Alexandre St-Onge:
Une mâchoire et deux trous

st-ong-umdt.jpg (8k) Alexandre St-Onge: Une mâchoire et deux trous
(Namskeio - 1999)

Canadian electro-acoustician Alexandre St-Onge explores soundworlds where (to my knowledge) no one has gone before, except perhaps the orthodontists/dentists of the world... and even they don't hear the microscopic occurences as recorded on Une mâchoire et deux trous (which, according to the Babel Fish/Altavista Translator, means "A jaw and two holes").

In the liner notes, the artist himself explains the situation and location of these previously unheard noises...

"The source material for this record consists of various field recordings of my mouth, as well as audio documentation of having a microphone in my mouth while sleeping in front of my apartment building"

For more than 45 minutes, seven unnamed tracks document the sonic goings-on within the microcosmic expanse of Alexandre St-Onge's oral cavity... believe it or not. Surely some processing (though of what nature and to what degree, I cannot speculate) has been done to these recordings, but regardless... these sonic tableaus are truly alien in their intimate humanity. (And thankfully, he's not a snorer...).

Tracks 1 and 2 (7:18) are awash in an effervescent sea of seemingly-digital bits of atom-sized sound particles. The unknowable audioscenes are peppered with occasional gritty outbursts, and minor alterations in general ambiance, but for the most part, just simmer intriguingly. Foreign vocals at the very end of 2 precede the tiny sounds of track 3, which simultaneously ring and percolate, like a miniaturized babbling brook.

Track 4 begins with a prolonged silence, though grows increasingly louder and more active. Glitchy nodules of sound seem to multiply and are eventually windswept by the artist's own respiration. Sounding exactly like many of today's hyperminimal electronic/microwave excursions, track 5 features the spacious near-nothingness of almost-subaudible low tones between small bits of static. Over a faint hiss, 6 seems to be the sound of St-Onge's teeth being picked or scraped with metallic instruments... at any rate, scritchy probings appear to be happening here.

Windy breath and lightly buzzing textures seep through track 7 (4:52). The tone shifts into higher, ringing modulations which fizz and chime, then erupt into a more raucous set of twisted chitters, just before the track fades away...

Visit Switzerland's Namskeio Records to learn more.

If one didn't know the true origins of Une mâchoire et deux trous, they'd most likely not guess either... Alexandre St-Onge's odd panoramas don't give too many clues. Instead, they simply unfurl in their own style, in their own time, and in doing so, are rather fascinating to explore. An 8.3 for this "inside" story of sonic experimentalism...

(Perhaps for his next project, St-Onge could just swallow the microphone whole, recording its entire journey to the inevitable...?)

8-3.gif
This review posted March 29, 2000

AmbiEntrance © 2000-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).