Barbier, Marc Antoine

Barbier, Marc Antoine

Musée Des Espèces

Not Not Fun

The ‘soundscape ecologies’ of Montreal composer Marc-Antoine Barbier first emerged from late-night home studio improvisations triangulating Hassel, Krause, and sleep deprivation. Gradually, granular tapestries took shape, weaving modal electronics with percussion, sax, flute, and DX7. The result is a low-lit patchwork of dream and delirium, fractal ambient and fifth-world freefall: Musée Des Espèces [‘Museum of Species’].Barbier’s background in new wave world-building and synth-patch sculpting fuses here to full effect. The songs are alternately soothing and serpentine, swaying with smoke, rhythm, color, and ceremony. It’s album-as-environment, a harmony of spheres and vertical terrain, swiftly tilting through a tunnel of sky, sea, and circuitry.“I wanted to create something between chaos and harmony – a naturalistic dialogue.”