Trends in avant-turntabling have come a long way since Christian Marclay began using vinyl as an element with Bachelors, even back in 1980. Where the technique once relied on large gestures and the sonic qualities of vinyl itself as cornerstones, the current approach is far more subtle and nuanced. This quartet featured two of the form’s best practitioners — Montreal polymath Martin Tétreault and Vienna’s Dieb 13, along with Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger and France’s Isabelle Duthoit on clarinet and vocals.

As with much current Austrian music, the volume for most of the performance was very low: small events of voice and breath-through-trumpet, matched with minimally treated electronics using turntables as their sound source. Several passages were much more aggressive and loud, especially after Duthoit started playing clarinet, but the feel was very much in line with chamber music of futuristic design. The group played one long piece, “where is the sun,” with machine clicks providing whatever rhythm existed, and the highly tamped melodies were only occasionally pierced by instrumental or vocal shrieks.

It was riveting stuff, in the most abstract way.

Sylvain Fortier presents the musician Martin Tétreault with selected excerpts from his release Grrr Tok Ahhh Hmmm. Part two of two.

Look out for the “red labels” and find a 25% discount on selected albums until June 30, 2010. CDs from DAME Musicians presented at FIMAV and FMC plus many titles from new labels.

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Amongst the many artists invited at the 2010 Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), we noticed the presence of Érick d’Orion and Les Filles électriques on May 21 2010, Jim Denley, Philippe Lauzier Pierre-Yves Martel, Éric Normand, Kim Myhr and Malcolm Goldstein on May 22, 2010, as well as René Lussier, Lori Freedman, Martin Tétreault and Nancy Tobin on May 23, 2010.

In this exclusive interview, Martin Tétreault talks about his career, collaborators, discography and more…

Sylvain Fortier presents the musician Martin Tétreault with selected excerpts from his release Live • 33 • 45 • 78. Part one of two.