CD – Ad Noiseam

Igorrr returns on Ad Noiseam, enhancing his usual practices with a strong mix of breakcore and classical music. In this case classical music is represented by baroque harmonies, with the addition of a touch of metal and performances by many artists of different musical backgrounds. But maybe enhancement is not the right word to use to describe the recovery of these extreme, elliptical, stinging sound juxtapositions. Hallelujah – we note right away – cannot be related to the broad variety of interesting but predictable experimentations because this mix is not simply a conceptual formalization and it does not overtly covet a placement in the field of the contemporary avant-garde. Here there is real fun and high quality, intriguing, involving compositions that exude a concentrated majesty. The passages are thinned-out when necessary but motifs returns in a manner that excludes the possibility of indifference. “My idea was to have tracks where several music genres were represented by only one person” says Gautier Serre (Igorrr). The style, or if you prefer “the manner”, is certainly anti-minimal and the work is crammed with a lot of oddities. In Hallelujah the strain between rules and artistic license follows an authorial process. It also presents a number of sharp contrasts without descending to exaggerated affectation and unnecessary preciosity, a risk that permeates this field. The listener sails, moving between cryptic notes and sweet choral parts, encountering abrasive dissonances and elegiac weaves. The vocal elements are characterized by a large variety of uncommon influences: not digestible at all latitudes, but definitely reactive and very incisive. Aurelio Cianciotta

Igorrr – Cicadidae