Interviews – Page 5

The Centre des Musiciens du Monde (CMM) in Montreal and Traquen’art will be presenting a concert of Mongolian diphonic singing on Thursday 24 April 2025. In addition to this concert, the duo of Nasanjargal Ganbold, a Mongolian based in Germany and promoter of this ancestral culture in Europe, and Johanni Curtet, a Frenchman and the rare Westerner to have mastered the authentic technique of khöömii (pronounced with an expired H, “’Hhhoomii”’), will be busy touring and taking part in a week of activities. This technique is the reason behind the amazing, fascinating sounds that come out of the mouths of Mongolian (and now some Western) vocal artists, and which we spontaneously associate with the cultural universe of Mongolia, with Genghis Khan, horse races, the almost infinite blue sky, the vast steppes and white yurts.

Demostration ok khöömii by Johanni Curtet :

Johanni Curtet

Ganbold and Curtet will spend the week in Eastern Canada, giving, in addition to Thursday’s performance at the CMM, a concert in Quebec City (with the Oktoecho ensemble), another in Toronto, at the Small World Music Center, and then an introductory workshop to the technique at the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic on Sunday 27 April. The workshop will be a golden opportunity for anyone who dares to try their voice at this unique and complex art. It’s a safe bet that some metal growlers will even find it easy to get their vocal cords on it! The invitation is extended to all those who recognise themselves!

In the interview I conducted with Johanni Curtet, we explored a number of aspects of khöömii, as well as what led this young Frenchman, who was initially turned on by the grunge rock style of the late 1990s, to develop a passion for guttural muscle control techniques whose origins are lost in time and subject to a number of anthropological hypotheses.

Curtet initially wanted to make music, to which his musician father responded with classical guitar lessons. But when he wanted to sing, he was told he shouldn’t because he did it out of tune! One day, on TV, he saw an ethnomusicologist, Trân Quang Hai, talking about the khöömii technique (which simply means ‘pharynx’). He was young and impressed by these sounds, but didn’t catch the name of the scientist. For years, he tried to repeat the sounds himself. It was probably a long way from the real thing, but it stayed with him continually, alongside his instrumental studies at the Conservatoire. During this training, he learned the rudiments of world voices, and then came the Inuit throat singing and the famous khöömii! He could now put into words the sounds that had fascinated him for so long. He then branched out into ethnomusicology, eventually completing his Master’s degree with… Trân Quang Hai.

From study grants to introductory trips, he perfected his knowledge and above all his mastery of this musical genre with some of the best teachers in Mongolia. He went on to create musical group projects, initiate collaborations, funded a Franco-Mongolian NGO (Routes nomades, ‘’nomadic roads’’) and began to share his love and knowledge of khöömii around the world, including now in Canada with this short tour.

He met Gambold in 2019 in Germany, but the duo we’ll be hearing this week has only been around since the end of 2024, created for the Ethnosoi festival in Helsinki!

He is often asked if this kind of practice hurts the throat. ‘’The body gets used to the instrument. As with any new technique, there’s a more difficult passage at the beginning, where you have to resist the temptation to quit. When I first started playing the guitar, my fingers hurt and I felt like giving up. But when I realised that the hard skin forming at the end of my fingers would enable me to play better and project the sound more effectively, my mind got used to it and my body got used to it. It’s true that there can be a tingling in the throat in the first moments of learning, but when you learn the right gestures and the right method, it doesn’t have any negative impact.”

In any case, if it hurt, the Mongols wouldn’t have been practising this art for so long and in such large numbers. But why do they do it anyway?

‘“There are several hypotheses, including that of shamanic use.”’ It’s true that if you imagine yourself in a remote time, in the wild steppes, in a nomadic clan imbued with a powerful imaginary universe, a shamanic ritual in which a man in a trance begins to resonate vocally in this way, it must have been very impressive. That said, over time it became, according to Curtet, a pastime for shepherds. But be careful! Not like whistling on the way to the market. In the case of Mongolian nomadism, it’s more a question of communion with nature and with the very nature of the Universe in which these people live. It’s a very vertical nature, with a very strong link between the underground, the visible earth, and the infinite sky (and beyond). To push out these multiple sounds, based on a basic drone created by the tightening of the throat muscles, then filtered through various mouth positions with the lips and tongue, is literally to connect tellurically, vibratory, magnetically and spiritually with the Universe.

That said, the shamanism inherent in the early musicological studies of khöömii led to a Western exploitation through the New Age movement, which turned it into a source of yogic and meditative transcendence, but watered down the technique itself. So much so that, ironically, there are probably more Westerners practising this ‘facilitated’ technique than Mongolians practising the authentic, more complex and difficult one. In the end, Johanni Curtet remains one of the few to do it for real. That’s why he started teaching an authentic khöömii course at the Institut international des musiques du monde in Aubagne around 5 years ago.

Montreal’s equivalent (the CMM) is perhaps the only one of its kind in America, which is why the Metropolis is so privileged to have access to so many concerts and workshops on the world’s most learned and fascinating musical art traditions. And now we can even bring them to other cities in the area, like Quebec City and Toronto. A Mongolian artist, Uurintuya Khalivan, who plays the morin khuur, the horse-headed fiddle, moved here some time ago, and I’ve already told you about her.

Curtet is passionate and utterly fascinating in his display of knowledge on the subject. It’s a simple and convivial display, which I personally enjoyed during this hour-long interview that could have gone on much longer, and of which I’m omitting a large part here because the man is inexhaustible and I’m running out of space. I can’t recommend enough that you put his visit (and that of his travelling companion) on your agenda as soon as possible. You shouldn’t miss an opportunity for discovery and enrichment like this when it arises.

Concert in Quebec City (Musée national des Beaux-Arts) on Wednesday 23 April

Concert in Montreal (Centre des Musiciens du Monde) on Thursday 24 April

Concert in Toronto (Small World Centre) on Friday 25 April

Introductory khöömii workshop at the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic (in collaboration with Oktoecho) on Sunday 27 April, 2-4pm. Bookings by email: [email protected]

Syli d’Or 2025 | Latin America in the final with MARZOS and MATEO. This all started with a fundraiser for their grandmother. Little did the MARZOS brothers know that this would launch their artistic career, despite a break forced by the pandemic. But that didn’t stop them from relaunching the machine in 2024, by approaching MATEO for a project around the giant Héctor Lavoe. And the rest is history, as they say! Since then, MATEO and MARZOS have teamed up again for the Syli d’Or adventure, a successful gamble since they reached the final. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to the MARZOS brothers and MATEO a few days before the final, to be held at the Fairmount Theatre on Friday April 25.

Crédit photo: André Rival

After a recent interview with an artist from Mauritius, Yannick Nanette, from the group The TWO, it’s Reunion Island’s turn to be in the spotlight this time, through the group Kozé, finalists in the 18th edition of the Syli d’Or. During my interview with one of the founding members, we talked not only about Maloya and the different instruments played by the band members, but also about their future projects and their relationship with their homeland. Group spirit is important to Kozé, which gives each member the space to contribute according to his or her strengths. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to David Lynam for PANM360, just a few days before the final on Friday April 25 at the Fairmount Theatre.

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The album Apostrophe and the live double album Roxy & Elsewhere, among Frank Zappa’s gems, were released in 1974, hence the on-stage celebrations of their fiftieth anniversary by son Dweezil and his excellent band, made up exclusively of virtuosos from the generation following that of the illustrious and brilliant father. And we’ll keep the fun going in 2025! Stops in Montreal and Quebec City at the end of April undoubtedly justify this interview with Réjean Beaucage, certainly the most fervent zappophile in the PAN M 360 community of experts.

At Théâtre Maisonneuve, April 21, 8PM. Tickets HERE

At Palais Montcalm, April 25 avril, 7:30 PM. Tickets HERE

JACO may be a latecomer to the scene, but Plan F, a deliberately self-deprecating title for his 38th birthday, could be the start of a great fireworks display. One thing’s for sure, this flamboyant late bloomer is driven by a firm determination to make a success of his Plan F. He’s obviously mastered the codes of synth-pop and knows how to write solid rhymes, and he does it in a good-natured Québécois that every French-speaking person on Earth is capable of kiffer.

His biographical profile tells us that he recorded the EP Vies et presque mort d’un chérubin in collaboration with seven classical musicians, then negotiated a pop turn with housy and dance accents at times, with a first homonymous EP (Jacques Rousseau, in 2014), then enrolled at the École nationale de la chanson de Granby.

A queer artist with a strong sense of self, JACO is a magnetic creature, as sensual as he is clever, with an eye for form and substance. Before crossing the Atlantic, as he is working hard to establish himself in the French market, JACO grants us this generous interview conducted by Alain Brunet for PAN M 360.

PAN M 360 : Hi JACO, let’s get to know each other! Why did you choose this nickname in the first place?

JACO: Actually, JACO is a bit of a nod to the past for two reasons. My legal name is Jacques. When I was young, my godmother had affectionately used the nickname Jaco in front of my father, who was rather rigid, and had rebuked her rather sternly: his name is Jacques, not Jaco. So she stopped calling me that. Then, in high school, I was bullied by a group of kids who were having fun singing Jaco… Jaco… Personally, I like the diminutive. To me, it evokes something rather candid and joyful. So, as an adult, I made it my own, and it became my most common nickname for everyone.

PAN M 360: How did you get into pop? Self-taught? Educated in music?

JACO: When I was young, I was particularly fond of this style. I used to listen religiously to 6à6 on CKOI 96.9, and my first heartbreak was with Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. We also found a letter I’d written to the “fairy godmother”, in which I told her I’d be a very popular dance singer when I grew up.

On the other hand, I’ve had the impetus to tame a number of other musical styles, with French chanson, opera and classical music (Danny Elfman, Philip Glass) being my favorites…

I studied drama after high school, but soon started singing. I had a short stint as a performer after graduating, but soon felt the need to write my own material. I collaborated with several trained musicians to bring my first song inspirations into the world together, while I was self-taught.

Then one day I realized that if I really wanted to understand my creative impulses, know how to communicate them and become master of my creation, I had to do my homework. So I went back to school at the École nationale de la chanson, and just after that, my JACO project was born.

PAN M 360: Does the song Moi define you, or is it a virtual character narrating himself? The song’s narrator is 33. How old are you?

JACO: I wrote this song at my desk at ENC. It’s a sincere testimony to the times. During the writing process, it was suggested to us that, in order to create a song with a certain impact and meaning, it’s sometimes a good idea to dare to reveal something intimate about yourself, something you’d even like to keep to yourself. So I gave voice to that part of me which, at 33 at the time, needed to get this confession out. Reminding myself to be me, to be true to who I am, to be just me (in the sense that I’m self-sufficient when I’m in my heart rather than in my ego) is something that’s still relevant today and keeps me on course.

PAN M 360: Why was the title Plan F chosen for this album?

JACO: Once again, the title is taken from the song Moi. Plan A became Plan B, then from B it went to C, D, E…F*CK, how far am I going to get in the alphabet?

So it wasn’t my plan to release my 1st album at 38, but this PLAN F is about a journey of maturation, resilience and perseverance. Today, I’m really grateful that I didn’t achieve the success I’d hoped for before. I’m happy to have matured, to have cured things. Now, I’m more focused on creating for something bigger than myself, and I’m so much better with myself.

PAN M 360: How have you made a living so far?

JACO: I’ve been a waiter in restaurants for over 10 years (the only job I’ve managed to keep, because it’s connected to people… and it’s not too routine due to the multitude of encounters). I used to be a meditation teacher. For 2 years now, my only job has been singing, and I’m fully committed to it.

PAN M 360: What are your career goals? The French keb market or the whole French-speaking world?

JACO: My main objective is to share my art on the great stages of the French-speaking world, with set designs that allow people to dream big, to feel big.

PAN M 360: Who have been your role models as a lyricist? What language are you aiming for? International joual? A mix of normative French and local language? There are influences (and quotations) from Europe, but also from QC. How do you define your own cultural identity?

JACO: In my career, Plamondon left an indelible mark on me, of course, with Starmania, then his work with Dufresne. Orelsan also spoke to me a lot, in his ability to talk about himself in a disarmingly sincere way, often with a good dose of self-mockery. He dares to say things that are usually kept to himself, to expose his shortcomings. His language is colloquial, but I find it very finely crafted.

I want to make sure that my audience understands me. Lately, my life has been oscillating between France and QC, so it’s both. I’m planning to spend most of my life in France in the next few years, so naturally I’ll be using a language that ensures I’m understood by everyone there, while remaining as natural as possible with who I am in the moment.

My identity isn’t deeply patriotic or geopolitical, it’s based more on universal values.

PAN M 360: As a musician, who has really made an impact on you? What are your most recent influences?

JACO: So many different inspirations: Mitsou, Diane Dufresne, Vigneault, Pauline Julien, Claude Léveillé, Supertramp, Juliette Gréco, The Doors, Pink Floyd, La Callas, Jane Birkin, Thomas Fersen, Joe Dassin, Dalida, Abba, Mylène Farmer, church choirs…

It’s hard for me to answer the question of who I’ve been drawing inspiration from lately, because I’m mostly in the process of doing my best to listen to what wants to live from the inside out, rich with everything that’s made up my musical baggage. I enjoy combining my love of catchy pop with my less conventional influences….

I’m not the kind of person who comes into the studio with refs of current artists and says I’d like my project to share certain sounds.

PAN M 360: As a producer/director?

JACO: Max Martin is at the helm of so many hits that I consider to be compositional gems despite the fact that they couldn’t be more mainstream, haha.

PAN M 360: What do you look for in a pop song? Balance between music and words? Pre-eminence of music?

JACO: Earworms thanks to rich melodies, which progress, emotion, a catchy rhythm too. Form and substance. Impact. I think pop is a great vehicle for bringing people together and getting messages across.

PAN M 360: Tell us about a studio session that marked this album.

JACO: Rather than one particular studio session, I’d like to say that this is an album that was made with joy and in a truly happy complicity with producer Arthur Bourdon-Durocher. We created all the arrangements together, and I couldn’t have asked for a better alliance. We laughed a lot, there was a great creative flow and a lot of playfulness. I’m really happy to be in a musical collaboration where I feel understood, capable of expressing what I want while being able to leave creative space to the other, being open while being connected to what seems right to me. In the end, when I listen to my songs, I want my inner kid to be happy, haha.

PAN M 360: Introduce us to your team and your main studio mates.

JACO: So, it was Arthur as mentioned above. Then there was Pascal Shefteshy (who just happened to be NK.F’s assistant on albums by Orelsan, Angèle, Zaho de Sagazan, etc.) With him too, super nice human connection, and a lot of laughter in a meticulous job.

PAN M 360: It’s been said that your highly dynamic shows might even trump your recordings. What do you think?

JACO: It’s quite a challenge to manage to infuse as much energy on record as on stage, when the stage is our most exalted place of expression. When I do my vocals at home (I more often than not record my solo vocals in my home studio), I gesticulate a lot, turn the sound up loud in my ears and imagine I’m singing my song to sb to recreate that feeling of self-giving, broad expression. What’s more, I want to find a way to be even more raw in my recordings, not too smooth.

PAN M 360: Who accompanies you on stage?

JACO: For my last few dates (tour in France, concert in Paris and launch in Montreal), I was solo. When you’re alone and there’s a performative aspect to your repertoire (dance, a certain theatricality) there’s an obligation to constantly be connected with the audience, in a constant dialogue, and I like this constraint. I find it brings me back to the essence of what’s important to me on stage: giving to the audience.

PAN M 360: They tell me you’re going to Europe. What else? Touring? Professional canvassing?

JACO: Actually, I’ve spent 8 months in France in the last year and a half, and then I got my talent passport, which allows me to stay for long periods. On my last visit, I did a solo concert at Les Étoiles in Paris, which was produced by TS3 (Thierry Suc, Mylène Farmer’s manager and producer of shows associated with several great artists). After seeing me on stage, they confirmed their willingness to help me get to where I want to go (the famous big stages). I particularly resonate with the French-speaking European music scene. Electro-pop projects like mine are very welcome there, and all the more contemporary artists whose work I admire can be found there.

PAN M 360: What do you hope to bring to the Keb soundscape with this album?

JACO: A good dose of positive energy, an encouragement to take full responsibility for oneself, and if I can inspire some people not to give up and pursue their dreams, I’m delighted.

Formed by Yannick Nanette and Thierry Jaccard, one Mauritian, the other Swiss, this duo, which met by chance during a jam session in a Swiss bar, continues its adventure even thirteen years later under the stage name The TWO. In fact, this is the meaning of the name given to their most recent album, Sadela, in Mauritian Creole. What immediately stands out about these two artists is their blatant complicity and human connection, without artifice. Promoting Creolité in their version of the blues, but also in their way of life, they encourage the blending of cultures and refuse to be confined by boxes or labels. After all, you’ll find them in several boxes at once: the blues box, the jazz box, the soul box. Quoting Edouard Glissant on several occasions, the duo call themselves “Sunday philosophers”, and it’s from these discussions that their songs, mainly written by Yannick, are born.

The duo, which later became a trio, then a quartet, depending on the circumstances, will be at Club Balattou in trio (or quartet, I’ll keep you in suspense) format this Sunday, April 20, at 9pm. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to them before their concert in Maskinongé.

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Critique Love, aka Antoine Binette-Mercier, appears in a dark and menacing epic: the album Critique Love, whose first single “Bone White Dust” has already been circulating for some time, accompanied by an apocalyptic video by Jimmy Genest Pettigrew. Only the angelic, ethereal voices of Lisa Kathryn Iwanycki and Frannie Holder bring light and salvation.

A hypnotic, film noir album with subtle electro tinges and well-crafted violin and flute arrangements, an album that ratchets up the tension and transports us back to the tear-gas-fogged 60s and 70s. With his deep spoken/whispered voice, he sometimes recalls the deep voices of Gainsbourg or Cohen… in a diving suit. Percussion plays a key role throughout the opus, and the female vocals stand out for their contrasting gentleness, freeing us from the atmospheric heaviness that fills us with a slow, sure feeling of anguish.

Marilyn Bouchard met Antoine, who also produced and arranged the show. For PAN M 360, our contributor interviewed him after his Montreal Salon Show on April 15 … in a real salon.

PAN M 360: What were your inspirations when creating the album?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: I’m very interested in the surreal world, and I wanted to do a rock project with a very 60s-70s feel. I listened a lot to Lee Hazlewood and also Jonny Greenwood. I’m also very interested in orchestral composition and chromaticism. Looking for harmonies that grafine, that go towards Bernard Herrmann. We live in a diatonic world, so I wanted dissonance, in a context that’s soft and romanesque. The music always comes first, then the lyrics.

PAN M 360: Where do you come from, musically speaking? Tell us a bit about your evolution.

Antoine Binette-Mercier: I’m currently finishing my master’s degree in music composition on a modern approach to Romantic and post-romantic music, marked by ultra-chromaticism. If you listen to Mahler or Wagner, the chromaticism is so advanced that you’re no longer even in the tonal system, it’s almost atonal. Also, I listened to way too much Pink Floyd in my youth haha! A bit of Rush too..Gentle Giant. I’m not a big fan of masturbatory music where you get lost in the intellectual side of things…everything has to start from emotion.

PAN M 360: How long did these compositions last?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: Hey, I’m embarrassed, but I’ve done it in ten years haha! It all started when my good friend Julien Sagot (Karkwa) wanted to give it a go with his second album, Valse 333, and he really trusted me and said: “Hey, we’re doing it together!” So I came on board as co-producer, and for a year we worked on his album in a direction we’d worked out together. We tried to break down the boundaries (there’ll be no kick on 1 or snare on 2-4, etc.). And when we finished the process, that’s when I got the ambition to launch myself into this creation, to push it all further.

PAN M 360: Your music is very cinematic: are you inspired by films, images or paintings?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: Yes, absolutely! The films of Hitchcock and Tarantino were major inspirations for the project. I’m also very interested in Salvador Dali. Surrealism is very close to me.

PAN M 360: Where does the name Critique Love come from?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: The name of the project comes from “critical paranoia”, an inspirational technique based on Dali’s use of the subconscious in creation.

PAN M 360: It’s clear that you’re not afraid of moving into darker atmospheres. Is this something that feeds your creative work a lot?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: My poetry is dark, and I wanted to deal with more difficult subjects. I like that, to work on themes that are on the border between happiness and despair. To find and work on that fine line that separates the two worlds. It’s beautiful and tortured at the same time, with a touch of the apocalyptic. I like to strike a chord and get the feeling that it’s the apocalypse, but with serenity and a smile. I like to find the precise point that cuts through.

PAN M 360: The contribution of percussion stands out as one of the album’s main links. Was it a choice to highlight them?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: Basically, I’m a percussionist, that’s what I studied. And when I composed the album, I had the skeletons of my songs and the first outside collaborator who joined in was Robbie Kuster. I’d recorded the drums myself and had a pretty clear idea at the time, but his drums were so good and I was so impressed that it kind of…pushed the production to another level. It gave the cue that the bass could do this, the strings could go there, etc…. It was important to me that nothing was standard…there’s so much music being made right now, I wanted my music to be relevant.

PAN M 360: We sometimes hear influences bordering on Sigùr Ros. Do you listen to any of these artists?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: I listened to a lot of them around 2008-2010.

Antoine Binette-Mercier: I listened to a lot of it around 2008-2010.PAN M 360: On the other hand, influences from the 60s and 70s and old opera are also present, with the guitar texture à la Nancy Sinatra, is this another world that helped shape you musically?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: Yes, completely! Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra’s composer, is a major influence for me. I listened to him a lot. I also listened a lot to Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone and all the spaghetti westerns!
PAN M 360: Your songs seem to take us on an epic journey. Do you see it as such?
Antoine Binette-Mercier: I see each of my songs as a sculpture, where I remove the superfluous and refine, at each stage, trying to find solutions to the riddles of arrangement. I need to find things, often by removing others. It’s my own epic, but it can be a bit adventurous haha!

PAN M 360: What’s next for 2025?

Antoine Binette-Mercier: “Comme avant” and “Edge’s Line” are the next singles to be released, we’re releasing them both at the same time. They will also be accompanied by visuals by Jimmy Pettigrew. There’s also a show coming up at Madame Wood on May 26.

Formerly known as ZIGAZ, Charlie Gagnon is now adopting a new artistic identity with her Charlie Juste project. Our contributor Arielle Taillon-Desgroseillers took the time to chat with her to find out more about Aquamarine, her brand-new song due for release on April 15.

PAN M 360: You began your career under the name ZIGAZ. What motivated you to adopt the name Charlie Juste? What does this change mean to you?

Charlie Juste: What motivated me to change my name was really my music studies over the last two years, which enabled me to take a step back between my latest EP with ZIGAZ, Némésis, and my next projects. I took a break because it was a lot of work, but also because I needed it. I was asking myself a lot of questions about my artistic identity. ZIGAZ was a choice I made young, impulsively, and I didn’t take the time to sit down and ask myself what I wanted to project. I wanted a name that was close to me, I wanted something that represented me, because that’s precisely what I’ve worked out: I don’t want to play music or make music under the name of a character. My music is so close to my life, to what I think and feel, and I don’t want to fit into a role, which I think ZIGAZ forced me to do in a certain sense. It was just a need to be completely me, authentic and vulnerable to who I really am.

PAN M 360: What inspired you to write Aquamarine?

Charlie Juste: First of all, I challenged myself to find subjects that weren’t about love, but rather about myself, my wounds and my past. Secondly, he’s my little brother. I thought a lot about him when I was writing this song. I was reminded of some of the wounds I’ve experienced and how I’d do anything to prevent them from happening to him. It’s also a conversation with all the people who are very close to me, but also with myself. I wanted to heal the child inside me. So, in the need to be fully myself, I think it was important for this song to start from the ground up, and I think Aquamarine is that.

PAN M 360: Can you tell us about the creation of Aquamarine?

Charlie Juste: Aquamarine was created in the small bedroom of my best childhood friend, Shawn De Leemans. He did all the orchestration for the song. It all came together, I had some ideas, I wanted to incorporate a bit more spoken word and poetry into my songs, and the development came to us so organically. Honestly, we had the demo in one evening, but after that the development took almost two years because we had a pretty precise idea in mind and we really wanted to get there. Also, considering that we’re independent, we don’t necessarily have the same resources as other artists, so it took us longer, but we succeeded and we’re really happy to have produced Aquamarine as we’d imagined it.

PAN M 360: Do you have a routine or ritual when you write?

Charlie Juste: The only routine/ritual I have when I’m writing is that I need to be in a safe space with people I love, that’s all. It’s in those moments that I feel the freedom to try and test what I want.

PAN M 360: Does the release of Aquamarine announce a wider project, such as an album or EP?

Charlie Juste: Yes, it heralds a larger project, an EP called Velours et acide. All the demos are there, it’s just a question of working on it this summer, putting the finishing touches to it. That’s my main task for the summer!

PAN M 360: What are your influences at the moment? Are there any songs or artists that have made a particular impression on you during the creation of Aquamarine?

Charlie Juste: There’s a part of me that likes to say that my music is influenced by the music my mother listened to. When I was little, my mother used to clean the house on Sundays listening to Quebec music CDs, and I think a lot of my music refers to that. Quebec music has grown so much inside me and it’s something I’ve fully reconnected with in recent years. In general, Charlie Juste and Aquamarine are very influenced by Les Colocs, Offenbach, Vulgaire Machins, Fred Fortin, Jean Leloup, Luce Dufault and even Nanette Workman.

PAN M 360: Many French-speaking Quebec artists choose to sing in English to reach a wider audience. Why did you decide to make music in French?

Charlie Juste: I don’t think I could have done it any other way, because the French language is my mother tongue, it’s so loaded for me. It’s full of inspiration, memories and references, and that’s what I want my music to reflect, even at the expense of losing an English-speaking audience.

PAN M 360: How are you navigating the Quebec music scene? Do you feel like you’ve found your place, or do you still have to build it?

Charlie Juste: I definitely feel like I still have to build my place in the Quebec scene, but Charlie Juste is a beginning, it’s a new proposition that is really anchored and thought out. I think my music will have a place in the Quebec music scene. It seems like I’m at a place in my life where everything is more aligned, everything is clearer in my head, it’s just a matter of taking the time and making that place for myself.

PAN M 360: What are your plans for 2025?

Charlie Juste: Finish my EP, create more music, and continue to listen to my inner voice. Trust myself. It’s often my intuition that leads me to create things that truly reflect me.

Earlier this year, Ingrid St-Pierre released a new EP, Cinq chansons au piano droit, in which she reinterprets five songs from her repertoire with simplicity and finesse, in a wish to return to essentials. A heartfelt, uncluttered album, adorned with delicate arrangements and beautifully interpreted by the artist, it allows us to rediscover her songs from another angle. Filled with softness and lightness, yet touching on themes that are sometimes a little heavier, the EP is a touching, introspective journey where silences take on their full meaning. We owe the subtle arrangements to Joseph Marchand, who sensitively co-produced the album.

At the same time, the singer-songwriter spoils us with Ingrid St-Pierre: Seule au piano, a solo show she imagined for the occasion. In it, she freely revisits her songs in their pure, original expression, stripped of artifice so as to better appreciate the details, in the image of the album.

Marilyn Bouchard caught up with her just before her return to Montreal at Usine C, on April 16, to ask her a few questions.

PAN M 360: Would you say that this refined album was born of a desire to return to simplicity, to the essential?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I wanted to unlearn the songs. To return to their essence. To let the tiny take up all the space. To magnify silences. To make a piano note immense. A rustle of clothing, a flock of geese in the autumn outside and the wind in the magnolia.

PAN M 360: What did you want to share with this EP?

Ingrid St-Pierre: The simple expression of a song. The first impulse, and the essence.

PAN M 360: Has this enabled you to reappropriate your repertoire in a different way?

Ingrid St-Pierre: Creating a solo show gave me the opportunity to go back into my song demos before going into the studio. To reconnect with what they were before.

PAN M 360: Why did you choose these 5 songs?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I hesitated for a long time, right up to the last minute. I wanted to reinterpret everything, but I had to make choices. I wanted to see how I could reappropriate these stories. How they were going to live piano/voice.

PAN M 360: It’s a very intimate album. Would you say that your creative life and your intimate life run parallel?

Ingrid St-Pierre: My intimate life certainly feeds my creative life. The more I’m on edge, the more I reveal myself, the more I’m shaken up, the better I write. It’s when I’m shaken that I’m able to write.

PAN M 360: How has your relationship with your instrument, the piano, evolved over the course of your career?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I’m a self-taught pianist, with little basic training. I’ve learned to forge my artistic and pianistic identity by juggling my technical limits. I have to admit that I myself am often much more moved by a musician who transmits emotions to me than by great technical challenges.

PAN M 360: What are your musical inspirations at the moment?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I really listen to everything! A lot of instrumental music lately.

PAN M 360: What inspires you when it comes to thinking up new pieces, or rethinking old ones?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I like to draw inspiration from ordinary moments. I like to put everyday fragments under the microscope.

PAN M 360: Sometimes you adopt electro and dance tones (like on Sac Banane with Heartstreets), sometimes more melancholy. We get the impression that with each of your albums, you’re on a different quest. Is this your way of reinventing yourself?

Ingrid St-Pierre: I love improbable collaborations. I don’t think I’m looking for myself artistically, but I give myself the freedom to exist. I embrace every musical impulse that moves me. Free to be, I feel truer to myself.

PAN M 360: Which brings me to: where do you want to go with your next album?

Ingrid St-Pierre: It’s still a surprise! I’m waiting to see what the new songs will inspire!

CONCERT AT L’USINE C: TICKETS AND INFOS HERE

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ONJM 2024-2025 season closes with young clarinet rising star Virginia MacDonald, performing Jean-Nicolas Trottier’s Starbirth Suite, a world premiere written for the Toronto jazzwoman.

Juno Award-winning clarinetist is clearly a clarinet virtuoso of her generation. Known for her great skills, for her fluidity, her tone and her excellent phrasing as an improviser, she became an attractive soloist for ambitious projects as this Starbirth Suite, a title that perfectly fits with her actual status.

Virginia MacDonald is actually very active as a bandleader, sidewoman or composer. She plays around the world and proudly represents Canada’s new jazz scene.

Let’s have a look on her eloquent biography, taken from her own website:

In 2020, Virginia was selected as the first-prize winner of the International Clarinetist Corona Competition; judges included Anat Cohen, Victor Goines, Ken Peplowski, and Doreen Ketchens. She was recently chosen as one of three finalists for the Toronto Art Foundation’s 2024 Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award. Some of her other accolades include receiving a Stingray Rising Star Award in 2019, and being named as one of three finalists for the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award in 2021. In 2023, she was selected to headline the International Clarinet Association’s 50th anniversary celebration at ClarinetFest in Denver, Colorado.

Virginia has recorded and performed with esteemed artists including Kirk Lightsey, Geoffrey Keezer, Ira Coleman, Michael Dease, Dick Oatts, Joe Magnarelli, Harold Mabern, Bruce Barth, Derrick Gardner, Rodney Whitaker, Xavier Davis, Quincy Davis, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bill Cunliffe, Randy Napoleon, Jon Gordon, (her father) Kirk MacDonald, Pat Labarbera, Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke.

Virginia is a member of the Canadian Jazz Collective, a seven-piece ensemble of award-winning and established Canadian jazz musicians. She appeared on the Canadian Jazz Collective’s debut album “Septology”, which was nominated for a Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2024.

Virginia was featured on Caity Gyorgy’s 2022 Juno Award-winning album “Now Pronouncing” and her 2023 Juno Award-winning follow-up “Featuring”. She has been a recent and frequent collaborator of Grammy Award-winning trombonist Michael Dease and appeared on his 2023 album “The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill” and his 2024 release “Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill”. Her composition “Up High, Down Low” was featured on Michael Dease’s 2023 release “Swing Low”. Virginia has appeared on twenty-plus albums as a sidewoman.

Virginia’s debut album is set to be released in 2025 on Cellar Live. She will feature original compositions for her quartet including jazz veterans such as the American Geoffrey Keezer on piano or (also American) Ira Coleman on bass, along with voices of her generation, NYC drummer Curtis Nowosad and French vocalist Laura Anglade.

Because of all that, our PAN M 360 collaborator Mona Boulay asked her a few questions before coming to Montreal – Saturday April 19th, 8PM, Place des Arts Cinquième Salle.

PAN M 360: Starbirth is a piece written by Jean-Nicolas Trottier especially for you. How did this artistic encounter come about, and how were you involved (if at all) in the creative process of this work?

Virginia MacDonald: Before connecting with Jean-Nicolas, I was actually introduced to Jacques Laurin by a mutual friend & colleague, the wonderful Cuban pianist Rafael Zaldivar. We talked about the possibility of collaborating at some point, and this project was born out of that conversation. When Jean-Nicolas first proposed the idea of writing a suite for me, I was incredibly honoured and on board. I was familiar with his writing, and his mentor Joe Sullivan has worked quite extensively with my father Kirk MacDonald, so there is a cool connection there. I wanted him to have free rein to conceptualize the music, so I gave very minimal guidance on a couple of small technical details. I’m so happy with how the suite has turned out, and I can’t wait to present it.

PAN M 360: The clarinet is an instrument that was important in the early stages of Jazz and neglected in the modern Jazz world after the Second World War. There were few exceptions (Eric Dolphy, etc.) but more recently, many clarinetists have since brought it back. What inspirations led you down the jazz clarinet path?

Virginia MacDonald: The clarinet has had a very interesting role in the lineage of this music. It was such an integral instrument within the realm of early jazz, but for what could be any number of reasons (inadequate microphone technology, the saxophone being the louder instrument of the two and allowing for easier projection over a loud rhythm section, etc.) it fell out of favour from the bebop era and onwards.

I started playing the clarinet when I was seven years old – my father is a jazz saxophonist, and I always joke that I didn’t want to play the same instrument as him but really, when I saw the clarinet for the first time my eyes lit up and I fell in love with it. It wasn’t until I was older and into my high school years that I realized the lineage of the instrument within this music kind of came to a halt at a certain point. There were of course notable exceptions. My favourite clarinetist, Jimmy Giuffre, utilized the instrument in a way that I believe was incredibly ahead of his time. And I could look to modern players like Anat Cohen and Paquito D’Rivera for inspiration. But for the most part, I turned to musicians who played saxophone or trumpet – pianists or singers, and tried to emulate what they were doing in my own way. I really felt that the clarinet was sort of an unsung instrument, and that people just needed to give it a chance, and hear it in a more modern context to understand what it could be capable of.

PAN M 360 : After appearing on numerous albums by other artists, you’re preparing to release your own album in 2025. Are you more excited about releasing your own project than collaborating with others?

Virginia MacDonald: Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to work extensively as a sideperson, and I’ve been lucky enough to perform with musicians who have been personal heroes and inspirations of mine. I don’t think that I would have the knowledge and experience that I have today if I had only focused on my own projects. You learn a lot by working with other musicians, and trying to perform and play their music to the fullest capability. But there is also a great freedom and sense of fulfillment involved with writing your own music, and seeing it come to fruition. I feel like I’ve come to a point where I really enjoy the balance of being able to take part in others’ projects, while focusing on my own music simultaneously.

PAN M 360: How did you go about composing this forthcoming album?

Virginia MacDonald: This album is a medley of music that I’ve written over the past ten years or so, and I really feel like it reflects where I’ve been at various moments of time over the last decade. I’m very lucky that some of my favourite musicians in the world agreed to collaborate with me on this project, including Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Ira Coleman on bass, Curtis Nowosad on drums, and Laura Anglade on vocals. To me, creating this music is always a joint effort and I’m very of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” mindset.

PAN M 360: You’ve had the chance to perform in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Is there a venue, a stage or a festival that has had the biggest impact on you?

Virginia MacDonald: As of now, I spend over half of the year on the road and I’m constantly travelling from city to city. It doesn’t lose it’s novelty if you can keep that sense of curiosity and wonder. I love going to new places, and I try to make the most of wherever I am. Performing in India was incredibly special to me…I don’t know, I love it all.

PAN M 360: As well as being an incredible musician, you also give master classes and workshops. How do these two aspects of your career (musician and teacher) co-exist?

Virginia MacDonald: They’re very intertwined. I owe so much to my mentors, and I was (and still am) very lucky to have had some great ones. There is no doubt that being a musician is not an easy or straightforward path. We all need guidance, no matter what stage we’re at. “Music Education” at its highest level is reciprocal – you receive what you give and you give what you receive, if you’re open to both of those possibilities. There’s something to learn from younger musicians and the spirit and vitality they possess, and there’s much to learn from our elders and their tenacity, life experience, and wisdom. I love teaching because I feel like the pursuit of learning and being better at whatever we do is so exciting and infinite..and so integral to just being a human. It’s so exciting to share that feeling, both as a student of the music and on the other side as a mentor.

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ARTISTS

DIRECTION Jean-Nicolas Trottier

GUEST ARTIST Virginia MacDonald, clarinet

SAXOPHONES Jean-Pierre Zanella, Samuel Blais, André Leroux, Frank Lozano, Alexandre Côté

TROMPETTES Jocelyn Couture, Aron Doyle, David Carbonneau, Bill Mahar

TROMBONES David Grott, Édouard Touchette, David Martin, Jean-Sébastien Vachon

PIANO Marianne Trudel

COUNTERBASS Rémi-Jean Leblanc

DRUMS Kevin Warren

Saxophonists and jazzmen Yannick Rieu and Lionel Belmondo have been musical friends since the ’90s, when Rieu lived in France and often shared the stage with his French colleague. This unfailing friendship culminates this Wednesday, April 16 at Salle André-Mathieu, when a jazz sextet shares the stage with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval. Presented in world premiere, the works on the program were composed by Rieu and Belmondo, inspired by Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel and Lili Boulanger. On the eve of these premieres, the two soloists talk to Alain Brunet on PAN M 360.

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Program

Pieces for jazz sextet and orchestra based on Brahms, Ravel and Boulanger

First part (40 min)

1. Lines (Yannick Rieu)
2. Menuet en ut dièse mineur (Maurice Ravel)
3. Nocturne (Lili Boulanger)
4. Passacaille (Maurice Ravel)

Interlude (20 min)

Second part (35 min)

1. Africa Brahms (Yannick Rieu)
2. Ballade sur le nom de Maurice Ravel (Lionel Belmondo)
3. Embrahms-moi (Yannick Rieu)
4. Estebania-Pharaon (Lionel Belmondo-Yannick Rieu)
5. La couleur de l’eau (Lionel Belmondo)
6. Nostalgie (Yannick Rieu)
7. Ritournelle (Yannick Rieu)

Artists

Orchestre symphonique de Laval

Daniel Bartholomew Poyser

Orchestral conductor

Lex French

Trumpet

Jonathan Cayer

piano

Rémi-Jean LeBlanc

double bass

Louis-Vincent Hamel

drums

We’ve always known her as the blonde half of her duo Les Sœurs Boulay with Mélanie, but it’s been 2018 since we’ve heard Stéphanie solo, when she presented us with her first individual breath, Ce que je te donne ne disparait pas. She returns this year with a new, introspective, unfiltered album: Est-ce que quelqu’un me voit?

On it, she explores the themes of love, her role as a woman and the definition of happiness, to name but a few. With resolutely pop tones in its arrangements, mixing synths and well-defined bass lines with timeless guitar, the album takes us to the shores of self-acceptance, the desire to take one’s place, the need for liberation, but also waiting and patience, one of the album’s driving forces.

Produced by long-time collaborator Alexandre Martel, the 10 pieces were first sketched out during a fairly concise pre-production studio session, where his collaborator’s attention to detail helped shape their sonic direction.

The highlight for her on this album: she wanted to get out of her comfort zone and get into her own groove, proving to herself that she could also do things on her own, without having to lean on anyone else. Marilyn Bouchard gathered her thoughts on this new chapter.

PAN M 360: What need, would you say, gave birth to this album? What fire fueled its creation?

Stéphanie Boulay: I’d just separated, and at the same time, I was in the process of being diagnosed with neuro-divergence. So it was a time when I needed to take a pause and think about what others/society expected of me, and what I expected of myself. I needed to come to terms with who I was. I was at home on my own with my dog and, as my relationship with writing is very honest, it was all I had left to tie me to that phase. I needed to write. And I realized that in the end, writing has always been my lifeline.

PAN M 360: There are a few rather melancholy songs on the album, Si l’essentiel c’est d’être aimé, Est-ce que quelqu’un me voit? J’aurai pas d’enfants and La nuit dure depuis trop longtemps: did you have a surplus of sadness to evacuate? Is this a healing album?

Stéphanie Boulay: Definitely. It’s a healing album, a reconstruction album. I needed to tell the truth and not just the beauty, the negative too, to deal with it, to free myself from it. First for myself, a little selfishly, but also for others going through similar emotions.

PAN M 360: In what way did you want to take the research begun in Ce que je te donne ne disparaît pas, published in 2018, a step further?

Stéphanie Boulay: First of all, I developed several new skills in the course of creating this album. I did archival research, both video and audio. I also learned editing and photography from Alex Martel. On Ce que je te donne ne disparaît pas, we were really looking for a vibe, whereas on this one we paid particular attention to the choice and texture of sounds. Alexandre is a very precise and meticulous person, and we could spend an hour listening to a sound. I wrote everything down and then we locked ourselves away in a cottage for 6 days. During the conception phase, I listened to a lot of American pop, both because I wanted to and it made me feel good, but also because I wanted this album to be more pop.

PAN M 360: Unlike your first solo album, there are no collaborations on this one. Is this because it’s more intimate, more personal?

Stéphanie Boulay: Yes, definitely. Also, since I come from a duo and all my life I’ve had other people to support me, it was really important for me to prove to myself that I could do things on my own. The urge was strong at times to send the material to other people or to gather opinions, because that’s my comfort zone, but I wanted to get out of it to give myself the right to take my own pulse. There are a lot of things on this album that I wouldn’t even have told my friends, because I’d have been embarrassed or ashamed, and I didn’t want any self-censorship.

PAN M 360: You’ve always made music with Mélanie as one of the Boulay sisters, so what’s it like to disassociate yourself from “your other half” and really put the focus on your musical individuality? Does it give you more freedom or certain rights?

Stéphanie Boulay: Yes, completely! There’s a certain rawer or sharper register that I have and that I wouldn’t necessarily have felt comfortable exploiting alongside my sister, as I would have wanted to protect her. I’m a very ebullient, even unfiltered person, and I wouldn’t have wanted that to have any repercussions on others. In the end, I’m a little embarrassed when it’s not solo. Also, we work a lot on compromise, and there was none to be made here.

PAN M 360: How did you and Alexandre Martel come up with the direction for the album? There’s a nice exploration of synths in the arrangements, was that an 80’s direction you were going for?

Stéphanie Boulay: We’d already figured out during pre-prod that synths were a direction we wanted to take on the album, but it was really with the input of my keyboardist Camille Gélinas that it all came together. She’s got so many cool sounds, she’s a real gear fan and we’ve been accompanying each other musically for a long time, so it wasn’t Camille’s biai that the album’s synths fell into place.

PAN M 360: I really enjoyed discovering Ces photos de moi which added a sensual and surprising touch to the album, while remaining in tune with the work. Is this an aspect of yourself that you don’t allow yourself to explore or share with us?

Stéphanie Boulay: It’s a song that still scares me a bit, even though it’s out there. But yes, it’s an angle of my person that I expose less often and with which I still have a certain degree of discomfort, but it’s there. Just like its vocal score, where I use my head voice more. It’s one of the songs on the album where we fixed the bass score during pre-production and then everything else was designed around it. I see it as the UFO of the album hihi!

PAN M 360: The notions of patience and waiting recur throughout the album. Would you say this is the driving force behind the album?

Stéphanie Boulay: Patience, yes. Resilience too. The ability to accept that not everything is perfect in the moment, and to tame that discomfort. Someone once said to me: “Happiness is having good hours”. I think that’s a beautiful way of looking at it, and maybe it makes it simpler.

PAN M 360: What are your plans for after 2025?

Stéphanie Boulay: I’ve got a concert tour planned that starts on April 17 and runs until 2026. I can’t wait to bring these songs to life on stage with my gang.

PAN M 360: Do you feel you’ve managed to take your space, to exist to the full, to have “someone see you” with this album?

Stéphanie Boulay: Totally. Because I’m better, I’m more solid. This album has allowed me to let go of certain things and reappropriate others.

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