I thought I knew most improvisers and composers that are around in Montréal, because of the numerous CDs by Ambiances Magnétiques that slipped through my hands over the years. However the name Nicolas Caloia is new to me. He works as a performer, composer and organizer in this city. The Ratchet Orchestra is one of his projects and also his best known one, since he started it around 1990. It is a big orchestra of 30 musicians: Jean Derome (bass flute, piccolo, flute), Craig Dionne (flute), Lori Freedman (clarinet), Gordon Krieger (bass clarinet), Christopher Cauley (soprano sax), Louisa Sage (alto sax), Damián Nisenson (tenor sax), Jason Sharp (bass sax), Ellwood Epps (trumpet), Philippe Battikha (trumpet), Tom Walsh (trombone), Scott Thomson (trombone), Jacques Gravel (trombone), Thea Pratt (E flat horn), Eric Lewis (huphonium), Noah Countability (sousaphone), Gabriel Rivest (tuba), Joshua Zubot (violin), Guido Del Fabbro (violin), Brigitte Dajczer (violin), Jean René (viola), Gen Heistek (viola), Norsola Johnson (cello), Nicolas Caloia (bass), Chris Burns (guitar), Sam Shalabi (guitar), Guillaume Dostaler (piano), Ken Doolittle (percussion), Michel Bonneau (conga), Isaiah Ceccarelli (drums), John Heward (drums). Yes, one needs to be a hell of an organizer to bring together so many musicians! With this orchestra Caloia experiments with improvised chamber music and jazz. Hemlock is the third release of this project that started as a quintet. Recorded in three days in May, 2011. For the Sun Ra tribute in 2007 Live at the Sala Rossa Caloia expanded the line up to what it is now. The compositions by Caloia are well-constructed and move within known territories. Some parts are very open for improvisation, others not. Some compositions — Winnow and Yield — are not very surprising, others however are very appealing like Dusty and the title track. The recording and mixing is ok. One hear and enjoy all participants, all sounds and colors coming from their instruments. Although this music is consumed best in a live performance. Caloia uses a wide spectrum of sounds by continuously making different combinations of instruments and arrangements. The full span of possibilities that are contained in this big band of reputed players come into being.

Ich muss die Buchstaben erst etwas zurecht schütteln, um bestätigt zu finden, was anfangs einigermaßen rätselhaft klingt. Ja, Alexandre St-Onge spielt auf Ailleurs (EZ 18) basse électrique assistee par ordinateur, also E-Bass & Computer. Er schrappelt die Saiten, und der Rechner generiert saußende und sirrende Wooshes, Triller, klirrende, zischende und jaulende Sounds. Als wäre man in ein Meeting von R2D2s geraten, bei dem es heiß her geht, eine Klimakonferenz viel- leicht, was weiß ich. Diese effektvolle Sonic Fiction führt jedenfalls anderswohin, weg von üblichen Bassfunktionen, hinein in ein elektro- nisches Abenteuer. Mit sprudelnden und zirpenden Klängen, tröpfeln- den und klingelnden Lauten, zu denen sich beim besten Willen kein irdisches Ambiente mehr assoziieren lässt. Nicht hier, nicht da, son- dern fern, abgeschieden und fremd. Größer als die Nullen und Einsen leuchtet da ein X, das für xeno steht. Gefragt sind Xenolinguisten, denn St-Onge seltsame Lautwelt hat etwas Sprechendes, eine Art Sprac- hrhythmus, rhetorische Akzente auf der Basslinie und um die Basslinie herum. Bei À L’écart und Pas là gibt es zwar auch die Anmutung ir- discher Melodievorstellungen, aber wie zerlegt von einem Überset- zungsprogramm, das mühsam hinter dem sinnvollen Tempo her hinkt. Komisch ist dennoch, das da etwas Elegisches, eine gewisse Tristesse als Stimmung durchaus sich vermittelt. Ein universaler ET-ismus, die von Hier wollen fort, die von Dort wollen heim.

A suite of five pieces repeated four times. At each repetition, I scratched, twisted, dislocated, polluted, deboned, objected. A record about exhaustion, saturation and sinking. So beschreibt Bernard Falaise selbst das, was er da als S’enfouir (ET 19) konstruiert hat. Bass, Keyboards, Gitarre, Klavier, Flöten, eine Sprechstimme oder was auch immer, womöglich auch nur Samples davon, dekonstruiert, kannibalisiert, verdreht, geloopt, anagramma- tisch permutiert, umgestellt, zerrüttet, verstümmelt, abgestumpft, zer- mulmt. Aus ‘ruine’ wird ‘nuire’, ‘urne’’, ‘ri’ und ‘zuletzt ‘nu’, ich nenne das keine Karriere. Aber durchaus eine Philosophie, ein Sicheingraben in die Variabilität des Ruins, ein Sichvertiefen in Variationen des Schei- terns und des Schwunds. Jedoch den Kreislauf ebenso bejahend wie die Transformation — beides als nackte Wahrheiten, die man letztlich nur mit einem Lachen quittieren kann. Die Musik selbst ist nicht unbe- dingt lustig, aber konsequent.

Klaxon Gueule in libera uscita; e libera da chiunque, visto che sia l’uno che l’altro fanno tutto da soli. St-Onge, il bassista, suona il suo strumento “assistito dal computer” (il basso elettrico, non St-Onge) e lo ripropone in vesti non abituali: contraffatto, misterioso, mutevole. Una bella prova di maestria ma anche quel buon tot di gratuità che contribuisce a lasciarci indifferenti; non mi pare che ci siano altre linee maestre che un certo alt-sfoggio. St-Onge da solista non è mai stato troppo convincente (anzi) e in Ailleurs ce ne dà conferma.

Invece Falaise, il chitarrista, stavolta suona anche il piano e duetta con se stesso nella migliore delle maniere. Li mixa, smista e depista, li fa collidere e combaciare, usa la fantasia per farli camminare insieme, sbilenchi entrambi e d’improvviso all’unisono. Per dire insomma di un disco che ha gran bella creatività e null’altro da sfoggiare oltre le (numerose) idee messe in campo: pezzi brevi per lo più come frammenti conchiusi, tutti motivati da curiosità e spinta verso l’ignoto, beati nella loro fragilità, densi di mille spunti che vanno dal jazz alla contemporanea, da rimasugli RIO a musiche da film (direi soprattutto queste). Nessuna rivoluzione, e forse anche in questo caso non molto più che una prova di maestria: ma che differenza!

[…] Along similar lines — electronic music and texts read in the French language is to be found on the release by Vromb and Lucien Francoeur. Vromb we obviously know from his various releases on Ant-Zen, but also from Hushush from his home town Montréal. He has quite a following I am told. Lucien Francoeur is a writer from Montréal, who has been active since the mid 60s. In his performances of the past he worked with musicians from the world of improvisation and as such has released a couple of LPs. Here we have twelve pieces, and unlike the release by Bruyas/Julliard, it’s not easy to escape from it; one can not play this a nice backdrop. The voice of Francoeur is more demanding in it that it is more present, and perhaps also because he skips occasionally back and forth between French and English, so you pick up sometimes something. The electronic music by Vromb is also more present and up front. Not in a disturbing way loud or anything, but more piercing at times and also more demanding. He has sustaining, insect like sounds, pulsating beats of a minimal nature, and throughout the music is spooky and mysterious. Certainly indeed one that requires full attention but if you fail to speak the language, like I do, it’s also a bit more complicated to grasp. We may return to what I said about the CD by Petit/Robinson in Vital Weekly 858: “it’s also something that I like to hear once or twice, but would not return to all too easily. Now I was thinking: maybe this is perhaps something to be seen live, seated in the dark and let it all come? I could imagine that would do well.” Especially this spooky stuff would do well in such places.

This is, recorded in the studio in the fall of 2012, the music of Ensemble Supermusique’s latest program, Bruit court-circuit, premiered at FIMAV 2012 and reprised in Montréal last October. Six noise-based works for a nine-piece ensemble — compositions involving graphic notation, chance operations, and extended techniques of all kinds. The noise part is both of acoustic and electronic origin. Martin Tétreault’s two pieces wittingly oppose rhythm and deconstruction. SM: re-trait de l’abjection by Alexandre St-Onge is a VERY strange thing (yes, strange even for me), and it’s not more convincing on record than it was on stage. Danielle Palardy Roger’s Acouphènes en partage is the album’s highlight, due to the quality of the writing and the careful execution. The other two compositions are by Joane Hétu and Jean Derome. With this CD, Ensemble Supermusique has pushed back its own limits, taking its conceptualization of musique actuelle even further. The works are destabilizing, often unpredictable, and they provide ample food for thought.

La femme territoire is both the logical next step and the complete opposite of Joane Hétu’s previous work Filature. While Filature was a large-scale production with lots of people involved, lots of rhythm too, La femme territoire is limited to five performers and plays out in a Spartan, highly-conceptualized setting. Both are multimedia works, but while Filature was trying to overload your senses, La femme territoire is offering less in order to say more, and music, poetry, dance, video art, and performance art are all more tightly intertwined. Obviously, this CD does not document the whole project (though the booklet contains several photos of the production), and I was worried about that, since I have had the pleasure of seeing the full production of La femme territoire in October 2010. Well, the music does well on its own. I’d even say it imposes itself. These 21 fragments of humus are not easy to absorb, but beyond their stripped-down nature, the deconstruction, the atomization of musical elements, I reconnect with everything that makes Joane… Joane: a series of dichotomies like melody/noise, organization/improvisation, tenderness/desire, reflection/craziness. A record of troubling beauty. With Susanna Hood, Alice Tougas St-Jak, Jean Derome, and Isaiah Ceccarelli.