A project born at the 2019 edition of MUTEK, Auflassen brings together composer and keyboardist Nicolas Boucher, the essential drummer Robbie Kuster and the master of electronic lutherie (and trained percussionist) Guillaume Coutu Dumont. This first studio album fulfills its promises: a jewel of grooves richly nuanced by Kuster’s playing, the pearls of notes that Boucher rolls, and the meticulous manipulations of Coutu Dumont, who mixed the album in Berlin with master Ricardo Villalobos. Impressionist, this subtle amalgamation of jazz, ambient and breakbeats suggests more than it imposes its minimalist house rhythmic structures, except perhaps for Feng Bo. We savor these compositions which breathe and dissipate in a style evoking that of Burnt Freeman (without however insisting on the dub), giving the impression that the trio released from their cages brief melodic themes taking to their heels. On Zephyr — the titles of the ten compositions all refer to the wind — Sébastien Arcand-Tourigny adds the warm color of his saxophone. Stunning.
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