Île Bizarre / Ile Bizarre

Assemble in a studio three musicians who are masters at manipulating the sounds of others — that was the idea behind Île Bizarre. Montréalers Diane Labrosse (sampler) and Martin Tétreault (turntables, with or without records on them) met with New Yorker Ikue Mori (electronic percussion) in July 1997 for this session and a live concert. The listener should not be fooled by the industrial tendencies of the opener "Belli Machina"; most of the tracks are subtle textural audio art pieces, not beat-driven Einstürzende Neubauten-derived industrial songs. Thanks to Labrosse's continuing poetic vision, the music is not confined to abstract free improvisation. These three musicians had brought big banks of source material and the resulting sound palette is rich and diversified. Of course, Île Bizarre is not for the faint of heart; these improvisations require attentive listening and anyone not inclined to sound art should avoid such an album, but fans of Otomo Yoshihide will find a more dreamlike alternative to his vision. ~ François Couture, Rovi