Coïncidence is an exploration of minimalist patchwork and, of real, fractured, fabricated and warped memory. One is never sure whether the pair is piecing together some actual experience or constructing an imagined past on the spot. Or maybe, as the title hints, this album is about happenstance, juxtaposition, and accidental discoveries, which are real in the moment regardless of prior precedent.

Lance Austin Olsen and Bruno Duplant, the duo captured here, have collaborated a few times before, most notably on the spliced field recording Ce que la nuit ne dit pas (2013) and, through Olsen's scores, on Ruzawi (2016). Coïncidence, however, is the duo's first project where the Olsen and Duplant perform "together," presumably exchanging sound files via some corner of the cloud, rather than separately contributing tracks or realizations to a shared release. Certainly one can read this into the title, as well, as the duo's contributions — culled from field recordings, MIDI organ, guitar, piano, amplified objects and sounds of indeterminate origin — converge, or coincide, into a singular, though variegated, production that neither Olsen nor Duplant could have imagined or realized on their own.

The single 33-minute track that comprises the album is fittingly ethereal. A glacial piano forms the backbone, striking spare and relatively quiet but dramatic chords. Hisses enter and encircle the tones, as do various clicks and an occasional odd ringing tone. Indistinct voices break through static, as if some distant transmission, corroded by space and time, finally reaches an alien radio, or some deep and partial memory haphazardly pops into one's head for a brief and fleeting moment. Ever ephemeral, the voices fade under the force of a series of heavy sustained piano chords, which give the illusion of looping, or a continual though incomplete sense of déjà vu. Near the end, the scene climaxes. A nervous energy of electronics, xylophone(?), and percussion break the cycle, then open into an ominous section of hiss and insect sounds. The piano continues intermittently, driving the piece onward until a quiet end.

All in all, this is a perplexing and fascinating album that marries Olsen and Duplant's hitherto largely separate paths through electroacoustic, cut-and-paste gradualism. Especially for those already (or prospectively) devotees to Olsen or Duplant, this collaboration is a real treat.