Si les instrumentations hors du commun piquent votre intérêt, en voici une: saxo alto et clarinette basse, viole de gambe (si, si, vous avez bien lu), guitare acoustique et tables tournantes. Point de jazz ici, ni de musique baroque ou de folk et oubliez le d.j. de musique de fond. Outre Kim Myhr, un guitariste norvégien, le reste de la distribution de ce quartette fait partie de la faune des musiques bien actuelles et bien québécoises. Réalisé à la suite d’une prestation donnée au festival Suoni per il Popolo de l’an dernier, cet enregistrement consiste en une série d’explorations de timbres tous azimuts (dix au total) dans lesquelles les collaborateurs ont choisi de se soustraire à toutes les pratiques musicales habituelles. Naviguer dans de telles eaux troubles comporte sa part de risques, le plus pernicieux étant de ne pas savoir quand s’arrêter. Fort heureusement, ces quatre larrons ont évité le piège par la vertu de la concision (seules la première et la dernière plages dépassent les cinq minutes). À un peu plus de 36 minutes, cela semblerait plutôt court, mais voici un cas où les musiciens ont fait preuve de sagesse en suivant la règle «moins c’est mieux».

Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse and Danielle Palardy Roger have been making music for over a decade in various groupings but retaining throughout the femme Québécois auteur atheistic. Hétu’s voice scats ruminatively in some forgotten language, dancing with the clatter and joust of Roger’s percussion. These two connect wonderfully as protagonists as Labrosse’s samples provide stately interventions and observations as varied as tamboura—like drones and bubbling water. There is great mystery in this music, as one feels the familiarity of being with the sounds of home and the outdoors yet trying to understand that strange radio station that seems to tune in and out. While this music may be described as soundscapes, it has too much of the insistent narrative of an improvisational through line to be a passive listen, and it is the narrative of three women that rises out of it all. This is a unique and sophisticated work.

One of the true measures of artistic and creative ability is the discipline of limited means — what to do with a ukulele, a suitcase and a repertoire of charmingly idiosyncratic melodies whose execution has a built in tendency to fall apart? Myk Freedman’s Saint Dirt Elementary School ensemble have long since mastered the inverse improvisation aesthetic of deconstructing into nothingness while maintaining forward motion. Haynes and Martin have not only approached Freedman’s melodies with sympathy and respect but have extended the tribute to include some of the same wondrous dissolutions, as well as some taut and focused explorations. One of the aspects straightforward composition affords improvisers is the freedom to inhabit and expand without getting ensnared in complexity. Haynes and Martin have succeeded in compounding magic with more magic and opening a sunny space for all.