Disc Une théorie des ensembles by Ambiances Magnétiques, released in 1992, is 25% off to celebrate 25 years of new music at DAME (until the end of February). “… a very enjoyable CD that adds valuable material to these artists’ discographies.” — All-Music Guide (USA)

Disc Des pas et des mois by Martin Tétreault, Michel F Côté, René Lussier, released in 1991, is 25% off to celebrate 25 years of new music at DAME (until the end of February). “… Des pas et des mois remains one of Ambiances Magnétiques’ strangest, funniest and finest moments.” — All-Music Guide (USA)

Montréal-based imprint Small Scale Music is slowly becoming a label to watch for those interested in adventurous music. Last year, the label dropped Katabasis / Anabasis, a solid double bass workout from Toronto ex-pat Aaron Lumley, and this recent cassette, filled with crystalline reverberations from veteran Montréal experimentalist Philippe Lauzier, really showcases the curatorial chops of the Small Scale Music cabal.

Lauzier is known as a reed player, yet with Dôme he showcases the results of an installation in which he prepared a set of bells, zithers and motors, accompanying the clangour with a Korg synthesizer drone. Surprisingly beautiful, the two 17-minute pieces achieve a stunning sense of musicality, as the shimmering vortices of sound are almost hallucinatory. Lauzier manipulates his host of rotating implements so that they rub, strike and glide across their metallic counterparts, while the synth supplies a complementary backdrop of slowly morphing drones. The rising and falling of the action gives the songs a feeling of structure, where one might expect complete chaos.

It’s this ability of Lauzier’s, to wrangle the unwieldy nature of his ‘instruments’ into a euphonious set of compositions, that sets Dôme up as an exemplar of high quality, installation-based experimental music.

A recording of Dirt Road, a gorgeous, austere 70-minute, 15-movement work by the Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, as performed by violinist Mira Benjamin and percussionist Simon Limbrick, landed on my year-end Best of 2016: Noteworthy Recordings list (and also the list compiled by the redoubtable author and New Yorker critic Alex Ross). Another Timbre, the English label that released Dirt Road, lately has taken a special interest in Smith and other notable Canadian composers.

Now, welcome news: In February 2017, Another Timbre will launch a Canadian Composers Series with a two-disc collection of works by Smith and four further volumes, featuring music by Martin Arnold, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Chiyoko Szlavnics, and Marc Sabat. According to the label’s website:

Five CDs from five experimental composers with strongly individual voices, all of whom happen to have been born in, or are living in, Canada. The discs are published together with a 120-page book with new interviews with all the composers and a contextualising essay by Nick Storring.

These five discs will be followed at the end of the year by a second batch of five, Canadian CDs including two by Cassandra Miller, one each by Alex Jang and Lance Austin Olsen, and a further disc of the music of Linda Catlin Smith.

Brilliant news — not least because of the participation of Nick Storring, a Canadian composer, cellist, electronic musician, and journalist whose expert advice proved invaluable when I engaged in an enlightening Canada Day listening binge a few years ago. (Storring’s own music is also warmly recommended.)

Another Timbre proprietor Simon Reynell has posted audio excerpts from the first five releases in the series on YouTube, including the tantalizing extract from a Quatuor Bozzini performance of Smith’s string quartet Folkestone.

Après un premier volume paru en vinyle en 1984, puis un deuxième en CD en 1996 lors de la réédition du premier, on revient au vinyle (et CD) avec ce troisième volume des Chants et danses du monde inanimé de Robert M Lepage et René Lussier. La clarinette du premier et la guitare du second se rencontrent avec la même fraîcheur qu’au premier jour (c’était alors la naissance de ce que l’on appelle maintenant la «musique actuelle»!), dans un mélange d’électrique et d’acoustique où le bruit fraie avec la mélodie. L’ajout du Quatuor Bozzini dans la recette agrandit singulièrement l’univers sonore du duo (écoutez Les 12 chakras du placement boursier). On retrouve avec grand plaisir ces chants sans voix et ces danses arythmiques! ★★★★