This has been put for a month or so, but the promo just arrived this week and listening to it, I am glad that it did. This was recorded at the 2005 Victo Festival, which I did attend as I do every year and I did witness this show. Considering that this was three Victo Fests ago, I do remember enjoying it, but not exactly what went down. Both turntablists are Canadian and at least a generation apart. I’ve heard/see Martin Tétreault on a number of occasions, but had only heard of that young whippersnapper, Kid Koala. Martin is known to play his turntable itself and often without using records. For this set, both DJ’s decided to use records and selected certain albums since they were playing on stage in a cinema. Tétreault decided on records by artists that had played at Victo previously like Anthony Braxton, Yamatsuka Eye, Univers Zero, Otomo Yoshihide and Fred Frith. The results are most surprising, often quite fascinating. Each piece is a spicy blend diverse samples. A jazz drum solo, a spoken word demonstration record, static sounds sped up and slowed down, layers of crackling record sounds, odd electronic snippets and assorted sections of music. Themes rarely last very long and both DJ’s work quite well together twisting their sounds into a strong mix. Both are restless improvisers who match wits with striking results. My favorite section is when they work with some old blues records and get into a great earthy groove and still turn things inside out. Word is that some Canadian distributor has already sold some 500 copies, which is even more surprising for a CD of so-called “new music.” Much better that anyone could have anticipated.

The way the world looks today, maybe it’s not so strange that artists in all genres are responding by lifting forth the most clean sense of beauty. Evil does not let itself be fought with something equally crooked, with power or violence, when life itself is in danger. This is how I experience the singularly skilled and brave Canadian Quatuor Bozzini’s choice of expression free from all outward ornamentation to reach the musical core. Performing the first two of Borås native Lars Hallnas’ string quartets — of ten planned — they were very much at home. Not a vibrato during the whole evening, giving the abstract quality of the music an unusual effect.

In both quartets Hallnas seems to have extracted the most magic moments of vibrating stillness and through-lit harmony in the spirit of Schubert or Beethoven. However, he stores such moments — varying in length from short to very short and minimal — after each other, 24 movements in each quartet. The effect is surprising. After the first two or three glimpses of this exquisite beauty the listener adjusts. We quickly enter a state of meditative listening where timelessness, concentration and reflection are created. Typically enough, Hallnas calls himself a hopeless intellectual, with intuition limited to perhaps ten percent and abstract thinking making up the other ninety percent.

The musicians made a grand performance, although the first quartet perhaps had too soft and reticent character. With a somewhat more powerful performance, the second was given larger lines and deeper shadows, although never of the angst-ridden kind. It was more like sitting in the shadow of a huge oak tree, calmly reflecting on nature’s constantly changing details. The effect was in part minimalistic, but here beyond chance and seeking of effects. With his quartets, Hallnas takes his place among the most influential of contemporary composers.

The experiment to allow the same quartet to take on Schubert and Beethoven are among my most exciting musical experiences of all time. As a whole, Schubert was the most successful. To meet what this 17-year old produced of beauty and richness in nuance was like seeing the eighth wonder of the world. Beethoven’s late a minor quartet didn’t have the same overwhelming effect in the first two movements, but in Heiliger Dankgesang and thereafter to the end, the fantastical sounds became larger and braver, more beautiful than perhaps anything I have heard. The people of Borås have had the chance to hear one of the most meaningful and finally most successful art-esthetical experiments we know of. Imagine, this was the first time that Bozzini took on this Beethoven quartet.

Le compositeur Tim Brady lancera un nouveau disque lors du concert de son ensemble Bradyworks, et il poursuit sans relâche son travail d’activiste musical.

Scat est déjà le 13^e disque au catalogue de Tim Brady, et son 6^e chez Ambiances Magnétiques. Et on est heureux de voir que c’est un ensemble australien, le quintette Topology, qui l’a enregistré. «Malheureusement, explique Brady, on n’avait pas de budget pour faire venir l’ensemble afin de souligner le lancement du disque, mais on pourra quand même en entendre un extrait, soit la pièce Struck Twice by Lightning, pour alto (Pemi Paull) et bande. Je collabore avec Topology depuis 1998 et j’ai encore joué avec eux cet été en Australie; c’est un ensemble fantastique. Je n’ai pas participé directement à l’enregistrement du disque et c’est agréable d’entendre une nouvelle interprétation de ma musique, et de voir comment elle s’adapte à ce nouveau regard. Ça fait plaisir d’entendre le “son Brady” sans que je sois là! C’est aussi le gage d’un style personnel qui s’affirme même en l’absence de son créateur et de sa guitare électrique.»

La musique de Tim Brady tire profit des avancées de la musique contemporaine, mais le compositeur ne vivait manifestement pas dans un monastère pendant que le jazz et le rock traversaient l’histoire, comme le laissent trop souvent penser certaines musiques d’aujourd’hui. On entendra une autre pièce de Brady lors du concert de son ensemble: Still, pour alto et guitare, mais le directeur de l’ensemble ne programme pas que sa musique, les œuvres de quatre autres compositeurs seront aussi interprétées. L’ensemble (incluant Brigitte Poulin au piano, Philip Hornsey aux percussions et André Leroux aux saxophones) interprétera des œuvres de Martin Bédard, Nicole Lizée, Scott Godin et Roger Doyle (le compositeur irlandais sera d’ailleurs présent pour diriger l’improvisation de l’ensemble durant sa pièce Cool Steel Army).

Tim Brady est du genre proactif, comme le démontre le fait qu’il a préféré créer son propre ensemble plutôt que d’attendre que d’autres choisissent d’interpréter sa musique (ce qu’ont néanmoins fait le Nouvel ensemble moderne, l’Ensemble de la SMCQ ou l’OSM, entre autres). Dans ce même ordre d’idées, il compte parmi les fondateurs du Réseau canadien pour les musiques nouvelles (RCMN), un organisme qui vise à créer un véritable réseau entre les différents intervenants de ce milieu afin de faciliter leur représentation auprès du public. Il était temps qu’un tel organisme soit fondé afin de fédérer la multitude d’ensembles, compositeurs et sociétés de concerts qui cherchent à se faire entendre dans ce qui ressemble trop souvent à un désert médiatique… «On a tenu un premier Forum national en février dernier à [Winnipeg], explique le compositeur, et le prochain aura lieu en mai 2008 à Toronto.» Le suivant, en 2009, devrait se dérouler à Montréal. Allez-y voir: www.reseaumusiquesnouvelles.ca.

Le compositeur travaille aussi à faire évoluer le concept du droit d’auteur pour les compositeurs, et ses propositions, publiées dans un numéro récent de la revue Musicworks, pourraient amener des changements radicaux, et bénéfiques, dans le milieu de la création. Bref, pas de repos pour les («guitar») héros!

Deux DJs, que des vinyles et vous êtes conviés à un voyage hallucinant. Bribes et fragments sonores, des montages/collages en direct qui s’abreuvent aux sources du blues, du jazz, du rock; le tout est livré avec un sens du spectaculaire, du divertissement qui frappe, détonne, excite. Rien de plat, ni de surfait; que du talent, de la compétence, du goût et de la dérision (Godzilla a les blues). On se prend à rêver que les pionniers et explorateurs aient tous ce p’tit grain de folie, de génie tels Esquivel, Tétrault et Koala. Avant que Hollywood ne nous les pique définitivement. Drôle et brillant. (4,5/5)

La rencontre entre ces deux platinistes bien différents fut l’un des très beaux moments de la 22^e édition du Festival de Victo, en 2005 (un samedi à 13 h!). On regrette un peu que le montage ait évacué, pour des raisons de droits d’auteur, les pièces qui allégeaient le propos en introduisant de l’humour dans le mix, mais cette collision de traditions (celle du bruitisme et celle du hip-hop) produit assez d’étincelles sonores pour qu’on ne le regrette pas trop longtemps. Et puis, il en reste (de l’humour). Il y a aussi un beau blues bien pesant avec un superbe solo de Koala. Un compact 100% vinyle (jusque dans son allure et… son minutage) et très inspiré. (4/5)

Is it possible to have personality and character in electronic music these days? Sure, as I’m sure it will be possible (not just in electronic music) to have both these qualities till this planet won’t be frozen by the next glaciation. After this opening remarking of the fact “everything has been said before” make sense, but it’s not a good reason to sit down and think like you’re ten thousand years old, let’s speak about this cd. A_dontigny mixes many electronic styles with a great and unusual skillfulness and also shows he’s really able both in discerning interesting samples but he’s chosen the right collaborations to enrich this or that passage. I’ve just heard a few releases on this label (and Meta_xu is still one of my personal faves), but I’ve had the impression they’re into electronic music almost at the edge of being experimental for what regards artists work on the tracks. This Canadian musician sometimes cuts the tracks by skiping and using glitches, sometimes he breaks everything fragmenting and manipulating a sample in order to make it workable with the superimposition of a second or even third layer. He’s a “perverted” propension for putting together melodies with unnatural electronic manipulations closer to a dj tradition than “contemporary classic electronic.” While we’re far from one of those wishy-washy Afx Twin clones, I’m sure dear ol’ Richard D James would start nodding having an hard-on with these post-jungle, post-classical, post-electronics, lost in acid, fragmented tracks. I think the fact a composer / musician like Paul Dolden is among the guests of this release says a lot concerning the fact Geisteswissenschaften is filled with songs made with heart and brain and not trying to be part of this or that subgenre of music. Sometimes you have chaotic tracks, sometimes rhythmical irregular tempo changes, sometimes it all sounds like your cd player is skipping randomly stroke by a digital tornado, but in the most of the songs you’ve a solid construction and above all after having survived the first blasts big part of the release approaching toward the end becomes softer an more quiet… almost “easy.”