Louis Dufort, born in 1970, is a year younger than Moore (god, that makes me feel old), and from Montréal rather than the UK. He also has a different general approach — his pieces have more variation in volume and density and he has a strong interest in using the voice — usually sampled and stretched, but recognisable. The variation within the pieces again emphasises the difficulty in description per se. Transit is a piece “that makes use of continuous discontinuity,” and it does shifting between high ringing tones with cluttering and rushes behind; into a descending tinkling and ringing with voices; machinelike rhythms, unstable, clickings, tones and a buzz; banging and the voices of a lost chorus; clatter quiet; slow wind, rebuilding, more voices to a squeaky climax and then quiet fade. Unstable and decentred. The mode of Pointe-aux-Trembles is more obvious in this “impression of the refineries of East-end Montréal” with its regular ebbing and flow — we are getting periods of factory-like loud rhythm with noisy loops of machines, sirens and trains (is that a voice in there?) interspersed with quieter sections, perhaps between the refineries with soft high tones. There are programmatic titles which approximate to the changes I noted — and a nice long fade. With Zénith the voice becomes more prominent — high singing tones open it, and the main body of the piece uses voiced notes throughout. It builds slowly from the almost solo start adding soft tinklings to a first climax of voice and ‘orchestra,’ cymbals crash, horns swirl. Some mouth-sounds shift into a loud, aggressive phase which includes some growling voice which is a cross between death-metal and Mike Oldfield’s Neanderthal man on Tubular Bells. And it seems way out of place here (it reappears on Décap). The ending is surer, with an angelic choir of voices. Finally Décap at 24 minutes, described as “a study for wrist and ankles,” is partly excerpted from a dance piece, and is more rhythmic in both its overall structure (like Pointe-aux-Trembles it shifts between active, loud phases and quieter contemplative ones) and in the local approach. The opening could be from a glitch collection as strong attack whooshes with long fades, pulsey percussion and whispering drive us into the piece. From here we alternate between percussive active parts and more moody, tonal components. In addition to the gruff voice, there are also voice loops where syllables are repeated into nonsense and layered interplaying choirs. The whole builds through some minor climaxes to a big percussive shimmering looped conclusion.

So two complex albums, sonically fascinating. The similarity in their descriptions ‘continuous discontinuity’ and ‘shaping form continuously’ should prepare you for the active and involved listening expected of you. Not for easy-listening background pleasure, but for focussed attention.

The most coherent of the three empreintes DIGITALes discs reviewed here, and — a sign of times — the only one by a composer who’s not an academic. It’s also the only one with any suggestion of a groove — in this case industrial. Louis Dufort divides his time between composing for a contemporary danse company, and producing works of “unbridled musical experimentation,” such as these four dazzling dramatic compositions from 1996-2000.

A recording that kicks off with shrill tinkling comparable to Maryanne Amacher’s Sound Characters and comes to a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of Come to Daddy period Aphex Twin clearly knows no barriers. From classical, to noise, to avant-garde mouth music, to drum ’n’ bass, the genres and sub-genres are all represented here, thick and fast on each other’s heels in a glorious welter of exquisitely produced sound.

The young Canadian composer Louis Dufort has a fascination with cinema and a history of involvement with contemporary dance that in part explains the extraordinarily visual nature of his work. This is nowhere more true than the remarkable Pointe-aux-Trembles, the second of the four pieces presented here, which gives a vivid picture of Montréal oil refineries glittering against the night sky. A marvellous sense of movement and depth is given in the exhilarating shifts from noise to silence and back again. This is industrial music at its best, demanding total concentration. Elsewhere Zénith sounds like Edgar Varèse on acid, all billowing sheets of electronics and feverish incantations, uneasy and ethereal. Transit thumps and nags in disjointed throbs that come together cogently. Décap, with its Stimmung gabbles, its furious shouts and growls, its Wagnerian bluster, its frenetic rhythms that drop over an abyss into edgy silences, is totally unnerving.

An education for the ears and a tonic for the mind, a chance to see clear visions with your eyes shut tight.

Louis Dufort studied electroacoustic compositions in Montréal. Now he spend his time with composing for Marie Chouinard contemporary dance company, his work for the artistic committee of ACREQ, and the creation of hybrid and unbridled musical experimentation.

In meantime I’ve been looking in some literature, I can’t say that I know much about electroacoustics. So I’m now searching were it comes from or what intentions it have. Maybe someone can help me with some information (kriswilms@hotmail.com). It is my intention to write a little article about it.

Transit (1998), the first composition on Connexion, is described by Louis Dufort as: “A work that makes use of continuous discontinuity.” What is the meaning of something like that? It has something to do with discontinuity: the structure seams to be irrational. So the structure is discontinue. There has to be continuity in this discontinue structure: same sounds come always back, always manipulated in other ways. Lather on there also come voices in the composition.

Pointe-aux-Trembles (1996) is rather a gentle piece, where the stress is on silence or something that seems to be silences.

Zénith (1999): ‘the formal expansion of form’ as Louis Dufort describes it, seems more organic than for example Transit.

There is a smooth Décap (2000), a composition for the composition ‘Le cri du monde’ of Marie Chouinard (more exactly ‘A study for wrists and ankles’) is a much more aggressive piece that in his heaviness sometimes reminds on the John Zorn project ‘God.’ In the piece, drum’n bass seems to be an important influence.

Louis Dufort composes for the Marie Chouinard contemporary dance company, works with the artistic committee of ACREQ, and explores hybrid and unbridled musical experimentation. Connexion is his first release of electroacoustic music and contains four compositions: Transit (1998), Pointe-aux-Trembles (1996), Zénith (1999), and Décap (2000).

Spanning 4 years of musical explorations, each piece is unique. Transit is an abstract composition that jumps around from metallic alarm clock-like bells, descending whines, processed noise, and wordless vocals. At times it sounds like it could be destroying your speakers. The liner notes state that Transit is “a work that makes use of continuous discontinuity.” Pointe-aux-Trembles is a quiet piece comprised of high frequency sounds and is an impression of the refineries at Eastern Montréal’s. Zénith, as the name implies, is a Ligeti styled composition that slowly builds to a loud climax culminating with demonic mutterings. The final composition, Décap, is Dufort’s study of wrists and ankles and is for the Marie Chouinard dance troupe. It is quite impressive and I could swear that I heard samples from The Beatles’ Revolution 9 and Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma (the studio album). If not sampled [Dufort says it is not], then Dufort duplicated some of the studio tricks used 30 years ago on these albums.

Jeune compositeur électroacousticien de Montréal, Louis Dufort, nous offre ici un échantillon de son travail de ces dernières années. Les quatre pièces de ce recueil, qu’elles soient à finalité purement musicale, ou, tel Décap, le support d’une chorégraphie, ont entre elles une certaine affinité. Celle-ci réside d’abord par les sonorités, proches du bruit blanc, mais loin de toute uniformité, car elles sont plus ou moins étirées ou compressées, affectées quelques fois de rythmes trépidants ou se noyant dans des espaces de silence inattendus pour resurgir avec un dynamisme renouvelé quelques secondes plus tard. L’auditeur semble ainsi passer constamment d’une forme d’expressionnisme un peu bruitiste vers une abstraction plus impressionniste. Cela est particulièrement le cas de Pointe-aux-Trembles, illustration sonore d’un complexe pétrochimique.

L’autre aspect notable, c’est la force et la conviction avec laquelle Louis Dufort assène son propos. Sa musique enlace l’auditeur, le transperce, saisit ses sens, bref, le captive par le jeu constamment mêlé entre la linéarité de la trame sonore et les divers effets en surimpression, tantôt purement électroacoustiques, tantôt fait de voix retravaillées. Une connexion impressionnante…