While I respect your contention that long-form, migration-themed French/German/English sound-text works are the last thing you want to listen to on such a fine spring day as this, I would like to point out that sometimes we find little pleasures where they're least expected -- so you should quit your whining and listen to these very strange pieces.
It took me a while to puzzle this all out -- the translated liner notes are a bit confusing -- but this is an album by French-Canadian audio artist Chantal Dumas. There are four pieces here, although two of them are in fact the same piece reworked in different languages (French and German). Dumas calls these works "short sound novels", and while the stories they tell aren't exactly obvious (especially if you don't speak French), they're clearly narrative and dramatic. They were originally produced for German Radio between 1996 and 1997, while the composer was traveling in Europe -- hence the theme of migration. Each piece utilizes materials generated by a woman improviser, or as the notes put it: "Each short novel is developed from a work done by a woman-improviser also magnificent migratory bird." I'm not really sure what that means, but I like it! Chantal apparently recorded materials generated by the three women (and several other guests) and then used those recordings as the raw materials with which to make these pieces.
The first piece, "Migration océane" features Brazilian/German guitarist Silvia Ocougne's gentle, evocative playing. Ocougne and Falilou Seck read a text (in French) by Dumas while scratching noises (someone writing?), storms, ocean sounds and other random audio elements mix with the guitar to create a semi-creepy but almost meditative atmosphere.
"L'ailleurs" features the vocal talents of the normally insane but here rather respectable American, Shelly Hirsch. It seems to center on a never-ending game of hide-and-seek played by a little kid and a slightly off-center woman named Louise. Again, there are lots of environmental noises: winds, people stomping around in the woods and birds chirping. All the while, Hirsch is making strange vocal sounds, cackling and mumbling in whispers, while a pre-vocal man grunts and makes impolite noises. "This short story is a parody of the longing for Elsewhere," say the notes. Okay. Very strange.
Next up is my favorite piece, "Frontières". It includes Parisienne Joëlle Léandre's amazing, densely harmonic doublebass playing, a droning organ, a guy saying "sixsixsix" over and over again (I think) and a bunch of people muttering unintelligibly in a variety of languages. There are also lots of squeaky balloon noises and what sounds like a cow imitating a bass. In the middle of it all, a man with a Mexican accent tells a story (in English) about trying to cross the boarder between Mexico and Texas in search of work in the US. Somehow it all hangs together to create one of the most compelling and dramatic audio montage pieces I've heard in a long time.
The last piece, "Ozeanische Wanderung", is a German language version of the first work.
Okay, so this is some pretty strange stuff, athough I'm sure that my not understanding the words most of the time contributes to its weirdness. It could be that the stories are totally boring and mundane, but I really doubt it. The sounds certainly aren't boring or mundane; the fact that they can hold my attention, despite my inability to understand the words, is evidence of that. These pieces are subtle, evocative and not a little bit spooky. I doubt that you've heard anything quite like them before. What better reason is there to give something a listen?
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