GGRIL

Loosely translated as amount or are, Sommes is a kaleidoscopic musical package which underscores the distinctive talents of the 21-member Rimouski, Québec-based Le GGRIL. Doubly crucial is that most of the 16 tracks on three CDs are dedicated to performances of ensemble commissions from Canadian composers. One composer Martin Arnold adds banjo (!) styling to his “Éistphéist”, which besides the GGRIL adds Montreal-based string group Quatuor Bozzini. Among the other composers represented from all parts of the country are Malcolm Goldstein, Robert Marcel Lepage, Allison Cameron and Lori Freedman.

Lepage is actually best represented, since brief recapitulations of his “Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice” is reprised several times during the program. At its full length as “Alice” sans chat, it’s the most un-Canadian performance, a pastiche that refers more to Zorn and Zappa than Lewis Carroll. Beginning with guitar strums, double bass vibration and reed squeals, accordion and synthesizer judders underline the exposition as the theme is advanced with idiophone clunks and moderated clarinet tones. Modulated into a buoyant climax with staccato accordion runs, pizzicato sting picking and crackling percussion, linear narrative is replaced by stop-time construction, with its penultimate moments leading to a drum heavy finale.

Robin Servant’s accordion is prominent throughout, adding more inveterate but not conventional timbral slides and smears to more formal tracks such as Malcolm Goldstein’s “Rivers and Mountains Remain” and Freedman’s “Chances Are”. The first is a Feldmanesque creation where textures evolve at lento speed and then some. With extended silences separating intermittent drum pops and cracks, reed squeaks and bellows’ squeezes, despite faint plunger trombone slides the ending is as stretched and static as the introduction. Formal enough so that Romantic tinctures are prominent, “Chances Are” builds to a mini crescendo that intertwines Antoine Létourneau-Berger’s vibes pops and Isabelle Clermont’s harp glissandi with clarinet slurps and accordion tremors leading to a fluid drone. An explosion of brassy smears and frails from the five person bowed string section leads to a final crescendo and climax.

From the opposite end of the spectrum comes Cameron’s “In Memoriam Robert Ashley”. Initially emphasizing conventional string and reed voicing, the theme moves forward in increments as reed buzzes, sul tasto string motion and an unexpected burble of voices create a swelling narrative. As for the Bozzini/Arnold creation, a mercurial connection is made between floating string harmonies and the intermittent banjo twangs. More GGRIL members contribute to the narrative with, guitar strums, fluid string motion and electronic buzzing. /Eventually and cannily, the piece is completed with triumphant glissandi.

Le GGRIL goes through other modifications of contemporary performances/composition interpretation throughout the discs and finishes the series by performing Gus Garside’s “Cumuli tiré de Collective Stories”, a conduction by Rémy Bélanger de Beauport. As basement textures from low-pitched instruments create the ostinato, massive vocalized screams and yowls arise from everyone involved. Ejaculation of high-pitched reed vibrations and tuba-bass clarinet snarls swirl around the theme, which climaxes with a staccato jump to a conclusion that includes concentrated yelling from all involved. Almost 100 per cent CanCon, Sommes should be noted and appreciated as a milestone in projecting Canadian sounds on the international music scene as well.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. Îlots Turgescents 2. Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice 3. Alice 4. To Love That Well Disc 2: 1. Rivers and Mountains Remain 2. Une note n’écoutant qu’elle meme 3. Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice 4. Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice 5. In Memoriam Robert Ashley 6. Éistphéist avec Quatuor Bozzini Disc 3: 1. Chances Are 2. Hantises d’os noués 3. Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice 4. La courbe du moment 5. Chat de Cheshire tiré de Alice 6. Une note n’écoutant qu’elle même (25 sept.) 7. Cumuli tiré de Collective Stories

Personnel: Alexandre Robichaud (trumpet); Gabriel Rochette-Bériau (trombone); Mathieu Gosselin (baritone saxophone); Sébastien Côrriveau (bass clarinet, acoustic guitar, electric bass); Clarisse Bériault (oboe); Robin Servant (accordion); Catherine S. Massicotte, Patricia Ho-Yi Wang (violin); Olivier D’Amours (acoustic and electric guitars);Pascal Landry (classical guitar); Robert Bastien (guitar); Marc-Antoine Mackin-Guay (baritone guitar); Martin Arnold (banjo)*; Alexis Gagnier-Michel (cello); Rémy Bélanger de Beauport (cello, electric bass); Luke Dawson (bass); Éric Normand (bass, electric bass, electronics); Thomas Gaudet-Asselin (electric bass); Isabelle Clermont (electric harp, voice); Antoine Létourneau-Berger (percussion, synthétiseurs) + Quatuor Bozzini: Alissa Cheung, Clemens Merkel (violin); Stéphanie Bozzini (viola); Isabelle Bozzini (cello)