Ensemble Ensemble

• Words: David Hemingway
• Label: FatCat
• XLR8R Rating: /10

In the half-decade since his Rephlex-released Sketch Proposals, Olivier Alary has written with and remixed Björk as well as recording as one third of the Prix Ars Electronica-nominated group Chlorgeschlecht. Alary's reanimated Ensemble sounds perfectly poised, equidistant between electronic and acoustic, between melody and noise, between loveliness and abstraction. The Toulouse-born, Montreal-based producer backgrounds the voices of Lou Barlow, Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Camille Claverie, and (fellow sonic arts student) Mileece with digital and orchestral walls of sound to produce an album that thrives on its various antithetical qualities.