LIKΣN — La Toute Multiple

Beginning in 2021, LIKΣN hit the road with their wind instrument-driven work, La Toute Multiple, bringing the audience closer to the interplay between musician and instrument, with microphones set to pick up the intimate sounds created that aren't heard by the audience. With a sound engineer in tow, Timothée Quost composed a unique experience for the audience centred around a six-chapter piece based on Jean Genet's Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs. After this long period of touring, LIKΣN recorded their performance to La Toute Multiple to the masses.

From the cover down to the composition, LIKΣN put heavy emphasis on collage-based creation and the interplay and juxtaposition of layers. Running the mics through the group's active mixing desk, an additive form of composition takes hold, and an audio collage gives way to a cacophony of sound and expression. This isn't your mother's Zamfir record, so don't let all the wind instruments think you're in for a calm experience. Each piece has an ebb and flow, with the orchestra taking their direction from conductor Léo Margue. Sometimes a fever dream, sometimes an all-out nightmare, La Toute Multiple is always active, engaging, and bursting with energy. With this many musicians and the excited pace of the piece, it would be quite easy for the orchestra to go overboard and make this a full-on assault of the senses. However, restraint is key here, and the resulting composition is well structured, paced, and arranged. With all the mics running through a console, subject to processing/effects, the orchestra can sound even more otherworldly than seven concurrent wind instruments would in general. This adds a sense of unease to the work, which helps to keep the tension even during the quieter moments. La Toute Multiple has a score-like feel, which is understandable given its composition, but there is also a sense of freedom about it. All the players are locked in for sure, but the engineering gives the voices a bit more urgency, allowing the composition to have a hint of improv in its vibe. Seeing "orchestra" would make many feel this would be a stuffed-shirt type recording, but there is a riotous cool happening as the vibrations leave the speakers.

La Toute Multiple was over five years in the making, and it shows. The attention to detail in bringing this live performance to the home audience really captures the importance of the project to LIKΣN and Carton Records. An ambitious project, the work relies heavily on the collage of sound from its artists through the skilled hands of mixer Paul Alkhallaf. The result is a tense, engaging work that pushes the limits of experimental orchestration while remaining very listenable and even relatable. Whether familiar with the source material or not, one can sink their teeth into the sounds presented and write their own narrative to go along with it