Press Comments
“album hybride et varié”
Massimiliano Busti, review of the CD Les lointains (2015) in Blow Up (Italy), 1 November 2015.
“surrounded… by danger and beauty of utmost intensity”
Massimo Ricci, review of the CD Les lointains (2015) in 5against4, 14 September 2015.
The scale, the force, the immensity, the drama — it all adds up to a sequence of experiences that go beyond simply being immersive; one feels enveloped by these six pieces, surrounded on all sides by danger and beauty of utmost intensity.
“les lointains is above all a triumph of listening to the splendor that surrounds you”
Sven Schlijper, review of the CD Les lointains (2015) in KindaMuzik (Hollande), 8 September 2015
Tumult is a theme, but Les Lointains is above all a triumph of listening to the splendour that surrounds you. […] At times futuristic, sometimes nostalgic, always grounded in a reality that, through the microscopic magnification that Gobeil provides for your ears, takes on almost mythical proportions.
“des moments absolument magnifiques”
Pierre-Luc Senécal, review of Des temps oubliés (2012) in Akousma 2014, in etherREAL, 12 November 2014.
[L]es références purement musicales aux poèmes symphoniques et aux œuvres pour piano de Liszt qui traversent la pièce permettent des moments absolument magnifiques.
“un très bel hommage”
David Jisse, host of Electrain de nuit (Radio France), 17 February 2013, speaking of Des temps oubliés (2012).
Entendre au milieu de l’électroacoustique quelque chose qui apparaît à la fois comme une mémoire et en même temps comme une sorte de chœur qui vient ponctuer le travail de recherche autour du sonore est magnifique. Ce qu’il y a de formidable aussi, il arrive à s’affranchir du poids de la tonalité de la partie instrumentale, et l’écho de l’électroacoustique déjoue en permanence cette matière très repérable qui est la musique de Franz Liszt. C’est un très bel hommage.
“… deserves to be eulogized for poignant substance and sheer brilliance…”
Massimo Ricci, review of the DVD Trois songes (2008) in Touching Extremes, 9 October 2008.
[F]ew artists are able to challenge the Quebecoise’s visionary aptitude when it comes to assembling materials that fuse concrete matters and ethereal essences in such a masterful fashion. […] Needless to say, sacred music is again an essential tool in Gobeil’s compositional method for this chapter, but it’s the whole album that deserves to be eulogized for poignant substance and sheer brilliance of the overall result.
“le tableau dépeint par gilles gobeil imprime nos sens comme par magie.”
Sabine Moig, review of the DVD Trois songes (2008) in JazzoSphère 35, 1 October 2008.
La musique de Gilles Gobeil surprend par ses qualités de suggestion, ses évocations réussies et ses interpellations fécondes. Nourries des musiques du passé qu’il réinvestit, ses pièces possèdent un réel pouvoir hypnotique. Entre spiritualité, terreurs diaboliques, doutes existentiels, erreurs ou errances humaines, le tableau dépeint par Gilles Gobeil imprime nos sens comme par magie.
“perfect precision and undying sense of drama”
Tom Sekowski, review of the DVD Trilogie d’ondes (2005) in The WholeNote 11/5, 1 February 2006.
With perfect precision and undying sense of drama, Trilogie d’ondes is a major work in Gobeil’s catalogue of masterpieces.
“klangliche präsenz und gespiegelte brillanz der kleinen details und nuance”
Matthias, review of the DVD Trilogie d’ondes (2005) in Music Scan, 13 January 2006.
Nicht nur werden räumliche Klangdimensionen geschaffen, die mit den meisten CD Aufnahmen nicht annährend erreicht werden, sondern auch die klangliche Präsenz und die gespiegelte Brillanz der kleinen Details und Nuance, die auch diese Kompositionen von Gobeil spannender und interessanter gestalten als eine Vielzahl von Werken ähnlich gesinnter Kollegen.
“a stealthy, undeniably intense listening experience”
Allan Harrison, review of the CD Le contrat (2003) in Splendid E-Zine, 2 July 2004.
Heavy-going stuff, and not for the weak-hearted, Le contrat might seem like a manipulative venture into silence/noise dynamism, but Gobeil and Lussier’s unerring commitment to the form makes for a stealthy, undeniably intense listening experience.
“le corps de l’auditeur devient réceptacle
Charlaine Gratton, review of the CD Dans le silence de la nuit (1994) in eContact! 6.2 (December 2003).
Chez Gobeil, la métaphore est bel et bien vivante, elle s’inscrit dans le corps de l’auditeur qui devient réceptacle : proprioception et intéroception sont les leitmotives de ce voyage singulier.
“tightly wound gift-wrapped parcels of intense sonic phenomena”
Bart Plantenga, review of the CD …dans le silence de la nuit… (2001) in wReck thiS MeSS, 9 December 2001.
Gilles Gobeil is another veteran of that Montréal sound best described as tightly wound gift-wrapped parcels of intense sonic phenomena. The material has a way of exploding, of skulking, of waiting in silience, of groaning and mugging one’s preconceptions about the psycho-acoustic possibilities of music.
“a masterpiece of electroacoustic music”
Joseph Harchanko, “Spectro-morphological Structuring Process in Gilles Gobeil’s Le Vertige Inconnu,” in SEAMUS Journal 16/2, 1 September 2001.
Gilles Gobeil’s 1992 composition Le vertige inconnu has quickly gained a reputation as a masterpiece of electroacoustic music due to its explosively dynamic and expressive structural direction. […] The consensus on this piece points largely to structuring principles wholly independent of the concrete meaning of the subways, crickets, and other noises within this work. Instead, abstracted shapes work to create a sense of direction wholly independent of any associative meaning created by the sounding objects themselves.
“exquisite craftsmanship and extraordinary attention
to detail”
Rick Bidlack, review of the CD La mécanique des ruptures (1994) in Computer Music Journal 20/4, 1 December 1996.
[Gobeil’s] work has always impressed me for its exquisite craftsmanship and extraordinary attention to detail, the sheer interest of his raw materials and their juxtapositions and transformations. […] He is a sculptor whose medium is sound, or rather, the sonic by products of mechanical events.
“etc…”
Read more reviews of Gilles Gobeil discs on the publisher’s website. Click on the “reviews” tab on the individual album pages.