(Rossbin)

Laura Andel’s newest work, appearing as an orchestrated improvisation over a set of predefined rules, masks its influences pretty well; in its best moments, mostly gathered in the first three quarters of the album, this music whirls and flies then returns to the base with mutated genetics, only to relaunch itself into dreaming states and ironic convulsive twists. Ten musicians – three guitars, two keyboards, cornet, theremin, drums and percussion plus electronics and voice – are conducted by the composer towards dangerous territories where Igor Stravinsky and Henry Cow pose together for an out-of-focus photograph. Therefore, it’s just a pity that – strangely enough – In::tension:. loses a bit of steam in its final two movements, which sound much more confused and overloaded with events than the other sections. But there is no doubt that the short repetitive melodies and thematic fragments going around like a bunch of stray dogs running in an open field – typical of the majority of the album – are unconventional, anticonstitutional sonic declarations which sound like nothing else.