L’estrapade est une forme de torture médiévale fort cruelle consistant à hisser le condamné en haut d’un mât et à le laisser retomber dans la mer ou à terre. morceaux_de_machines (A_dontigny & Érick d’Orion + Diane Labrosse, Martin Tétreault, Otomo Yoshihide) nous en donne ici un aperçu moderne et musical.

Parce que ne s’installant pas dans un climat obsessionnel mais au contraire en abordant plusieurs sources et thématiques (bruitisme, techno, jungle… ), l’improvisation de morceaux_de_machines passionne. Ici, on combine avec le temps, on étire l’impro jusqu’au quart d’heure, on agit en instrumentiste, avec sensibilité et rythme. On provoque l’auditeur, on le course, on l’invite (de force) à abandonner ses repères. J’aime cette musique pour la force qu’elle dégage, pour sa colère, son désir de secouer le cocotier car derrière le musique de Dontigny & d’Orion, il y a un véritable acte politique et humain.

«Tout commence avec le corps d’un enfant épouvanté par l’usine du village qui souffle vapeurs et fumée par ses naseaux, tel un instrument monstrueux et fabuleux. Son ventre grouille de bruits sourds et réguliers, longs et lents, noirs et inquiétants: des moteurs, des souffleries, des machines magiques, des zébrures de fer, des grondements d’acier, des palpitations de rouages et de longs jets de brumes fades ou saturées d’odeurs écœurantes». Ainsi parlait Michel Onfray de la fromagerie de son village dans Politique du rebelle (Biblio Essais). Entre répulsion et émerveillement, une définition collant magnifiquement avec la musique de notre duo québécois.

I morceaux_de_machines del duo canadese composto da A_dontigny e Érick d’Orion non vogliono sentire ragioni. Danno bando alle ciance e cacciano dalle loro mani una bestia di disco, efferato e distruttivo. Erano tempi che non sentivo un disco di free elettronica così compatto, incompromissorio e creativo. Il cd è composto da tre registrazioni diverse, di cui due catturate dal vivo, smontate e poi rimontate in un diverso ordine, e in cui si avvalgono della collaborazione di tre grandi personaggi, molto presenti nella scena canadese: sono infatti della partita nientedimeno che Diane Labrosse, Martin Tétreault e Otomo Yoshihide. Un collettivo di turntablists a cui si deve aggiungere l’uso sfrenato di effetti, oggetti e percussioni elettroniche. A_dontigny ed Érick d’Orion superano in ferocia la loro creatura Napalm Jazz, di cui i morceaux_de_machines rappresentano la naturale evoluzione; i punti in comune ci sono ma in questo caso i musicisti azzerano le pause, stratificando la musica fino a trasformarla in puro catrame. Estrapade è fatto di una materia impenetrabile costruita con elementi di musica concreta, elettronica e industrial e cementata con collage sonori, in un pieno approccio avanguardista e dada. Dentro ci trovate tanto noise ed elettronica, flagellamenti industriali (Estrapade) e assurde drum machine alle prese con ritmi di dance sfrenata (Onanisme, Triple fermentation); come se non bastasse, i riferimenti al jazz (il finale di Tromocrates) o alle parti strettamente free, non sono casuali: rimanendo in tema infatti, in trepanation la massa elettronica affoga in un delirio di fiati stridenti e cieche scariche elettriche.

I morceaux_de_machines riempiono il cd fino all’orlo e credo che, se avessero voluto, avrebbero potuto continuare all’infinito, avendo l’impressione che la loro musica sia formata da una massa capace di auto-rigenerarsi e svilupparsi in piena autonoma. Estrapade è un frullatore globale che vuole sradicare dal loro contesto alcune delle musiche di riferimento del 900 (musica concreta, free jazz, rap, speed metal e techno) al fine di creare però un suono in opposizione alla cultura globale e al politically correct; spacca le orecchie ma sa regalare anche delle gran belle soddisfazioni.

With the demanding reputation of “B-Boys of musique concrète”, A_Dontigny (prepared cds, turntable, effects) and Érick d’Orion (computer, live electronics, effects) have concocted an interesting, often exhilarating work, helped in the live tracks by precious guests like Diane Labrosse (sampler) and turntablists Otomo Yoshihide and Martin Tétreault. They make noise which is often brutal and rabid, but are wise enough to make it more varied than a continuous feedback squeal. Onanisme is autistic techno, Triple fermentation is drum’n’bass which needs a serious dose of Ritalin. Bits and pieces of other people’s music are thrown in and trashed with a mocking smile AND an ethic, after all. Listen to the 14-minute tour-de-force of Trépanation, where crazed beats pave the way for a jazzy delirium, like a Peter Brotzmann record via effect pedals. If anybody remembers the AMK / Hands To / PBK disc on RRR, this sounds like its digital update.

Not at all an easy piece. Use headphones with caution. Estrapade makes you believe that there is more variety in noise than in pop music (or all harmony). The electronically produced noise ranges from wailing folklore singing to the bang and clang of a giant steel factory, from the microelectronics of neurons ticking within a small creature to being strapped to an 8-way highway overpass with heavy traffic. Not to mention the mingling noises of a handful of hobby DIY-fanatics meeting to build a small steel-structure in their basement. What you’ll learn is that there is more to frequency than just sound, that there is structure in chaos and that origins of sounds are of no interest. The lesson takes up 75 minutes, so lean back and enjoy.

Maybe it is the air in Canada. Or the vast territory of land all around. Or maybe it is just the people, the society as a whole and in parts and the overall way of living in the big empty country that makes so many interesting music-projects possible. Apart from the tradition of Neil Young there is a lot of music interesting music there. Abstract HipHop (Ghislain Poirier), great electronica (Vitamins For You), even better epic alternative music (with Constellation and friends just too many to mention) and some noise and avant-garde noise. I guess, a sentence like the above does injustice to almost every country by being a platitude with changing names, but there has been an increased influx of avant-noise and music from Canada (and post-hardcore instrumental records) into the Cracked headquarters lately, and since we don’t accept any as our own perceptions and since these two flows come together so neatly in Estrapade I found such a statement justified. In spite of all its obvious blandness.

Noise in itself is an interesting factor. In everyday life it is usually regarded as a nuisance, something to call the police for or to shout at your kids to stop the noise. In arts noise has become an established factor. For instance, I watched the movie One Hour Photo last week mainly for two reasons: 1) my wife wanted to see it. Which is usually reason enough to start watching with her, but most often movies on tv don’t keep my attention for long. 2) the atmospheric sounds in the background at all times. That movie was interesting in its colour-scope and pictures as well as in sound-aspects (the story itself is ruther dull, I mean, there is a lot of freaks out there and most of them are pathetic if you peel away their freaky surface. Which is true for the old straight guy in the gey suit behind the counter as well as for the dreadlocked techno-freak riding the subway). Sound in movies as sound in our everyday environment is usually disregarded or even discriminated against. Why all the longish foreplay in this review: because it was the labour of many artists to bring noise back into the light of attention with music lovers all around. Even more, to be able to call noise, even pure white noise “music” is an important progress. (Wait up for the first Merzbow-release to grace these pages in a few days ahead.) And those keep on still, though mostly unregarded and as underground as you can get.

From the frequency-daddling noise-pitches to the droning echoes and epic atmospheres, Estrapade features a lot of high class noise variety. Also the unfriendly variety of ear-splitting noise-waves or the even more uncomfortable high frequencies that can make you physically sick if you are so inclined. A_Dontigny and Erick d’Orion, long time collaborators and the two minds behind morceaux_de_machines, like their noise mixed and in differing styles, obviously. But they never get bland, superficial or obvious about it. And they like to add a little spice and humour here and there. On the track Onanisme (what a name, makes me think of the name of their radio program: Napalm Jazz – quite a funny for serious avantgardists) they take back the stomping industrial beats from time to time to introduce a siren or the sound of wind blowing and other noises closer to the human ear than laptop glitches. The inclusion of various co-collaborators like Otomo Yoshihide, Diane Labrosse and Martin Tétreault adds to the eclecticism of the mix, by adding turntables, scratching, sampling, and ever so on.

I could never do much with the term music concrete, except for some music standing in the room so loud and vast that the waves of sound form an almost concrete block to bang your head against. Especially in a live setting – as there are some live tracks and some studio tracks on here, you guess which is which – the experience can be very stimulating and exciting. The pathway is narrow though and a lot of times avantgard electronic noise turns into bland trickery or a circus act on the one side or to boredom galore on the other side. (Now ask which one of the two Hasswell belongs to?) The variety and dynamics of Estrapade makes the record stay on the golden path. Even those tracks that carry on for over ten minutes have enough offering to keep you interested – but people who like to listen to noise CDs are used to over-one-hour single tracks, I guess.

As morceaux_de_machines state themselves in their small but interesting innersleeve-manifesto, theirs is “anti-music” in an violent and art-terrorist way, which waves a languish hand at sampling’s and destructionist’s long tradition in art, but they well know that there actually is no such music as anti-music (the reasoning is hidden in the paragraphs above).

Os canadianos Aimé Dontigny (gira-discos) e Érick d’Orion (computador) tiveram antes um projecto com o mesmo nome do programa radiofónico que mantinham na CKIA, Napalm Jazz, e se o anterior título (liberum arbitrium) da fórmula morceaux_de_machines era mais comedido do que este Estrapade, a moldura das suas acções continuava a ser o “noise” improvisado, agora elevado à centésima potência com as colaborações, em três das faixas (as únicas registadas ao vivo), de Otomo Yoshihide, Martin Tétreault e Diane Labrosse. Mais do que alguma vez aconteceu, a teatralidade das situações musicais que constroem é uma estratégia assumida, tanto assim que a própria etiqueta responsável por esta edição, a No Type, fala no “théatre de la cruauté” de Antonin Artaud para apresentar o disco, dele dizendo que é “impermeável à falsa sentimentalidade da harmonia” e “ferozmente desconstrutivo”. Decididamente, as abordagens “onkyo” e “lower case” não fazem o pleno da electrónica actual. O que aqui encontramos tem a mesma entrega e o mesmo “drive” do John Coltrane de Interstellar Space, com contribuições tanto da electroacústica “culta” como do hip-hop e do death metal. Os dois músicos falam mesmo em “maximalismo” para descrever tais procedimentos, em clara oposição ao legado minimalista que hoje marca a frente digital.

I was warned — the music of Montréal duo morceaux_de_machines would be loud. What I wasn’t told was just how unbearably surprising it could be. The duo made up of long-time radio collaborators on Québec’s CKIA, Aimé Dontigny and Érick d’Orion, obviously enjoy their noise with a side of the twitchings. Ever-shifting landscapes permeate their music from beginning of the disc to its’ closing 75 minutes later. Turntables, prepared CDs, live electronics, computers, samplers, drum machines — it’s all here in its most primal glory.

Sampling queen Diane Labrosse appears on two tracks, as do tumtable artists Otomo Yoshihide and Martin Tétreault. I dont think the word noise does this duo proper justice. After all, what is defined as noise by one person is not necessarily noise to others. I found many of the pieces calming in their own bizarre way. The drones and high-pitched squeaks are in some strange way oddly appealing. Weird structure actually exists in this madness if you’re willing to listen. Feedback and ear-piercing sounds need not be your enemy. These can actually be your friends. The question remains, are you willing to take the first step towards cementing this relationship? If your answer is yes, then Estrapade [French word for a cruel form of torture used in medieval times] is waiting for your friendship now.