Lawrence Joseph
Philippe Battikha. Invisible Backgrounds. Balance and variety are the keys to Montreal trumpet player Philippe Battikha’s latest release, on which he avoids the flashy displays of technical virtuosity evident on many solo instrumental albums. Best known for his work in noisy ensembles such as La Part Maudite and Corse and as a[...] Read more
Yves Bouliane. Champ (10 Opérations). Tenzier’s hunt for the lost treasures of Quebec avant-garde music history is as relentless as the music on this album of Yves Bouliane cello solos, originally released in 1977 in an ultra-limited edition of ten cassettes. Aside from a brief stint in Le quatuor de jazz libre du Qu[...] Read more
FAT and the Masters of Haha. Formed in 1982 in Montreal, FAT features Eric Rosenzveig on guitar, Jeff Noble on bass guitar, and Phil Giborski on drums and samples. The trio was influenced by the era’s DIY-punk aesthetic, as well as the musics of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, but remained distant from both[...] Read more
Anne-F Jacques. Sable ou Sel. Anne-F Jacques is a Montreal sound artist who plays acoustic noise-music on invented instruments. Mechanical loops are created when various objects are attached to spinning motors amplified by contact mikes, assemblies that Jacques categorizes as her “rotating devices.” Unlike[...] Read more
Festival of New Trumpet Music: 2nd Edition. Featuring the instrument in all imaginable contexts, the Festival of New Trumpet (FONT) Music was founded in New York City twelve years ago by Dave Douglas and the late Roy Campbell, Jr. FONT Music Canada is now in its second year, imported north by former Montrealer Aaron Shragge (who helps[...] Read more
Digital Primitives. Lipsomuch & Soul Searchin’… This two-disc release features a trio of free-jazz stalwarts who do not engage in your standard squawk session. Instead, they slice ninety-four minutes into nineteen funky cuts, as much influenced by country blues, rock, and various world musics as by modern strains of jazz.[...] Read more
David Grubbs. Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties and Sound Recording. An endless stream of recordings flows through the Internet. Listeners rejoice in having easy access to over a century of music, their mood dampened only in contemplation of the terabytes of sound they will never find time to hear. Few, however, have stopped to study how this increased[...] Read more
Suoni per il Popolo, 13th Edition. Long-running festivals conserve freshness by avoiding stale recipes based on previous successes. Montreal’s Suoni per il Popolo retains the same inviting aroma as the nearby twenty-four-hour bagel factories. With 150 sets of music, film, and workshops spread over eighteen days of[...] Read more
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