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Etude, Berbiguier
Speaking of horsepower, I tried recording here in my mechanic’s family-run bay earlier in the summer, but without much success! An industrial fan was on, creating white noise, and my set-up was badly thought out, with the flute sounding too distant and meagre. Besides, there wasn’t any work going on in the garage to speak of, at least not the tinkering, clanging kinds of sounds I had hoped for!
So when I recently visited T & S Auto in Mississauga (I followed them to Dixie & The Queensway when they moved from the Adelaide and Bathurst area: they are that good!) I had a second try while I waited for my shuttle to the TTC. Just as I had suspected, the superb, open, shoebox acoustic was there waiting patiently for some spontaneous music-making!
The mechanic on hand remembered my project and it turns out he took me seriously when I said that there wasn’t enough background sound the first time. He was only too happy to oblige this time around: can this guy wield a wrench or what? Give this a listen and you be the judge!
Shades of Varese and his Air Sirens in – which one is it now? – Ionisation, right, a staggering piece that blew me away in my student days, and one of a handful of pieces by Varese that influenced Frank Zappa.
Thanks to Ensemble InterContemporain for their disciplined performance, although I think they could have loosened their ties a bit!? In the end, who’s going to argue with Boulez in a groundbreaking staple of the French Repertoire? Give this the 6+ minutes it deserves when you have the chance, but I suggest headphones and a careless hand on the volume control.
