Pour couronner le tout, pourquoi pas une brochette de musiciens, musiciennes, expérimentateurs, aventuriers de la scène actuelle montréalaise. Je profite de l’occasion pour rendre hommage à ma manière à ces créateurs sur la brèche depuis des années, jamais à court de projets tous plus délirants les uns que les autres. Les compilations sont toujours la meilleure façon d’avoir en un seul enregistrement une panoplie complète de propositions. Pour le Vol. 2 de leur catalogue, Ambiances Magnétiques à regroupé sur ce disque des musiques de Jean Derome, René Lussier, Robert Marcel Lepage, Diane Labrosse, Joane Hétu, André Duchesne et quelques autres. Une expérience franchement imaginative, variée, et à prix modique…

La vie qui bat was the working title for Montréal guitarist René Lussier’s duo with drummer Pierre Tanguay. La vie qui bat: Chèvre (“The Beating Life: Goat”) was recorded in the studio sometime in 1996 and represents the serious side of the duo (while La vie qui bat: Chevreuil, released simultaneously, illustrates their buffoon side). This CD contains 16 short improvisations (nothing over six minutes), moments of spontaneous creation between two long-time friends and collaborators. Lussier plays acoustic guitar in his very own twisted style that lies somewhere between Fred Frith and Eugene Chadbourne (one piece is even dedicated to the latter). Tanguay is remarkable as much for his drumming as for his ability to hold back. He often limits his playing to cymbals, like on L’Ouïe compense… (“Hearing Compensates”), Trois pattes (“Three Legs”), and La chèvre et son poteau (“The Goat and Its Stake”) where he only provides a quarter-note beat on the hi-hat. The last minute of Tête de cochon shows the two musicians battling for who will get the last word. Ça phosphore su’a tasse and mostly Libre pour compilation (“Free for Compilation” — it actually ended up on the compilation CD Ambiances Magnétiques, Vol. 2: Hourra pour la Bastringue) constitute high-altitude improvs, dense and engaging. More self-absorbed than La vie qui bat: Chevreuil, this album is nevertheless more rewarding, especially for those who usually find Lussier’s antics irritating. Recommended.

Una valida introduzione alla scena sperimental-creativa (passata e presente) di Montréal ci è dato dal sampler dell’etichetta Ambiances Magnétiques (distr. Megatalogo) La bastringue migratoire — vol. 1, in particolarissima confezione sagomata e con booklet ricco di note: dalle inquiete improvvisazioni del pluristrumentista René Lussier, curatore della scaletta, al godibile camerismo di Robert Marcel Lepage, dal jazz in bilico fra nostalgia e modernismo di Les Granules e Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms al maturo >rock d’autore> di Andre Duchesne, dai montaggi plagiaristi di Martin Tétreault a vari altri nomi oscuri ma tutti da scoprire (8).

That Québec has always had a strong tradition in electronic and electro-acoustic music is a given; what continues to surprise is the health, depth and scope of the work being created. The Québec label OHM/AVTR seems interested in exploringsound sources and found sounds. At its core, OHM/AVTR seems to be following the esteemed traditions of people like John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Brion Gysin, and more recently Robin Rimbaud’s project, and Panasonic, in creating musique concrete and sound collages.

Jocelyn Robert -La theorie des nerfs creux is no less manipulative, but its intentions are more in creating waves and frequency-based glitches, similar in style to the german duo Oval. Robert’s sounds collages appear to come more from the electro-acoustic side of musical experimentation.