V/A - Ambiances Magnétiques: La Bastringue Migratoire Vol 1 (1996)

"After 12 years of existence and 39 records produced, the seminal Montréal new music label Ambiances Magnétiques felt the need to release its first compilation album, La Bastringue Migratoire. This retrospective CD came out as the label’s main artists (René Lussier, Jean Derome, Joane Hétu and Martin Tétreault, mostly) were about to change their musical approach. After 1996, the bulk of the label’s production will shift from deconstructed rock idioms where humor often plays a central role (Les Granules, Justine, André Duchesne, Jerry Snell) to introverted free improvisation. So La Bastringue Migratoire came at the right time, summarizing the label’s pre-1996 sound. All tracks are taken from albums already published — no unreleased material — and thus this CD offers nothing new to the dedicated fan, but the “musique actuelle” neophyte will find it a helpful sampler. Every major act on the label is represented: René Lussier (thrice if one counts the track by his duo Les Granules), Jean Derome, Martin Tétreault, Justine, Évidence, Bruire and André Duchesne, plus a few lesser-known artists such as Geneviève Letarte and Jerry Snell.
François Couture, All-Music Guide.

"The compilation disc La Bastringue Migratoire makes for a good initiation to the Ambiances Magnétiques label. About a dozen artists are represented here and, though hard to classify, their music is essentially tropes on a basic theme of "art jazz". Some approaches are fairly conventional, like Evidence’s interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s Criss Cross, while others, such as Robert Lepage’s comic-strip-inspired clarinet ditty Le Sourire de la Joconde, are admittedly bizarre. Some tracks are gentle, as in Michel Côté and Diane Labrosse’s Y tu Mirar, while others are brash, like Jerry Snell’s Life in the Suicide Riots. Musical influences present on the disc range from DJ culture in Martin Tétreault’s work, to rock in André Duchesne, to folk music of various cultures sort of sprinkled throughout all the pieces. Poetry is present in the many of the tracks but is particularly central to Genevieve Letarte’s La Ragazza. My favorite work is Les Granules’ Le Tango Qui Ne Finit Jamais -- it combines kitsch with music-craft in a way that is at once sinister and charming. If you haven’t had the pleasure of aurally ogling anything from Ambiances Magnétiques, I strongly recommend La Bastringue Migratoire.

Noah Wane in Splendid E-Zine, June 22nd 1998

1. René Lussier - Mme. Xavier Martin Revisitée/ Le P'tit Jésus de M. Chose
2. Geneviève Letarte - La Ragazza
3. Martin Tétreault - Leurs Personnalités
4. Hétu/Labrosse/Parkins/Roger/Tenko - Épilogue
5. Robert Lepage - La Sourire de la Joconde
6. Jerry Snell - Hope
7. Évidence - Criss-Cross
8. Les Granules - Le Tango Qui Ne Finit Jamais
9. Danielle Roger - La Muette
10. André Duchesne - Elle
11. Justine - Bon Appétit
12. Michel F. Côté/Dianne Labrosse - Y Tu Mirar
13. René Lussier - Les Foins
14. Bruire - Les Deux Mégots
15. Geneviève Letarte - Les Fictions
16. Jean Derome et Les Dangereux Zhoms - Zuripari

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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

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Martin Tétreault + Otomo Yoshihide - 21 Situations (1999)

Martin Tétreault - turntables, records, prepared needles
Otomo Yoshihide - turntables, sampler, cd

"Released in 1999, Martin Tétrault and Otomo Yoshihide's 21 situations documents 21 short improvisations for turntables (with and without treatments on the needles and vinyl), sampler and CD. (...) Recorded in 1997, these 21 short (never much longer than 4 minutes, but most between 1-2 minutes long) deal with various themes that determine their titles: cartoon, science-fiction, conflagration, chant, jungle, chaos, tension, etc. "Satellite", for example, has an eerie cosmic-like sound; "Cartoon" is playful; and "Chant" contains a strange human-made squawking. The mood of this disc is really quite playful, and even though there are some dips into darker themes and sounds, the over-all feeling is one of spontaneous experimentalism. Scratches, scrapings, loops, sharp cut-ups and collage work, grating textures of the needles on treated vinyl, and short glimpses of what the original records may have sounded like are the elements that keep you on your toes throughout the entire recording".
Richard di Santo, Incursion

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