Quatuor Mémoire
Chronos, Kaïros et Aiôn

out: December 12, 2025 on Mnémosyne Records (CD/DL)
genres: modern composition, microtonal, chamber music

Quatuor Mémoire — quatuormemoire.com
Florence M. Tremblay — florencemtremblay.com
Louis-Michel Tougas — louismicheltougas.com
Mnémosyne Records — mnemosyne-records.com | mnemosynerecords.bandcamp.com

The debut recording of Montréal’s Quatuor Mémoire offers up new string quartet works by some of Montréal’s most exciting emerging composers: Florence M. Tremblay, Louis-Michel Tougas, and Olivier St-Pierre. Each of these remarkable young composers has their own distinctive voice, yet the program presented here is satisfying in its cohesion—doubtlessly a result of the shared set of musical concerns that the three of them orbit. All of them make engrossing use of various microtonal approaches as well as playing techniques that accentuate the enormous timbral capacity of bowed string instruments. And while each of these pieces also reflect the influence of a modernist, gesture-oriented approach, they’re also united by an underlying patience in their unfolding and an affinity for sonic intimacy. As such, one might hear aspects of composers such as Horațiu Rădulescu, Catherine Lamb, Jakob Ullman, and James Tenney subverting more familiar reference points drawn from Lachenmann, Ligeti and French Spectralism.

COVERAGE:
List — Upcoming Releases, Tinnitist
List — Upcoming Releases, A Closer Listen
List/ News — Darryl Sterdan, Next Week in Music | December 8-14 • The Long List: 280+ Releases On The Way, Tinnitist
List/ News — Steve Smith, For the Record: Dec. 12, 2025, Night After Night
List — Kevin Press, Friday Five: Dec. 12, 2025, The Moderns
News — Eksperiment
News — Viva Scene
Article — Frédéric Cardin, The Mnémosyne label and the Mémoire Quartet: Brand new gifts for Montreal contemporary music, PAN M 360
Review — Carme Miró, Sonograma
Review — Frédéric Cardin, PAN M 360
Review — Beat Burguer
Review — John Gilks, Opera Ramblings
Review — Russell A. Trunk, Exclusive Magazine
Round-up — Jeremy Shatan, A Song For Friday: Mattie Barbier, An Earful
Round-up — Sean Worrall, ORGAN: Five Music Things – New music from Quatuor Mémoire, Japan’s Math Rock legends Toe announce UK dates, Prostitute sign to Mute, Yamila shares a second track from her forthcoming album, fresh Dog Chocolate and…, The Organ
Social Media — Clair & obscur
Podcast — The Moderns, Ep. 397
Radio/ Interview — Contemporary Classics, WRUU (December 30, 2025)
Radio — Musica esoterica, KWUR (December 28, 2025)
Radio — Not Brahms and Liszt, WMBR (December 22, 2025)
Radio — Electric Sense, CIUT (December 18, 2025)
Radio — Expansive Prairie Skies, UMFM (December 17, 2025)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (December 16, 2025)
Radio — Classical Connection, CFCR (December 16, 2025)
Radio — Other Aspects, WAYO (December 14, 2025)
Radio — The Radio Is Broken with Rich In Washington, WFMU (December 12, 2025)
Radio — Melody in Mayhem, Asheville FM (December 12, 2025)
Radio — No Pigeonholes EXP, KOWS (December 12, 2025)
Radio — The Modernist, PBS (December 10, 2025)
Radio — Expansive Prairie Skies, UMFM (December 10, 2025)
Radio — Flight Risk, KOPN (December 10, 2025)
Radio — The Floating Head of Zsa Zsa, WRUV (December 2, 2025)
Radio — Other Aspects, WAYO (November 30, 2025)