Country : Canada (Quebec) Label : Joyful Noise Genres and styles : Art Rock / Contemporary / Electronic / Post-Rock Year : 2022

Ben Shemie/Quatuor Molinari – Desiderata

· by Frédéric Cardin

Ben Shemie, guitarist and vocalist best known as a key member of Montreal’s art-rock clan Suuns, has strong classical roots, and his influence on Suuns makes this serious wisdom apparent. Desiderata is a solo album, at least as the sole sound creator on display, in which he further explores the textural capabilities of digital manipulations made of fracturing, stretching, saturation and slicing. He also adds pages written for a string quartet, in this case the more than excellent Molinari. We particularly like the passages where the latter becomes the Greek chorus of a drama of increased dimensions. Elsewhere, the Molinari serves as a cushioned support for Shemie’s exploratory digital asperities, or it comments on and even ventures into the terrain of controlled discursive chaos. Shemie paints a panorama of strangeness and entropy, the latter restrained in their unyielding disordered thrust by the structuring force of a precise narrative vision. One imagines oneself on Dune or in Tron, but seen through a series of cracked and distorted mirrors where a soundtrack played on a failing cassette player would cry out some homage to No Wave or to ambient Krautrock. Of course, we’re never far from Suuns either. 

That said, and despite the notable presence of Molinari, I would have appreciated it if Shemie had dared even more with them. These musicians are among the best in the world. You have to challenge them, they can take it! But then again, maybe I’m greedy, and who knows, maybe Shemie will want to grant them the honour of being the sole dedicatees and performers of a future composition? We hope so. In any case, here is an open door to a potentially refreshing world of so-called contemporary music, a world where we will finally forget that for too long we have erected alienating barriers between genres called on the one hand ‘scholarly’ and on the other ‘rock’, or ‘electro’.

About Ben Shemie, elsewhere in Pan M 360:

https://panm360.com/en/2022/07/15/ben-shemie-the-mirror-the-future-indefinite/

Latest 360 Content

FIJM | Julius Rodriguez, Jazz Groove Ace

FIJM | Julius Rodriguez, Jazz Groove Ace

FIJM | Men I Trust Shines Brightly on The Place des Festivals

FIJM | Men I Trust Shines Brightly on The Place des Festivals

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

Common Holly – Anything glass

Common Holly – Anything glass

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

Subscribe to our newsletter