Et puis la chute. Et puis plus rien. Et puis beaucoup trop. Combat contre la surtaxe d’images perdues, d’époques mortes. Vétustes choix (de carrière). Le recul comme couteau au cœur, le demain comme cauchemar nécessaire. Inéluctabilisme profond d’une condition humaine gâchée. Suivant les traces chantées de Steppe, Josée Lalonde raconte en duo avec Émilie Laforest l’histoire d’un désordre. Lori Freedman, Pierre-Yves Martel, Philippe Lauzier et notre chef mécanique, Isaiah Cecarrelli s’occupent du reste. La fermeture de l’usine a tué papa. Les résidus du culte d’autrefois tueront maman.

Performer, experimental slammer, lo-fi electronician, Alexis O’Hara has a few tricks (and tongues) up her sleeve. Ellipsis features her in a solo setting (although a lot of people pop in here and there, like Michel F Côté, Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge, Brian Lipson, and Sophie Trudeau). Experimental electro-pop with bold, playful, occasionally kinky lyrics, a twisted form of humour, and acidic thinking. I’m happy to find Twenty-three included here — it was part of Les Filles électriques’ stage performance La Salle des pas perdus.

A new project spearheaded by percussionist Michel F Côté, an improvisation trio with trumpeter Ellwood Epps and bassist Alexandre St-Onge. You could call it a continuation of (juste) Claudette via Klaxon Gueule — the differences are notable, but the same rebel spirit runs through them all. Not striking on first listen, but I’ll be back for more.

A very pretty tribute to Steve Lacy — but there are so many of them lately! Still, this one is worth mentioning, if only for the fact that it also tackles Lacy’s Songs, with an actual singer: Susanna Hood, who does a great job, especially on the Blues for Aïda suite. I must also point out Kyle Brenders’ soprano sax solo on The Rent. The other musicians and Scott Thomson on trombone, Wes Neal on doublebass and drummer Nick Fraser. Now, why didn’t Ambiances Magnétiques release this in its “Jazz” series? This record is almost light and quite enjoyable.

Second album from this Canadian superposse led by Michel F Côté (notice the initials). Heard some things in the debut that were pretty nice but this raises the bar, allowing for a greater level of participation from the players/performers themselves. So who joins Côté at the helms? We’re told it’s Jean René, Diane Labrosse, Jean Derome, and Pierre-Yves Martel, all of whom were previously involved with Ambiances Magnétiques in one way or another; but in listening to the album, these fellers could’ve been around forever, and from anywhere. Perfectly restrained, non-idiomatic music, really best heard on a moonlit night…