[…] For the rigorous-minded: L’Ensemble Pierre Labbé, Risque et pendule (Ambiances Magnétiques). A taut set of twilight-zone compositions by Montréal saxophonist Pierre Labbé, reflecting a safe-cracker’s concentration in this “search for equilibrium by contrast.” Conjuring a sense of disquiet, alleviated by a child’s sense of play, it’s a minefield of futurist angles, rubber-band pizzicatos (from cellist Julie Trudeau and violinist Nathalie Bonin) and creeping suspended-animation (guitarist Bernard Falaise’s edginess). This music is more tenacious than free, more idiosyncratic than “out.” Yet a curiously hypnotic ebb and flow manifests itself in these gambols through these blind alleys.[…]