Although the name of Pierre-Yves Martel and Philippe Lauzier are prominently featured on the cover, the band name is Sainct Laurens and Volume 2, so the album which was called Sainct Laurens (see Vital Weekly 715) must be volume one, I reckon’. On Volume 2 Lauzier plays bass clarinet, alto and soprano saxophone and Martel viola de gamba, objects and feedback. Perhaps this too is the result of various days/hours in the studio recording together — it doesn’t say it is, nor does it say it’s a live recording — but unlike the previous release this seems less noise based. Here the two operate on a much careful level, creating small sounds with big impact. It’s sustaining and it’s sine-wave like (thanks no doubt to the use of the feedback, saxophone and viola being scraped), but there is much control over the sound here, more so it seems than on their first release. Besides these lengthy scraping sounds, there is also lots and lots of small sounds, hectic playing on the viola, uneasy playing of the saxophones (no doubt sometimes two at a time). As a whole, I think Sainct Laurens progressed quite a bit. There is more variation here, more control also and more dynamics — a fine interaction between the louder and quieter bits and in these nine pieces it’s all on this display. It doesn’t make this much easier to access; perhaps it’s even more difficult even: it takes the listener on a great journey through highs and lows, wide spaces and closed off areas. This is one to be fully immersed by.

Fünf is a new voice. It is a collective of Magali Babin, Andrea-Jane Cornell, Martine H Crispo, Anne-Françoise Jacques, Émilie Mouchous and Erin Sexton. As an all female ensemble they fit however in a tradition with Wondeur Brass and Justine as earlier all-women line ups in the Ambiances Magnétiques circles. They use a wide range of electronics, synthesizers, microphones, field recordings, loops, amplified objects etc. Only accordion and voice as conventional instruments. They spread their ideas over 12 tracks varying in length between 0:39 and 8:53 minutes. It is radical noise improvisation what they practice, but not of a kind that attracts much attention. The music makes no immediate appeal on the listener, who by his turn has really to concentrate. Is this rewarding? I think so. They don’t choose for an overkill of noise, but for very stripped down sound improvisations. And there surely is some poetry in their sonic excursions.

Klaxon Gueule is around already for some 20 years now. It is the most long lasting combo initiated by Côté if I’m not mistaken. Besides Côté, Bernard Falaise and St-Onge are part of this trio. Falaise we recently met on the fantastic second album by another trio, called Subtle Lip Can. Likewise Klaxon Gueule write their music from a very own and distinct grammar. But how strange their language may be, they really express something relevant. They offer incredible, fascinating music. Complex, but not academic. Always with both feed in the mud. The music always moves strangely forward, but there is happening a lot in the meanwhile. Patterns change through uncommon cyclic procedures. Every little detail is functional and enjoyable.

Évidence present their third release of Monk interpretations. This group has a long history. Derome and Cartier played already Monk-compositions when they were operating as a duo in the 70s. For many years they played Monk for their own sake as a hobby. In 1993 they decided however to make a studio recording, Musique de Thelonious Monk. It was followed in 1999 by a live recording Live à la Casa. Now, some 14 years later they do another try. They choose 11 compositions, including Dreamland and Two Timer that are seldom performed. But also well-known pieces like Brilliant Corners. Their interpretations didn’t make me forget other interpretations, although they do it with joy and verve.

Fünf (German for five) is an all-female twelve-handed collective: Magali Babin, Andrea-Jane Cornell, Martine H Crispo, Anne-François Jacques, Émilie Mouchous, and Erin Sexton, all based in Montreal. They all experiment with electricity and home-made or modified devices. This is the realm of circuit-bending, miniature sound sculptures, automatons, and the art of getting contact microphones to sing.

The music is a form of microsonic free improvisation where silence, without being king, has its role to play. Rubbing sounds, scratching sounds, murmurs, slight movements, parasites, controlled feedback, field recordings — all these sounds are small, fragile, and measured. They tell a wide range of stories, some intriguing, some ridiculous, some are even moving, and not a single one is predictable.

La règle (French for either “the rule” or “the ruler”) features twelve pieces ranging from a few seconds to close to nine minutes recorded between 2011 and 2014 in various groupings though never as a full sextet. I knew the work of three of the collective’s six musicians prior to this CD: Sexton, who plays with light and electrical interferences; Babin, whose Chemin de fer (No Type, 2002) remains a very fine listen; and Jacques, the lady with the little automatons, who has a nice duo CD with Tim Olive. Sadly (and that will be my sole criticism), there is no information on the jacket about who plays what and where, which means that I cannot really say that I have been acquainted with the other three members.

Though, come to think about it, this might no be so sad after all. By hiding their parts, the collective are focusing our attention on the whole. And that whole boasts a unity of spirit that charmed me from listen number 1. Who’s responsible for this or that aural find? Fünf, who integrate it to Fünf’s other finds. The mix plays with a very large stereo spectrum where each sound is carefully (dis) placed, to a choreographic level. I recommended listening to La règle on headphones, in order to not miss this level of detail.

My personal highlights are Retenue mystique, the album’s longest track, because its title (“Mystical Restraint”) describes it perfectly and I felt like I was in a space opera, right at the moment of calm before the storm. I am also fond of the subtle yet twisted humour in Aimes-tu ma porte?, and of Morceau de Fünf, where the collective is almost reinventing Luc Ferrari’s concept of presque rien (almost nothing).

Although the text here in front of me says there are three new releases on Tour de Bras, a label from Quebec, there are in fact on two in the mailer, of which one will be handled by someone else sometime soon. The other one is a duo disc of Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet, soprano saxophone) and Éric Normand (bass and ‘caisse claire’, of which I couldn’t find a proper translation). The three pieces here were recorded in concert in March 2014 and the label defines the music as ‘chamber noise’. Both of these players have a history in the world of improvised music, having played with Martin Tetreault and Jim Denley among others. The music here could be labeled as ‘heavy’; ‘heavy’ as in noise based. Lots of this revolves around the scraping of sounds, with some added reverb to make it all a bit heavier. It peeps and scratches, likes feedback; like fingers on a blackboard, like the very early Organum at times. Not something for the weak of hearth, but if you are accepting then an excellent sound world opens up. The sound of what seems a 1000 violins being scraped simultaneously, but this duo also knows how to pull back, slow down and space out, such as in the second part. Tour de Bras? Tour de force is more like it. Excellent stuff.