Stephane Roy

One of Canada’s leaders in innovative compositional music, Stephane Roy’s blend of musique concrete and electro-acoustic composition is as fresh and exciting as any of either genre’s best names. Migrations compiles three lengthy sonic triptychs recorded between 1998 and last year. 2003’s "Appartences” studies the tendencies of Celtic, Latin and Oriental musics through a veiled sensibility on par with the riveting dynamic structures and tape-splice techniques Karlheinz Stockhausen demonstrated on ground-breaking works such as "Kontakte” and "Gesang der Junglinge.” "Trois Petites Histoires Concretes” is just that: three small pieces that commemorate the history of musique concrete, and "Masques et Parades” is a study of the tragic-comic nature of the circus. Migrations wins not only because Roy’s concepts and theories are adventurous and uncompromising, but because his final product, the music, is so damned engrossing. But don’t try to use this album at your dinner party or while you read — Migrations is music for the intellectual mind that’s willing to concentrate on its complexity and details.