by SHANE SINNOTT

Recently, the folks behind the online magazine and label Walnut + Locust have relocated from Paris to Montreal (www.walnutlocust.com). The magazine started in 1999, and seems to have interviewed everyone interesting who came through Lyon, France during its operation. They started putting out albums in 2003, and after releasing records by Zbigniew Karkowski and seminal noise artist Merzbow (at FIMAV this week), W+L released two “virtual albums” which are downloadable from their Web site. The first was Dent de Lyon, intended to support the scene where the label founders are from. The second, according to founder AlBéRiCk, is “an entirely virtual project” called Philippe F Remixes, in which participating artists all over the world were contacted online and provided with a downloadable “remix kit.” The remixers did their remixing, a shitload of e-mail was presumably exchanged, and the result is a 17-track album. The music is all “electronic,” and beyond that isn’t really classifiable other than saying that it ranges from very ambient to very noisy. Visit the album’s site here: cutremixes.free.fr/, where you can download the tracks and artwork to put the CD together yourself. If you’re still attached to non-virtual, hold-in-your-hand albums, there’s a launch party on June 9 at Sound Central for W+L’s latest release by Montreal’s Maggot Breeder.

Further evidence of the impending death of conventional album sales can be seen with the recent release of the debut album by Coconut Records in online formats only. One would think that this album will eventually find its way into stores, but for now you can get it only through iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster and others. It’s the project of Jason Schwartzman, who apparently, between starring in cool movies and dating beautiful women, has found time to craft 12 shimmery pop tunes. The single, “West Coast,” as well as two others, can be downloaded from the Obscure Sound blog here: obscuresound.com/?p=1014. The DRM-free downloads some music sites are offering must have been a boon—it’s hard to wade into the blogosphere without tripping over this.

Go Jason! ssinnott@gmail.com