Rene Lussier & Martin Tetreault: Dur Noyau Dur (Ambiances Magnetiques)

Rene Lussier (guitar), Martin Tetreault (turntables, electronics)

Tetreault's electronics and turntable manipulations have the primeval sound of early IRCAM experiments; an unstable, glitching quality which gives these duets their edge. They are mostly short pieces -- averaging 2 minutes or so, the briefest just 11 seconds -- and this enables the pair to explore and experiment without risking the most common downfall of this kind of music, simply getting lost and boring the listener rigid. Lussier plays with great verve: on electric guitar he often blends with Tetreault, preferring abstract noise to notes, while on acoustic he takes a more conventional route, echoing Derek Bailey but sometimes even using a slide to create oblique country blues references.

Each piece has an identity of its own, mainly due to the range of sounds which both players create, though Tetreault is especially careful not to repeat himself too much here; this makes the whole that much more approachable. In duet terms, Tetreault can sometimes be overbearing, and there are times when the two appear not to be listening to one another, but that is not always so bad in this kind of music. Often enough, two different approaches emerge simultaneously and diverge; the listener must strain to follow their differing lines of argument until, some of the time at least, they converge again. This is an hour spent in intriguing company.

Richard Cochrane