Netherlands-based French-Canadian Carmen Jaci crafts maximalist collages out of electric shards. Classical symphonies crash into dance beats and video game music-like bleeps, all coloured in neon. Happy Child codifies her style in seven pieces, each capturing a lightheartedness—and occasional silliness—while flying by at breakneck speed. At times, the album’s prismatic sound is oversaturated with details and ideas, but when each piece snaps together, Jaci finds a quirky, wondrous groove. Much of Happy Child involves bursts of energy matched with dramatic pauses: fragments of noise that pack a punch. But when her disjointed, off-kilter sounds take a back seat, the music finds its footing. “Jeux d’eau” plunges into this more subtle soundworld, building from a glowing drone; as the sound expands, thunderous beats and crackles pulse underneath, giving way to celestial harp plucks and a forlorn piano. It’s jam-packed, but every element, no matter how disparate, feels in its right place.
Plucking ideas from so many branches of music is a lofty goal, but when Jaci locks them into place, the sound is ecstatic. Happy Child closer “Assemblages,” the grooviest track on the album, simmers all these ideas in one pot, unleashing a rainbow-coloured explosion. And while there may seem to be a world of difference between bubbly electronics and a symphony, Jaci uncovers the surprising connections that live between them, making her own dance party.
