Danielle Boutet
★★★★
Pièces
FREEDOM TO SPEND. DL/LP
First vinyl pressing for 1985 home-recording by classically-trained Quebecois experimentalist.
It was in 2018, whilst perusing a mid-’80s catalogue from now-defunct North Carolina-based feminist music distributor Ladyslipper, that FTS label-co-owner Jed Bindeman spotted an intriguing self-released cassette in the ‘New Age’ section. A long search ensued. Not even Boutet (now a professor at the University of Quebec) owned a copy. Now you can. What’s it like? Well, that’s complicated. Inspired by ’70s prog and the British poet and electronic musician Anne Clark, it’s an eclectic mélange of French chanson, John Barry-esque spy themes, wintery Oneohtrix Point Never drones, Brigitte Fontaine ballads, keyboard miniatures, intimate Piaf drama and Meredith Monk-style primordial utterances.