Sunday 30 September, 2007

Martin Tétreault - Des Pas et Des Mois (1990)



"Des Pas et Des Mois was Montreal turntablist Martin Tétreault’s first record, and still remains his most enjoyable project. This CD contains two suites, “Des Pas” (“Footsteps”) and “Des Mois” (“Months”). The first one is written and performed with guitarist René Lussier. It follows a young couple learning to dance the tango and the cha-cha-cha from records in order to participate in local competitions. The material used for these fifteen short movements mostly come from such dance instructional and self-improvement records, all in french. Tétreault applies his techniques of cut-up records and mixed storylines from different sources. Lussier brings in a handful of melodies that could have been found on his Le Trésor de la Langue or Le Corps de l’Ouvrage. Between the suites are two short pieces illustrating two of Tétreault’s key techniques: the three-in-one (three slices from different records pasted together) and the skid.



Then comes “Des Mois,” written with drummer Michel F Côté, and also featuring Lussier and clarinetist Robert Marcel Lepage. This suite relies less heavily on humor: Côté’s complex textural arrangements bring another dimension to the music, but Tétreault’s incredibly cheesy record collection delivers a few more surprises (especially on Juin). The first suite is similar in style (with the addition of Lussier’s touch) to Tétreault’s cassette Snipettes, while the second one drifts closer to the first Bruire (Michel F. Côté’s project) album Le barman a Tort de Sourire. In any case, Des Pas et Des Mois remains one of Ambiances Magnétiques’ strangest, funniest and finest moments".
François Couture, All Music Guide

Martin Tétreault: turntables, records, rhythm montage, wave feedback with magnetophone, friction on the "pick-up plateau", guitar solo on pick-up, cassettes, voice.
René Lussier: guitar, electric bass, percussions, voice.
Jean Derome: flute, alto sax.
Michel Coté: maracas, electronic and acoustic percussion, synth, cd, cassettes, short waves
Robert Lepage: clarinet, alto sax

link @224

7 comments:

Spring Day said...

Great line-up. I really love Lussier's Trésor de la langue and look forward to hearing some more of his playing here. Thanks once more, Mr. Juju!

bravo juju said...

I had taken Trésor de la Langue somewhere form the web, but then lost it when my hard-disk collapsed. You'll find this comparable, I think, but a little more fragmented, as this is mostly a "turntablism" album. This is great fun, and possibly even my grandmother would enjoy this!

Unknown said...

- Doctor, which I will do?
- Try a Tétreault record diet...

Metagnathous said...

I'm a big fan of Lussier and have been wanting to hear this one for a long time. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

now - bravo, i wanna meet your grandmother! maybe she speaks french fluently, i don't. maybe that's one reason i can't fully get this thing (same thing with 'tresor de la langue', which i posted earlier: i enjoy the musicality of the language melody transciptions and the arrangements of lussier, but... since you lost it, want it?).

i don't listen to lyrics a lot. i enjoy vocals when they're on, but mostly i don't listen to the meanings at all. so it goes :|
maybe other works of tetrault aren't focusing on speach as much?!?!?

bravo juju said...

My French is not good enough for these fellows either, although I enjoy their québécois accent. But this is a much less spoken record than Trésor de la Langue. I particularly like the "Months" section with its almost swinging instrumentations.

By the way, I recently found the Trésor de la Langue CD, cheap, and bought it. I guess this proves that music-sharing is not killing the industry: maybe it's the scandalously high prices ?

Anonymous said...

merci beaucoup jr