Some 15 years in the making, ‘u, i’ finds Montreal-based Olivier Alary and Berlin’s Johannes Malfatti composing a suite of 10 neoclassical pieces from their respective cities using platforms like Skype as well as out-of-context voices snatched from YouTube. Like degraded tape loops, the faltering bandwidth of their connections adds a patina of elusiveness and detachment to tracks like ‘Allo Adad’ and the haunting ambient shimmer and submerged rhythms of ‘My Night, My Day’. Touching, from a distance.
