Percussionist Côté is also to be found in Klaxon Gueule with electric guitarist Bernard Falaise and bass guitarist Alexandre St-Onge, whose debut Bavards showcased a high energy Improv trio. Muets, however, reinvents the guitar-bass-drums format in less explosive terms, largely eschewing rhythmic propulsion for more leisurely textural improvisations with intermittent use of drones. The transformation has certainly paid off in an album that should appeal to fans of similarly inclined groups such as AMM, Müller/Voice Crack/O’Rourke and Kristoff K Roll & Xavier Charles.

Le premier ne s’appelait pas Bavards pour rien! Le second convoque le silence mais n’est pas si muet que ca. Naviguant entre palpitations sourdes et hypnoses lancinantes, Muets évacue l’instrumentation classique du premier disque (guitare, basse, batterie) et opte pour un chant électronique discret. Symphonie de cliquetis et gargouillis. Klaxon Gueule convoque la noise sereine, sait faire silence après la stridence. Magnifiqucment dépouillée, toujours en recherche d`une pulsation circulaire et régulière, la musique de Côté, Falaise, Saint-Onge, s`enrichit de nombreuses surprises au fil des écoutes. Pour aventuriers de l’intérieur.

Après nous avoir offert Bavards, un disque plus «free» et acoustique, Klaxon Gueule (Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge et Michel F Côté) réplique d’une asymétrie avec son deuxième album Muets. Malgré l’approche ambiante, le dynamisme y est toujours présent. Muets est composé de deux couches. La couche électro et la couche acoustique. Le résultat: un album électroacoustique au sens premier du terme. Une chaleur humaine s’en dégage même si la musique peut nous sembler «électroniquement» froide. Fans de textures, vous ne serez pas déçus. Les nuances sont si présentes, que nos mains pourraient les saisir.

The second CD is a collaborative effort between St-Onge and fellow Québécois artists Michel F Côté and Bernard Falaise, under the group name Klaxon Gueule. A previous recording of theirs was titled Bavards, which means loud or loudly spoken. While this new release is titled Muets, or mute, silent. Each of the three artists brings to the final mix a characteristic level of sounds and noise, usually restrained with occasional violent eruptions. The cumulative effect of the three is more musical and textured than the solo pieces, but still very quiet and uneasy as a listening experience.

I can’t believe that this is the same band that gave us Bavards! It seems that Côté, Falaise and Saint-Onge have attempted to create a dramatic about-face from their debut… and they have succeeded enourmously. Muets (the french word for silent) is a perfect title for this work. Unlike their debut Bavards which was a kinetically spastic venture into the fringes of jazz, Muets is an eerie, subdued, atmospheric slice of ambience. Many of the tracks are very unsettling and dark, an audio equivalent of introspective solitude. If you’re not prepared, track 4 willliterally scare the shit out of you (even the album cover artwork is somewhat disturbing in a pseudo-psychotic kind of way). Much credit must be given to Klaxon Gueule for having the bravery and creative spirit to not just repeat themselves. They are avant-garde artistes who excel at pulling the listener into their strange, dreamlike world. Muets provides a soundtrack to the most frightening imagery possible… that which is in our heads.

On this instrumental sound barrage, trio Klaxon Gueule create a sonic wasteland reminiscent of Einstürzende Neubauten’s harsher work. Accelerating beatings, random crashes and vicious drill whines collide to disturbing effect. Impossible to define, the musicians themselves toss out the phrase “electroacoustic chamber ensemble,” which is as good as anything I could dream up. Musique concrète at its heaviest, this is a serious album intended for concentrated listening, assuming that you can take it.