L’Oreille coupee

Frank Royon Le Mée, voice; Barry Schrader, electronics

I’ve been following Barry Schrader’s electronic music soundscapes on innova for several years now , and they are always wonderful counterarguments to trot out whenever any electronic music detractor claims that music created for performances only involving circuits lacks soul. But Schrader’s latest recording combines his always individual use of electronic sound with the interaction of human soloists. The results of these mostly 21st-century synchronisms show that this once de rigeur medium is still viable these days. My fave is a song from a 1989 cantata in which Schraders’s scrapes and bleeps interact with a countertenor to conjure up Vincent Van Gogh severing his ear: Wow!

—FJO