Jean René

A long-standing member of Montreal's extremely fertile experimental music scene, Jean René has lent his skills to many of his contemporaries. He can be found alongside Michel F. Côté in Mecha Fixes Clocks and has augmented Jean Derome's Dangereux Zhoms core with his viola on the amazing Plates-formes et Traquenards. For his solo debut, René has selected a group of compositions that feature both his work on the viola (electric and acoustic) and his outright intriguing electric guitar work. When playing the viola, René chooses a pure approach to the instrument, relying on a looping pedal fairly sparsely. On the guitar, he manages to evoke downright sinister tones that speak in a nearly industrial language that stands apart from his neo-classical background. From a player of lesser pedigree, this may signal a lack of direction; in René's skilled hands, Fammi comes across as a daring, idiosyncratic album.