A keyboardist who turned to the sampler in the early '90s,
Diane Labrosse offered
Face Cachée des Choses as her first solo album. She crafted 13 pieces out of found sounds, mostly domestic or environmental. On a few tracks she added her felt voice or a simple keyboard part. Although this is a sampler album, it has very little to do with the deconstructionist approach of a
Bob Ostertag, the roughness of an
Ikue Mori, or even musique concrète.
Labrosse's music remains close to the song format; it feels like instrumental music made with anything but musical instruments. From tenderness ("Nénuphar") to downright silliness ("Île de Pâques"),
Face Cachée des Choses unfolds like a collection of 13 poems. Each one of them conjures emotions, memories, and reactions, but meanings often linger out of reach. Later,
Labrosse would release more substantial and experimental efforts, such as the free improvisation trio album Île Bizarre and the large-scale project album Petit Traité de Sagesse Pratique, but this one feels more intimate and surely is her most accessible CD. Think of it as a guilty pleasure between her work in the avant rock groups
Wondeur Brass and Justine, and her later efforts. ~ François Couture