Montreal-based Frenchman Olivier Alary is a highly talented composer, who has previously collaborated with Bjork. Having released albums on FatCat and Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label under the lushly-orchestrated, experimental pop guise of Ensemble, over the past five or six years Olivier has moved away from that song-based project to focus on composing material for a stream of films and artistic collaborations. In June 2016 Olivier signed to 130701, and this album – a compilation of film soundtrack work – marks his debut under his own name.Olivier’s material here might sit somewhere among the likes of J?hann J?hannsson, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Stars Of The Lid, and Set Fire To Flames, whilst having the same masterly ear for sonic detail as Oneohtrix Point Never or Tim Hecker, but throughout the tracks are imprinted with Olivier’s own, signature sound. This might be defined in the composer’s obsessive exploration of the “grey areas” between noise and musicality and in blurring the boundaries between what is acoustic and what is generated electronically. “I am equally influenced by traditional music (from both Asia and Europe), acousmatic music (from composers of the GRM) and post-tonal composers (like Julia Wolfe, Julius Eastman)”, he says, citing his music as a fusion of elements from these genres of music. “For me the texture of sound is as evocative as a strong melody or harmonic progression. I also love to blur the boundaries between the geography of instruments and music genre.” In parallel with his film work, Olivier has continued to study music and theory with various professors, in order to expand his skills and composing range. In 2008, he started taking private lessons and attending classes at the Montreal’s McGill Conservatory, and also followed Michel Gonneville’s analysis class at the Montreal Conservatory. Largely self-produced, the material on the album was recorded at a variety of dates and locations, and utilises a range of instrumental set-ups. It features performances from the Babelsberg Filmorchestra, The Wroclaw Score Orchestra, Saint Stanislas de Kostka Choir, members of the Warhol Dervish String quartet, as well as pianist / arranger Johannes Malfatti, saxophonist Erik Hove and many other musicians from the hyper-dynamic Montreal music scene.With a broad pallette of sounds including accordian, saxophone, slide guitar, vibraphone, marimba, gongs, guitar, electronics, double bass, choir, flute, and clarinet,it moves from the sparse solo piano of ‘Qin’ or ‘Dancing Bottle’ to drone pieces like ‘Khaltoum’ and ‘Autodrome; denser, string-based arrangements like ‘Canon’ or ‘Yu Shui’; and a pair of separated minimalist twins.With a beautifully broad range across the whole, these 17 tracks they shimmer and hang like a shifting series of little dreamscapes. Each track witnesses Olivier’s
