For musicians, a sound check is exactly that: a way to physically alter and mechanically enhance any short-comings (the space, the amps, shouts from the bar) to bring about the best performance. However, as with any capable site installation artists, Pascal Battus (rotating surfaces, found objects), Bertrand Gauguet (amplified saxophone, acoustic saxophone, effects) and Ιric La Casa (microphones, recordings) prefer to adapt to — rather than overpower or damper — their surroundings, improvising with the recording process as much as with instruments. The result of that is an even further reality-altering state than sound already induces.

As Battus explains, "The project had two phases: first the recording at the building site (September, 2010), then a recording at somewhere with a neutral acoustic, where we would try to recall our experiences of the building site." The first phase (tracks three through seven) takes place in a Parisian "Tower of Babel" where "Africans, Arabs, Turks", large reverberant spaces, machinery and a musical trio of odd-fellows worked to find a strange communion. In the middle of passing foreman instructions and shuffling tools we find Battus, Gauguet and La Casa with shifting microphones and guttural bursts, immersing into the environment; their chameleon efforts are often so in tune with the work-site that it's difficult to spot the barely-audible sax note versus engine whine, hammer on nail versus Battus smacking rocks together. Though probably a visual kink to the staff (you can imagine the concrete guy, shaking his head and thinking "play the damned thing!" at the sight of a saxophone not making melodies), their thoughtful approach translates on disc as a simplistic sonic phantom that gently pulls at the seams of reality. By playing an equal, semi-impartial role as "other things making noise", Battus, Gauguet and La Casa succeed where many who attempt the integration of field recordings with "music" fail.

For the first two tracks, the group "envisaged a studio as a void — acoustically, anthropologically etc. — a void which our improvisations might emerge out of our (sensuous) memories outside, in this case the building site", reenacting a version of their gig seven months previous. The sound-focused drive — rife with steady tones squeezed to the last, vibrating metal and percussive glottal stops — is present; however, the spoiler of potential (the "live" tracks) slightly sullies this realization. As the trio squints at the original works, this intentionally strict confine yields more sterility, and less variables, brilliance and inspiration for the listener's imagination. In other words, the overlay of what is and what was run parallel, but the colors, narrative and really shrill upfront frequencies of the former do not invoke near the dreaminess of the latter; my sensuous memory may just be the issue here — so make sure to listen to the music in sequence!