Nic Ferron is a guitarist. You may have noticed him playing alongside Rémi-Jean Leblanc and Benjamin Deschamps in Montreal gigs, which says a lot about his level of playing (excellent, because nothing less could accompany these guys on stage). Here on Multiverse, he’s surrounded by Jonathan Cayer on B3 and Louis-Vincent Hamel on drums. Influences self-described include Aaron Parks, Marc Ribot and Ornette Coleman, which I duly agree with. But beyond the name-dropping, Ferron’s work is above all top-notch, with an original inspiration that is highly personal on the melody side, and a playing style that is remarkably precise and coherent as a whole. Without ever lapsing into contemporary cerebrality, Ferron nonetheless manages to hold the interest of advanced music-loving ears, while giving his compositions continual drive and maintaining a very pleasant sense of closeness and accessibility. It’s a fine balancing act between the necessary elitism (in the sense of quality) and the profane.
Multiverse is a very, very good album.
Multiverse will be launched tonight, 21 May, Ô Patro Vys, Montreal
