This album complements an exhibition which is on as I write this (August 2006). Under the artistic direction of Francisco López, eight sound artists collected material around Montréal, pooled it and then each created a piece. The results fall into two general categories. First, those whose pieces are based within the sound: Hélène Prévost whose piece shifts between the site recordings and skewed patched/processed outputs, shifting between the concrete and abstract, sometimes aggressive but generally relaxed; Heimbecker who layers buzzing sounds against recognisable site recordings, eventually you become desensitised to the buzz and hear the sounds; Chantal Dumas with recognisable water, birds, strings, doors, some processing but creating a sound picture of a city; A_dontigny who layers the material in a complex and dense work. The others take the sounds well away from source — Dufort rapidly shifts away from recognisable elements to clouds of fragments, building and falling ending in a strong overdrone; Phillips with attractive ambient drones, subsonic shakings and ringing; López scratching scraping deep thrums, some bird noises, sometimes noisy; Levesque’s very electro squeals, clicks, looping percussive thrums, plucked notes. The common elements lend some connections across the set, but the Montréal theme is not strong, but rather this works as a set of varied and engaging soundworks.
