Het Franse label empreintes DIGITALes biedt onderdak aan een resem al dan niet obscure avantgardekunstenaars waarvan Robert Normandeau en Hildegard Westerkamp de bekendste zijn. Met Cycle du son betoont Francis Dhomont eer aan de legendarische geluidskunstenaar Pierre Schaeffer. Het vierdelige stuk maakt zowel gebruik van samples uit Schaeffers legendarische compositie Études Aux Objets, als geluiden uit Dhomonts eigen klankencollectie. De akoestische clash van die twee werelden is een onheilspellend, maar altijd boeiend geluidsdecor vol glashelder resonerende klankspelen.

Humeur de facteur van Yves Beaupré is een klankencollage opgebouwd uit timmerhokgeluiden: geluid afkomstig van en gemaakt door allerlei voorwerpen, gereedschap, hout en dies meer. Die bronnen worden vervolgens via elektronica van hun identiteit gestript en tot functioneel element van de compositie gebombardeerd. Het resultaat blijft over de hele lijn intrigerend en stuwt je door een vaak hallucinante dimensie van overheerlijke klankschepsels.

De Nieuw-Zeelander John Young dwingt de luisteraar zijn van wonderlijke details voorziene La limite du bruit met een hoofdtelefoon te beluisteren. Zo fladderen de ratelende, druppelende en schurende klankjes van Pythagoras’s Curtain je trommelvlies in. Even fascinerend is ‘Inner’ dat aanvangt met het geluid van iemand die zijn adem inhoudt. Klassieke avantgarde/musique concrète die boeit van a tot z.

Dopo circa un lustro di intensissima attività di pubblicazioni esclusivamente online, l’etichetta canadese No Type (www.notype.com) è recentemente passata al supporto termoindurente (leggi CD) con la formidabile doppia compilation The Freest of Radicals e l’album di debutto della compositrice elettroacustica Magali Babin.

La terza produzione in catalogo è firmata dal venticinquenne Frédérick Blouin in arte Œuf Korreckt ed è una raccolta di composizioni concepite dal giovanissimo autore quebecoise nell’arco degli ultimi sei-sette anni. E se alcuni materiali risultano decisamente caotici e datati (i compressi ritmi hardcore techno stile Rotterdam di King of the Elephants del ’95, ad esempio), è nelle più recenti realizzazioni che si apprezzano nettamente le capacità di Blouin di dar corpo a configurazioni electroniche meno spigolose, dove astrazione e melodia trovano opportuna calibratura e giusta dose di giocosità in un eccellente ibrido tra Autechre e scuola di Colonia. (7/10)

Abbondanza di accostamenti di tal tipo la si trova nella doppia compilation The Freest of Radicals edita dall’etichetta canadese No Type, finora attivissima come label online con eccellenti MP3 scarcabili dalla rete (www.notype.com). In oltre due ore e mezza questa sorta di manifesto della nuova elettroacustica casalinga (con digressioni più o meno prevedibili: i contributi di Idmonster e Kanovanik flirtano, ad esempio, con la ballata rocks) allinea soluzioni di ispirazione quanto meno variegata, passando dal dub soffocato e soffocante del genietto Tomas Jirku alle croccanti textures di chitarra preparata, onde radio e strumenti non ortodossi di James Schidlowsky, passando per la proto-electronica di Camp, le delicate melodie di clicks di Claudia Bonarelli e gli intoppi microsonici di Dick Richards. Per la stesso marchio di Montréal esce anche Chemin de fer dell’autrice elettroacustica Magali Babin. Trascorsi nel gruppo femminile d’improvvisazione Les Nitroglycérins e collaborazioni con nomi del calibro di Tétreault e St-Onge, la Babin edifica pregnanti sculture sonore, pellicole acustiche contrappuntate da dettagli e risonanze timbriche ottenute con l’impiego esclusivo di oggetti metallici riciclati o reinventati.

At the Synthèse 2002 festival (Bourges, May 31 to June 9, 2002), vivie’ vinçent will project and spatialize the new mix (2002) of Physics of Seduction. Invocation #2, a work for harpsichord and tape written in 1991 by Paul Dolden for vivienne spiteri at her request. In addition, vivie’ vincent will project and spatialize the 2nd movement of The Desert Speaks… Praescio III, the first piece written for her harpsichord with its prototype MIDI system. This work was written by Bruce Pennycook in 1988 for and at the request of vivienne spiteri.

Once you get past the torrid package design of this release, you will find a pleasing array of upbeat, knotty little tracks from Québec’s Frédérick Blouin. The mood is light and quirky, with softly crunching beats backing effortless melodies and layered syncopations. The disc is a collection of tracks recorded between 1995 and 2001, and as such, could be construed as some sort of “historical” release. But on listening to the disc, you will find that there is a sense of timelessness about the pieces here. They may very well have been recorded some years ago, but they still sound freshly constructed, and rival a good number of electro artists’ releases from today. Perhaps it is the premise of keeping things simple that engages, or perhaps the fact there are no real musical “trends” prevalent in the music here, just well-formed and entertaining compositions to reach your ears. A very worthwhile release, from beginning to end.

Yves Beaupré beavers away in his workshop building a hundred harpsichords. As he hammers and strings and flexes the things he records the sounds of the instruments’ birth pangs. Lucky for our ears, he stitches the recordings into acousmatic soundscapes that are mysterious, evocative and plain beautiful. Any clot who thinks electroacoustic music has become irredeemably entrenched in the same old gestures and routines should open their ears to this stunning debut from a composer possessed of genius who is going to have a (sur)real challenge surpassing such a masterpiece. This is a richly transporting transparent journey into the guts of the creation process. Images pour from the darkened room into the minds eye of wood and varnish and nails and strings swirling about in a void and accreting magically into a heavenly harpsichord which looms ever larger as I shrink to dust mote size. Boxed inside the vintage contraption, rhythmic structures unfold and coalesce and drone visions of eighteenth century time locks emerge. Historic and modern worlds collide in the computer as small planks become dense forests. And all this without the aid of hallucinogens!