Marilyn Lerner and the Mad Satie Trio, the {nbio:bourassa_fr} {nbio:derome_je} {nbio:tanguay_pi} trio, Pierre Cartier and The Unexpected are amongst the artists selected for the next Vancouver International Jazz Festival (BC), to be held from June 23 to July 2, 2006.

Friday June 30, 2006, Antitube will present in the interior courtyard of the Musée de la civilisation (Québec City), the event “La Nuit de l’Aurore,” based on the 1952 melodrama and the real story it was based on. In addition to the presentation of his short experimental film Blockbuster History, Dominic Gagnon will be joined by Érick d’Orion for a audiovisual performance based on the images of the legend of Aurore.

With these 18 tracks of solo music for prepared contrabass recorded in October, 2005 by a young Montréal musician, we have a perfect example of a trend in contemporary music that I find endlessly rewarding, familiar acoustic instruments put under a microscope to reveal unfamiliar possibilities. Martel is an example of a musician who’s drawn a personal cartography of nooks and crannies in their instrument’s potential sound space, and it’s in the solo format that we can hear their naked vocabulary and organizational impulses without any musical compromises. Averaging around 3 minutes apiece, these are miniatures that allow Martel to present a huge range of approaches; it’s possibly the most varied solo contrabass disc I’ve encountered. At the same time, the timbral and structural variety within each piece obviates a “catalog” effect. For short passages we hear rare shades of bow pressure recalling Fernando Grillo’s Fluvine or Stefano Scodanibbio’s Scelsi interpretations, and other restrained fixations echo the outstanding solo works of Domenico Sciajno, Michael Bullock, Tetsu Saitoh, Kazue Sawai, etc. Both non-repeating and repeating structures are employed, the former offering the joy of ephemeral glimpses of mystery sounds and the latter conveying the feeling of strange machines carrying out their strange lives in the middle of a short film by the Brothers Quay. Though the music was created via improvisation without overdubs or electronic processing, Martel achieves some grainy, static-like textures and unnatural harmonies that vaguely feel electronic. Much of the credit goes to the multiple close-miking recording techniques used, with as many as 10 (!) microphones collating heterogenous sound events. One can imagine Martel sometimes rapidly moving from one attack to another at a different location on his oversized fiddle, and several tracks have a semi-regular alternation between contrasting timbres that creates an illusion of ensemble interplay, with the kind of tightness of timing that can only come from a single nervous system overseeing an array of sounds, much like a drumkitter weaves the contrasting timbres of different cymbals, drums, etc. A truly captivating disc from start to finish!

Ambiances Magnétiques has been playing the talent scouts since 2002 or so, and that strategy is starting to pay off, with young musicians like Antoine Berthiaume, Pierre-Yves Martel and Philippe Lauzier all releasing new albums in May/June 2006. This is Lauzier’s second release for the Montréal label — the reedsman is the founder of Ensemble en pièces, whose Jardin d’Exil CD inaugurated the Ambiances Magnétiques collection back in 2004. Bassist Miles Perkin is one of Thom Gossage’s regular sidemen and he has performed in Tom Walsh’s NOMA} (although not on the group’s Ambiances Magnétiques release; this is his first appearance on the label). Drummer Robbie Kuster also comes from Montréal’s leftfield (yet more conventional) jazz scene, with to his credit several participations to projects led by Patrick Watson and Yannick Rieu. Recorded over two days in December 2005, Today is a Special Day offers 11 pieces, most of them written by Lauzier (Perkin contributes two, and there are two quirky readings of Béla Bartók} tunes). Lauzier’s compositions are usually playful, with an occasional tender side (Histoire du mendiant, featuring his seductive bass clarinet tone). The music stems from post-bop influences, with an obvious filiation with Jean Derome’s lighter side, although the trio’s music doesn’t have the latter’s angular feel. And how couldn’t we think of Steve Lacy when listening to The Cocoon with that graceful, slightly mischievous soprano sax leading the way. Perkin and Kuster form a supple rhythm section, adept at both freeflowing jazz and trashier jazz-rock (Ivresse} ending the album with a bang). Don’t pass this album by on the count that you don’t know these cats yet, especially if you’ve been longing for a new Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms album — not that the Lauzier/Perkin/Kuster Trio emulates that band, but one finds in their music the same kind of intelligence, soul and joie de vivre.

Martin Tétreault is leaving for Europe at the end of June for a series of concerts with Ignaz Schick. These two reckless turntablists will play in Brussels (Belgium) on June 23, 2006 at the Quarantaine, and at the Médiathèque du Passage 44 on June 24. That same day, they will also be performing in Liège (Belgium). Finally, after a detour at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Spain) on June 29 for a duo with drummer Merche Rosales, Martin Tétreault will team up again with {nbio:schick_ig} in Geneva (Switzerland) on June 30.

Electric guitarist Antoine Berthiaume made a strong impression with his first two CDs in the free improv vein. Here was a young musician who demonstrated integrity and vision, with veterans Derek Bailey Fred Frith and younger players. This CD is Berthiaume’s first jazz outing and that same sense of adventure is there in this set of originals, with bassist Michel Donato and drummer Pierre Tanguay. The guitarist sizzles with a flurry of single notes in the first tunes, but much of the CD consists of mid-tempo tone poems, portraits of friends, including the late guitarist Dan Noseworthy. Throughout, Berthiaume offers an intriguing harmonic vocabulary that manages to be simultaneously soulful and modern, a winning combination. Rating 4