Marc Tremblay teaches in Matane (Québec). He first studied percussion at the Chicoutimi conservatory and then studied electroacoustic music in Montréal. He has collaborated with Michel Ratté and Martin Tétreault and is currently working on a western film project with writer Gilles Arteau.
Bruit-graffiti is his first record. Marc Tremblay approaches electroacoustics from a “popular” or “vernacular” angle. Bruit-graffiti offers six works based on everyday soundsand noises. This is not musique concrète, as the listener easily recognizes the sound sources. In fact, the identification process is part of the listening pleasure in this case. Tremblay is a quoter.
The first track, Vroum, opens with a “Beep Beep” sampled from The Beatles’ Drive My Car. The tone is set. This piece explores the sonic possibilities of the automobile — a nice concert of horns. In Conte sous la lune (Tale under the moon), Tremblay taps in his childhood — excerpts of Canadian children shows resurface here and there. Cowboy Fiction is the best work on this disc. It is constructed from two western movies (El Dorado and The Searcher) and various related sound sources like samples of Hank Williams. The atmosphere of these movies is brilliantly rendered. «… Ceci est un message enregistré…» (This is a recording) digs into the world of communication through the telephone and it leaves room to erotic phone calls. L’argent… toujours l’argent! (Money… always money!) reminds us of what makes the world go round. All these pieces run between 10 and 15 minutes long. Résidus (clip dadaïste) (Waste), is a 5-minute dadaist clip and the most disgusting piece of electroacoustics I ever heard. A tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s Fontaine, this piece uses noises heard in a public restroom. Very graphical, this work leaves no room to the imagination. The first two minutes are funny, but then I start to get sick. Still, interesting in a very weird way. Bruit-graffiti doesn’t belong to the same realm of electroacoustic art than Francis Dhomont’s poetry. More popular, graphic and accessible, even funny at times, it’s easy to listen to and has many surprises. I liked it a lot.
Very strongly recommended ★★★★
Translated from French.
