Seven years have elapsed since the release of Maladie d’amour, one of the best keb franco albums produced in the previous decade. Imagined, thought and felt by Jimmy Hunt in his Gaspesian exile, Le silence is a production of its moment: 10 songs, 25 minutes, generally very short texts. That’s all there is to it. The author, composer and singer chooses to express himself here in a kebamericana vernacular, both elegant and minimalist. Country-folk harmonies strummed with acoustic guitars, pedal steel, harmonica, soft drums. Some psych and prog emanations happily mix the cards of these miniatures. Jimmy Hunt’s voluntary isolation has surely calmed his spirits, one feels here the slower rhythm, the connection with nature and the reflections aroused through these ethereal atmospheres. The words put forward here scatter booze-fueled uncertainties, ironically embody a seemingly invincible being, evoke an erotic woodland scene, tell the story of the death of a beloved father, fantasize about the blank slate of a life, express a cruel need for the love of others, identify microscopic “old friends” lodged deep within oneself and who make one question one’s identity, admire the music of a waterfall, associate distance and decay, observe the winter silence. Jimmy Hunt has obviously learned to tame this silence.
