Trombone and “homemade” synthesizer, this is the improbable duo that Platanus showcases for the most discerning music lovers. It is indeed ultra-free music, noise-driven but playful most of the time, featuring wacky sounds from the two instrumentalists present, Scott Thomson on trombone and Allison Cameron on synthesizer. The Montrealer and the Torontonian shatter all imaginable systems over the course of three long, largely improvised pieces. Squeaks, breaths, clicks, white noise, sometimes vaguely “melodic” lines, all the possibilities generated by extended techniques on the trombone and the particular timbres of Cameron’s synthesizer (an instrument built by a friend and colleague of both artists, which Thomson calls the “Cadillac Cracklebox”), intertwine in atomistic settings traversed by waves and some more or less vehement eruptions.
A music that is as contemporary and demanding as it gets, but satisfying, for receptive and adventurous ears.
