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Lionel Marchetti has become one of France (and the world’s) most renowned contemporary purveyors of musique concrète, through his solo work as well as collaborations with Jérôme Noetinger and others. On Dans La Montagne, however, Marchetti does something a little different. Rather than simply rely, as he often does, on microphones and loudspeakers, here, Marchetti uses as his source material a field recording, with relatively little manipulation after the fact. The recording is of a group of students performing Kendo, the art of Japanese swordplay. In practice sessions, students typically use bamboo rods, though the exercises are performed with an intensity that belies the rather less severe nature of this blade-less activity. Mainly through editing, though not without the use of some effects, Marchetti transforms the martial art into a chilling collage. The sounds of bamboo, like the whoosh of the rods through the air and the distinct smack of their congress, are only one of Marchetti’s tools here. Augmenting them, and truly pulling the 3-inch disc into more disturbing territory, are the screams of the practitioners, the “kiai” usually used as a method of focusing one’s spirit and attack. In Marchetti’s hands, these shrieks become those of pain, and Dans La Montagne takes on a torturous quality. The recalibration of this traditional art into something far more sinister could be seen as disrespectful, though any possible contention with Marchetti’s scruples does little to change the quality of his work. Marchetti’s chorus of thwacks and screams is a harrowing twelve-minute trip, though it’s one that’s quite worth taking at least once.

Lionel Marchetti at Amazon & Insound