Saxophonist and vocalist Joane Hétu has long been one of the leading figures in Montréal’s French-speaking avant-garde (e.g., the band Justine). She deserves to be better known in the Anglosphere, and this witty new collaboration with Ensemble SuperMusique should help.

Préparez-vous à un déferlement de sensations intrigantes et dérangeantes qui visent à vous stimuler mentalement. La partition composée par Nour Symon pour Je suis calme et enragé·e atteint son but, elle nous propulse en terra incognita en complément des poésies brumeuses écrites par Roxane Desjardins.

Ce sont avant tout les voix de Zéa Beaulieu-April, Gabriel Dharmoo, Laura Doyle Péan et Vincent Ranallo qui contribuent à la réussite de ce projet transdisciplinaire. Étourdissante, la conception lexicale s’intensifie perpétuellement comme en témoigne la deuxième partie de Je mourrai dans une pièce fermée. L’équilibre entre les déclamations vocales et les instrumentistes rehausse les explorations de Nous étions masques, miracles, empêtrées dans l’enthousiasme qui brille par sa théâtralisation. Des bribes de jazz s’insinuent dans le matériau musical imprégné par le sérialisme. L’esprit de Don Cherry est colporté par l’un des transfuges du Montréal-Toronto Art Orchestra, le trompettiste Craig Pedersen, qui émerge malicieusement de la masse orchestrale dans Ils ont dit que le ciel se couvrirait d’aiguilles. Cette composition animée par un enchaînement de mutations sonores s’étoffe avec les vifs coups d’archets administrés sur les cordes de Guido Del Fabbro, Émilie Girard-Charest et Stéphane Diamantakiou. Le déroulement de la totalité de l’œuvre déclenche une succession de chapitres partagés entre la tension et la détente, ce qui génère des surprises instantanées.

Le Printemps érable de 2012, grève étudiante la plus importante de l’histoire du Québec, de même que le désastre écologique en cours, nourrissent des interactions entre la phonétique française et un matériau sonore élaboré. Si une forme de désespérance se répand dans le concept de cette création, Nour Symon et Roxane Desjardins magnifient leur dialogue atypique qui vise à l’harmonie universelle.

These 6 tracks from Nour Symon showcase 4 vocalists who intone the music in chorus, plus 2 instrumental soloists from Collectif Ad Lib as well as by 6 instrumentalists from Ensemble SuperMusique.

Nous étions masques, miracles, empêtrées dans l’enthousiasme begins with a droning backdrop amid many voices that talk and sing, while the brief bouts of music is used sparsely, and J’espère être absoute follows with both dramatic and gentler moments, where strings are manipulated with much atmosphere.

Affalée sur le sol occupies the middle spot and is firm, nearly harsh, in its tense and emotive presence that employs guttural vocals, though it’s the 12 minutes of the highly experimental and ambient Ils ont dit que le ciel se couvrirait d’aiguilles that’s worth the price of admission, as voices are used like instruments and instruments are gestured with sci-fi tendencies.

Il n’y a rien à dire sur l’humanité exits the listen, and it’s a harmonic and percussively strong finish that builds into dense layers of strings, brass and winds.

A truly iconoclastic affair that embraces noise, poeticism, jazz and chamber nods, Nour Symon’s vision is entirely their own, and that’s a big part of the appeal.

Originally released in 2006, this reissue assembles the Swiss composer’s first two quartets and other works, where Quatuor Bozzini’s inimitable strings illuminate the timeless vision.

Streichquartett leads with Nadia Francavilla’s and Clemens Markel’s violin’s radiating mystery and hypnotic ideas across the cinematic and occasionally plucked 11 minutes, and (Unbetitelt) VI follows with the rich bowing of the violins alongside Isabelle Bozzini’s well timed cello bouts.

The back half belongs to the 2 segments of Zwei allerletze Sachelchen, where atmospheric is key and dreaminess enters in ways that are cryptic and short lived, while Streichquartett exits with nearly 30 minutes of gentle waves of ambience that make great use of Stephanie Bozzini’s viola.

An often slow moving body of work, the Montréal quartet again impress us with their detail, as seemingly simple moments unfold with beauty, wonder and emotion that truly does justice to Frey’s work.

From Collection QB, Quatuor Bozzini’s in-house label, comes a body of work from their longtime collaborator, the Vancouver based composer Owen Underhill, entitled Songs and Quartets. The recording pairs two separate string quartets, String Quartet No. 2 and String Quartet No. 5 — Land and Water. Sometimes performing pure instrumentals and sometimes supporting vocals performed by countertenor Daniel Cabena, alongside Jeremy Berkman on tenor sacqueboute/trombone and Quatuor Bozzini on violin cello. The lyrics are taken from the poetry of seventeenth century authors Henry Vaughan and Sir Walter Raleigh. On the recording, chamber music strings are fastened to operatic vocals and jazz-inspired soliloquies from Berkman’s trombone. The correspondence between the three elements form stirring arrangements, straddling lyricism and experimentalism. The scores lead the listener along a singular path, driven by Cabena’s vocals with the strings and trombone creating an atmospheric mist circling the vocals on The Retreat and What Is Our Life?. There is an ecclesiastical reverence vibrating through the 4-track series “Northern Line — Angel Station” performed by String Quartet No. 2. The enigmatic musings of the strings wander with a purpose, communicating messages to the listener in a language comprehended by an incorporeal part of its beholder. Underhill gives the tracks a ghostly aura that both mystifies and elevates the audience.