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Marc Tremblay — Bruit-Graffiti
(Empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9949, 1999, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2016-10-20

Bruit-Graffiti Cover art

"Bruit" is French for noise, noise that can be innocuous, bothersome, undesirable, or pointless. Marc Tremblay is a French Canadian electroacoustic composer who explores six interpretations of these aspects of noise on this album. The opening composition, "Vroum," is an aural exploration of the automobile using samples of the Beatles ("Beep beep mmm beep beep, yeah!"), car horns, car doors, starting engines, driving cars, etc. These are those mundane sounds we hear everyday brought into a new focus. The second composition, "Conte sous la Lune," is intended as an homage to childhood. It is a quiet piece with tinkling chimes, fluttering electronics, and infants laughing and bathing, all sampled and processed. The third piece, "Résidus (clip dadaïste)," can be quite revolting to some listeners. Tremblay plays with the sounds we hear in a bathroom: flushing, belching, farting, vomiting, washing, etc. and a bit more out there than Roger Waters’ Body Music. "Résidus" builds to a toilet flush of major proportions, probably not something you want to have playing as dinner music. The fourth composition is "Cowboy Fiction," where Tremblay samples the soundtracks from the French version of Howard Hawks’ El Dorado, John Ford’s The Searchers, a cover of Hank Williams’ "Rambling Man," locomotives, and guns. This is an ingenious blend of these sources that results in a dream-like vision of Hollywood Westerns with the White Man (John Wayne) taking the land by force from the Indian. The fifth composition is "Ceci est un Message Enregistré," a sexy little number exploring the sonic realm of the telephone: ringing, hidden defects, dead-air moments, anonymous voices, and its decadent use for phone sex. The disc closes with "L’Argent… Toujours L’Argent." This piece is a study of money as sound material and is more ambient / cosmic in nature than the other pieces. Bruit-graffiti is the perfect addition to your sound collage library.

Filed under: New releases, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Marc Tremblay

 

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