Guitarist Rainer Wiens has been diversifying his art in the past few years. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors features his work as a composer. Eleven pieces, some short, some less short, written for other performers. Wiens himself only plays kalimbas on one track. The other tracks feature Jean Derome, Frank Lozano, Jean René, Joshua Zubot and Malcolm Goldstein, together or on their own. It’s pretty, dark, elegy-like in times. The man has a knack for composing graceful yet unique not-quite-contemporary-music-sounding pieces.

It took a few years (Hommage à Rosa Luxembourg goes back to 2005), but here it is, finally on record, Tim Brady’s My 20th Century. The idea was to use various century historical or anecdotal events of 20th century to tie together four of Brady’s works into a performace of music, video, and narrative. The narrative aspect is somewhat weak, but musically, this is Brady’s strongest work with Bradyworks since… Revolutionary Songs, perhaps? Four pieces (10-30 minutes each) bringing together contemporary chamber music and electric guitar. Strumming is a jewel of single-minded madness, very intense. And the Shostakovitch tribute Double Quartet is some great Brady: complex, systematic, elegant, sitting right on the fence between genres. This is album is out as a CD+DVD set — the DVD includes the same studio recordings, supported by the Martin Messier and Oana Suteu videos shown in live performances of the works. It’s not a live recording and you don’t get to see the musicians.

Nozen, Damián Nisenson’s newest quartet featuring Bernard Falaise, Jean Félix Mailloux and Pierre Tanguay, will be in concert at Quai des brumes in Montréal on September 30, 2009.

Tim Brady will launch his CD My 20th Century in Montréal at Espace Dell’Arte on September 29, 2009 during a concert that celebrates 20 years of music by Bradyworks.

Guitarist Wiens exists quietly in the heart of Montréal’s creative music community. When he makes a move, it’s thoughtful and new. Wiens’s writing in this collection of 11 solos and duos gives his five interpreters intriguing direction and just enough open air to shape things their own way. A strong statement on beauty and aloneness, rendered with care and integrity.

8/10

Avec ce CD/DVD, le guitariste Tim Brady frappe un grand coup. Il célèbre le 20^e anniversaire de son ensemble, Bradyworks, et invite le Quatuor Molinari, mais c’est nous qui avons le cadeau: un excellent CD et de superbes vidéos (pas très genre MusiquePlus). Il prouve encore une fois qu’il est l’un des compositeurs québécois contemporains les plus intéressants. Grâce à cet alliage de musiques contemporaine, électroacoustique et «pop» (plutôt en sous-texte), il démontre qu’il a vu passer le 20^e siècle et qu’il en a assimilé les enseignements. Pour rendre hommage dans une même pièce à John Lennon, Charlie Christian, Rosa Luxemburg et Dmitri Chostakovitch, il faut de l’imagination.