Behind Sun Dog, we find the duo of Isabelle Duthoit (vocals) and ErikM (electronics). Of the latter, I heard before. He’s been around since the early 90s when he came on the improvised music scene armed with electronics, such as CDs, miniDisc and other electronics. He played with Luc Ferrari, Christian Marclay, Thurston Moore and others. From Isabelle Duthoit, I had not heard before. She had classical training and started an improvisation music festival in 1994. Besides voice, she also plays the clarinet (not on this release) and played concerts with Michel Doneda, Franz Hautzinger and others. The two climbed a mountain before landing in the village of Sault, where they recorded the fourteen pieces on this CD. Quite a surprising release for Cronica Electronica, I think. I know this label primarily for their releases that deal with technology, by which I mean laptop technology. Of course, ErikM uses electronics, which is also technology, but the result of this interaction with a voice makes this an unusual release for this label. And that is because the music is more part of the world of improvised music than the electro-acoustic and modern musique concrète it usually does. There are aspects of this duo that one might call electro-acoustic, with ErikM doing quite some radical stuff at times. Duthoit’s vocalisations fit the electronics pretty well. And times, one could say she imitates the electronics, which blends naturally, but there are also instances in which she tries to be as much contrast as she can be. They keep their musical interactions brief, two to four minutes, with a few exceptions, which dramatically benefits this release. Some of the album moments that are very much improvised and not so much up my alley are mixed with more abstract bursts of electronics, noisy and electro-acoustic doodling – very much up my street. There is some good energy with in this release to enjoy. (FdW)
via Vital Weekly