jonty harrison, new empreintes digitales site

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

after two off-topic messages, perhaps i should post a few words about
the new jonty harrison cd _évidence matérielle_ (empreintes digitales)
which i've gotten recently thanks to oeivind's review.  (yes, i work
there but that doesn't make me a specialist in acousmatics :)

all in all, to this untrained ear, it's a very pleasing record from
start to finish, though my favorite track is the 1982 piece _klang_,
made out of earthenware casserole sounds.  beautiful, beautiful, slowly
unfolding & fascinating study of pure sound following a totally musical
train of thought.  the whole album makes use of treated & untreated
sounds (steps, crowds, metal, etc.) which you do sometimes "recognize"
for what they are, yet are never used litterally; a welcome attempt to
break the dichotomy of "sound as contextual particle" versus "music as
sounds out of context".  a word on the production: it's pristine (the
casseroles especially, well...  you feel like you're there.)

& while i'm at it, i'll plug the new empreintes digitales site:

http://www.empreintesdigitales.com

all albums, & all individual works are listed there by year & by
artist.  links go to the good old electrocd.com site, which is going to
see a rehaul in the next weeks/months.  there also will be a new site
for the avant-garde/musique actuelle label ambiances magnétiques (home
of klaxon gueule, diane labrosse, martin tétreault, rené lussier & many
others) soon.

buy electroacoustic music.  it pays my rent.  :)

~ david