Walls Made of Glass is a seductive metaphor for spiritual and sensory openness to the world around us, and is the basis for this third opus by Montreal-based Gentiane MG (Michaud-Gagnon). The pandemic (and the multiple confinements associated with it) has had the effect of awakening in some artists a visceral need to enter into sensory communication with the outside world, whether it manifests itself in the form of fellow human beings, fauna, flora, or simply the zeitgeist of our time.
Through writing based on the harmonic-rhythmic relationship typical of post-EST jazz, but also delicate flirtations with the atonalism of modern chamber music, Gentiane allows herself to be totally impregnated by the sensory and metaphorical world that surrounds her, thanks to its light and its movements. As if, despite the obligation to remain enclosed, glass walls had allowed us to remain holistically bathed in the beauty around us at all times.
Sometimes intensely engaged, more often contemplative or vaguely chill, the young Quebecer’s compositions invite us on a journey that is both impressionistic and symbolist. The titles of the pieces will be the starting points for aural adventures charged with poetry and spirituality. Gentiane is adequately supported by Levi Dover on double bass and Louis-Vincent Hamel on drums.
To express what this album is about and why my perception of the outside world has changed, I like to use an image: If I open a light in the middle of the day, I probably won’t notice it. If I open the same light in the middle of the night, in addition to seeing it clearly, my eyes and consciousness will inevitably be drawn to the glow. Each of the moments that inspired this music is comparable to that light, they were perceptible in contrast to the surrounding darkness. Music has this extraordinary power to freeze in time certain ephemeral moments that belong to the past and to reflect them in the present moment.
Gentiane MG
