Guido Del Fabbro

Youthful Montreal composer/improviser Guido Del Fabbro wilfully and playfully — the CD’s title means "sandbox” — flouts the music industry’s Big Rule: keep your music consistent (often to the point of dumbing it down). Del Fabbro, a marketing department’s worst nightmare, clearly doesn’t give a damn about the Big Rule as his 19 pieces, ranging in length from 52 seconds to a hair over five minutes, break it with gleeful abandon. The tunes — all multi-tracked by the composer playing a welter of instruments (violin, coffeepot, turntable, living room organ, telephone, etc.) with two guests, vocalist Marie-Claude Lamoureux and bass clarinettist Pierre-Emmanuel Poizat — wistfully wander from musique concrete, Mahavishnu skronk and ambient grooves to exotica. Some pieces like "Jaka” and especially "Ipp Tv,” which shows a highly developed ear for sound colours, felt like they could go on longer. While Del Fabbro could be criticised for not developing his pieces, what seems clear is that his approach is focussed on creating musical aphorisms not detailed novels. Not that he never develops an idea, but expansion is merely one strategy in his modus operandi. The label’s chief Joane Hétu is to be applauded for supporting the beautifully recorded work of this adventurous iconoclast’s aural bravado.