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Aug 15, 2011Excerpts is a work of forgetful minimalism; it is powerfully repetitious--perhaps, in waves, completely random.
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Feb 17, 2011overall Excerpts is an evocative, sophisticated and charming record, awash with imaginative atmospheres, that looks back to the past for inspiration without ever wallowing in sentiment.
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Feb 17, 2011Each turn the album takes is a good one: the swaying Excerpts reinforces the scope of the music, the vinyl-affected Imprints throws some atmosphere into the approach, and, really, the whole of the album makes for an unrivaled listening experience.
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Under The RadarMar 9, 2011Ensemble crashes through the album's 11 tracks, skating along glorious orchestral discord dappled with everything-but-the-kitchen-sink electronics and ghostly voices in both French and English. [Feb 2011, p.71]
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Feb 17, 2011On Excerpts, as Ensemble, Alary presents a newly defined sound and with it, a precarious skill in honing in sharp classical strengths for a successful release.
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Feb 17, 2011Excerpts takes it one step further and expects audiences to linger on the great tidal shifts of memory happening in our minds every day. If we manage to lodge ourselves within his cause, Alary has a whole world behind a world to open up to us.
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Feb 17, 2011Desperately, painfully arty but worthy of your recollection.
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May 23, 2011While it brandishes a certain kind of insular brilliance, it's music more ripe for conversation or think pieces than headphones or the living room hi-fi.
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UncutFeb 23, 2011Sharing lead vocals with the immaculately Hardy-esque Darcy Conroy, Alary concocts wistful chansons and widescreen waltzes with an elegance and deadpan humour that evokes Sebastien Tellier, Stereolab and Matthew Herbert. [Feb 2011, p.84]
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Feb 23, 2011For those who enjoy a contemplative stroll through the park on a Sunday afternoon, this album, paradoxically cohesive through its dissonance, perfectly scores that experience: it's bright, intriguing, and calming.
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Feb 17, 2011By switching voices and languages, and throwing in string quartets alongside swooning electronica, he pushes different versions of reality, and while on the whole it slips into background noise, there are moments when Excerpts packs a punch. And there's plenty to capture a more vivid and patient imagination.
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Mar 2, 2011It's not that Ensemble has made an actively bad album. It's just that somber music which comes from abstract origins shouldn't be so vacuous and blank.