Ensemble is the musical alter ego of Olivier Alary, originally from Toulouse but now a resident of Montreal. Like his newly adopted home town, this album is bi-lingual - its ten tracks being democratically divided between two languages. "The city brought me back to my French roots." he says.
Alary describes his musical project as "a platform to explore the meeting point between melodic noise and disjointed pop"; a grand statement which might lead you to fear a record with an excess of studio trickery. This turns out not to be the case since no software or sampling was used on it.
Instead, the album was recorded almost entirely using physical, acoustic instruments and objects. It was committed to tape in Montreal and mixed in New York and Berlin with the help of German composer and sound designer Johannes Malfatti.
On the songs, Alary does a convincing imitation of Serge Gainsborough's decadent romanticism, while Darcy Conroy's elegant vocals provide the English charm (although she also duets with Alary and is the lead vocalist on Les Saisons Viennent).
Her singing voice has a breathy intimacy, like a less soulful version of Chan Marshall (Cat Power) a singer who, not coincidentally, worked with Alary on a previous Ensemble album.
An even more prestigious past collaboration for him was with Björk who requested his services after being impressed with Sketch Proposals, Ensemble's self-titled debut album on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records. Alary confesses he wasn't even a big fan of Björk's music at the time but he nevertheless agreed to do several remixes for her and the two worked together on the sublime track , Desired Constellation, from Medulla.
This should give you some idea as to the level of excellence Alvary aspires to - Björk, after all, is not known as an artist who works with any Tom, Dick and Jacques.
The cover photograph gives a clue to the theme of this album. It shows a room in a state of flux, cluttered with artefacts as if someone is preparing to move or perhaps has just moved in.
In a similar vein, the music is not in a settled place. It is at once thoroughly modern yet is also heavily steeped in a mixture of nostalgia and muted desire; harking back to the 60's and 70's in particular. Alary explains how his songs reflect real and imagined memories : "we yearn for this idealized era that we never lived, for beautiful places that we've never been to.".
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As an example of his experimental side, and with shades of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops (itself a metaphor for fading memories), a short track, November 22nd, uses the sound of deteriorated cassette. This makes for a stark and haunted backing to Conroy's otherwise unaccompanied voice.
A similar effect is achieved on the beautiful closing track ,Before Night, where delicate orchestration is added to give a richer sound.
The breezy title track (also a single) with sprightly pizzicato strings is another good example of the album's blend of crisp orchestral pop and pastoral folk.
Throughout, smooth changes of tempo suggest those times when a carefree mood can suddenly be lost without warning. The track , Imprints, exemplifies this. The gentle acoustics and lyrics of "starry meadows" and catching shadows is full of joy yet also evokes melancholy thoughts of fleeting time. Similarly a song like the slow, elegant waltz, Valse Des Objets Trouves, dissolves midway through into blissed-out ambience.
As a result, the relatively conventional song structures seem fragile; akin to a firm resolve which fades into something altogether more abstract and dreamier.
Since 2007, Alary has worked on soundtracks for several feature-length films and documentaries, work which demands a sure touch when it comes to judging the pace and mood of visual prompts.
The images on this album may be all in the mind's eye but this doesn't hinder him in applying his skill to create a well defined and subtly nuanced atmosphere.
Excerpts is therefore a record that can be enjoyed for its warm experimental ambience or simply as thoughtful shoegaze pop ; either way it is to be celebrated as the work of a musician at the height of his powers.
Ensemble Online
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