Calgary and Montreal united. The two cities that so often seem to be on opposite sides of the world have found their common ambassadors, who have come up with the idea of combining not only their talents but also their respective musical genres (jazz, Celtic folk, trad, and more). The union is the brainchild of fiddler Jeremy Gignoux, who wanted to bring together traditional, creative and improvised music in a single project. Gignoux, a Montrealer now based in Calgary, solicited contributions from a number of excellent artists from both cities, including Hugo Blouin of Charbonneau fame. Blouin makes his mark here and there with ‘songs’ featuring melodic lines modelled on existing sound extracts (as in Charbonneau, for those who know).
The Montreal stamp is also evident in the klezmer and Arabic passages, while, I imagine, the Celtic trad is more of a Calgarian expression (that being said, there is a good Celtic scene in Montreal, so…. ?). In addition to all these multi-stylistic manifestations, there are some fairly advanced tonal and improvisatory explorations, flirting with free jazz and musique actuelle, elsewhere with impressionist classical music.
Vanishing Points is an interesting pan-Canadian offering that spares no effort to create a surprising and original sound.
Aurélien Tomasi – co-producer, clarinets, saxophones, percussion
Mathieu Langlois – saxophones, flamenco guitar
Jeremy Gignoux – original idea, violin, viola, wurlitzer
Jiajia Li – flute, piccolo, dizi
FOONYAP – violin, voice
Sébastien Leblanc – guitar, cobza
Hugo Blouin – co-producer, double bass, perc.
Robin Tufts – drums, bodhran, derbouka, cajon, percussion.
