Louis Dufort è un compositore canadese di musica elettroacustica. L’artista di stanza a Montréal è tornato a fine 2021 con Into the Forest, un lavoro registrato nel suo studio personale tra il 2020 e il 2021.

Il nuovo album si compone di quattro brani per una durata complessiva che si ferma poco prima dei quaranta minuti e ad aprire c’è Into, il più bucolico del ciclo, con un suono ambient disegnato prevalentemente dall’organo e da caligine elettronica che si deposita sui vari strati di suono.

La successiva Into the forest my wounded arms wide open cambia visibilmente registro, con un ritmo decisamente più sostenuto e incalzante, fra groove spezzati un’atmosfera vagamente (e sorprendentemente) sci-fi.

Il brano che dà il nome al lavoro, stipato all’inizio della seconda metà, è stato sviluppato in diversi anni ed ultimato solamente in occasione delle registrazioni di questo disco. Il pezzo si presenta come un approfondimento di delicate microstrutture che riempiono lentamente uno spazio in continuo divenire, scandagliando il rapporto esistente tra la natura, quella reale, e un’altra immaginata e sognata.

L’ultimo atto è anche il più astratto e simbolico: Into the forest I’ve seen under permette la convergenza di materiali “organici, sintetici e musicali” in un’ode alla natura che si evolve lentamente, fino a descrivere completamente l’ambiente circostante.

Louis Dufort conferma ispirazione e tecnica rendendo accessibile più o meno a chiunque un lavoro in realtà complesso.

I’m delighted to present the latest instalment in my occasional long-form conversation series The Dialogues. My guest this time is UK-born, Norway-based composer Natasha Barrett, whose music I’ve deeply admired for at least 20 years. Barrett is both a veteran and a pioneer of electronic music, utilising a convoluted mixture of real-world and synthetic sounds to compose highly elaborate, immersive soundworlds. That word “immersive” is no hyperbole: Barrett’s work in ambisonics is at the forefront of creating an all-enclosing listening experience demonstrating intricate control of the 3-dimensional placement of sound. Partly for this reason, Barrett’s work is not often heard in the UK – at least, not often exactly as the composer intends, due to its extensive multi-channel/-speaker demands. The most authentic way to hear her music is therefore to go to Norway and experience it in situ; while the easiest way is via the increasing number of releases devoted to or featuring her work in specially-adapted stereo and binaural versions.

We met last September in Barrett’s office at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and I want to express my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to Natasha for being so generous with her time and with the large quantity of unpublished or unavailable musical materials she put my way to help with my research and preparation. Our conversation took place toward the end of the 2021 Ultima festival, and i therefore would also like to thank Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen, artistic director of Ultima, whose invitation to the festival made this conversation possible.

For more information about Barrett’s work, her website contains a wealth of information, as do the pages devoted to her on the Empreintes DIGITALes label’s website; she also has a Bandcamp site with a steadily growing quantity of material, as well as a YouTube channel featuring an assortment of works, extracts, and miscellaneous field recordings. The most recent label to start featuring Barrett’s music is the London-based Persistence of Sound, and their next release is devoted to three of her more recent compositions, Urban Melt in Park Palais Meran (2019), Speaking Spaces No. 1: Heterotopia and Growth (both 2021). Released on vinyl in July, the album is available to pre-order and buy digitally now.

As usual in these Dialogues, I’ve peppered our conversation with a liberal quantity of excerpts from Barrett’s music in order to illustrate and elaborate upon what we’re talking about, and these include two early works, Caressing Eternity and Trompe l’œil, neither of which have ever been released or indeed heard since her postgraduate days. I’m especially grateful to Natasha for tracking down the vintage DAT [cassettes] (stored at her parents’ house) and for allowing me to include excerpts from these early examples of her work. A list of all the excerpts and the times when they occur can be found [online], together with links (where applicable) to buy the music.