2004 Seattle Improvised Music Festival
Saturday, February 21 · Consolidated Works
500 Boren Avenue N · 8 P.M. · $5-15 sliding scale donationLes Poules
Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse & Danielle P. Roger (Montréal)These three instrumentalist/composer/improvisors have been playing together since 1986 in numerous projects. They are now presenting a brand new repertoire, "Prairie orange." They mix up synthetic and acoustic sounds: the crackling and humming of samplers, the churning and chafing of percussion, vocalization, and the mouth play and hissing of saxophones. The effect of these mixtures and soundscapes is extraordinary; they weave a fabric of sound whose instrumental threads the listener will sometimes find difficult to distinguish.
Vocalist and sax player Joane Hétu was born in Montréal in 1958. She became active in music in 1980 and since then has become one of the pillars of contemporary Canadian music. A composer, author, and improviser, Hétu was one of the founding members of the Justine and Wondeur Brass creative collectives. Since 1992 she has been directing her own ensemble, Castor et Compagnie, which performs her erotic, disconcerting songs; she also works together with Jean Dérome as Nous Perçons les Oreilles. She regularly performs in improvisational events (Les Instants de l'Instinct, the Cabaret de la Pleine Lune, and La Grande Boudine) and has collaborated on many dance, poetry, and film-music projects with musicians such as Jean Dérome, Danielle P. Roger, Michel F. Coté, and Chris Cutler, amongst others. She has made numerous concert tours and appeared in many festivals and other important events in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Her discography lists more than a dozen releases. She is also the director of the DAME (Distribution Ambiances Magnétiques Et cætera) record label, co-director of Productions SuperMémé-SuperMusique, and a member of Ambiances Magnétiques.
Composer, improviser, and performer Diane Labrosse is one of the active agents on the musique actuelle scene. She has given many concerts both at home and abroad with the groups Wondeur Brass, Justine, Castor et Compagnie, Parasites, and Ile Bizarre, and has performed in many major festivals. Over the last twenty years she has collaborated frequently with Martin Tétreault, Michel F. Coté, Joane Hétu, Danielle P. Roger, Jean Derome, Ikue Mori, and many others. She has written music for director Robert Lepage ("Zulu Time" and "La Géométrie des miracles"), choreographers Richard Siegal (Ballet Frankfurt), Andrew Harwood (Montréal), and Catherine Tardif (Montreal), filmmakers Patricia Rozema (Montréal vu par...) and Sylvain L'espérance ("Pendant que les arbres tombent"). She has worked with internationally known Theater Cryptic ("Each and every inch") and Tura-ya-moya ("Cave 2000" and "Estafette Son"). She has written for different ensembles from Montréal, Vancouver, and Toronto and was commissioned by Array Music, Espaces Sonores Illimités, and Productions SuperMusique. She has more than thirty albums to her credit, including Face cachée des choses (a solo project), Ile Bizarre, and most recently Petit traité de Sagesse pratique. She is also a co-director of Productions SuperMusique and a member of Ambiances Magnétiques.
Danielle P. Roger is a percussionist, composer, and improviser who has been active in avant-garde music in Montréal since 1980. She has been a member of the ensembles Justine, Wondeur Brass, and Les Poules, and has collaborated on many improvised music projects, including Double-Sens and Flammèches. She has collaborated on dance and theater productions, working with the dancer Andrew de L. Harwood and the actor Marie Ouellet, among others. She has written the words and music for a musical tale, "L'Oreille enflée," composed "Un coeur serein dans le tumulte" for the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, and collaborated with Marie Pelletier during the Rencontre musique écrite/musique improvisée. She has released several discs on the Ambiances Magnétiques lable, including the recent Tricotage, a duo with French double-bass player Joelle Léandre. She has also made a number of concert tours of Canada, Europe, and the United States, and has appeared at important musical events such as the Ring Ring Festival (Belgrade), the New York International Festival of the Arts, the Musique Action Festival (Nancy), the Canada Nouveau Festival (London), and Wie es ihr Gefallt (Berlin). She is a co-director of Productions SuperMusique and a member of Ambiances Magnétiques.
2004 Seattle Improvised Music Festival