#ensemble dedalus

Graphic Design: Vincent Menu / Le Jardin Graphique

ErikM is a bit of a navigator himself. He’s operated across a spectrum that spans improvised adventures with figures such as Isabelle Duthoit, Christian Fennesz, and Anthony Pateras, and labor-intensive sound constructions. Fata Morgana joins both ends of the continuum. The initial spark derives from ErikM’s collection of natural sounds, sourced from bats and aquatic creatures, that are normally inaudible to humans. He amplified and played them to the musicians of Ensemble Dedalus, a new music group from Toulouse, France, that has realized the music of Eliane Radigue, Pascale Criton and Moondog. They mimicked and otherwise reacted to this material, and their responses begat scores, which the ensemble then performed in real time with ErikM. Recordings of the played music was then edited and re-composed, resulting in the recording under consideration. 

By now, some readers might be wondering why an electroacoustic composition by established European practitioners has been released on an American label that specializes in disseminating the work of new improvisers, as well as some established jazz veterans (Tim Berne, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey) who have NY zip codes. Perhaps because the music draws upon a common vocabulary of extended instrumental techniques? Fata Morgana sings a siren song to ears that are tuned into tart string snaps, brass growls and abraded timbres, which mix appositely with the naturally sourced high frequencies heard early in the piece. 

But the post-performance rearrangement of these sounds leads to an unfolding that may be episodic, but quite different from the accumulations and attenuations of events that one might associated with a free improvisation. One gets the impression that sounds are arranged so that a listener will focus on events as they happen. Instead of transpiring in some narrative fashion, the music’s developments have been embedded within the sounds. While the album’s liner notes refer to “tangled trails,” a sound traveler could obtain plenty of satisfaction from being dropped in helicopter fashion in and out of the music. Put more prosaically, don’t be afraid to listen a track at a time, or using shuffle play.