Once you unravel the odd packaging of this CD (Room40's patented four-panel box design) and take out the disc, you come face to face with three quotes from Hildegard Westerkamp, Alan Dorin and
Michel Chion. Even though these three names circumvent a rather large area of sound art, they still point the soon-to-be listener in the right direction.
Mise en Scène is an electro-acoustic work, with field recordings and acoustics at its heart. It proceeds from academic electro-acoustic music while eschewing the stiffness often associated with the genre (although surely not with Westerkamp or
Chion). And, truth be told, it is one extremely fine album. The eight short pieces included here segue into one another, forming a continuous 40-minute work that is best approached as a whole. Highly cinematic and carrying loads of mental images,
Barrett's music also showcases an acute talent at sound spatialization (fabulous use of the stereo spectrum) and, most of all, a sharp composer's touch. Each track brings its share of new sounds, but the artistic flair of the project is found in the way dynamics are articulated over the whole scope of the album. There is a bit of Gilles Gobeil in the occasionally brutal dynamic shifts and dramatic twists, while the senses of pacing and measure strongly evoke
Francis Dhomont at the top of his game.
Barrett knows when a little bit more (more sounds, more decibels, more time) would become too much, and if you don't realize it while listening to
Mise en Scène, it proves that he has gotten it right.
Mise en Scène is fresh, immersive and exciting -- among the top five albums of electro-acoustic music of 2006. ~ François Couture