Flore Laurentienne, “Autriche III” (Secret Metropolis Information)
A Canadian challenge led by Mathieu David Gagnon, Flore Laurentienne make electronic-tinged classical music of beautiful sophistication and wonder. Their first two albums—Quantity I and Quantity II—deal in expansive gestures, with analog synthesizers and strings main the way in which. Most of the group’s orchestrations evoke the classiest Hollywood soundtrack music and, consequently, they’ll often really feel overwrought and maudlin. However there isn’t any denying the ambition and melodic gracefulness inhabiting Flore Laurentienne’s tracks on these information.
With their third album, 8 tableaux (which was impressed by the works of Twentieth-century Québécois painter/sculptor, Jean-Paul Riopelle), Flore Laurentienne tone down the drama, to their benefit. You may hear the outcomes from the primary few seconds of opening observe “Level d’acrange,” whose icy keyboard tintinnabulation contrasts with poignantly swelling synths that preserve ascending to triumphant heights. On “La nuit bleue (Bourgie),” it appears as if bugs are singing to the late, nice ambient keyboardist Harold Budd’s skeletal tone poetry—an odd idea, effectively executed. “Cap-Tourmente” consists of infinitesimal sonic occasions considerably paying homage to Pete Jolly’s keyboard mesmerism on Seasons, whereas a distant drone provides gravitas. “Feuilles IV” seems like Scottish IDM legends Boards of Canada in a panicked reverie.
Album spotlight “Autriche III” provides a sequence of mild explosions of an unconventionally tuned guitar that decays amid austere drones, to vastly shifting impact; it jogs my memory of Slowdive’s “Rutti.” At in regards to the five-minute mark of this seven-minute observe, the drone intensifies and rises in pitch whereas the guitar disperses. It is a good instance of hypnotizing the listener after which jolting them into the next state of consciousness. “Bleu-vert (Vert de bleu)” facilities round attractive cascades of synth disguised as pedal metal, undergirded by a serene, sonorous drone. What a candy technique to finish an album.
Flore Laurentienne open for William Basinski at Seattle First Baptist Church on September 20, as a part of the Reflections sequence.
Invoice Horist, “Brokers of the Lazarus Taxa” (Proper Mind Information)
Avant-garde guitarist Invoice Horist has been weirding up Seattle’s underground music scene for practically 30 years. He is performed with quite a few bands, together with jazz-fusion heavies Ghidra, global-music subversives Grasp Musicians of Bukkake, and improv supergroup SYCH with Wally Shoup, Chris Corsano, and C. Spencer Yeh.
However Horist actually shines on his solo recordings and performances. A lefty who performs guitar right-handed, Horist wrings uncommon and engrossing sounds out of his instrument by way of non-traditional strategies, making you overlook {that a} guitar—rock’s most iconic image—is producing them. In a 2004 interview in The Stranger, Horist stated, “[T]he sounds one can get by not taking part in by the foundations [are] way more expansive, idiosyncratic, and private. The principle factor is that I can not play an earnest blues lick to save lots of my life, however once I cram a drum cymbal below the strings, it feels honest!”
His albums this decade—2021’s Tastemaker Epics , 2023’s Church and State (with Amy Denio), and the brand new Substratum—discover Horist attaining artistic highs. The latter’s eight observe titles derive from Horist’s occupation as a marine photographer. The innate weirdness of sea life (an image of a Crimson Trumpet Tubeworm graces Substratum‘s cowl) is an analogue to his music. Equally, there is a disorienting depth to the taking part in that feels akin to a nocturnal deep-sea swim. “The Acrobats of Kalabasis” begins with minimalist pinpricks of six-string chimes that finally get reverbed right into a weird orchestra of anchor klangs and intense thrums. “Urschleim Hecklers” is a desolate seascape of forlorn guitar sighs, like Robert Fripp crying into his amp.
Typically Horist’s items merely render all makes an attempt to categorise and describe them futile. Typically you simply gotta revel within the unpredictable strangeness of the twisted aural episodes parading by on Substratum. That being stated, the album reaches a peak on “Brokers of the Lazarus Taxa.” That is the place the true mysteries of the ocean percolate, as Horist turns his axe right into a conduit for tones that may’t be notated on a rating sheet by summoning a number of unspeakable passages, unsettling moods, and strange timbres. It is onerous to think about anybody listening to this on medicine not descending into insanity. And that is one of many highest compliments I can provide to a bit of music.
Invoice Horist’s album-release celebration/”underwater pictures immersion” occurs September 21 at The Grocery Studios, 7 pm-10 pm, $, all ages. Undular Bore opens.
