Le tout premier album de l’Ensemble en pièces, Jardin d’exil, sera lancé à la Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal (Montréal) le 5 octobre 2004 dès 17h.

Featuring two extraordinary works: Playing Guitar is for electric guitar, sampler, live electronics and large chamber ensemble and Frame 1-Resonance is for electric guitar, electronics and piano. Symphony 1 is actually about “playing guitar” or sampled guitar with the fifteen piece large chamber group utilized here. This is Tim Brady’s 10th CD in print and this just might be his best yet. His symphonic writing is particularly strong, varied and adventurous. What makes this so special is the way his guitar fits perfectly as a part of the ensemble and as a soloist in the center of the action or story. The other thing that works so well here is the way Tim has programmed his sampler and filled it with a variety of strange guitar sounds, which often don’t sound like a guitar, but are used selectively to add sonic spices to his fascinating creation. Fripp fans will certainly be smiling as they listen to the Second Movement with its Frippish guitar solo. This is an absolutely fantastic work that I would hope would be perfect for next year’s Victo Fest. Frame 1-Resonance for piano, guitar and electronics is a more restrained and eerie work, in which the piano is echoed by sinister guitar sounds and weird samples.

It seems that French contrabassists supreme, Joëlle Léandre, loves the duo situation and consistently finds players worldwide worthy of her collaborations. Up at the Guelph Jazz Fest a couple of weeks ago, she played a marvelous duo set with violinist India Cooke. Joëlle seeks out great partners, both well-known and little known. Check out this short list: Rüdiger Carl, Irène Schweizer, Mark Nauseef, Carlos Zingaro, Giorgio Occhipinti, Tetsu Saitoh and François Houle. Can’t say that I’ve heard of Gianni Lenoci before, but he does have three trio CDs out on Splasch and is a member of the Eugenio Colombo Quartet. Besides modern jazz, Gianni performs the music of modern composers like Morton Feldman and John Cage. The title of this CD means “certain to swing” [sic], but I believe they this is meant in jest. This CD consists of 14 shorter pieces. Each piece shows the different styles, approaches and sonic palette that both of these players draw from. Plucking, bowing, rubbing and banging on her bass strings as Gianni also plays inside the piano with assorted objects as well as a variety of cautious, quietly intense and occasionally dreamy sounds on the piano keyboard. Although this is the first time that Joëlle and Gianni had worked together, it is certainly hard to tell, since they work so well together. Another wonderful collaboration from the consistently great Joëlle Léandre.

Tout ne serait que boucles évolutives, semble suggérer l’artiste sonore Pierre-André Arcand. C’est pour mieux exploiter cette perspective qu’il a construit la Macchina Ricordi, petit logiciel offert à qui le veut sur le Web et qui permet de faire vivre ses propres boucles à partir de sons divers. Non seulement Arcand a-t-il rassemblé une série d’expérimentations parentes dans cet Atlas, mais on retrouve sur le second disque une exploration visuelle à partir de ces sons et procédés récursifs. Les amateurs de manipulation bruitiste trouveront là un radicalisme digne de Nurse With Wound ou de Mount Vernon Astral Temple, de même que cette faculté de faire vivre les éructations de machines.

Contrebassiste d’exception, Joëlle Léandre opte pour une approche excessivement corporelle, grâce à laquelle on croirait parfois s’intégrer aux nerfs et aux os de l’instrumentiste. Dans une démarche rigoureuse et surprenante où elle sollicite aussi la double basse et le bruitisme vocal, les cordes subissent le pincement, le frottement et la percussion sans aucune trace d’exercice de style. Ici rejointe par le pianiste italien Gianni Lenoci, la Française (Aix) s’engage dans un de ces dialogues qui ont fait le bien-fondé de sa quarantaine de disques (aux côtés des Zorn, Frith, Braxton, Lacy, entre autres). Un moment fort pour cette artiste intégrale.

Le Trio Derome Guilbeault Tanguay donne deux concert de jazz exceptionnel à Montréal. Le premier a lieu le 13 octobre 2004 au Cheval blanc et le second le ,21 octobre, au Café de la Place des Arts.