Trois formations pour trois navires en partance vers l’Amérique. C’était en 1492 et un certain Christophe Colomb n’y était pas pour rien. La Pinta est représentée par le GGRIL (Grand groupe régional d’improvisation libre). La navigation est lente. Les riffs de cordes sont saillants. On transpire dans l’entrepont. Les bois crissent. La tension est constante. La Niña bénéficie des brouillages de l’Ensemble SuperMusique. Appeaux et bruissements électroniques ouvrent le bal. Puis, entre craquements et bruitisme, s’immiscent un zeste de rock, de jazz (Take Five cité) ou de musique ancienne. La Santa Maria sombra le 25 décembre 1492. Pour l’heure c’est l’ECM+ (Ensemble contemporain de Montréal+) qui guide la galère. Les mélodies sont au centre du voyage: mélodies suaves et sans brûlure ni brutalité; mélodies douces et rassurantes, n’annonçant en rien le naufrage à venir.

Liant les trois parties, deux musiciens. Le premier se nomme Juan del Encina (1468-1529). Il est le compositeur de Todos los bienes del mundo et guide de sa musique profane ce long voyage. La seconde n’est autre que Danielle Palardy Roger, compositrice, percussionniste, fondatrice et directrice musicale de l’Ensemble SuperMusique. Son désir d’explorer musique ancienne et actuelle, musique écrite et musique improvisée, consonance et dissonance ne manque ni de charme ni d’atouts ici. On vous souhaite une bonne traversée.

La traversée de l’Atlantique semble constituer — à raison sans doute — un élément fondateur auquel se rattache l’imaginaire des créateurs d’outre-Atlantique quand bien même leur propos initial en différerait. Déjà Chantal Dumas assimilait, dans migrations océanes (in Le parfum des femmes en 2001) la traversée effectuée par u ne femme avec la lente migration des eaux froides. Ici, la symbolique des trois nefs de l’expédition de Christophe Colomb, à travers leurs différences, est utilisée pour évoquer les métissages musicaux entre tradition orale, musique écrite et improvisation. La Pinta serait l’improvisation (les pièces s’y rattachant étant interprétées par treize musiciens d’ensemble du nom de GGRILL), la tradition orale, qui inclut des textes de la fin du XV^e siècle, défendue par l’Ensemble SuperMusique étant véhiculée par la Niña, tandis que la (Santa) Maria hébergerait la musique écrite à travers l’ensemble ECM+. A travers leurs différences, les trois navires participent de la même expédition et l’auditeur ressent dans cet enregistrement davantage l’unité conceptuelle de la composition, due à Danielle Palardy Roger, d’autant plus que l’Ensemble SuperMusique (formation maison) pratique aussi l’improvisation et que certains passages — certaines parties du fret, devrait-on écrire — de la Maria usent aussi des techniques de l’improvisation contemporaine par l’introduction d’échantillonnages et de percussions électroniques associées à une formation par ailleurs purement acoustique.

Four new releases from Ambiances Magnetiques. One of them is by veteran Joane Hétu, who worked on a career that more then 25 years now. You may know her from all-women groups Wondeur Brass, Justine and Les Poules. Avant rock was their thing. Gradually Hetu moved however to more abstract territories and profiled herself as a composer. Récits de neige is the third part of a trilogy about winter, this time a very snowy winter. Effectively Hetu evokes and visualizes this climate. Helped out by the Ensemble Supermusique. Prominent is a french spoken text no doubt about winter and snow. The music often plays a servile role for the performance of the texts, and that works tiring from time to time. Many of the pure instrumental parts however, sometimes jazzy and always very inspired, learned me more about the winter. I enjoyed the interplay of the musicians and easily forgot all discomfortable aspects of the winter through this emotional work. Speaking of Danielle Roger Palardy I can repeat the above introduction as she walked a similar route as Hetu. Again we are in the company of a core member of the Montréal “musique actuelle” scene since 1980. She Works as a self-taught percussionist, composer and improviser. Her newest release Pinta, Niña & Maria, has much to offer. It brings together three pieces written for three very different ensembles: GGRIL, Ensemble SuperMusique and ECM+. This way Roger provides us an excellent overview of her new music activities. In the first composition by Roger many dissonants are included, in a context of thick and noisy sounds in part 3, whereas in part 4 and 5 the music is more subtile but again staying close to noisy textures and tensions. The second work blends electronics with acoustical instruments, composed in an more traditional style with rock elements. The third piece starts like a piece of string-based chambermusic, but is mixed with percussive and other sounds of electronic and acoustical origin. With Rouge Ciel we are in the company of younger generation of musicians but not necessarily presented to more up to date music. Bryologie is the third effort by this avant rock group. A band led by Guido Del Fabbro (violin and electronics), and completed by Simon Lapointe (keyboards), Antonin Provost (guitars) and Nemo Venba (trumpet and drums). More then on their earlier records they profile themselves as a rockband. Continuing a line that had more representatives in the past of Ambiances Magnetiques. Now they are most close to Miriodor considering this aspect. One could think from this Rouge Ciel lives in the past, but that does no justice to them. Using forms that we know from the past they are not into a simple retro journey without any phantasy. Far from it. Their instrumental music is rock-based but intelligently combined with improvisation. Although they play with energy and drive, their compositions miss that little extra to make it really worthwhile. The true surprise this time comes from Isaiah Ceccarelli, a drummer, improviser, composer and singer from Montréal. His newest work, Bréviaire d’épuisements, is composed for two singers, two bass clarinets, viola da gamba and solo percussion. It is a collection of short pieces composed in a stripped down manner for texts by poet Marie Deschênes. In contrast with the other three CDs is one chooses for a much more sober approach. From a drummer one expects playing dominated by rhythm. But that is not the case here. In contrast Ceccarelli is more involved in drones and textures, that is illustrated impressively by the opening track. The first of four instrumental interludes that are mixed with seven vocal parts. Like the composition also the singing and playing is very disciplined, giving all the subtleties maximum strength. I don’t know what the poems are about, but the work almost has the effect on me of some kind of prayer. It is not for this association that I liked this one most.

Suite musicale en trois volets contrastants inspirée par les navires de Christophe Colomb. Interprètes: le Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libre, l’Ensemble SuperMusique et l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal. Véritable inventaire de pratiques musicales et de clins d’œil stylistiques, à l’image des musiques actuelles… ambiantes, magnétiques et autres.

L’allegoria d’un percorso che porta sempre verso un nuovo mondo.Il senso e le sensazioni di questa complessa ma emozionale, studiatissima eppure godibilissima opera stanno in questa frase. La compositrice canadese usa tre formazioni differenti. Il Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée, giovane ensemble di professionisti e non, dedito a musica sperimentale e improvvisata, per Pinta; l’Ensemble SuperMusique, fondato nel 1998, in cui milita il fior fiore dell’etichetta/movimento (da Derome a Tanguay, da Hétu a Falaise e gli altri ci perdoneranno…) per Niña; lo straordinario Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+, gruppo acustico votato alla musica contemporanea canadese, per Santa Maria. Se ne serve per esaltare quell’idea dando corpo alla metafora per eccellenza: la scoperta dell’America. Ed organizza un flusso sinfonico meta-genere, che evoca le situazioni e le emozioni dell’andar per mare: vociare dell’equipaggio, stridori di legni e cordami, paesaggi marini e tempeste, sensazioni di nostalgia, il mélange d’angoscia e speranza. Il filo tematico è dato da una canzone di fine ’400 Todos los bienes del mundo, decostruita — dice Danielle Roger — “in modo da fornirmi i materiali che costituiscono il quadro di contesto delle mie tre navi”. La struttura ha il rigore d’un opera “classica” (tutto è condensato in poco più degli archetipici tre quarti d’ora), con la verve cinematica delle migliori partiture di Zorn (e, certo, delle opere “aperte” di casa Ambiances). Le frequenze di onde corte s’amalgamano all’accordéon diatonico (Tous les biens de ce monde), le percussioni fanno plumbeo lo spazio sonoro di archi e ottoni. A folate brutiste (Los recifes) seguono, complesse partiture jazz che fagocitano Brubeck e molto altro (Hacia l’America). Brillano i vivacissimi quadri della terza sezione, quella dell’ECM+, perfettamente in equilibrio tra seduzione rinascimentale e rumorismo elettronico ( Deception… and Melanchony). Ascolto che letteralmente travolge.

This is an ambitious — and accompished! — project directed by Québécois percussionist & composer Danielle Palardy Roger leading three different ensembles: AM all-star Ensemble SuperMusique (with Derome, Hétu, Tanguay, Côté, Falaise), GGRIL (Grande Group Regional D’Improvisation Liberee) and ECM+ (Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal). The ‘Pinta, Nina & (Santa) Maria’ of the title refers to the three boats that sailed to the Americas in 1492 to explore the new world. Like each of three boats, each of these ensembles is very different in terms of personnel, instrumentation and direction. Although most of the 23 pieces that make up this three part suite are pretty short, there is a thread the runs through the entire work and each of the suites is continuous.

La Pinta is performed by GGRIL, a 13-piece ensemble whose instrumentation includes accordions, brass, strings, guitars, dobro, radio, el. bass and percussion. This is a suspense-filled landscape of shifting strings, thoughtful brass, careful guitar feedback fragments, eerie static and organic percussion. The music is both fascinating and somewhat disorienting. There is one section where the members shout out “Hey!” apart and together, adding some exclamatory punctuation to the proceeding, which erupts throughout this disc.

La Nina is performed by Ensemble SuperMusique, a longtime AM all-star unit which includes Jean Derome, Joane Hetu and Bernard Falaise. ESM are masters of the focused improv idiom and thus their suite is rich and filled with nuance, as well as some selective noise. Distant seasick melodies float on top of waves of shifting currents. I love the way that segments of somewhat familiar songs magically emerge and submerge within the flow. The Santa Maria (or “Who Knows”) is performed by ECM+, a fourteen piece ensemble with reeds, brass, strings & percussion with featured soloists Diane Labrosse on sampler and Michel F Cote on electronic percussion. Commencing with an excerpt from Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, Labrosse and Cote add selective sonic spice to the occasionally somber, enchanting strings and brass. In many ways, this is a masterwork of successful cosmic strands that have been knitted into brilliant tapestry. Don’t pass this one up, please.

A triptych by Danielle Palardy Roger: three compositions for improvising ensemble, blending Early and contemporary music, composition and improvisation, direction and freedom, acoustics and electronics. Three 15-minute suites. The performers are the GGRIL in Rimouski, Ensemble SuperMusiue, and ECM+. Solid music who will not reveal all its codes on first listen. Roger is highly skillful with large-scale works (see her Bruiducœur), and this project matches her previous efforts in that vein.

Translated from French.