Idiolalla

This studio meeting features the husband-and-wife duo Barnyard Drama (which has expanded to a quartet since these August 2004 sessions) and Vancouver experimental vocalist D.B. Boyko. All three also performed in Danielle P. Roger's oratorio Bruiducoeur Prière des Infidèles, hence the Ambiances Magnétiques connection. So we have two marvelously crazy female vocalists (Boyko and Christine Duncan) backed by Jean Martin, who sticks solely to acoustic drums — in Barnyard Drama, he also plays turntables and electronics. Boyko and Duncan are highly compatible. Both are fond of onomatopoeias, characterization, and all-out wackiness with a sense of humor. In their own words, Idiolalla is an invented language disease. And you do get the feeling that something is wrong with them, although in this case two wrongs do make a right: the singers feed off each other's vocal inventions, staging improbable plays in an alien dialect, with Martin punctuating moods and provoking new situations. The trio goes from pseudo-Inuit singing in "Bap" to mock-Italian opera ("Funala Funala Coccino"), to epic madness in the nine-minute "Soul Sausages," which could almost be heard as a soap opera episode. The nakedness of the project occasionally feels like a constraint, the sound palette of the album remaining rather narrow, but fans of creative singing should definitely investigate. Just remember to get Barnyard Drama's I'm a Navvy or Roger's Bruiducoeur for a fuller picture of these artists' work. ~ François Couture, Rovi