This CD begins and ends with random street interviews on computer generated music. The techniques employed are varied as the answers of the interview participants. Appleton was co-designer of the Synclavier. In the 70’s he toured with this instrument now used by Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, etc. To say Appleton’s music is diverse is an understatement. Many tape pieces are included in his varied collages. This disc is remarkable in the transference of this “electroacoustic” technique to CD. These pieces were created from ’66 to ’96, 30 years of experimentation. Appleton idenitifies two techniques: “abstract manipulation of timbre” and “the use of ‘found’ music and recognizable ‘objets sonores.’” The notes further give Appleton’s remarks on each composition and the time and place of creation.

Varied sounds come in glimpses, interrupted by periods of silence, or near silence. This might sound even unsettling, but it strikes me more as a series of provoking, sonic propositions. Each idea stands out clearly and time granted for consideration. The French and English liner notes describe “unstable spaces” while Roy’s own notes bring into play the aural color, or “klangfarben.” This seems better suited to the title, to me. I see monuments of diverse form and color placed periodically along a road. Further notes explore each of the four tracks (the shortest cut is nearly ten minutes). Avant-garde compositions for the stereo adventurer.

Jon Appleton has been a central figure in electroacoustic music for close to 3 decades now. Contes de la mémoire is sort of like his “Greatest Hits” compilation — a collection of ten electronic pieces from throughout his career. The earliest of these pieces is Georganna’s Fancy (1966), which is an abstract piece based on timbre manipulation that seems to draw its inspiration from the phoneme-happy Darmstadt boys of the 1950’s (i.e. Stockhausen and Co.). Other early pieces include the 1967 Appleton theme song Chef d’œuvre, which samples a jingle for Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee pizza by the Andrews Sisters, and the gloriously hip 1969 Newark Airport Rock which combines recordings of average people responding to the question, “What do you think of the new electronic music?” set to a cut ’n’ paste accompaniment of rock ’n’ roll samples. The most recent pieces (like Dima Dobralsa Domoy (1993) and San Francisco Airport Rock (1996)) are pretty mellow (perhaps too mellow) — they lack the bite that the 60’s-era pieces have. For anyone with an interest in American electronic music, Contes de la mémoire offers a valuable artistic history of one of its chief perpetrators.

The popularity of computer music being what it is, even a distinguished electronic musician/composer like Appleton is heard largely on compilations or in retrospectives like this one, with selections spanning 30 years of artistic labor. Appleton himself admits that three of the early pieces “almost sound like music composed by someone else.” And yet there is a discernible stylistic continuity to the 10 works on this disc, partly due to Appleton’s heavy use of the Synclavier (an instrument he helped to develop) and partly due to his copious use of sound and vocal samples to create his “memory tales.” All of the selections are of interest, but my own favorites are the four somewhat longer tracks which allow Appleton to develop his ideas. Two of these tracks document Appleton’s exploration of Russian cultural history and his own heritage; they include samples of Russian newscasts and indigenous recorded music. Another of the longer pieces, In Media Res is a Synclavier tour de force which uses drone elements, including sampled bagpipes, and at times sounds like a hyperkinetic version of vintage Terry Riley. Times Square Times Ten is a musical “dig” in downtown New York, starting with street sounds, then subway clatter and snippets of old popular songs, announcements and radio broadcasts, along with the apparent creaks and groans of subway ghosts. The CD ends, humorously, with some clever sampling of the Andrews Sisters singing in an old Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial. Appleton’s work requires the listener’s full attention, but it consistently demonstrates wit, creativity and technical skill.

La même étiquette nous propose Zoo, quatre pièces du compositeur torontois Dan Lander, qui travaille normalement sur des textes enregistrés plutôt que sur des tonalités. Le morceau le plus intéressant, Talking to a Loudspeaker, est un collage souvent drôle de 24 minutes de bribes de discussions à la Chambre des communes, prévisions météo, annonces radiophoniques et même «temps morts».

Une étiquette active, la maison montréalaise empreintes DIGITALes lance un coffret de deux disques de musique du compositeur vancouverois de naissance havanaise Sergio Barroso. Au clavier sur quatre des neuf pièces du recueil, le compositeur puise dans sa culture cubaine les éléments d’une musique distinctive qui se fait tantôt spectaculaire (La Fiesta), tantôt mystérieuse (En Febrero, pour violon et bande) ou minimaliste (Tablao, hommage à la musique de guitare de flamenco).