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  • Compil zouave in Earwaves Network

    “Review”, Dwight Loop, Earwaves Network, January 1, 1999
    Friday, January 1, 1999 Press

    Take avant jazz, throw in some reggae grooves, wild voices and intense energy and you’ve got another DAME release worth noting.

    Midi tapant in Earwaves Network

    “Review”, Dwight Loop, Earwaves Network, January 1, 1999
    Friday, January 1, 1999 Press

    Trombonist Walsh and percussionist Tanguay create a fascinating array of textural and melodic improvisations, more atmospheric than frantic. Excellent!

    21 situations in Earwaves Network

    “Review”, Dwight Loop, Earwaves Network, January 1, 1999
    Friday, January 1, 1999 Press

    Controlled chaos, brilliant and illuminating from two of the world’s best at this iconoclastic collage of sounds and voices.

    Chants cachés in Earwaves Network

    “Review”, Dwight Loop, Earwaves Network, January 1, 1999
    Friday, January 1, 1999 Press

    Searching, introspective new music improvisation from the ever-ready Goldstein on violin, John Heward on percussion and Rainer Wiens on prepared guitar.

    Callas: La diva et le vinyle in Fanfare

    “Review”, Art Lange, Fanfare, January 1, 1999
    Friday, January 1, 1999 Press

    And now — to borrow a phrase — for something completely different. Ambiances Magnétiques is an unusual record label from Montréal that specializes in documenting a group of Canadian electronic, electroacoustic, and improvising musicians. This disc features a Québécois experimental duo that has put together this off-the-wall homage to Maria Callas — sixteen short (most between two and four minutes in length) vignettes featuring Lepage’s fluid, Iyrical clarinet playing within a sometimes sensitive, sometimes raucous electronic environment created by Tétreault. The Callas voice appears at various points in the proceedings via LP, but seldom in recognizable form; rather, it is a haunted, disembodied presence, variously distorted and pulverized by hands-on manipulation of the turntable. Occasionally audible fragments of an aria slice through the sonic debris, but for the most part her singing is transformed into pseudoelectronic timbres, cartoonlike shrieks, pitches sped up and slowed down, isolated vocal attacks, and notes repeated obsessively. Tétreault doesn’t stop there, however, adding into the mix surface noise from the LPs as percussive accompaniment, plus excerpts from an English-ltalian language recording (with an opera theme), an exercise LP, Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, even barking dogs — all while Lepage offers an attractive, improvised obbligato.

    Opera lovers — and I imagine Callas fanatics are a particularly devoted bunch — may not appreciate the wit and sometimes mesmerizing appeal of this program, but if you enjoy Cage’s Europeras or any type of electroacoustic, quasi-improvisational music, this might just be up your alley.

    …Opera lovers… may not appreciate the wit and sometimes mesmerizing appeal of this program, but if you enjoy any type of electroacoustic, quasi-improvisational music, this might just be up your alley.
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