[“The album evoked for me the way sounds are not only vibrations in matter but also undulations that can travel instantaneously thanks to radio technology. The crisscrossing lines are not only inspired by the structure of a radio tower but by what the title suggests. Something instantaneous, but that also has duration in time thanks to sound and memory. This album makes memory so that the events that happened are not ephemeral.”]

VITAL WEEKLY:

JOSEPH SANNICANDRO & STEFAN CHRISTOFF – ACROSS TIME PATCHED TOGETHER (cassette by Jeunesse Cosmique)
Three times before I reviewed music by this Canadian duo, Stefan Christoff (guitars, organ, and piano) and Joseph Sannicandro (field recordings made around the world, and contributes synthesizer and electronics) – see Vital Weekly 1171, 1274 and 1293. Much of their previous work deals with political issues, and on this new one, there are voices from a student strike in Québec, “Michel Chartrand speaking in the film 24 heures ou plus by Gilles Groulx”, and sources from “contemporary news reports and Pontecorvo’s 1969 film Quemada”. It fits the idea behind this cassette, a medley (their words) of “live and radiophonic works recorded between 2014 and 2018”. I believe these pieces may have been mixed so that there is overlap, and a new piece of music emerges. Even on Bandcamp, there are only two pieces and no individual ones; there is a list of various recording dates for the recordings used. Despite their

political interests, the music is quite mellow, which, as before, I would call post-rock-like. However, there are fewer drums, fewer big washes of guitars, and more abstract, way more intimate and having that chamber music quality, so there is a contemplative sound. And yet, the music doesn’t set out to be quiet and reflective, thanks to these samples and weirder sounds that are sometimes part of the music. Before, I had this image of these two musicians in a cabin near the lake, playing their thoughtful tunes, but today I am thinking of them as street musicians. Still with some atmospheric, careful tunes on a guitar, drones of battery-operated synth, and field recordings of where they play their music. Of course I know this is not the case, and they work in studio surroundings, and the field recordings are on tape, mixed in with the music, but I like the romanticed idea of this being different. Despite its somewhat lo-fi presentation, it’s an excellent cassette and something that

more people should hear. (FdW)