The music on shows a marked contrast and perfect complement to La Bête. The first piece, Hommage à Georges Perec, is a radio piece Derome wrote, inspired by the writings of the French author. Perec was a novelist, poet, wordsmith, and lover of linguistic puzzles. His book
The recording captures studio banter as the group picks up an idea, tosses it around, cracks up, and then heads off to the next thing. Solid big band arrangemenis are in evidence throughout, freely mixing brass band, country swing, doo-wop, cheesy’60s pop, and crooning tenor while twisting everything with a wry, off-killer edge. Derome uses Martin Tétreault as the keystone to the ensemble, utilizing his deft turntable manipulations to loop, twist, and warp snatches of recordings which key transitions between moods and themes. This is a total team effort, with plenty of room for some lorrid soloing, particularly by the leader, Lozano’s silken tenor, Sabourin’s bobbing sousaphone bass lines, Lussier’s acidic guitar, and Tanguay’s solid percussive grooves.
The CD is augmented by a series of short improvisations recorded as a collaboration between a group of Montréal musicians and a Belgian collective sextet. These improvisations are full of spontaneous energy as the twelve musicians play tag team. With just the barest of implied structure, the players plunge in and out of the evolving soundscapes. Vocal swoops, percussive chatter, and squiggling reeds weave around sampled scraps, and turntable collage. There is a certain tentative aspect here that is never in evidence on Hommage à Georges Perec,with snippets of mannered themes that slide in and out ot the mix. That said, there is plenty of evidence of fun and challenging engagement as the improvisation flows between moods, textures, and sonic densities. The combination ot both of these projects on one recording others a gakanizing view ot some ot the scope ot Derome’s music and the dynamic Montréal scene.
