Jacques Cartier Bridge, Montreal

Behrens

Okay, I admit I have a thing about playing flute under bridges! Partly I have discovered that while providing fairly live acoustics, the ambient sound of traffic in the background is often surprisingly surreal and evocative. In this case, I couldn’t think of a better way to clear my head after a very late night (quel surpris!) in Montreal, the cafe au lait not having really done the trick! Listen for the surprising glimpses of reverberant spaciousness that come through in certain phrase fragments. Despite the din of morning traffic on wet pavement coming from all directions, and the fact that the bridge pictured here is easily 150′-200′ overhead from where I set up to record, the acoustic of the space is remarkably distinct.

So this post gets grouped along with playing under the Gardiner Expressway here in Toronto, as well under an Interstate on the way back from the Flute Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The source music is from a piece by the distinguished composer Jack Behrens, and recorded after finally extricating myself south out of a deliciously rain-soaked Montreal rush-hour weekday crush, en route through upstate New York and Vermont, headed for Boston.

Incidentally, there is a Jacques Cartier theme simmering away with the locations and source material for UrbanFlute…I am determined to convey this in greater detail before too long!

Playing Jack’s piece was the perfect way to get my bearings before getting back in my car and heading down through New England!