Time-based media art is a generic label applied to all the arts involving time as one of the mandatory coordinates to experience the works. John Oswald involves time at the very center of his own work, making it the hidden fulcrum of the reality he interprets, slowing down or accelerating his own concept of ‘reality.’ In Chronophotic [Arc d’apparition; Whisperfield] there’s an altered immobility reflected in the continuos almost perceptible changes that very slowly add persons to a sort of group picture, shifting, also slowly their dressed/naked image. The nakedness and the being dressed can be seen as two faces of the same reality, the public/private, the official/intimate, the endlessly alterable/the given one. The avoid misunderstandings, the work is not voyeuristic at all, showing human bodies of all ages in their most natural and neutral shape. Furthermore it simply seem to question our conventional daily perspective and the time we spend observing and relating to other humans. It’s an ancestral species’ issue: dealing with our own essence and our own temporal and instinctually mutual recognition.

André Duchesne est de ceux qui n’aiment pas être catalogués. Plus tôt cette année, il nous a offert Arrêter les machines, un disque de chansons. Le doyen de la musique actuelle au Québec nous arrive avec un road movie musical pour trio rock et quatuor à cordes. Facile d’accès, Cordes à danser deviendra impérativement la trame de vos déplacements. Un disque de maturité.

Freedman is an internationally acclaimed performer who works in many contexts and disciplines: composed and improvised music, electroacoustic music. Collaborations in the field of dance, theatre and so on are many. And many composers wrote works for her as a performer. Her own work is available on numerous cds. Concentrating on Ambiances Magnétiques, this label released a solo album by her some 4 years ago: À un moment donné. Now it’s time for a CD with three different trios by Lori Freedman. During three consecutive nights Freedman played with with three different trios. Why trios? For Freedman this is the ideal format for improvising music. The cds opens with five pieces with René Lussier (guitars), Martin Tétreault (turntables). Followed by 4 pieces with Nicolas Caloia (doublebass) and Danielle Palardy Roger (percussion). To close with 4 improvisations with Jean Derome (saxophone, little objects) and Rainer Wiens (prepared guitar, percussion). In all three trios Lori Freedman plays clarinets. Recordings were made live. Afterwards followed some editing and mixing in the studio with the help of Michel F Côté. What is a clear from the first moment is that Freedman is a very gifted player with a great personal voice. Her playing is very “soulful” and goes straight to the heart. Deeply human and spirited musician. Together with her companions, they create some very enjoyable improvised music. A great CD.

For his fourth release on Montréal’s Dame label, composer and guitarist Tim Brady has created an album solely focused on the guitar — hence the not so subtle title Go [guitar obsession]. While his previous works were conceived with more compositional intent, this decadent 12-track effort marks a substantial directional shift that allows Brady to offer a rather dizzying display of his range. Filled with obsession and guitar addiction, GC [guitar crack] could easily have been a suitable secondary album title.

Don’t look for me to dissect this contemporary guitar oeuvre, Brady’s first solo guitar release in six years, because quite frankly GO is nearly impossible to classify (and of a very rare futuristic breed). From jazzy abstract noodling to more (further) deconstructed avant-garde improvisation, it offers numerous artistic pursuits you should listen to with a clean open-minded slate.

While the selections are mixed between studio and live recordings, most of the tracks are of the electric solo kind (and easily the most appealing of the lot); while others are guitar excursions with live electronics, built around the rapid jump from one sound to another. Brady does utilize a few tools (such as multi-tracking, looping and digital enhancements), but it leaves a resolutely secondary impact to the album’s overriding guitar-first philosophy. Not once was I ever confused enough to believe I was listening to something OTHER than a radical de-tuned guru and his guitar.

Oddly enough, my favorite pieces are light years away from each other— as in the first and last selections. Go is an updated piece dating back some 20 years which offers solos and loops “based around the note B, with chromatic scales in contrary motion, and a hint of a minor blues” — to quote the artist himself. A lovely late repetitive twist offers a feverish Steve Reich impression and a few jazz sprinkles. While my other favorite, the album closer Bobby J, offers simple elegant chords through a volume pedal and delay, performed with resonance and depth (not to mention a world of wonder).

PS — If you don’t believe me about his talent, you’ll be pleased to find out that Brady and Marjan Mozetich just won the 2006 Jan V Matejcek Prize for concert music, awarded by SOCAN on November 21 and 22, 2006.

On a vu Duchesne et ses amis faire ce programme au Festival de Victo en 2004. Avec Patrick Hamilton à la basse, Pierre Tanguay à la batterie et appuyé par un quatuor à cordes, Duchesne retrouve une énergie comparable à celle que dégageait son band Locomotive, lustrée d’un vernis compositionnel comme celui qui inspira sa grande épopée, L’ ou ‘L. Certains de ses solos de guitare sont magnifiques (la wah-wah onirique de Boues rouges!). Malheureusement, le quatuor à cordes est vraiment mal enregistré; on dirait que tout passe dans le même micro, et lorsque les instrumentistes jouent pizzicato, on croirait entendre des banjos… On souhaite donc pouvoir réentendre ça en concert! (3 / 5)