Les Anecdotiques

It would be useless to attempt to find a form of narrative in Les Anecdotiques. Luc Ferrari's objective was to create a continuous piece that gave the impression of telling a story, yet consists only of several intermingling anecdotes -- thus the title, "The Anecdotals." The result is simply stunning. This hour-long sound collage borrows from electro-acoustics and phonography, blending recordings on location (although the locations indicated in the track titles are incomplete and occasionally misleading). The collage borrows, too, from abstract electronic sounds, and a series of conversations with women, recorded up close and woven throughout the work as another anecdotal strand parallel to the sonic one. Spoken material is in French, German, and English (in order of importance). Between the conversations and the puzzling treated field recordings, the listener is left trying to make sense of it all, but the only sense to be found is in the inner logic developed by the composition itself. And there is more than enough to wander around for hours in the meanders of the work. From a Spanish museum to a Texas ranch, a Tuscan highway, a French orchard and a rehearsal in Chicago, Ferrari literally takes us on a journey, intentionally blurring reference points, key sounds reappearing when you least expect them, as to defy the track list which ultimately becomes an arbitrary, two-dimensional grid slapped over a four-dimensional work. On first listen, Les Anecdotiques gives the impression of belonging to academic electro-acoustics, but this apparent formalism hides the kind of fantasy and sonic mischief typical in Ferrari's music. This work deserves a place at the peak of the composer's oeuvre and comes highly recommended. ~ Francois Couture