshin, a series of duets on Ambiances Magnetiques with fellow stringbenders Fred Frith and Derek Bailey.

Berthiaume is nearer to Frith than Bailey in his guitar stylings, and on Leaves and Snows he’s occasionally drawn to the tuneful end of the improvisation spectrum. Freedom Fried and Kawaidski for example, contain elegant, simple melodies and sound thoroughly composed, though they may not be, while Staring at a Western Time is suggestive of Hans Reichel mimicking one of Ry Cooder’s ’lone guitar in the wilderness’ film soundtracks.

But enough of comparisons, they distract attention from a key point - the individualism of Berthiaume’s approach, something he has in common with Quentin Sirjacq (piano, sometimes prepared) and especially Norman Teale (electronics). These players already have a distinctive music that, for all its spontaneity, is conceptually rigorous and displays a true group sensibility. They aren’t garrulous or barnstorming players - the music they make is spare and exacting, cool but not chilly, and Teale’s delicate electronic soundscaping and sensitive interactions are remarkable for such a young and relatively inexperienced player.

Each of them brings something worthwhile to the mix, and Teale’s engineering and editing of the session is exemplary- this is one of the best-sounding CDs I’ve heard for quite some time. In her brief sleevenote to Leaves and Snows, Jöelle Léandre describes the music as “profound” and “lovely”, which sums it up rather well. Consistently attractive without ever lapsing into prettiness, Leaves and Snows is a great success.


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Facteurs d’ambiances

par Vincent Lecoeur in Octopus #27 (France), 1 mars 2004 |2410|

«Plongée au coeur du catalogue du label et collectif d’artistes Ambiances Magnétiques, référence en matière de musiques improvisées.»

Plongée au coeur du catalogue du label et collectif d’artistes Ambiances Magnétiques, référence en matière de musiques improvisées. Au confluent des musiques bruitistes, improvisées et free-rock, le label Ambiances Magnétiques a révélé depuis près de vngt ans, outre Martin Tétreault, une galerie de musiciens aussi épatants que Diane Labrosse ou Tim Brady. Pour s’en rendre compte, Octopus a sélectionné, parmi quelque 130 références, une poignée de disques marquants.

Le Québec recèle des trésors d’ingéniosité, fertiles en déraisons et propices à toutes expérimentations tout simplement surréelles, du fait d’initiatives reconnues internationalement aujourd’hui comme le festival de Victoriaville; les précurseurs quinquagénaires comme Fred Frith ou Chris Cutler semblent bien avoir engendré d’autres terres d’asile pour d’autres générations de musiciens complices, héritiers de mystères à la Desnos, Tzara ou du Grand Jeu. Au croisement des musiques bruitistes, improvisées et du free-rock, l’argument de ces démarches poétiques et affranchies est largement soutenu, depuis une vingtaine d’années, par des institutions nationales. Ainsi, Radio-Canada a toujours témoigné d’une ouverture et de la farouche volonté de décloisonner les genres. Son équivalent est incarné par le collectif d’artistes Ambiances Magnétiques, lancé en 1986 et dirigé aujourd’hui par la musicienne Joane Hétu. Humour, optimisme forcené et corrosif sous-tendent un catalogue qui compte aujourd’hui quelque 130 publications, et dont l’éthique n’a cessé d’évoluer, tout en restant plus homogène que les parutions des disques Victo.

Les pratiques improvisées des musiciens les plus reconnus et prolifiques se sont donné pour objectif de puiser dans le patrimoine littéraire, théâtral ou cinématographique francophone afin de refléter l’aspect le plus contemporain de la créativité de la langue. De nombreux artistes, tels Jean Derome, René Lussier ou Robert Marcel Lepage, sont passés maîtres dans l’art de décomplexer de façon réellement démocratique les postures bavardes des musiques improvisées européennes, et ce en abordant souvent de manière irrévérencieuse le soi-disant «patrimoine» des cultures officielles: détournements de swing, images rêvées de music-hall… Cette déferlante imprévisible se rattache néanmoins à une époque dont les piliers affectent naturellement une nostalgie, acoustique le plus souvent, bricolée avec bonheur. Si le cadre des «chansons» constitue la meilleure introduction à ce style québécois, les «turntablists» comme Martin Tétreault proposent de nouvelles directions, de nouveaux défrichages géographiques, souvent américains d’adoption, ou des diasporas… Ambiances Magnétiques apporte enfin un soin particulier au design, conférant par le blais de la photographie une valeur non négligeable à ces objets-traces, seules alternances au piratage MP3.


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Le Noir compact

par Éric Normand in Mouton Noir (Québec), 1 décembre 2003 |2318|

«On pourrait parler de chansons-boutades tellement les textes fonctionnent en emboîtements et évitent tout verbiage.»

Avec à leur tête (le poète) Frank Martel, ménestrel verbulateur, les hors-la-loi de L’Ouest Céleste sont de retour. Au programme: «chansons-comptines, rock poignard et pastiches country». La première formule est sans doute la plus heureuse pour décrire les quatorze (dont 12 ont moins de 3 minutes) courtes pièces qui composent Sautons ce repas de midi. On pourrait parler de chansons-boutades tellement les textes fonctionnent en emboîtements et évitent tout verbiage. M. Martel connaît bien l’art de la phrase, du jeu de mot et du non sens. En fait preuve le choix du nom de son groupe: L’Ouest céleste, référence ironique à la dynastie Martel? Les airs de Martel s’inspirent néanmoins des musiques américaines: folk, guitare surf, country, rock et blues autant que de la chanson. Afin de concocter ces petits univers pastichés, Martel s’adjoint les services de musiciens hors-pairs: Bernard Falaise (guitare, direction musicale), Michel F Côté (batterie) - que l’on retrouve aux côtés de Marie-Jo Thério et dans divers projets d’improvisation (Klaxon Gueule, Buire…) - et Éloi Déit (Urbain Desbois) à la basse. Malgré une voix au registre limité, Martel sait nous entraîner dans ses fantaisies ludiques avec des intonations qui, au passage, rappellent Claude Dubois, André Duchesne ou Faulkner. Musicalement difficile à étiqueter, Martel propose une chanson rock poético-absurde, une sorte de mélange risqué entre Thomas Jensen, Urbain Desbois, Sttella et Bobby Lapointe: plus maîtrisé et moins international que le premier, plus absurde que le second et moins barbu que le dernier.


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Le Noir compact

par Éric Normand in Mouton Noir (Québec), 1 octobre 2003 |2317|

«Étonnamment inventive et accessible, la musique de Pierre Labbé saura plaire aux amateurs de musiques rock et jazz éclatées.»

Encore peu connu de l’amateur de disques, Pierre Labbé (saxophone) présente ici un premier opus surprenant en tant que «leader». Membre du groupe (prog-rock-fanfare) de Claude St-Jean Les Projectionnistes et collaborateur du sculpteur sonore Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Labbé nous présente maintenant son propre ensemble: Bernard Falaise (guitare électrique), Frédéric Alarie (contrebasse), Claude Lavergne (batterie) ainsi que Nathalie Bonin (violon) et Julie Trudeau (violoncelle). Le saxophoniste signe ici une musique hybride où rock, jazz (clin d’œil à Ornette Coleman), musique contemporaine alternent et se mélangent dans un dialogue soutenu entre composition et improvisation. De beaux thèmes - tantôt vaguement, mélos (Le blanc des yeux), tantôt franchement ludiques (Bloops) - servent de point de départ à ces agiles constructions: véritables jeux de blocs qui font s’emboîter agilement les styles autant que la variété de l’instrumentation. Étonnamment inventive et accessible, la musique de Pierre Labbé saura plaire aux amateurs de musiques rock et jazz éclatées. À ceux qui sont tombés sous le charme des musiques de chambre de John Zorn (Masada, etc.), je recommande fortement ce disque qui vous entraînera plus avant dans l’éclectisme tout en vous faisant découvrir un créateur original de chez nous qui se fait définitivement une place unique dans le monde des musiques actuelles.


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Musiques émergentes - Non conforme et fier de l’être

par David Cantin in Le Devoir (Québec), 23 août 2003 |2266|

Encore cet automne, les musiques émergentes retiennent l’attention. La scène indépendante québécoise se démarque et revendique plus que jamais sa différence face à l’industrie dominante. À quoi peut-on s’attendre au cours des prochains mois? Quels seront les artistes ainsi que les albums à surveiller? De l’électronique au rock expérimental, on dresse un portrait des sorties importantes et attendues.

Du côté de DAME, on prévoit neuf titres d’ici la mi-novembre: Speaking In Tongues d’Anandan, Golstein et Wiens, Luminance de Marilyn Lerner, Risque et pendule de l’ensemble Pierre Labbé. Également, des nouvelles sorties pour le duo Langevin-Tanguay, Robert Marcel Lepage, les jeunes musiciens de Sang9, de même que Frank Martel, Tom Walsh, ainsi que Guido del Fabro.


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Review

par Tom Schulte in Shzine (ÉU), 3 mars 2003 |2420|

«…they draw near only to receded making room for the next site on this post-psychedelic journey.»

In the performing trio, Fred Frith plays guitars; Jean Derome is on reeds instruments and more and Pierre Tanguay provides the percussion. The trio extemporaneously creates sound experiments which are so artfully used by recording and mixing engineer Myles Boisen that he is credited as a fourth member. Using real-time processing, this album is a string of sparse and languid improvisations where episodes of sound appear on the horizon to grow in clarity as they draw near only to receded making room for the next site on this post-psychedelic journey.


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Portrait: Les Poules

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 21 novembre 2002 |2255|

«Lyrics have devolved into abstract vocalizations, the keyboard licks have become treated samples, the beats have turned into textural percussion work.»

Les Poules began as a side project for Joane Hétu (vocals, sax), Diane Labrosse (keyboards) and Danielle Palardy Roger (drums), three members of the feminist collective Wondeur Brass. The release of their first LP in 1986 cemented the relationships and the musical approach of this trio: a partly improvised form of synthetic avant-pop. The members went on to participate in many other projects. In 2000 the trio itself was resurrected as a free improv unit and a new CD came out in 2002.

The year is 1986, the location Montréal. A group of avant-rock feminists has been active for a few years under the name Wondeur Brass. Started as a political music theatre, it has evolved into a provoking experimental pop group. At that point Hétu, Labrosse and Roger, the three most avant-gardist elements of the collective, felt the need to retract from the large ensemble (which has counted as many as nine members at one point) to work on their own small-scale project, christened Les Poules - “the chicks,” a bitter name for feminists. The music on Les contes de l’amère loi, released in 1986, shows a sharper focus than Wondeur Brass’ Ravir (1985): post-new-wave in spirit, cold and chaotic, the songs left more room to improvisation and yet packed more punch. Instead of bringing back the other members of WB, on hiatus, the trio decided to sack them and hire bassist Marie Trudeau. This quartet recorded Simoneda, Reine des esclaves under the moniker Wondeur Brass before switching to Justine and releasing two more albums in the 1990s. Hétu, Labrosse and Roger continued to work on each other’s solo projects and co-run the production company SuperMusique, but everyone believed Les Poules was a project of the past.

In 2000, Hétu, Labrosse and Roger performed in Victoria and Vancouver (Canada) as a trio again and the use of their old group name came naturally. A year later, Ambiances Magnétiques reissued Les contes de l’amère loi on CD and the trio presented a concert in Montréal. No nostalgia is involved, the old repertoire has been buried. The new Poules play quiet free improvisation. Lyrics have devolved into abstract vocalizations, the keyboard licks have become treated samples, the beats have turned into textural percussion work. Prairie Orange came out in 2002.


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On Line

par Thierry Lepin in Jazzman #84 (France), 1 octobre 2002 |2178|

En la matière, le site des Ambiances Magnétiques est sans doute l’objet le plus abouti. Du rock bruitiste aux musiques improvisées, http://www.actuellecd.com/ constitue une excellente base de données, avec une multitude de liens sur les avant-gardes, dont le site de Victoriaville, autre grand festival du coin. Des news éditées, des extraits audio pour tester, voire s’éprouver, des biographies bien écrites, mais aussi des infos pratiques ou professionnelles (qui distribue quel label en France par exemple…). Un site à découvrir pour y dénicher les têtes chercheuses. Ça donne envie.


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L'essor des musiques actuelles

par Thierry Lepin in Jazzman #84 (France), 1 octobre 2002 |2169_101|

En 1983, Michel Levasseur fonde le Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, et toute une nouvelle scène du Québec trouve son nom. Cousines des musiques improvisées, les musiques actuelles se définiraient comme "I'extrême dans tous les courants, que ce soit le jazz, la chanson ou le rock. Des sphères très différentes, amenées à se rencontrer", selon la saxophoniste et vocaliste Joane Hétu.

Cette même année, un collectif de musiciens (Jean Derome, André Duchesne, Robert Marcel Lepage, et René Lussier) prend le nom d'Ambiances magnétiques. Il sera rejoint deux ans plus tard par Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, Danielle P. Roger, puis Michel F. Coté et Martin Tétreault. Si Ambiances magnétiques est devenu aujourd'hui le label emblématique de ces nouvelles musiques, la réussite n'était pourtant pas évidente: "Au Québec, les gens sont toujours très surpris de voir que les musiciens de musiques actuelles tournent à l'extérieur, sont connus et reconnus. La musique instrumentale est mal perçue. Comme une plante indigène, qui pousse très bien, adaptée au climat; même si les gens s'entêtent à planter des tulipes", précise Jean Derome.

En vingt ans, la scène des musiques actuelles n'a cessé de gagner du terrain, et de se diversifier. En 1991, Joane Hétu fonde la compagnie de distribution Dame, sur la base d'Ambiances magnétiques. Une structure à but lucratif, qui permet d'obtenir les soutiens financiers devenus indispensables. Depuis, le label a signé plus de cent disques, et Dame gère aussi la distribution d'autres étiquettes. Ces dernières années, les métissages musicaux sont synonymes d'un véritable décloisonnement, et d'un important renouvellement du public. Pour Michel Levasseur, fondateur du festival de Victoriaville, "dans les années 80 et 90, le public venait du jazz d'avant-garde, mais aujourd'hui la plupart du jeune public vient de la scène du rock, grâce à la popularité de groupes comme Sonic Youth, ou God Speed You Black Emperor!" Membre de ce groupe montréalais, Mauro Pezzente a ouvert le club Casa Del Popolo, devenu le point de rencontre entre la scène francophone et anglophone. Tom Walsh (trombone) ou Rainer Weins (guitare) s'associent aux précurseurs d'Ambiances magnétiques, qui eux-mêmes parrainent une nouvelle génération. Formation emblématique de ces dernières années, Klaxon Gueule réunit Bernard Falaise (guitare), Alexandre Saint-Onge (basse) et Michel F Côté (batterie). Un trio qui délaisse aujourd'hui l'instrumentation traditionnelle pour se tourner vers l'électronique, une musique bruitiste aux textures sonores d'une grande richesse. Alexandre Saint-Onge s'associe par ailleurs à l'anglophone Sam Shalabi, figure de proue de la scène électronique, dont Montréal devient peu à peu une plaque tournante sur le continent américain.


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Jazz au Québec: portrait d’une génération

par Thierry Lepin in Jazzman #84 (France), 1 octobre 2002 |2169_1|

En Amérique du Nord, le Québec fait figure de trublion. Et l’impact planétaire du Festival de Montréal cache en partie la forêt: depuis quelques années, une identité du jazz au Québec transparaît. Sous l’impulsion des «parrains» Vic Vogel et Bernard Primeau dans un premier temps, la création du label Effendi, remarquable vitrine, plus récemment: un jazz ancré sur la mélodie et l’ampleur du chant. Même si quelques agitateurs viennent y semer des herbes plus folles.

Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, ou Paul Bey y sont nés. Dans les années 50 et 60, les nuits montréalaises sont rythmées par des dizaines de clubs de jazz, où se produisent notamment le guitariste Nelson Symonds, le contrebassiste Charlie Biddle, le batteur Bernard Primeau, ou Vic Vogel, futur chef d’orchestre d’un big band qui deviendra légendaire. Une scène essentiellement anglophone, qui s’affirme dans la tradition du jaz américain. On voit tout juste poindre l’éclosion d’une nouvelle génération qui prend plus ouvertement ses distances avec son voisin. Mais elle grandit sous le signe d’une certaine morosité. À la fin des années 60, le maire de Montréal souhaitant débarrasser la ville de la mafia, ferme clubs et cabarets. Suite aux mouvements souverainistes, de nombreux anglophones quittent le Québec, et la chanson, relayant ce souci identitaire, éclipse presque les autres formes musicales. En quelques années, la scène florissante du jazz connaît de sérieux revers.

C’est au début des années 80 que le jazz québécois prend véritablement son envol. Oliver Jones (piano) entame une carrière internationale, Michel Donato (contrebasse) et Karen Young (chant) renouvellent l’art du duo, et Uzeb avec Alain Caron (basse) surfe sur la vague du jazz-rock. La création du festival de jazz de Montréal fait figure de révélateur (voir ci-après), fidélisant peu à peu un nouveau public, ouvrant des perspectives inédites pour les musiciens. Dans la foulée, le label Just’ln Time (fondé en 1983) commence à témoigner de l’effervescence et servira d’exemple. Car Montréal attire de plus en plus les musiciens pour des loyers peu élevés et des universités (notamment l’anglophone McCill) dont l’enseignement musical gagne en réputation.

Au cours des années 80 et 90, apparaissent notamment sur le devant de la scène les saxophonistes Charles Papasoff, André Leroux, Joël Miller, Christine Jensen, Rémi Bolduc, Yannick Rieu, François Carrier, ou Frank Lozano, les pianistes Lorraine Desmarais, Yves Léveillé, Thüryn Von Pranke, Eric Harding, les guitaristes Sylvain Provost, Norman Lachapelle, Greg Amirault, les contrebassistes Normand Guilbeault, George Mitchell, ou les batteurs Michel Lambert, Thom Gossage, Karl Jannuska et Martin Auguste. Une communauté qui se retrouve souvent dans des formations parallèles (notamment autour du label Effendi). Citons aussi le trompettiste et arrangeur Bill Mahar, et son Altsys Jaz Orchestra, ou encore le jeune groupe [iks], autour du bassiste Pierre Alexandre Tremblay.

Parallèlement, I’émergence: des musiques actuelles se concrétise autour du festival de. Victoriaville et du label Ambiances magnétiques (voir plus loin). Peu à peu, les différentes scènes vont se rencontrer. René Lussier invitant Frank Lozano, ce dernier formant par ailleurs le groupe Maze Lacuna avec Rainer Weins (guitare préparée) et Thom Gossage (batterie).

Face à cette efférvescence, le problème de la diffusion se pose encore plus crûment. Certains musiciens montent leur propre label, à l’instar de Lorraine Desmarais (piano) ou Charles Papasoff (saxophone), d’autres enregistrent pour la première fois grâce à de toutes nouvelles compagnies: DSM, Lost Chart, Red Toucan, ou encore Victo (émanation du festival de Victoriaville). La politique culturelle du Québec remplit alors pleinement son rôle, notamment grâce à la Sodec, qui apporte son soutien à l’industrie du disque, à côté de celle du cinéma. En 1999, Alain Bédard et Carole Therrien créent Effendi, devenu en trois ans le label de référence du jazz québécois. Originaire de la ville de Québec, Alain Bédard y débute sa carrière en tant que contrebassiste, à la fin des années 70, aux côtés notamment de Pierre Tanguay (batterie). Le jazz s’y démarque alors de Montréal, par une vision moins traditionnelle, et un fort ancrage mélodique. Un esprit qu’Alain Bédard s’attachera à retrouver avec Effendi. Une démarche de producteur, mais pas seulement: «Effendi est né d’un besoin collectif, les musiciens avaient des projets qui n’aboutissaient pas, précise Alain Bédard. Au Québec, il y a très peu d’agents ou de tourneurs, donc il a fallu aussi y penser, assurer nous-mêmes la gestion, chercher des subventions pour les projets. Je suis toutes les étapes. Mais surtout je veux travailler avec des musiciens qui se prennent en main, qui veulent développer leur carrière. Beaucoup préfèrent rester à Montréal enseigner et jouer de temps en temps, plutôt que de vraiment s’investir.» Le problème est posé. Si le Québec fourmille d’excellents musiciens, nombre d’entre eux sont sédentaires et souffrent d’un certain syndrome du sideman. À l’instar de Frank Lozano (saxophone): «Je joue dans beaucoup de formations, et j’enseigne à l’université McGill. Si je me sens bien en tant que sideman, c’est aussi par paresse. Cela prend beaucoup de temps d’avoir sa propre formation, plus d’administration et moins de musique. Donc, pour le moment, je préfère jouer dans les groupes des autres et leur apporter ma musique.» D’autres musiciens sont plus tranchés, tel Yannick Rieu: «Que faire pour survivre ? Enseigner, ou changer de pays. Il faut bouger, on n’a pas le choix.» En effet, le boom du festival de Montréal cache le problème crucial des lieux de concerts. Si d’autres festivals ont vu le jour au Québec (Rimouski, Chicoutimi), les salles dédiées au jazz se font rares même à Montréal, en dehors des clubs (I’Upstairs, le Biddle’s), et de certains bars tels l’Escogriffre et le Sergent recruteur. Quant à jouer dans le reste du Canada, ou aux États-Unis, il est souvent plus facile de penser d’abord à l’Europe. Les musiciens québécois seraient-ils condamnés à s’exporter? François Théberge a choisi la France, tout comme le batteur Karl Jannuska, plus récemment. Rares sont ceux dont l’horizon se limite aux frontières de leur pays, mais ceci ne leur est sans doute pas exclusif.


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Portrait: Normand Guilbeault

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2149|

«Active since the mid-’80s, Normand Guilbeault splits his time between post-bop jazz sessions and more cutting-edge avant-garde jazz…»

Active since the mid-’80s, Montreal jazz bassist Normand Guilbeault splits his time between post-bop jazz sessions with his Ensemble and more cutting-edge avant-garde jazz as sideman for various artists related to the collective Ambiances Magnétiques. His most ambitious project to date is the historical jazz opera Riel: plaidoyer musical / a musical plea, for 15 musicians. He is co-founder of the OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal, an alternative, counter-event of the Jazz Montreal Festival.

Guilbeault first got noticed on the Montreal jazz scene in the groups of pianist Jean Beaudet and drummer Bernard Primeau in 1985. From the start, his ease of play, elegant improvising and clean sound were appreciated. He soon recorded his first studio session: Primeau’s Perspectives, released in 1987. Performances and recordings alongside Yannick Rieu, Nelson Symonds and François Marcaurelle followed before the end of the decade. Meanwhile, the bassist formed his Normand Guilbeault Ensemble in 1988. First a quartet comprising trumpeter Ivanhoe Jolicoeur, clarinetist Mathieu Bélanger, and drummer Paul Léger, it expanded to a quintet with the arrival of trombonist Michel Ouellet in 1991. Guilbeault’s intent was to have a bass-led group in the vein of Charles Mingus’ and Oscar Pettiford’s, with a repertoire of compositions by bassists. But with the years, the group developed its own repertoire, gradually moving out of jazz standards and into something more contemporary. A first album, Dualismus, came out on Red Toucan in 1994, the same year the Ensemble won the DuMaurier Jazz Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Two more CDs with Jean Derome as guest followed in 1995 and 1996 on Justin Time. The Jazz Report Magazine from Toronto declared the Ensemble Best Jazz Acoustic Group of 1997.

Derome opened a door to the avant-garde scene and the bassist’s interests began to shift. His playing grew freest while retaining a strong jazz flavor. By the mid-’90s Guilbeault had completely renewed his roaster of collaborators and become a trusty sideman for most key Ambiances Magnétiques artists. He contributed to Derome’s large-scale projects, Michel F Côté’s soundtracks and his group Bruire, Robert Marcel Lepage’s free jazz trio, and René Lussier’s ensemble. Supported by the label, he created his Riel at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in 1998 and toured it in Canada for a couple of years. A recording came out in 1999.

In 2000, Guilbeault joined forces with Marcaurelle, Jean Vanasse and Pierre St-Jak to organize the first OFF Montreal Jazz Festival. Born out of a profound dissatisfaction with the official event’s focus on big international stars, the OFF programmed local jazz musicians, premiered encounters and presented left-field music the real festival disregarded. The OFF was back the next year with support from the alternative press.


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Portrait: Geneviève Letarte

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2133|

«Her musical career is only one of many facets she has integrated to her art.»

Geneviève Letarte is an artist before being a singer. Her musical career is only one of many facets she has integrated to her art. A poet, novelist, lyricist, and performance artist, she is loosely associated with the Montreal avant-garde music collective Ambiances Magnétiques, but also with the poetry/spoken word scene (both francophone and anglophone). Her albums are few and far between.

Letarte was born in Quebec City in 1955. At age 20 she went to Paris to study literature and cinema for two years — at the time an obligatory sojourn for Quebecer intellectuals. She had already started to write for various literary magazines (her name would appear in La Vie en Rose, La Nouvelle Barre du Jour, Estuaire, Moebius, and the New York magazine Bomb, among others). She launched her professional career in 1982 with her first interdisciplinary performance “Transit Station” (also the title of her firstbook). The next year she presented “Sirène Serpent Zoulou,” a show of music and poetry with Serge Boisvert. From there she developed a growing interest in music. She briefly collaborated with the all-female group Wondeur Brass with which she shared a feminist philosophy, but her first musical break came in 1987 when Ambiances Magnétiques member René Lussier invited her for a guest appearance at his duo concert with guitarist Fred Frith at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Lussier and drummer Michel F Côté (also of AM) helped her write, arrange, and produce her first album Vous seriez un ange (“You’d be an angel”), released in 1990 on the collective’s label.

During the next decade Letarte juggled writing, songwriting and performance art. She wrote the lyrics to La légende de la pluie, a 1992 performance and album by Justine, Tenko, and Zeena Parkins. She appeared at the Victo festival (1990), the Vancouver Jazz Festival (1995), and a number of poetry events in America and Europe. 2000 saw her focus again on music, first with a word/sound performance with electroacoustic artist Chantal Dumas, then with a new CD, Chansons d’un jour, co-written with guitarist Claude Fradette (of Les 4 Guitaristes de l’Apocalypso-Bar).


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Portrait: Interférences Sardines

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2132|

«The Sardines play complex but very lively instrumental pieces, along with the occasional oddball song.»

Led by guitarist Philippe Venne and dominated by the exuberant drummer Frédéric Lebrasseur, the Quebec City group Interférence Sardines puts on the table an updated version of the Rock-in-Opposition sound. They take their cue from Henry Cow, but also from Central-European folk and rock musics (Dunaj, Uz Jsme Doma), Quebec musique actuelle (André Duchesne in particular), and Frank Zappa. The Sardines play complex but very lively instrumental pieces, along with the occasional oddball song. After a first album self-released in 1997, the group got signed to the prestigious Montreal label Ambiances Magnétiques.

The group started in early 1996 from an impulse from Venne, its main composer. A music student like most of his bandmates, Venne recruited Andrée Bilodeau (violin, voice), Lyne Goulet (saxophone), friend Jimmie LeBlanc (bass), and Lebrasseur, a maverick virtuoso able to do things with two hands you probably couldn’t do with five (provided you’d even imagine doing them in the first place). The Sardines played their first gig on April 4 that year. LeBlanc soon left to study classical guitar. His replacement Sébastien Doré had barely time to come to grasp with the material before the group started work on their first album, financed in part by a provincial program for workforce development. In 1997 they won first prize at the CONGA, a talent competition held at the Université Laval. Mare Crisium was released shortly after and the group continued to perform sporadically in Quebec City and Montreal.

In 1998 the Sardines appeared at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. A year later Goulet called it quits on the count of a pregnancy. A second violinist, Marc Gagnon, was brought in the fill the void, steering the group’s sound closer to the Klezmer/Gypsy paradigm. Work on a second album began in late 1999, but it would take two years to complete Zucchini, finally released in November 2001 on Ambiances Magnétiques. Meanwhile group members got involved in a string of other projects, the most active being the neo-trad party group Les Batinses (with Bilodeau and Lebrasseur).


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Portrait: Justine

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2131|

«… Justine pushed further the ideals of challenging, thought-provoking feminist rock…»

Born out of the Montreal-based avant-rock group Wondeur Brass, Justine pushed further the ideals of challenging, thought-provoking feminist rock established in its previous incarnation for another ten years. The group released three albums during the 1990s and toured Canada, the United States,and visited Europe twice. Three of its musicians are members of the collective Ambiances Magnétiques, so the label released all their albums.

Wondeur Brass started as a sextet in the early ’80s. By 1987 the group had been scaled down to a quartet. Bassist Marie Trudeau had joined the three original members saxophonist Joane Hétu, keyboardist Diane Labrosse and drummer Danielle Palardy Roger. That line-up released Simoneda, reine des esclaves in 1987.

Upon starting work on a new opus in 1989, the girls decided it was time for a change. The new music taking shape was turning out to be more complex, intricate, and driven by a stronger will to improvise and make things interestingly dangerous. Thus Justine was born. The first album under the new name, (Suite), came out in 1990. It included guest appearances by Japanese singer Tenko and American harpist Zeena Parkins. In 1992, Hétu, Labrosse and Roger brought them back for a quintet project, La légende de la pluie. Although it doesn’t include Trudeau and sounds softer, more introspective, it can be considered as the second album by Justine. Around the same time the “real” quartet appeared on stage in an Ambiances Magnétiques showcase which yielded the live CD Une théorie des ensembles.

In early 1994 Justine toured Europe, visiting many former communist countries. Back in Montreal in June they recorded Langages Fantastiques “live in the studio” -- the recording of (Suite) had stretched over ten months. After its release later that year things slowed down as group members focused on individual projects: Roger on the children tale L’oreille enflée, Labrosse on a solo album (La face cachée des choses) and a duo with Michel F Côté, Hétu on a new group called Castor et Compagnie. Justine stayed together for another three years and performed at the 1997 Ring Ring festival in Belgrade (Yugoslavia) alongside Ground-Zero, Palinckx, and Kampec Dolores (a previously unreleased song was included on the commemorative compilation Ring Ring 1997). After that tour the group disbanded. Hétu, Labrosse and Roger have continued to contribute to one another’s projects.


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Portrait: Danielle P Roger

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2130|

Danielle Palardy Roger is the lesser known among the three female members of the Montreal musicians’ collective Ambiances Magnétiques. The drummer always kept a lower profile than Joane Hétu or Diane Labrosse (not to mention male counterparts like René Lussier or Jean Derome), especially since the disbanding of the group Justine. She rarely leads her own band, but she still performs regularly on the Montreal free improv circuit and composes contemporary classical music (for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, among others). Maybe more importantly, her company Productions SuperMémé-SuperMusique has become a major producer of new music events.

Roger met keyboardist Labrosse and saxophonist Hétu in the late 1970s through the loose experimental collectives that took turns animating the Montreal underground back then. Like them she is self-taught on drums. The trio founded Productions SuperMémé-SuperMusique in 1979 to take care of their own business and started playing together. With a couple more women they formed Wondeur Brass, whose first album came out in 1985 on the label Ambiances Magnétiques, immediately after they were asked to become members of the collective. Roger was also part of the trio Les Poules with Hétu and Labrosse, a group that moved away from the Rock-in-Opposition sound of the other outfit to explore freer grounds.

Wondeur Brass made a second LP in 1988, Simoneda reine des esclaves, before transforming into the quartet Justine with Roger, Hétu, Labrosse, and bassist Marie Trudeau. With this group the drummer toured Canada, the US, and Europe, appearing at the RingRing Festival (Belgrade) in 1997. The group disbanded shortly after. While her colleagues moved on to solo projects, Roger focused on the company they had co-founded and of which she became the sole director.

Roger has only one solo album to her credit, the creative children tale L’oreille enflée (1994). The release of Tricotage, a duo session with bassist Joëlle Léandre in 2000 marked her come-back on disc.


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Portrait: Martin Tétreault

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2129|

«… what he lost in sense of humor, he gained in harsh intensity.»

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Martin Tétreault was the quietest member of Ambiances Magnétiques, Montreal’s influential new music collective. He was providing strange turntable collages to the projects of his colleagues and released a couple of mind-boggling solo albums. When minimal techno and experimental electronica hit the museums at the turn of the millennium, he became the label’s biggest international name, multiplying collaborations with the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Kevin Drumm, Xavier Charles, and Janek Schaefer. This career boom was accompanied by a stylistic shift from vinyl quotation to an approach of the turntable as a “pure” sonic device. In the process, what he lost in sense of humor, he gained in harsh intensity.

Tétreault has a background in fine arts. Much like the Czech radical artist Milan Knizak, he began to work with vinyl because paper led him to a dead-end. In 1984, for the first time he took an LP, cut it in half, flipped one piece over, pasted it back together, and played the result on a turntable. Tétreault continued to experiment at home, developing cutting and skipping techniques and collecting hundreds of cheap records he found at fleamarkets. Three or four years later, his next-door neighbor overheard his shenanigans. It was Ambiances Magnétiques guitarist André Duchesne, who quickly introduced Tétreault to his group of musician friends. Michel F Côté enrolled him in his ensemble Bruire. The turntablist’s first appearance on record can be found on the 1989 LP Le Bbarman a tort de sourire. He remained with the group throughout the 1990s and beyond. He also played with René Lussier, Jean Derome, and Diane Labrosse.

His first large-scale album, Des pas et des mois, came out in 1990. Then, besides the occasional Bruire album, Tétreault kept a rather low profile. Things changed in 1997-1998 when he began to let go of quotation and cut-ups to develop a more textural style that eventually saw him throw away the record to play the turntable itself, sticking the tone-arm in the motor, placing the needle directly on the platter, etc. These new developments were at the heart of his duo with René Lussier, introduced by the highly abstract and noisy Dur noyau dur in 1998. A participation to the Japanese project Four Focuses opened doors; so did a subsequent duo session with Yoshihide (21 Situations, 1999) and a solo CD for the Belgian label Audiophile (La nuit où j’ai dit non, 1998). By then, the turntable had become a trendy instrument of avant-garde expression and Tétreault embarked on a busy touring and recording schedule. In 2002, he curated the “Turntable Hell” tour (in England) financed by the Contemporary Music Network.


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Portrait: Guillaume Dostaler

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2128|

«… a cutting-edge improvisor and imaginative sideman…»

A pianist and keyboardist based in Montreal, Guillaume Dostaler is what you can call a trusty sideman. He is a favorite collaborator among Ambiances Magnétiques artists and has appeared on records by Jean Derome, Robert Marcel Lepage, Joane Hétu, Patrice Desbiens and Nathalie Derome. His work with international artists has been limited, mostly because of his preference to remain in Montreal, but he played with Lawrence “Butch” Morris on his visit to the city. He is a gifted pianist with a mind opened to new ideas.

Dostaler had a classical music upbringing and studied piano at the renowned École Vincent d’Indy in Montreal. He started playing professionally in the early 1980s with a number of ensembles, mostly in jazz and new music, but also briefly performed funk. His first gigs included Karen Young, René Lussier, Lepage, and Derome. His seat in the latter’s avant-jazz group Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms throughout the 1990s is what brought him the most attention. With this group he recorded three CDs for the label Ambiances Magnétiques (Carnets de voyage, 1994; Navré, 1995; Torticolis, 1998) and appeared in dozens of jazz and new music festivals across Canada (Montreal, Vancouver, Guelph), the United States (Edgefest in Ann Arbor, Michigan) and Europe (Moers in Germany, Banlieues Bleues in Paris, France).

When Morris came to conduct a Montreal ensemble in 1995, Dostaler enlisted and so appears on the document Conduction 23 (1996, NewWorld). But his talent both as a cutting-edge improvisor and imaginative sideman are better illustrated on Derome’s witty Je me souviens and Hétu’s minimalist Musique d’hiver. He also toured Quebec as part of performance artist/singer Nathalie Derome’s trio for Les 4 Ronds Sont Allumés.


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Portrait: Rainer Wiens

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 15 juin 2002 |2125|

Although active as a professional guitar player since the end of the 1970s, Canadian Rainer Wiens has constantly been falling through the cracks ofthe recording industry, leaving very little trace of his work and only since he moved to Montreal in the mid-’90s. Except for a couple of free improv records and participations in projects by members of the collective Ambiances Magnétiques, Wiens’ music has been related to the stage (dance, theatre, new opera) and thus remains largely undocumented.

Wiens studied guitar with John Becker, Allan Torak, and Tony Bradan. He also studied improvisation and jazz harmony with New York pianist and noted educator Barry Harris. This private instruction prepared him for every possible work in the jazz business and soon Wiens was working the Toronto club circuit as a sideman for a constellation of local names. In 1978 he formed the left-field jazz group Silk Stockings. It toured throughout the 1980s, making appearances at various jazz festivals in Canada, but also in England and Hungary. During that period the guitarist forged himself a personal form of expression, abstract but with a lot of charm. He makes extensive use of the prepared guitar, often approaching the instrument more like a Gamelan ensemble than something with six strings.

Since the late 1980s, his focus shifted toward a collaboration with artists from other fields. The 1990s saw him writing small-scale operas with librettist Victoria Ward (“Homeless,” “Down Here on Earth”), scoring music for films by Barbara Sternberg (“C’est la Vie,” 1997; “Like a Dream That Vanishes,” 1999), and collaborating with dancer Lucie Grégoire. He co-founded with Jan Komarek the Sound Image Theatre where he supplied music for many productions.

In the mid-’90s he moved to Montreal and hooked up with the musicians of Ambiances Magnétiques. His solo album Bonunca Dream Music, self-released in 1995, was picked up for distribution by the collective’s label. A trio session with longtime partners Malcolm Goldstein and John Heward (Chants cachés, 1999) helped bring some attention to his work. Heco-founded the group NOMA with trombonist Tom Walsh and by 2002 was leading his own group Follow Follow.


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Portrait: René Lussier

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 6 juin 2002 |2108|

«… his impressive body of work represents a full course in “musique actuelle”…»

Throughout the 1980s and most of the ’90s, René Lussier was the prime mover on Montreal’s new music scene. His guitar work has been compared to Fred Frith, with whom he has often toured and recorded. Spread between solo work, duos and large ensemble pieces, between studio compositions, structured improvisation, free improv and film music, his impressive body of work represents a full course in “musique actuelle,” a term he helped to peg down. His masterpiece remains the speech-music collage Le trésor de la langue which earned him the Paul Gilson Award in 1989. He also received the Freddy Stone Award in 1996 for his contribution to Canadian new music.

Lussier began to play guitar in high school bands. He started to develop his own brand of jazz-meets-folk-meets-freak in the collective Conventum. This group included guitarist André Duchesne with whom he stroke a lasting friendship. He recorded two albums with Conventum and a handful of film scores, the first of what would become an endless list (over 50 by 2001). After the group’s disbanding, Lussier enrolled in the Grand Orchestre de Montréal, an experimental fanfare of sorts where he met Nébu saxophonist Jean Derome. Together they recorded music for the National Film Board of Canada and got involved in many projects, some of which included Duchesne and clarinetist Robert Marcel Lepage.

The four of them founded the collective and record label Ambiances Magnétiques in 1983. That year Lussier released his first solo album, Fin du travail (Version 1), the title of which (“Finished work [1st version]”) already displayed his uncanny sense of humor. His big break came in 1986 when Michel Levasseur, artistic director of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), proposed a duo concert with Fred Frith. Henry Cow and the whole Rock-in-Opposition movement had been a big influence on Lussier -- this was his chance. The resulting album Nous Autres introduced him to an international audience. In 1988 Frith invited him and Derome to join Keep the Dog.

In 1989, with the help of Frith and a cast of Ambiances Magnétiques players, Lussier recorded Le trésor de la langue. Pushed by its political resonances, the album became the label’s biggest seller and the first classic item in the history of musique actuelle. Further albums, solo and with Les Granules, established him as a highly creative and witty composer and improviser. But as years passed Lussier felt the collective weight more and more on his shoulders. The mid-to-late ’90s saw him experimenting with more abstract forms of improvisation with mixed results and severing links with old friends, including Derome when he left his band Les Dangereux Zhoms. In 2001 he resolutely stepped away from the collective and released CDs on Ohm Editions and La Tribu. The album Tombola Rasa and a country-folk project with American maverick Eugene Chadbourne indicated a return to earlier pleasures at the start of the new decade.


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Portrait: Pierre Tanguay

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 juin 2002 |2103|

«If we could give a prize to the most valuable Ambiances Magnétiques sideman (or woman), it would go to drummer Pierre Tanguay

If we could give a prize to the most valuable Ambiances Magnétiques sideman (or woman), it would go to drummer Pierre Tanguay. Even though he is not one of the nine core members of the collective, he appears on more albums put out by its label than any one of them! But his career cannot be pinned down to the Montreal avant-garde scene. He has also been a valued sideman on the jazz scene, playing with Eric Longsworth, Jean Vanasse, Karen Young and a dozen of others, and is active in world music, especially with his Mediterranean folk group Strada. In Montreal he occupies a place comparable to Hamid Drake in New York.

Tanguay was born in Quebec City, 1957. He began as a jazz drummer, finding inspiration in the playing of Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell and Paul Motian. A professional musician since 1978, he also studied African percussion for two years in the Comores Islands and went to Paris to study tablas and Indian music with Anand Kumar. When he settled in Montreal in the late ’70s, he was already an accomplished player. One of the first musicians he hooked up with was saxophonist Jean Derome who would later co-found Ambiances Magnétiques. Tanguay has been his trusty partner for decades, first in the scrapyard ensemble Les Patenteux du Québec and later in Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms and Derome Tanguay Danse.

Still, at first Tanguay let the Ambiances Magnétiques musicians pursue their experimentations, preferring to ride a softer avant-garde jazz wave. In the ’80s he was part of Icarus with cellist Eric Longsworth and participated in bassist Pierre Cartier’s ensembles. His relentless working schedule and rare listening quality and musicianship established him as a leading session drummer. With Cartier and Derome he formed the Thelonious Monk tribute trio Évidence and by the mid-’90s he was involved in all major projects by Derome, René Lussier, Robert Marcel Lepage, Joane Hétu and Diane Labrosse. With the Dangereux Zhoms et toured Europe and the US, appearing at every major jazz festival.

Tanguay prefers the role of sideman, but he has occasionally stepped to the front of the stage, particularly in free improv duets with trombonist Tom Walsh (the album Midi Tapant came out in 1998) and Derome (Pinc! Plonc! in 2001). In 2000 he released a first solo album, La musique de mon disque, a collection of experimental ambient percussion pieces. Around the same time he also began to write and perform music for film, theatre and dance.


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Portrait: Diane Labrosse

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 juin 2002 |2102|

«Keyboardist and sampler artist Diane Labrosse is a core member of the Montreal avant-garde music collective Ambiances Magnétiques

Keyboardist and sampler artist Diane Labrosse is a core member of the Montreal avant-garde music collective Ambiances Magnétiques. In the 1980s she took part to a string of avant-pop feminist groups. Later she switched from keyboards to the sampler and from rock to electronica improv. Although she has released solo albums, her best known works have been with collaborators Ikue Mori and Martin Tétreault. She also appears on numerous albums by other Ambiances Magnétiques artists, especially Jean Derome, Joane Hétu and Michel F Côté. She is co-founder and artistic co-director of the Montreal-based concert production company Productions SuperMémé.

Labrosse was gravitating around L’Enfant Fort and the Pouêt Pouêt Band, collectives of left-field musicians that predate the beginnings of Ambiances Magnétiques. There she met saxophonist/singer Joane Hétu and drummer Danielle Palardy Roger. Together they formed the all-girls group Wondeur Brass. Her quirky keyboard playing which made use of unusual “post new-wave” sounds gave the band its signature on the two LPs Ravir (1985) and Simoneda, Reine des Esclaves (1988). The trio also performed under the name Les Poules, recording one album in 1986 (the unit was revived as an improv project in the early 2000s) and with bassist Marie Trudeau as Justine in the early 1990s, Labrosse’s closest brush with fame, at least in Eastern Europe where the group built a cult following.

In 1985, along with her colleagues she was asked to join Ambiances Magnétiques. There she developed a special affinity with drummer Michel F Côté both in and outside music. She contributed to his first two Bruire albums (especially Les Fleurs de Léo), recorded a duo CD with him (Duo Déconstructiviste) and together they wrote the music for Robert Lepage’s play La Géométrie des Miracles (Geometry of Miracles) and toured with his technological cabaret Zulu Time.

Labrosse released her first solo CD Face cachée des choses in 1995, at the end of Justine’s career and before joining Hétu’s new group Castor et Compagnie. It focused for the first time on the sampler as an instrument, a soft-noise direction she would stick to from then on. Île Bizarre (1998) with Ikue Mori and Martin Tétreault revealed her work to an international audience. With Tétreault she toured Europe and eventually released the duo CD Parasites (2001).


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Portrait: Papa Boa

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 juin 2002 |2101|

«… a repertoire of quirky angular songs…»

A Montreal avant-rock group with ties to the Ambiances Magnétiques collective, Papa Boa is one of many projects involving Bernard Falaise and Rémi Leclerc. The group writes complex songs out of studio improvisation sessions, including lots of sampling and oddities, and is driven by Falaise’s highly original guitar work. They have one album out.

In 1991, Falaise, drummer Rémi Leclerc (of Miriodor and various projects by André Duchesne) and bassist Frédéric Roverselli struck a friendship. Out of it came Papa Boa, at first a loose studio collective to which reedist Pierre Labbé was later added. All members (minus Labbé, a jazzman) have a rock background and their first intention was to explore freer structures that would include electronics. Their first experiments consisted mostly of improvisations. The group debuted on stage in 1991 during the Festival du Théâtre des Amériques in Montréal. The next few years saw little activity, the unit being used mostly as a laboratory as Falaise and Leclerc’s profiles were constantly on the rise in avant-rock circles.

The group provided the soundtrack to Michel Lefebvre and Eva Quintas’ multimedia work Liquidation in 1997. Engagements began to pile up, leading to an active period of three years. The quartet (occasionally augmented by guests such as Marcelle Hudon and storyteller Michel Faubert) performed concerts at various Quebec festivals (Festival des Musiques Fraîches in Quebec, Festival des musiques de création in Jonquières). They built a repertoire of quirky angular songs and recorded Tête à queue, their first CD. It was released in May 1999 by Ambiances Magnétiques. Performances at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2000 and the Montreal Jazz Festival the following year raised the group’s profile, but the members’ other projects finally claimed them back and Papa Boa went dormant.


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Portrait: Les 4 guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar

par François Couture in All-Music Guide (ÉU), 1 juin 2002 |2100|

«His longest-lasting project, it was also the one that got the most international attention…»

Put together by Montreal guitarist André Duchesne, Les 4 Guitaristes de l’Apocalypso-Bar was a conceptual electric guitar quartet (plus drums), something rarely seen before. His longest-lasting project (four years), it was also the one that got the most international attention, thanks to the presence of ex-Henry Cow drummer Chris Cutler (some say it served as the blueprint for the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet). The group released two LPs on Ambiances Magnétiques in 1987 and 1989, although titles and recording dates are willingly misleading -- after all, this was a band from the future. Both albums have been reissued in 1995 by ReR Megacorp under the title World Tour ’98 (see what I mean?).

In the early ’80s, André Duchesne was writing avant-rock songs -- something like This Heat with a Quebec twist (see his LP Le Temps des Bombes, 1984). But by 1986 he was working on a series of cuntrapuntal pieces for guitar quartet, a cross between Robert Fripp’s circular motifs and Fred Frith’s angular playing. He drafted René Lussier and Jean-Pierre Bouchard, colleagues from the late-’70s avant-folk collective Conventum, and Roger Boudreault. The Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville expressed interest to premiere the project in October 1986, but Duchesne still needed a drummer. He rang up Chris Cutler, as former Henry Cow members and the Ambiances Magnétiques collective were multiplying collaborations and associations at the time (Lussier and Fred Frith would play as a duo at FIMAV that year too). Cutler’s group Cassiber was already part of the festival’s line-up, so arrangements were made and the 4 Guitarists of the Apocalypso-Bar began rehearsals.

Duchesne had a concept, inspired by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix himself (or so the tongue-in-cheek liner notes to the first LP stated). This was the resident band at the Apocalypso-Bar, a joint in post-apocalypse Canada. They were sleek, they were hot, they obeyed all the laws of early 20th century dance bands: they wore white suits and tiger ties, sat down