Starting with an almighty crash and swathes of cascading ring-modulation, the opening track 13’13 pour voix défigurées immediately calls for your attention, and then totally perplexes by diverting into a weird mixture of sonic film, French poetry and intensive/schizophrenic musique-concrete. Quite apt for a track title that translates as “For Disfigured Voices”. Subsequent tracks follow a more sonic approach, making best use of sound layering, mixing and cut & paste techniques. Here we get down to real concrete music, the sound of machines breaking it, mixers making it, and all sorts of traffic rumbling and running over it — at least that’s what it sounds like, before snatches of more disfigured voices return, and in a later track more of those sonic crashes and ring-modulation. It gets all very early-70’s François Bayle at times.

And yet more Monsieur Dhomont! He is busy, isn’t he? Well, actually Jalons is a collection of eight works dating from 1985 through to 2001.And yet more Monsieur Dhomont! He is busy, isn’t he? Well, actually Jalons is a collection of eight works dating from 1985 through to 2001. A chance to hear some of his individual smaller works as opposed to big conceptual ones. There’s quite a variety to it as well.

This is even evident in the first track Vol d’Arondes which moves around a lot, notably nodding to Parmegiani and Bayle in its use of granulation and sound crunching, along with lots of nice subtle pitch delay. Contrastingly En cuerdas is Dhomont’s own version of a work he did with guitarist Arturo Parra, taken a step further away from Parra’s guitar, and all the better for it. Les moirures du temps is pure sonic fabrication, and shimmers almost indescribably, whereas the following Studio de nuit places that type of sonic structure against more clatters and crunches, along with snatches of text discussing aspects of human perception at night. Such invention continues throughout, in Lettre de Sarajevo with its angular concrete counterpoints and wedges of sound, Un autre Printemps different in that it’s a film score that uses snatches of Vivaldi, Drôles d’oiseaux all made up of chopped and mangled bird twitters, and finally the tiny closing track L’électro which amounts to a jokey collage of laughter and chattering. A chance to hear some of his individual smaller works as opposed to big conceptual ones. There’s quite a variety to it as well.

This is even evident in the first track Vol d’Arondes which moves around a lot, notably nodding to Parmegiani and Bayle in its use of granulation and sound crunching, along with lots of nice subtle pitch delay. Contrastingly En cuerdas is Dhomont’s own version of a work he did with guitarist Arturo Parra, taken a step further away from Parra’s guitar, and all the better for it. Les moirures du temps is pure sonic fabrication, and shimmers almost indescribably, whereas the following Studio de nuit places that type of sonic structure against more clatters and crunches, along with snatches of text discussing aspects of human perception at night. Such invention continues throughout, in Lettre de Sarajevo with its angular concrete counterpoints and wedges of sound, Un autre Printemps different in that it’s a film score that uses snatches of Vivaldi, Drôles d’oiseaux all made up of chopped and mangled bird twitters, and finally the tiny closing track L’électro which amounts to a jokey collage of laughter and chattering.

All pure concrete this one, a storming melange of sonics and environments, that writhe and shatter. It’s engrossing and perplexing, in that it always seems to be going somewhere, yet the clues are vague and you’re always left guessing. As sounds clunk and (again) shatter, they regroup in strange cacophonies, and I’m often reminded of late-1960’s works of Pierre Henry and Francois Bayle, yet it’s obviously 21st Century music, with a sparkling sound and clarity.

Cet album nous fait entrer dans un monde réfléchi et engagé qui utilise des éléments sonores du réel alliés à des sons synthétiques pour transmettre des atmosphères et des messages d’une grande subtilité. Créatrice d’une des Symphonies portuaires en 1998, Monique Jean détient assurément certaines clés importantes de la musique contemporaine, car elle est d’une originalité peu commune et d’une créativité sans cesse renouvelée.

[…] Speaking of the No Type-ers… After what has been some public critique of Mutek, even on this list, No Type presented a label showcase at the Studio yesterday that enraptured the crowd, sucking them into a vortex of noise and improv electronic performances. […] No Type held attention despite the soundsystem’s relatively quiet range, with Samiland travelling a wealth of minimalist and dub territories, from sparse and deep broken beats to ambience, leading into the madness that was to follow: two sets of collaborative & improvised performances featuring A_Dontigny, first with the precise workings of veteran improvisational artist Diane Labrosse — on what appeared to be a theraemin device, at times; this performance was intricate, yet harsh in its metallic clamouring of sound-events. Then came morceaux_de_machines who, after an enthusiastic shout-out from Aimé, did not disappoint with his collaboration: vitriolic improvised noise from strange devices, high-pitched and jagged waves, from this real beast of a man, getting down and into it — morceaux grabbed the crowd and spun them round degree by degree. To end was Vancouver’s Coin Gutter, the enigmatic duo of Graeme and Emma carving out one of their more delicate and restrained sets, and, although improvised, moving through a taste of their sound, from experimental electroacoustic to noise, field recordings, media samples, and dark soundscapes. […]