Review

Ensemble SuperMusique, has become more ambitious as their ranks have swelled with new members over the past few years. This version now features some twenty musicians including founding members: Jean Derome, Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, Pierre Cartier, Bernard Falaise, Danielle Palardy Roger and Pierre Tanguay plus newer members Lori Freedman, Charity Chan, Isaiah Ceccarelli and Alexandre St-Onge. Their guest from across the pond is French bassist Joëlle Léandre.

I’ve caught this ensemble a few times over the past few years at the Victo and Guelph Festivals and know that there are a number of long-evolved concepts, themes or directions which help focus what they do and make their music a bit easier to understand. Especially while watching them live or reading liner notes in English, one gets a better idea of what is going on. Listening to this music on CD and not being able to translate the liner notes in French force to focus more closely on the music found within.

The twenty musicians who are involved here play various reeds, strings, trombone, piano, basses, turntable, sampler and several percussionists. There is a careful, well-sculpted or directed approach going on. A few different subsections emerge from certain more chaotic moments and then interact or are interspersed between select connected fragments. I dig when the occasional melodic line or unexpected change in direction suddenly appear and then quickly disappear. Although there is no singer listed, odd bits of voices are used to pepper the proceedings in whimsical ways. Some of my favorite moments feature the great saxist/flutist Jean Derome, who always adds his distinctive bent-note charm at the right times.

There is a playful visual element that can be seen whenever we catch this ensemble play live, which also can be heard in this music as it swerves through different scenes. Each piece sounds or feels like a different episode in an ongoing (TV?) story or series. There is one piece that was recorded live at The Stone, most likely when I was a volunteer working the door to help my Québécois friends feels more comfortable. As with most discs on the AM label, I look forward to digging deeper into what makes them so special.