LINE_157
01.2025
In an age where musical collaborations often feel more like marketing strategies than genuine creative exchanges, “Un día en México” by France Jobin and Yamil Rezc stands out as an authentic meeting of minds. This three-track album is the product of a chance connection and an impromptu day of music-making in Mexico City — a day that has been distilled into 43 minutes of beautifully crafted soundscapes.
The genesis of this album is as serendipitous as the music itself. Jobin, a Montreal-based sound artist with a penchant for minimalist audio environments, discovered Rezc’s work while preparing for a residency in Mexico. Struck by the soundtrack he composed for the Mexican-American series “El Candidato”, she reached out to Rezc without expecting a reply. But reply he did, and this led to their first meeting in Mexico City in April 2022. As they wandered along La Reforma, they recorded the ambient sounds of the city — a foreshadowing of the deeply atmospheric album that would eventually emerge from their collaboration.
The opening track, “La Reforma”, named after Mexico City’s famous boulevard, is a fitting introduction. At just over nine minutes, it’s a meditative stroll through urban soundscapes, where the organic and synthetic merge seamlessly. Jobin’s minimalist approach, known for her ability to create “sound-sculptures,” is on full display here, with layers of analog drones punctuated by the everyday noises of the city. The track feels like a sonic map, guiding you through the hustle and bustle while offering a sense of detachment, as if you’re observing the city from a distance. Rezc’s influence can be heard in the subtle melodic undertones that add a touch of warmth and humanity to what might otherwise be a cold, sterile soundscape.
Then there’s “El Lago”, the album’s sprawling 29-minute centerpiece. Recorded at Casa Del Lago in Chapultepec Park, this track is less a piece of music and more an immersive experience. It’s a slow, deliberate exploration of space and time, with Jobin and Rezc using a wide range of synthesizers—Prophet 5, arp2600, Lyra, and more—to create an evolving, almost liquid soundscape. The field recordings they captured during their stroll are woven into the mix, grounding the track in a specific place while allowing the listener’s mind to drift elsewhere. The Buchla 200 and Serge modular systems add an extra layer of depth and complexity, turning the piece into a labyrinth of sound that invites repeated exploration. It’s a track that rewards patience, demanding that you lose yourself in its ebb and flow.
The album concludes with “Cómo llego aquí?”, a brief but poignant five-minute piece that translates to “How did I get here?”. The title is both a literal and metaphorical question, encapsulating the sense of disorientation that comes at the end of a long journey—whether that journey is a day spent wandering Mexico City or a lifetime of experiences leading to an unexpected collaboration. Musically, the track is the most abstract of the three, with fragmented melodies and dissonant tones that create a sense of unease. The use of the SYNTRX and Monopoly synths adds to this feeling, creating a soundscape that feels simultaneously familiar and alien. It’s a fitting end to an album that constantly blurs the line between the known and the unknown, the concrete and the abstract.
“Un día en México” is a masterclass in subtlety and restraint. Both Jobin and Rezc bring their own unique sensibilities to the table — Jobin’s minimalist sound art and Rezc’s cinematic compositions — yet the album never feels like a clash of styles. Instead, it’s a seamless blend, a true collaboration where each artist’s strengths are amplified by the other. The field recordings, captured during their day together, are not just background noise but integral components of the music, adding layers of context and meaning to each track.
While the album’s minimalist approach and lengthy compositions may not appeal to everyone, those willing to engage deeply with the music will find it richly rewarding. “Un día en México” is not just a snapshot of a day in the life of two artists; it’s a meditation on place, memory, and the unexpected connections that can arise from a single moment of curiosity.
—chaindlk.com
Canadian sound artist France Jobin and Mexican composer Yamil Rezc produce a sonographic portrait of Mexico City on their collaboration Un diá en México. Or perhaps more correctly, they incorporate traces of the geology, history and myth upon which the city is built. Sensitive to every nuance and aura, the pair are like diviners, awake to the cracks through which the past emerges to flood, and occasionally destroy, the conceits of the present.
On the opening track “La Reforma”, Jobin and Rezc’s edited studio improvisations portray nothing of hustling modernity of Paseo de la Reform, the boulevard that traverses the heart of the city. While people flock to the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia to see the evidence of past civilizations, Jobim and Rezc home in on ghosts of the Aztec past, the echoes of Teotihuacan, Tenochitlan and Lake Texcoco beneath the modern metropolis. You imagine them strolling with their field equipment amid the crowds, the traffic, the imperial Spanish and ultramodern architecture, the chaotic urbanity. The local leading the visitor attuned to the same vibrations. The music flickers like a highly tuned gauge atop drones that rumble with tectonic force, a black hole of sound that subsumes every detail of steel, glass, and neon. An echoing tumult ripples to the surface resonant with the scars of smallpox, the cannons of Cortes and the shifting plates beneath the city. Tonally rich and consuming it sets a scene for the 29 minute “El Lago” in which Jobin and Rezc delve beneath the streetscapes and archeological remains to explore the remnant Lake Texcoco. Here drones judder beneath synthetic strings that spread concentrically, bounce against solid rock and debris and spark echoes of sound. Otherworldly transmissions from the geological past emerge from the gloom, caught between stasis and movement, the duo allow the music to swell and recede, bubbling like magma here, crackling like static there. It feels untethered from time, eternal but colored by an anxious urgency as though the lake has secrets too numerous to keep which pour out in a blur of non sequiturs and synaptic blips that you must interpret as much as hear. Its enthralling and powerful stuff. On the coda “Cómo llego aqui?” (How is it here?) Jobin and Rezc develop a haunted undulation that they gradually submerge in a frictional wash of cacophony as if the reality of modern Mexico City had found its voice.
—Dusted Magazine
…and speaking of France Jobin, this collaboration she has done with composer / producer Yamil Rezc (Spectre 007, Get the Gringo) is a musical masterpiece. Their two styles swirl with perfect intent that releases extreme beauty in otherwise harsh environments. Soulful and rich in tonal excellence, this three piece album is a huge win for LINE. I wonder what was going through Richard Chartier’s mind when he heard it for the first time? Was he deeply moved? I know I was. I really hope I get to hear another collaboration from these two. Absolute gold. I’m a gushing fan now.
—Mark Hjorthoy, CITR.CA