Montréal’s Ambiances Magnétiques label, one of many imprints distributed by the venerable DAME is announcing two exciting new releases due out on April 17th, 2026 on CD and digital formats. First of them, the near-hour’s worth of music, Platanus, contained on the first duo recording from multifaceted artists Scott Thomson (trombone) and Allison Cameron (crackle synthesiser, keyboards, tapes) pulls listeners into a uniquely disorienting topography.
Their exchanges are neither deliberate and delicate nor assertively gestural and mostly evade typical markers of directionality. Instead, Thomson and Cameron collectively paint a confounding scenery—a place that feels perched precariously on the cusp between dreaming and wakefulness. Within this wobbly frame, their interplay variously foats, wafts, gurgles, and drifts, a curious assortment of textures and murky hues. It leaves an indelible impression yet without actively articulating or resisting form.
Platanus is dedicated to the memory of Nobuo Kubota, the extraordinary Canadian improviser and intermedia artist who passed away in September of 2025 at the age of 93. Kubota’s connection to the strange and inventive music-making that unfolds here may be indirect but it’s also substantial. In the liner notes, Thomson recalls a 2009 residency that Cameron held at his erstwhile Toronto venue Somewhere There, where “Allison proposed a trio with me and the inspiring polymath, Nobuo Kubota, whose syllable-spitting vocals almost demanded to be called shamanic. It was an eye-opening experience, one of many that I lived during those heady, music-drenched days.”
Additionally, one of the key (and rarest) elements in what Thomson calls the “quirky kaleidoscopy of [Cameron’s] instrumentation” here was a gift from Kubota. The Crackle Synthesiser is a deluxe variation on the more common STEIM Cracklebox/ Kraakdoos where the Cracklebox’s metal contacts (which actually place the variability of the human body within its circuitry) are augmented with many additional controls.
Cameron is noted for her unusual sonics in both her written-out music and her improvisational practice. Thomson’s commendable palette on the trombone makes him an ideal co-conspirator, and their chemistry is only compounded by their mutual willingness to inhabit the restless, engrossing quasi-stasis unfurled here. Platanus is a quietly potent recording that doesn’t so much defy conventions as slide between them.
