FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Volume 2 (2026) [Hi-Res]

Montréal-based saxophone quintet FROTAE, led by composer and pianist Liberté Anne, releases its debut album Volume 2 on Halocline Trance. Despite a intentionally misleading title, '90s dark ambient visual aesthetics, and the founder's absence from the performing line-up, the project serves as an incubator for spectral and microtonal compositional exploration.

The ensemble brings together prominent figures from Montréal's experimental and contemporary chamber music scene: Allison Burik, Naomi McCarroll-Butler, Philippe Lauzier, Geneviève Gauthier, and René Zeledon. The core philosophy of the record inverts the traditional Western paradigm: rather than forcing folkloric instruments into 12-tone equal temperament, FROTAE takes instruments designed specifically for equal temperament and bends them into microtonal and timbre-oriented forms, fusing elements of jazz, musique actuelle, and modal traditions.

Tracklist:
1. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Temper of the fields singing
2. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Cortège
3. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Long-Short
4. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Triangle-dot-line
5. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Mat's Theme
6. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - Chorale
7. FROTAE, Liberté Anne - breth deth