En terminant, mentionnons aussi la parution d’Ambiances magnétiques chante!, compilation qui illustre bien les liens étroits qu’entretiennent depuis toujours la musique actuelle et la chanson.

Ces trois galettes seront lancées au Cheval blanc le 27 février (dès 17 h), avec performances-surprises à l’appui. On a beau avoir insisté, il nous a été impossible de savoir qui allait jouer le soir du lancement; mais connaissant le penchant de ces musiciens pour l’improvisation, on risque d’avoir droit à une joyeuse fête spontanée.

The production of the Montréal record label Ambiances Magnétiques always oscillated between avant-garde song writing and free improvisation. The former was very important in the early days (1985-1990), later left aside (during the mid-1990s) and finally regained interest at the turn of the century. Ambiances Magnétiques, Vol. 5: Chante! 1985-2000 compiles songs from a broad range of artists on the label and presents them in a comprehensive and exciting way. Although this CD is made of all previously available tracks (two were still unissued on CD: the Wondeur Brass and Les Poules selections), special care has been put in the running order, which makes it enjoyable as a whole. The label had to stretch the definition of the song format a lot to find enough material, though. Selections from Wondeur Brass, Justine, Papa Boa, André Duchesne and Joane Hétu are all strong avant-rock songs. The more classy contemporary song stylings of Pierre Cartier and Geneviève Letarte bring a pensive touch to the ensemble, but one can question the presence of more atmospheric or improvised pieces like Diane Labrosse’s Constellations and Liberté, or Martin Tétreault and Michel F Côté’s Juin. All lyrics are sung in French of course, but in most cases they are not essential to the comprehension of the music itself. Ambiances Magnétiques, Vol. 5: Chante! 1985-2000 does not bring anything new to the table, but it reminds us of the label’s commitment to song writing and makes a good introduction to the more accessible portion of its catalogue.

Volume 2, Hourra pour la bastringue — While volume 1 has a jazzy tune this one goes to big city café music. Imagine a dark pub situated in small alley filled with smoke, where a band is playing in a corner. If you are able to imagine this then you are able to get the atmosphere that the music brings on this CD. Again sometimes the atmosphere is broken on a pleasant way with musical experiments.

“This is an anthology of unpublished works by the nine active members of Ambiances Magnétiques; an unforgettable musical odyssey for unexpecting music lovers.” Tells us the cover of this compilation. This compilation is different from the first 2 volumes. The music on this CD sounds more as comtemporary classical music and modern jazz. We have here compostions, no songs, with classical instruments and sometimes voice, used on a non-conform way so that true intelligent music is created. And again musical experiments that goes beyond contemporary classical music.

This volume is the most intimate. Here are compositions which uses classical instruments or samples of sounds or a combination of it all. Almost all compositions are processing very slowly and brings you an intimate atmosphere, an almost fine mix of experimental music and contemporary classical music. Reviewing these CD’s is very hard thanks to the quality of musical style, they should really be obtained by true music lovers.

After 12 years of existence and 39 records produced, the seminal Montréal new music label Ambiances Magnétiques felt the need to release its first compilation album, Volume 1: La bastringue migratoire. This retrospective CD came out as the label’s main artists (René Lussier, Jean Derome, Joane Hétu and Martin Tétreault, mostly) were about to change their musical approach. After 1996, the bulk of the label’s production will shift from deconstructed rock idioms where humor often plays a central role (Les Granules, Justine, André Duchesne, Jerry Snell}) to introverted free improvisation. So La bastringue migratoire came at the right time, summarizing the label’s pre-1996 sound. All tracks are taken from albums already published — no unreleased material — and thus this CD offers nothing new to the dedicated fan, but the “musique actuelle” neophyte will find it a helpful sampler. Every major act on the label is represented: René Lussier (thrice if one counts the track by his duo Les Granules), Jean Derome, Martin Tétreault, Justine, Évidence, Bruire and André Duchesne, plus a few lesser-known artists such as Geneviève Letarte and Jerry Snell. The booklet includes presentations of every artist on Ambiances Magnétiques.