So far I assumed that Ambiances Magnetiques was mainly a label devoted to a wide variety of improvised music, in all its guises. Perhaps Political Ritual is also along the lines of that, but it sounds surely quite a bit different. It is a duo of Felix Antoine Morin and Maxime Corbeil-Perron and they use ‘analogue modular and digital synthesis and incorporate invented wind instruments, traditional Balinese percussion, field recordings and digital signal processing’, which still sounds quite different than what is pressed on this LP. It is, quite frankly, a pretty noisy beast, this record. It is very rich with electronic sound, pushing sonic boundaries, with minimalist beats, and yet also it is not without harmony, such as the processed accordion on ‘Ceremonie’. It eventually gets all a bit distorted here and the needle almost jumps off because of all the frequencies cut in these grooves, but it goes well. The dynamic range of the music is enormous, I would think. From deep end bass to high pitched frequencies, but I’d like to emphasize that, even under the heavy weight of some of this, this is not a record about (improvised) noise. Political Ritual therefore has too many other interests and tricks up their sleeves; be it drone, massive ambient or the Pan Sonic inspired single bass beat, it all has a place in this music. No matter what it is, Political Ritual plays it with sheer intensity and delivers a most powerful record. I must admit that invented wind instruments and/or Balinese percussion seemed to instruments that I didn’t recognize in this music, and all seemed to find their origins in electronics, be it analogue or digital. I am not sure what and if ‘political’ and/or ‘ritual’ mean in this context but if it has to do with creating something forceful they surely managed to do so very well. This is not music you stick on for pure pleasure, but also to arrive at some agitated state. I am sure if a riot needed a soundtrack this duo could play one.

Since forming in 1999, Montréal’s Quatuor Bozzini have steadily ascended to become not only one of the most daring string quartets in Canada, but in the entire world. The consistently bring both an exquisite touch and a refined sensibility to music that demands invisible rigor. In recent years, they’ve earned acclaim for their peerless readings of music by Swiss Wandelweiser Collective composer Jürg Frey, but they’ve also been key proponents of lesser-known composers from their homeland, including Martin Arnold and Simon Martin.

This new offering focuses on the music of Christopher Butterfield, an influential Canadian figure whose position at the University of Victoria has impacted scores of young composers over the last few decades. His own work isn’t as well known as it should be, but Trip certainly provides a good opportunity to catch up. The five pieces here span over two decades — the two most recent compositions, Trip (2008) and fall, (2013) were written specifically for Quatuor Bozzini. The earliest piece here, Lullaby, is a piece for string sextet; its tightly-controlled moods are conveyed at a hush except for some bracing, hair-raising interruptions that subside as suddenly as they appear. Over time, Butterfield has embraced chance in his process: the solo violin piece Clinamen, for example, is shaped largely by short phrases printed on eighty cards to be mixed at will by the performer, while the aleatoric nature of the four-movement title piece produces unpredictable harmonies within a relatively fixed structure, changing the nature of the work with every new performance.

Thumping rhythms, drones, effects, and subtle keyboard-laden atmospherics are the primary drivers of Political Ritual, a two-track album from the group of the same name. Consisting of the duo of Maxime Corbeil-Perron and Félix-Antoine Morin, Political Ritual explores the fringes of space-rock, ambient, modern composition, and minimalist techno with a hazy irreverence.

Cérémonie, at 20 minutes, is the livelier of the pieces, featuring the aforementioned driving, trance-inducing rhythms overlaid with grungy drones, as well as brief synth and keyboard themes. Borrowing techniques from experimental modern classical music, Political Ritual blends captured sounds with synthetic creations in a seamless fashion. Projection_cathodique, also clocking in right around 20 minutes, focuses on a set of Berlin-school drones accentuated with bells and static-laden background ambiance. From time to time, electroacoustic elements and scratchy rhythmic effects are introduced. But the emphasis remains on deep and echoing sinusoids.

Political Ritual, the album, is a disturbing yet cinematic exploration of indistinct abstractions combined with concrete musical aspects. Given how difficult it is to break new ground in this field, credit is due to Corbeil-Perron and Morin for a unique amalgam that is somehow both fresh and familiar. Strong recommendation.