I’ve never heard of Monique Jean before, but she surely made an impression with her first CD on the Empreintes Digitales label.
Jean lives in Montreal and is a student of Francis Dhomont (reviewed elsewhere on this site). She works with dance, video and media installations. This is perhaps why her work is a bit soundtrack-like (in a slightly abstract way). Because of this it also sounds far more industrial than other electro-acoustic releases.
The CD consist of 6 highly abstact tracks that are quite noisy. Blasts of concrete noises turn into drones which seems like the howling of the wind in a sandstorm. Spoken word sometimes surface to be blown away in the next moment. Suddenly we are in an old Metro with a bunch of children and some drunk old people, to wake up again in a city being bombarded. This creates a ghostly atmosphere that should certainly appeal to those who like the darker sides of ambient, or perhaps horror-movie soundtracks.
The work of Monique Jean can best be compared with a droney version of Brume, and with the works of Thomas Dimuzio or Alan Lamb.
