Le mardi 26 janvier 2010, Philippe Lauzier, Joshua Zubot, Sylvie Chenard, Maryse Poulin et Rémi Leclerc seront au resto-bar Le Cagibi dans le cadre de la série dédiée aux musiques créatives Mardi spaghetti. Belle soirée en perspective!

We keep telling you: we don’t make the news. We just run it through Babelfish. Fatti maschi, parole femmine. All this is to say that La Notte Fa is a beguiling 2008 release, courtesy A_dontigny and Michel F Côté. The former is Aimé Dontigny of Napalm Jazz, and the latter, the gentleman pictured just left. […] This is tinkery and inspired brain food, light on its feet, somewhere between sherry and chablis. […]

Ne manquez pas l’excellent Pierre-Yves Martel aux Instants Chavirés, à Montreuil (France) en compagnie de Jozef Van Wissem, Hervé Boghossian, Julie Rousse et Carol Robinson le 21 janvier 2010.

Pierre Labbé first appeared in the catalogue of Ambiances Magnétiques in 1999 on two releases. On one as a member of Les Projectionnistes, on the other as part of Papa Boa, a quartet of Bernard Falaise, Rémi Leclerc (Miriodor) and Frédéric Roverselli. In 2003 he returned with his Ensemble Pierre Labbé for his first real musical statement: Risque et pendule. A sextet interprets nine stylistic diverse compositions by Labbé, again with guitarist Falaise as one of its members. Now we are once more six years ahead in time. This time Labbé (tenor sax, flute) formed a quartet to perform his newest compositions: Bernard Falaise (guitars), Clinton Ryder (bass) and Isaiah Ceccarelli (drums, percussions). This release perfectly fits in the long tradition of Ambiances Magnétiques of combining rock and jazz elements in the format of avant rock-like groups. Discussions whether it is more rock or jazz in the end or fruitless. Both languages are interwoven in a very organic way by Labbé, implying that is meaningless to seek for the moments where rocks ends and jazz starts. This atypical music that integrates so many different musical aspects and traditions, is on the other hand very together and undivided. This has to do with the strong handwriting of Labbé as a composer, and the dedicated performance by the group. The music ranges from almost spiritual pieces like the opening track Pour le Moment to very rhythmic complex exercises as Manivelle. Matos belongs also to this last category. But this piece is at the same time an example of how Labbé reserved space for free collective improvisation. In many of the pieces there is much room for guitarist Falaise, for his surprising and inspired playing. No surprise Falaise is asked and involved in many initiatives nowadays. Hope it will not take another six year for a new album by Labbé and his mates.

Nozen, le quatuor de Damián Nisenson mettant en vedette Bernard Falaise, Jean Félix Mailloux et Pierre Tanguay, sera en concert à l’Ex-Centris le 21 janvier 2010.

Klaxon Gueule (translated, “Horn Scream”) is a Montréal group featuring three top tier players of the improv arena, Michel F Côté (percussion), Bernard Falaise (guitar), and Alexandre St-Onge (bass), who put aside very successful careers (solo and otherwise) every few years for a Klaxon Gueule release — some of the strongest records in the Ambiances Magnétiques catalog. Following an exciting 1997 debut (Bavards) the group shifted away from energetic free-improvisation to a tense electro-acoustic style of ominous improvisation characterized by the use of heavily manipulated instrumentation. Klaxon Gueule, armed with instruments almost entirely non-manipulated, make a bit of a return to its previous inclinations with Infininiment, inviting in a reeds section, including Jean Derome, Gordon Allen, and Philippe Lauzier, to back them. The thirteen tracks presented here are less energetic than the group was back in 1997, but this disc is probably better realized than was Bavards. The music here moves fluidly over very uneven terrain at speeds necessitated by the territory, squirming over, around and, at times, even through the particular landscape. Derome, Allen, and Lauzier enter the mix sparingly, reacting in accord with the core trio to fill in sparse areas here and there. A stimulating exercise in free-improvisation.