{"id":840,"date":"2002-06-18T23:41:42","date_gmt":"2002-06-18T23:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w174.i8u.com\/?p=840"},"modified":"2010-04-01T04:22:22","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T04:22:22","slug":"review-by-francois-couture-all-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/?p=840","title":{"rendered":"Review &#8211; Obstacle (Oral) 2002 &#8211; by Fran\u00e7ois Couture, All Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/w174.i8u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/11\/R-150-231807-1174589200.jpeg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1993\" title=\"R-150-231807-1174589200\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/w174.i8u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/11\/R-150-231807-1174589200.jpeg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first phase of the  Obstacle project consisted of a web art collaboration between  experimental electronica artist I8U and video artist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/cg\/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;sql=1:GIGIMATIQUE\">Gigimatique<\/a>.  Obstacle Phase 2 is a longer concert version and this CD (a  limited edition of 100 released by Oral the day the piece was premiered  on-stage at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville, Qu\u00e9bec) presents a  studio recording of the music. I8U derives all the sounds from field  recordings made on bridges. The piece begins with an imperceptible  sub-bass drone. Very slowly, other drones come forward. The  characteristic buzzing of car traffic remains on the border of  consciousness. It&#8217;s there, but just not quite tangible or defined enough  to make it obvious. The piece continues to evolve through phases of  expansion and contraction &#8212; a car trip through the streets of a suburb,  where you slow down every 200 meters for a stop sign. In its last ten  minutes, the piece builds up, first unveiling its source, then gaining  decibels to end in a shrieking noise assault abruptly cut 27 seconds  after the 50th minute. The form is not new, but I8U does it with grace,  constantly holding the listener&#8217;s attention in her hands, even though  the pace remains excruciatingly slow throughout. The quality of  immersion during the first 45 minutes lulls one into an altered state.  The finale, made of loops just a bit too obvious, sounds a bit  gratuitous. Thoughts of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/cg\/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;sql=11:dpfpxqwhld6e\">Francisco  L\u00f3pez<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/cg\/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;sql=11:dcfpxqrjldke\">Marc  Behrens<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/cg\/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;sql=11:dzftxqtjldhe\">Stephen  Vitiello<\/a> come to mind. This album is not as strong as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/cg\/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;sql=10:hnfpxqu0ldte\">Grasshopper  Morphine<\/a> released a week earlier, but this is mostly because  the extended piece format makes it less varied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first phase of the Obstacle project consisted of a web art collaboration between experimental electronica artist I8U and video artist Gigimatique. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[790,30,225,41,346,31],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-reviews","tag-eric-mattson","tag-fimav","tag-montreal","tag-obstacle-phase-2","tag-oral"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1690,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/1690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francejobin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}