Released at the dawn of autumnal colors, Cardinal, a new opus by Avec pas d’casque, marked a comeback after an 8-year recording hiatus. Released on the Bravo Musique label, the material for the forthcoming album was produced at the EMF by Stéphane Lafleur (vocals, acoustic guitar) and his close artist friends Joël Vaudreuil, Nicolas Moussette (bass, lap steel), Mathieu Charbonneau (keyboards, baritone horn) and Simon Trottier (bass and lead guitar). The album followed shortly after the presentation of this memorable program.
Stéphane Lafleur is at the top of his game. His mastery of short, simple, emotionally charged, intellectually charged phrases expresses the subtle contours of our lives, where mystery must be accepted when it passes.
The noble sentiments of humanism, tenderness, sensuality, the shrug of the shoulders, the disapproval of pointless combat, humor, fantasy, medium rhythm, slow rhythm, a posture of feeling and observation. Stéphane Lafleur’s song poetry is a prism of Americanness that never ceases to touch the universal, but could only be imagined in French-speaking America. “Something wild, something free…” Something, indeed.
Musically, Avec pas d’casque has matured. Cohesion and complicity have made the self-taught clumsiness disappear, and above all, creative talent is the guarantee of this maturity. The chords of this “chamber folk” are simple and beautiful, the guitar strumming peaceful, the solo guitar circumspect, the lap steel minimalist, the bass clopin-clopant, the keyboards generous, the arrangements very successful. All this ambient Americana is better executed than ever. The title? The cardinal is a stubborn and beautiful animal. And this avian model inspires a man in the northeast of the continent. Cardinal is the vehicle for a magnificent album.
