Articles
Robert Henke
Deepchord and Soultek

Albums
Amoebazoid
Boy Is Fiction
BTB
Calika
Vic Chesnutt
Enrico Coniglio
Eric Copeland
Deadbeat
Deepchord : Echospace
Ditch
Terrence Dixon
Brian Ellis
Reinhold Friedl
The Green Kingdom
Marc Hannaford
Hrsta
K. Leimer
Lights Out Asia
Nebula 3
Netherworld
Le Peuplier de Simon
Po
Portable
Lou Reed
Jeffrey Roden
Skallander
Swod
Gregory Taylor
Telephone Jim Jesus
Pau Torres
Tunng
Rolan Vega
Robert Vincs
Warmth
Otomo Yoshihide

Compilations / Mixes
Sander Kleinenberg
One Point Two
Total 8

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Adultnapper
Arrow!!!
Ascoltare
Beneva vs. Clark Nova
Cinematic Orchestra
Deepchord : Echospace
Easy Changes
Fink
Peter Grummich
The Heavy
Isomer Transition
Laptik
Larytta
Nadja
Pendle Coven
Polvere
Redhooker
Spied
Andy Stott
Torrance & Hochstrate
Andy Vaz

Le Peuplier de Simon: Cheers to the Seasons
Digitalis / Natacha's

Cheers to the Seasons, the debut CD by Montreal-based electronic collagist Simon Belair, weaves field recordings, old vinyl, radio signals, electronics, clarinet, and piano into multi-textured, occasionally meandering settings that do evoke the becalmed splendor of a summer evening, among other things. There are some good moments here: samples and loops nicely cohere into stuttering haze in “Afterhours,” spiraling Ayler-like saxophones render the balladic “L'air chaud du marantz” memorable, and church-like tones and a female's undulating vocal give “Les saisons ésotériques” a hymnal air, though the potentially lovely effect is compromised by the needless inclusion of excess noise; “Les oiseaux et les motos” even manages a hiccupping semblance of minimal techno. Some of it's a little too freeform, though; with its wayward electronic babble and chatter, “Goodbye” ends up sounding a bit too much like a patchwork bedroom experiment. To his credit, Belair keeps the pace unhurried and the development organic in his nine pieces, but a slightly less loose approach to compositional form might be better the next time around.

September 2007