Ushering in the chill of fall comes Crépuscule Remixed, a collaborative celebration of Rêves sonores’ 2021 collaged LP by ambient artists Nick Schofield and Stefan Christoff. Originally tracked and spliced together over a number of recording sessions, Crépuscule presented a collaged tone poem depicting a night wandering through Montreal’s fabled Jardin du Crépuscule (Twilight Garden) in Mile End. Crépuscule Remixed, featuring contributions from some of Montreal’s most forward thinking artists alongside Rêves sonores global network, extends beyond the album’s original narrative to embrace the power of community. With the help of their friends, Schofield and Christoff have reimagined the brooding classical orchestrations of their initial ensemble into a winding chromatic dialogue filled with whispering rhythms, spiraling synths and divine ambient works.

As a concept, Rêves sonores centers around the basic premise of a moderated musical dialogue; it provides a platform for inspired improvisation to interact with contemporary classical compositions, all of which are reinforced with experimental electronic techniques. Their first collaboration, titled Rêves sonores à Montréal (2015), saw Schofield reworking a set of Christoff’s impressionistic solo piano recordings, using basic tools of musique concrete and synthesis to fundamentally reframe the emotive characteristics of his partner’s work. The result, as described by Tiny Mixtapes, was “a collection of tender ambient vignettes.”

Schofield and Christoff theorized the next iteration of their Rêves sonores project - Crépuscule - would scale their creative efforts into something more communal by incorporating one-off improvisations from their contemporaries. These recordings, captured independently of one another and hand-collaged by Schofield, would draw in an array of local voices to explore spaces where imagination, intrigue, and expression co-exist.

Crépuscule Remixed seeks to find a new phase in Rêves sonores’ work by extending the boundaries of communal inclusion even further. Among the new collaborators are Aidan Girt of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Alexia Avina from Best Fern (a collaboration with Nick Schofield released on Youngbloods and Backward Music earlier this year), Joseph Sannicandro from A Closer Listen, and many more. In Christoff’s words:

“The project was built by a network of artists whose collective input created the layers of music aimed to underline the urgency of listening to the Earth at this moment of ecological crisis; or, a distillation of sonic moments that are built into an album that hopes to be an experience of reflection and respite from the madness of colonial capitalism.”

“This remix album extends our community process around Rêves sonores to more nodes of beautiful creativity. In this process we invite collaborators in different geographical locations to create reimagined versions of all the tracks on the album, the result is wonderful and we are happy to share it. All the original threads of the tracks were reimagined with a sense of purpose, community and with a creative edge that speaks to this contemporary moment on Earth.”