Disparition de l’usine éphémère is the first release from a quartet consisting of prominent improvisers from Québec and Norway: Philippe Lauzier, Pierre-Yves Martel, Kim Myhr and Martin Tétreault. The peculiar combination of old and new instruments renders a poetic image of a faded, bygone industrial plant.

Following Disparition de l’usine éphémère, his first release on Ambiances Magnétiques, Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr will be touring Europe with Sébastien Roux.

• November 15, 2008 at the Fri Resonans Festival, Trondheim (Norway)
• November 24 at Cinéma Oblo, Lausanne (Switzerland)
• November 25 at Wim, Zurich (Switzerland)
• November 26 at Cave 12, Geneva (Switzerland)
• November 27 at STEIM, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• November 28 at QO2, Brussels (Belgium)

Viola da gambist Pierre-Yves Martel will be playing solo concerts in Norway and France as well as collaborating with Norwegian musicians Kim Myhr and Christian Wallumrød.

• November 9: with Christian Wallumrød and Kim Myhr at the Ringve Museum, Trondheim (Norway)
• November 15 Festival Fri Resonans, Trondheim (Norway)
• November 17: (sic!) Improvised Music Series, Oslo (Norway)
• November 21: Rude Awakening, Montpellier (France)

… The evening started off with Philippe Lauzier and Pierre-Yves Martel of Quartetski, turntablist Martin Tétreault and Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr in three quiet and textural improvisations. The set started with Lauzier playing his alto saxophone with a plunger mute affixed on his bell, creating a muffled and distant sound. The blend of Tétreault’s turntables, Myhr’s guitar effects and Martel’s viola da gamba was impressive. It was difficult to determine where the sounds were coming from. Martel, unamplified, would bow furiously, unleashing streams of harmonics, and even thump his bow against the body of the instrument. Myhr and Lauzier used their instruments more as resonators for external objects and vocalizations. Myhr many times moved a spinning toy across the body of his classical guitar, which he alternately played lying flat on his lap or in normal playing position. Lauzier also played bass clarinet, emphasizing the overtones of the instrument, and pulled out a plastic tube through which he circular breathed. At that moment, with Lauzier playing the tube, the whole group combined to sound like a massive vacuum cleaner, or that noisy radiator from down the hall — a sound full of airy noise, feedback and harmonics…

Michel F Côté, Kim Myhr, Erin Sexton, and Gmackrr will be at Le Cagibi on Tuesday June 17, 2008 as part of the Mardi spaghetti weekly series for creative music.

On June 15, 2008 at L’OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal and Suoni Per Il Popolo: Barnyard Drama; All Up In There (with Gordon M Allen, Michel F Côté, and Frank Martel); the quartet {nbio:lauzier_ph}-{nbio:martel_pi}-{nbio:myhr_ki}-{nbio:tetreault_ma} at La Sala Rossa in Montréal, 8 pm.