Since the release of his CD Hole in the Head in 1996,
Christof Migone has been hardening his artistic position, constantly pushing toward more extreme directions, either solo or in a group context (his duo Undo with Alexandre St-Onge). With
Quieting, he has nearly reached a dead end. The album is built entirely around a 26-second sample, the sound of a cannon fired every day at noon from the Citadel in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) and the immediate reaction of the few persons nearby.
Quieting is 42 minutes long and develops (so to speak) over 36 tracks lasting from six seconds to three minutes. Of the total duration you have to subtract 21 minutes of silence, since each track with something on it -- all such tracks are titled "( )" -- is followed by an empty track, "(0)," of the exact same duration. A "( )" is also full of silence; sometimes the total "sound events" time only amounts to a few seconds over a two-minute track. The complete sample appears untreated on track 18. Everything else heard has been derived from short segments of it. When something is heard, it oscillates between electro-acoustically treated field recordings and extremely minimal glitch electronics. To add to the discomfort, everything has been mastered at a very low volume level. So the process is interesting and the artistic proposition relevant, but even if you can listen to
Quieting under perfect conditions, chances are you will fall asleep before it is over. Record collectors might enjoy it as an oddity. ~ François Couture