An introduction to the label and some of the music that has appeared under its banner.

This French-Canadian label has been around for quite a while, but as a CD label it has quickly notched-up about 80 titles since the early/mid-90’s.

There seems to be a relatively smali stable group of musicians who use the label for various projects and collaborations. From the releases I have been exposed to so far the music stems mainly from artists such as: René Lussier, Jean Derome, Martin Tétreault, and others. These people are musicians whose names I’ve seen around for years now (remember: Les Granules, Fred Frith’s “Keep The Dog”, Les Quatre Guitaristes de L’Apocalypso Bar, etc. ) in the R10 school of exploration. A lot of this music takes its cues from bands like Conventum, Henry Cow, Art Bears, Art Zoyd and Etron Fou, whilst retaining a thread and loose genre of its own.

The CD’s I’ve heard, whilst all somehow fitting-in together, run the gamut from introverted uneasy listening improvisation, to beautiful film scores, and onto offbeat RIO type chamber-rock and jazz. All the musicians involved feature on each others releases and get to show many facets and adaptabilities to their art. There is a healthy mixture of composition and improvisation, which all involved seem very adept at, switching between and sounding convincing enough in either guise. Due to the magnitude of releases and the way the musicians appear on one another’s records, leads me to believe this is obviously a thriving scene.

Reviewed here are the releases I’ve heard so far, some great and some not so great!