Montréal

Alt-Country / Americana / Blues Rock

A.J. Croce au MTelus

by Rédaction PAN M 360

A.J. Croce s’est forgé une carrière distinctive grâce à un mélange chaleureux de blues contemporain et de roots rock soulful, teinté de diverses nuances pop. Fils du regretté chanteur folk Jim Croce, il s’est tourné vers la musique après une tragédie pour tracer sa propre voie en tant que chanteur et auteur-compositeur. Il a fait ses débuts au milieu des années 1990 et a reçu des éloges de la critique avec des albums comme Adrian James Croce (2004) et Cantos (2006). Plus tard, il a signé avec le label Compass et sorti un album de soul authentique, Just Like Medicine, en 2017. En 2021, après la perte soudaine de sa femme, Croce s’est replongé dans le répertoire de reprises qui l’avait accompagné au fil des ans et a publié l’album By Request.

A.J. Croce has built a distinctive career with a warm combination of contemporary blues and soulful roots rock threaded with various facets of pop. The son of the late folksinger Jim Croce, A.J. turned to music in the face of tragedy to made his own mark as a singer/songwriter, debuting in the mid-’90s and garnering critical acclaim during the next decade with albums like 2004’s Adrian James Croce and 2006’s Cantos. He later signed with the Compass label and issued a straight-up soul album in 2017’s Just Like Medicine. In 2021, after enduring the sudden death of his wife, Croce found comfort in classic songs from his old covers repertoire and released an album of them called By Request.

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classique / musique de jeux vidéo

OSM : Heroes – Symphonie de jeux vidéo

by Rédaction PAN M 360

En mai, Heroes : Symphonie de jeux vidéo nous plongera, sous la baguette de Kevin Zakresky, dans les plus grands thèmes de jeux vidéo, de Fallout à Assassin’s Creed, en passant par World of Warcraft et Final Fantasy avec des projections et séquences de ces jeux marquants pour plusieurs générations.

In May, under the baton of Kevin Zakresky, Heroes : A Video Game Symphony will immerse us in the greatest video game themes, from Fallout to Assassin’s Creed, as well as World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy, with projections and sequences from these landmark games for several generations.

Programme/program

Jeremy Soule, Heroes Opening from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (orch. Robert Puff)
Gareth Cocker, Prince of Persia : The Lost Crown (orch. Vicent Tobar)
Jack Wall, Mass Effect, (orch. Robert Puff)
Borislav Slavov, Baldur’s Gate 3: Main Theme (orch.Georgi Andreev)
Garry Schyman, Bioshock, (orch. Robert Puff)
Matt Uelmen, Russel Brower, Derek Duke, Neal Acree, Diablo Suite (orch. Arturo Matsumoto)
Jesper Kyd, Assassin’s Creed: Ezio’s Family Theme (orch. Benoit Grey)
Tyler Bates, God of War: Ascencion Main Theme (orch. Robert Puff)
Mike Morasky/J.S. Bach, Portal 2 Variations (orch. Geoff Knorr, Andy Brick)
Harry Gregson-Williams, Nobuko Toda, Metal Gear Solid IV (orch. Shota Nakama)
Jason Hayes, World of Warcraft (orch. Adam Klemens)
Inon Zur, Starfield, (orch. Paul D. Taylor)
Inon Zur, Dragon Age (orch. Paul D. Taylor)
Kinuyo Yamashita, Masahiro Ikariko, Michiru Yamane, Oscar Araujo, Castelvania Medley (orch. C. Seiter)
Kow Otani, Shadow of the Colossus (orch. Nic Raine)
Inon Zur, Fallout Suite (Paul D. Taylor)
Marty O’Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Halo Medley (Andy Brick, Arnie Roth)
Jeremy Soule, The Elder Scrolls: SkyrimDragon Bourne Theme (orch. Larry Kenton)

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Ce contenu provient de l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360

classique / Electroacoustic / Jazz / musique du monde / Traditional

28th Opus Awards Gala | 32 Trophies For The Concert Ecosystem

by Judith Hamel

On Sunday, February 2, the entire Quebec concert music community gathered at Salle Bourgie to celebrate the highlights of the 2023-2024 season. Presented at Salle Bourgie by the Conseil québécois de la musique and broadcast (CMQ) on its FB page as well as on PAN M 360, this 28th Opus Awards Gala was, for the fourth year running, hosted by the enthusiastic Jocelyn Lebeau. A total of 32 awards were presented at a ceremony punctuated by interview blocks with the winners, encouraging dynamic exchanges on their respective projects.

This year’s Prix Hommage was awarded to Michel Levasseur to celebrate his 40 years at the helm of the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV). A key figure and builder of the experimental music and improvisation scene, this tribute was an opportunity to shine the spotlight on his hard work, which has greatly contributed to the development of the Quebec music scene.

Video testimonials from FIMAV loyalists Jean Derome and René Lussier were among the evening’s highlights. The tribute concluded by underlining the importance of the support of those around him throughout his career, as the audience gave a standing ovation to his family, friends and partners.

The evening’s musical highlight was provided by the Forestare guitar ensemble and its 13 performers, who took us from Denis Gougeon’s Une petite musique de nuit d’été to Bach, with the third movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major closing the gala. Its conductor, Pascal Germain Berardi, also won an Opus for Musical Event of the Year, held at FIMAV in Bois-Francs: Basileus, an oratorio in 4 acts featuring the ensembles Horizon (brass), Forestare (guitars), Sixtrum (percussion) and the Growlers Choir (metal voices).

Traditional Québécois music was in the spotlight this year, with an outstanding performance by three traditional Québécois music duos. First, Cédric Dind-Lavoie and Dâvi Simard performed Alphonse Morneau’s Tenant mon frère from the album Archives, winner of the Concert traditionnel québécois de l’année award. A project in which recordings by the chansonniers of yesteryear are reborn and sublimated by an ambient musical setting. An album not to be missed. Then, Nicolas Boulerice and Frédéric Samson delivered Trois beaux garçons, before Alexis Chartrand, on violin and podorythmy, brought his energy to bear on Isidore Soucy’s Le Cyclone, accompanied by Nicolas Babineau on guitar.

Continuing this string resonance, guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Stevan Cowan performed a beautiful arrangement of Germaine Tailleferre’s Sonata for Harp, with the two guitars in symbiosis, an arrangement sublimated by a meticulous sound system.

Among the double winners, pianist, composer and improviser Marianne Trudel was crowned Composer of the Year and received the award for Jazz Album of the Year for Time Poem: La joie de l’éphémère. Having returned in extremis from a concert on the Magdalen Islands, this is yet another distinction for this artist with a prolific career.

Roozbeh Tabandeh, an interdisciplinary artist nourished by Iranian and Western musical traditions, also distinguished himself by winning the Inclusion and Diversity and Discovery of the Year awards.

Montreal string ensemble collectif9, directed by Thibault Bertin-Maghit, walked away with the Artistic Direction and Performer of the Year awards.

Once again this year, I Musici distinguished itself by winning Creation of the Year with Denis Gougeon’s Spassiba Yuli, as well as Album of the Year – World Music for its participation in Continuum with Turkish artist Didem Basar under the label of the Centre des musiciens du monde.

The Orchestre Métropolitain, meanwhile, walked away with two Opus awards for its season-closing production of Aida, as well as for the Leningrad Symphony.

Early in the morning, the Concert of the Year Opus – Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music – was won by Arion Orchestre Baroque, for Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, conducted by guest conductor Francesco Corti, and featuring soprano Kateryna Kasper, contralto Margherita Maria Sala and bass Lisandro Abadie.

Finally, the interview format opened the door to some interesting discussions. Marianne Trudel and composer and improviser Joane Hétu, among others, spoke movingly of the contribution of sound engineers Rob Heaney and Bernard Grenon to the genesis of their works. Both passed away suddenly in recent years, leaving an indelible mark on the Quebec music scene. Their premature departure, like those of so many other artisans in the shadows, reminded us of how lucky we are to be here and to be making art,” said Marianne Trudel.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners.

I invite you to check out PAN M 360’s other Opus Awards content.

Here is the list of winners for the 2023-2024 season:

Concerts

Concert of the year – Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music

Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Francesco Corti, guest conductor, Kateryna Kasper, soprano, Margherita Maria Sala, contralto, Lisandro Abadie, bass, January 12 to 14, 2024

Concert of the year – Classical, Romantic and Post-Romantic music

Aida season finale, Orchestre Métropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor, Angel Blue, Sarah Dufresne, sopranos, Matthew Cairns, SeokJong Baek, tenors, Ambrogio Maestri, baritone, Alexandros Stavrakakis, Morris Robinson, basses, Choeur Métropolitain, Festival de Lanaudière, August 4, 2024

Concert of the year – Modern and contemporary music

Two, Molinari Quartet, February 16, 2024

Concert of the Year – Contemporary and electroacoustic music

Monnomest, Ensemble SuperMusique, Joane Hétu, conductor, Vergil Sharkya, conductor, Productions SuperMusique, co-production Groupe Le Vivier, November 23, 2023

Concert of the Year – Jazz Music, accompanied by a $5,000 gift card from Instruments de musique Long & McQuade.

Sport national, Hugo Blouin, September 28, 2023

Concert of the Year – World Music

Continuum, Didem Başar, kanun, Patrick Graham, percussion, Etienne Lafrance, double bass, Quatuor Andara, Centre des musiciens du monde, February 13, 2024

Concert of the year – Traditional music from Quebec

ARCHIVES, Cédric Dind-Lavoie, multi-instrumentalist, Alexis Chartrand and/or Dâvi Simard, violins, November 15 and 19, December 10 and 16, 2023

Concert of the year – Répertoires multiples

Leningrad Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor, Maria Dueñas, violin, November 18, 2023

Concert of the year – Ancient, classical, romantic, modern, postmodern impulses

Fabula femina, Cordâme, August 10, 2024

Creation of the year

Spassiba Yuli, for 2 cellos and strings, Denis Gougeon, Yuli’s legacy: Stéphane Tétreault and Bryan Cheng, I Musici de Montréal, April 25, 2024

Production of the Year – Young Audience, accompanied by $5,000 from the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications

J’m’en viens chez vous, Bon Débarras, February 11, 2024

Albums

Album of the year – Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music

Calcutta 1789: At the crossroads of Europe and India, Christopher Palameta, Notturna, ATMA Classique

Album of the year – Classical, Romantic, Post-Romantic music

16 Histoires de guitares – Vol. III, David Jacques, ATMA Classique

Album of the year – Modern, contemporary music

Confluence, David Therrien Brongo, Ravello Records

Album of the Year – Contemporary and Electroacoustic Music

Limaçon, Léa Boudreau, empreintes DIGITALes

Album of the Year – Jazz

Marianne Trudel-Time Poem: La joie de l’éphémère, Trio Marianne Trudel, Productions Marianne Trudel, Indépendant

Album of the Year – World Music, accompanied by a $5,000 Mundial Montréal Mentoring & Conference package offered by Mundial Montréal.

Continuum, Didem Başar, Patrick Graham, Jean-François Rivest, I Musici de Montréal, Centre des musiciens du monde

Album of the Year – Quebec Traditional Music

Layon, Nicolas Pellerin and Les Grands Hurleurs, La Compagnie du Nord

Album of the Year – Ancient, classical, romantic, modern and postmodern impulses

Cendres, Vanessa Marcoux, Indépendant

Writing

Article of the year

“Du son vers la forme, le sens… l’Autre… : spectral thought and engaged art in the mixed works of Serge Provost”, Jimmie LeBlanc, Circuit, musiques contemporaines, May 1, 2024

Special awards

Opus Montréal Prize – Inclusion and Diversity, accompanied by $10,000 from the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Roozbeh Tabandeh, Ensemble Paramirabo et Chants Libres, Songs of the Drowning, August 24, 2024

Prix Opus Québec

Festival Québec Jazz en Juin, June 20 to 30, 2024

Prix Opus Régions

Festival Ripon trad, September 14 to 17, 2023

Composer of the Year, accompanied by $10,000 from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Marianne Trudel

Discovery of the Year, accompanied by a video production courtesy of Télé-Québec’s La Fabrique culturelle.

Roozbeh Tabandeh, composer

Multidisciplinary Broadcaster of the Year

Salle Pauline-Julien

Specialized Broadcaster of the Year

Domaine Forget de Charlevoix

Artistic Director of the Year

Thibault Bertin-Maghit, collectif9

DJ set / Electronic

Solid Pink Disco with DJ Trixie au MTelus

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Trixie a profité de la pause inattendue imposée par la pandémie pour animer Full Coverage Fridays sur sa chaîne YouTube et explorer son intérêt pour le DJing. Elle s’est procuré une console, a commencé à travailler sur ses propres mix et a rapidement décroché des engagements locaux dès que l’occasion s’est présentée. Aujourd’hui, Trixie mixe partout dans le monde et tourne avec sa soirée Solid Pink Disco.

Trixie took the unexpected time off during the pandemic in stride, hosting Full Coverage Fridays on her YouTube channel and exploring her interest in DJing. She bought a board, started working on her own mixes, and then started taking gigs locally as soon as she could. Trixie now DJ’s around the world & tours her party Solid Pink Disco.

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Ce contenu provient de TrixieMattel.com et est adapté par PAN M 360

alt-rock / Pop-Rock / Post-Punk

Franz Ferdinand au MTelus

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Avec leur mélange stylisé de rock et de musique dance, Franz Ferdinand ont apporté une sophistication ironique à l’indie rock tout en devenant l’un des groupes britanniques les plus populaires. Originaire de Glasgow, le groupe est apparu dans le sillage du renouveau rock du début des années 2000, à une époque où des groupes comme The Strokes et The Libertines rappelaient combien une musique à guitare accrocheuse pouvait être rafraîchissante et intemporelle.
Bien que Franz Ferdinand partage une affinité avec ces groupes, leurs influences incluent également le post-punk anguleux et incisif de Wire ainsi que les mélodies entraînantes et espiègles d’Orange Juice, un autre groupe de Glasgow. Dès leurs débuts, ils ont su transformer des références artistiques inattendues en une musique et une esthétique accessibles à un large public, qu’il s’agisse du graphisme inspiré du constructivisme russe sur leurs premières pochettes ou de l’hommage à Howlin’ Wolf dans les solos de guitare de leur tube Take Me Out en 2004.
Après avoir posé les bases de leur son avec leur premier album Franz Ferdinand (2004), récompensé par le Mercury Prize, certifié platine et nommé aux Grammy Awards, le groupe s’est aventuré vers de nouveaux horizons. En 2005, You Could Have It So Much Better a ajouté plus de nuances à leur style, puis Tonight (2009) a exploré le dub, tandis que Always Ascending (2018) s’est tourné vers une disco élégante. Dans les années 2020, Franz Ferdinand a continué d’enrichir son univers musical, intégrant des influences glam vintage sur les morceaux inédits de la compilation Hits to the Head (2022) et sur leur album The Human Fear, prévu pour 2025.

With their sharply stylish mix of rock and dance music, Franz Ferdinand have brought a wry sophistication to indie rock while becoming one of the U.K.’s most popular bands. The Glasgow-based group arrived in the wake of the early-2000s rock revival, with bands such as the Strokes and the Libertines reminding listeners just how refreshing — and evergreen — hook-driven guitar music could be.
While Franz Ferdinand had a kinship with those acts, their lineage also included the arch, angular post-punk of bands such as Wire and the witty, funky jangle of fellow Glaswegians Orange Juice. From the beginning, the group had a flair for translating arty, unexpected references into widely appealing music and visuals, whether it was the Russian Constructivism-inspired artwork that graced their early releases or the Howlin’ Wolf homage in the guitar solos of 2004’s smash single “Take Me Out.”
After laying the groundwork for their sound with that year’s Mercury Prize-winning, platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated debut album Franz Ferdinand, the band soon branched out. On 2005’s You Could Have It So Much Better, they added more nuance to their style, then explored dub on 2009’s Tonight and disco on 2018’s sleek Always Ascending. Franz Ferdinand further embellished their sound in the 2020s, bringing vintage glam influences on the new songs included on 2022’s best-of Hits to the Head and 2025’s full-length The Human Fear.

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Classical

The symphonic magic of age-old tales

by Frédéric Cardin

While Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier next door shook to the metal-symphonic sound waves of Voivod and the OSM, the Maison symphonique, the usual refuge of Rafael Payare’s musicians, vibrated to the thousand and one colours of musical tales from China and Russia. 

At the start of the programme, the Orchestre FILMharmonique, conducted by Francis Choinière, welcomed soloist Liu Fang, master of the Chinese pipa, an instrument in the lute family, in the creation of a new concerto for her instrument by Quebecer Christian Thomas. In 2023, Thomas gave us his Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été (Solemn Mass for a Full-Moon Night), an opera based on the work of Quebec author Michel Tremblay, which was well received by audiences and critics alike. Much more romantic in its idiom than the Mass, the Pipa Concerto, nicknamed Dragon, allowed Ms Liu to show the full extent of her technical talent, despite some occasional hiccups in the first movement. I wrote about this concerto in a review elsewhere on the site (read it HERE), so I won’t go into that again, but I will say that the four-movement piece struck me as even more accomplished than when I first listened to it on digital files. This is a sign that listening to it is enough to sustain prolonged and repeated attention. In any case, the largely East Asian audience that packed the hall seemed to appreciate and enjoy the performance. It is to be hoped that other Quebec orchestras will programme this concert, giving fellow Quebecer (Chinese born) Liu the chance to tour as much in Quebec as she does internationally, hopefully.

The second piece on the programme was the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto with soloist and Opus Prize 2023 Discovery of the Year Guillaume Villeneuve. Villeneuve’s twirling, scintillating performance gave a superb breath of life to this Chinese Romeo and Juliet, whose original title is the Romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The concerto, written in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, is one of the first works of its kind in Chinese musical literature. The style and language are hyper-romantic, as if Tchaikovsky had lived in Beijing rather than St Petersburg, but the soloist has to achieve several effects that are clearly inspired by the traditional techniques of the erhu, a Chinese instrument that is similar to the Western violin. It’s a musical bonanza, with endearing, memorable melodies and abundant colour, especially in the woodwinds. 

Francis Choinière had chosen to conclude the evening with another evocative piece of music, Stravinsky’s The Firebird. A judicious choice, which allowed us to return to the more usual Western repertoire while remaining true to the enchanting spirit of the evening. The orchestra, made up of many young musicians, probably fresh out of Quebec schools, performed well, and the conductor’s direction was committed. A few technical imperfections in Kastchei’s dance did not detract from the energy that Choinière wished to infuse into the ensemble, which ended in a successful climax. 

An evening that clearly delighted a very mixed and diverse audience. If that was one of the objectives, it was achieved. 

musique contemporaine

Le Vivier InterUniversitaire | Interpreting the Eclipse

by Judith Hamel

On Saturday, January 25, the Espace Orange in the Wilder Building hosted the 9th annual Vivier InterUniversitaire concert, showcasing emerging composers in the field of contemporary music creation. Eight original works came to life in the hands of talented university performers.

The concert opened with Leo Purich’s Shape Games for Saxophone Quartet (2022-2023). In this piece, visual elements projected onto a giant screen presented eight geometric designs. Four of these were used as musical inspiration to interpret these shapes and translate them into sonorities that pushed back their limits.

We continue with Edwin H. Ng’s Eclipse (2024), a work for solo viola inspired by the total solar eclipse of 2024. In it, the composer translates the darkness that imposes itself at the heart of the day, right down to the subtle rays of light filtering through the shadows. It is in understanding this process that the work takes on its full meaning. The viola’s timbre lends itself to this dichotomy between light and shadow, while the strings represent the movement of the darkening day and the rays that reach our well-protected pupils.

The third work on the program is Hélpide Dulce, Escampas (2023) by Pablo Jiménez. This piece for string quartet plunges us into a noisy world of sound. Clusters emerge, instruments overlap and create a background sound that is both organic and disquieting. A well-constructed, organic chaos that oscillates between refined language and raw, evocative expressiveness. A la Jacob Collier, Jiménez takes his salute, fangs in hand, to warm applause from the audience.

Then, Jonas Regnier’s Wistful Fragments (2024) for trumpet with live electronics invites us to explore our auditory memories, using recordings of everyday life. The selection of landscapes such as an urban ambience, birdsong, piano playing, and the sequence of fragments seemed to me to lack a little coherence, but despite this, the alliance between trumpet and electronic processing was skilfully constructed. The composer exploits to the full the expressive possibilities of the blend between these two sound sources.

The fifth work, Composition pour sextuor (2023) by Jules Bastin-Fontaine, features meticulous work on counterpoints and textures. The choice of instruments favors sonic superimpositions that generate new textures. Resonant bodies such as flutes and bass clarinet are used to create reverberant sound backgrounds. Although the expressiveness of this piece did not stand out for me, the care taken in the construction of the textures deserves to be highlighted.

The sixth work, Tracé, Fossile (2023) for violin and cello by Alexandre Amat, highlights the distortions produced by excessive bow pressure. This process generates noisy sonorities that permeate the entire piece. Rather than relying on pitch-based melodic motifs, the work explores a musicality centered on sound mass, which becomes denser or lighter according to musical intentions.

The penultimate piece is Anita Pari’s The Mockingbird (2024) for string quartet. The work favors an ensemble musicality where one feels a common breath throughout the performance. This cohesion amplifies the dramatic passages. As the title suggests, the work evokes a warbling atmosphere, combining a refined musical language with an organic, poetic dimension that resonates authentically.

The evening concluded with Alexander Bridger’s Shards of Bengaluru Bill (2023), a work for flute, clarinet, accordion, viola and double bass. Dressed in bright colors, two performers marked time in certain passages of the work, a gesture that seemed planned, but which seemed to us somewhat strange or with a floating doubt. That said, the instrumentation, in particular the use of accordion and double bass, provided an original sound dimension.

Among the works presented, those by Edwin H. Ng, Pablo Jiménez and Alexandre Amat were my favorites of the evening.

In short, it was an opportunity to discover the promising talents of the new generation of composers, the vast majority of whom are men, despite the values of accessibility and inclusion put forward in this context. Achieving parity remains a laborious and complex process, we have to conclude.

Photo Credit: Claire Martin

Rock

Yseult Kicks Off Her Mental Tour in Montreal

by Sandra Gasana

It was to a packed house that singer Yseult appeared at MTelus on Monday evening. No sooner had the lights gone down than the room began to go wild. In the distance, a voice could be heard counting down in English, promising an intriguing staging.

She is accompanied by her two American musicians, on guitar and drums, whom she teases and imitates the accent at times during the show. Dressed in military pants, white gloves with “Mental Tour” written on them, necklaces around her neck and belts around her waist.

The French singer from Cameroon opens the show with Noir, and seems to be having the time of her life on stage. She dances and strolls around, closely followed by a videographer who captures the moment.

“It’s a pleasure to be back in Montreal, I’m quite moved because it’s the first time I’ve produced a tour on my own,” she shares with us moved, to applause. “It’s thanks to you that I’m able to do all this,” she continues.

She juggles classics like Corps with songs from her latest Mental project, such as Garçon and the crowd-pleasing hit Gasolina. Rock is omnipresent during the show, with her screaming and even shouting between intense electric guitar solos.

“Let me get rid of my wig, I’m going to get comfortable,” she says, before reappearing wearing a hat. Her stage presence is undeniable. “Can I share a new song with you, one that’s not out yet?” she asks the crowd, delighted by the privilege. And so we discover Problematic, which pleases the audience, especially the acoustic section, as well as Hysteria, also an unreleased song. Applause rained down, but it was especially after Corps that the crowd didn’t want to stop applauding. She did it a capella because she had promised herself that she would never do it again in piano-vocals, since the death of her pianist Nino Vella in 2024. The audience accompanied her on the chorus, one of the highlights of the show.

She finished with the track Suicide, ideal for closing the show, before returning for an encore in techno mode. It may have been a Monday night, but that didn’t stop the MTelus from being packed. Next stop: New York on February 3.

Photo Credit: Léa

Electronic

Igloofest, Saturday, January 25 / Fight the Cold With Dance, featuring Skepta (Mas Tiempo), MNSA, Dennis Ferrer, Cheba Iman and Many Others.

by Léa Dieghi

Two stages, two atmospheres. And always more dancing. For this evening of January 25, 2025, the Igloofest team decided to offer us a particularly different program between the main Sapporo stage, and its little Vidéotron sister. While the former was an ode to house music, the latter was a blend of traditional North African and contemporary electronic music.

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VIDEOTRON: Manalou, Mnsa, Nadim Maghzal, Cheba Iman. 

Deconstruction, reconstruction, hybridization between different genres… The sets on the small Videotron stage shone through their sonic interweaving and interweaving. And even though the stage is four times smaller (we didn’t take the time to measure, but we can imagine!), the sets by these mostly Canadian artists melted the snow beneath our feet.

Imagine the setting. We flee behind the main stage and enter the Videotron stage through a tunnel of light. What awaits us there? An audience literally jumping to the beat of the percussion.

Afro-beat, drum and bass, drill, downtempo, hip-hop, but also tech-house, all mixed with traditional Arabian music.

Mnsa, proudly wearing his Palestine scarf, was like sunshine on a winter’s night. With his contagious good humor and his succession of sounds at different tempos, he didn’t let the audience down for a single minute. Between pop classics, heavy bass lines and traditional Arab music, all mixed against a techno backdrop, my fingers, previously chilled by the beer in my hands, quickly warmed up.

A perfect opening for Nadim Maghzal‘s set, who, in his own way, took up the torch and brought the crowd – literally – to the front of the stage. What’s on the bill? The kind of percussive electronic music we love, always associated with North African sounds and UK Bass.

These four artists, from Manalou to Cheba Iman – who also offered us some particularly singular performances – proved the beauty of the synergy between North American and African music. They also showed us how being a DJ is above all about community, and sharing a certain joie de vivre, together.

SAPORO: Lia Plutonic, Syreeta, Dennis Ferrer, Skepta (under his house label Mas tiempo) “HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE

A word that resonates as I dance in front of the main stage.

From Lia Plutonic (Residente Montréalaise) to Dennis Ferrer, house music classics follow one another, all remixed in their own style!

Sapporo

Behind the four DJ-producers of the Sapporo scene, four different visions of house music and its variations. A genre that crosses time and space, and that brings together an audience from diverse backgrounds. 

If Syreeta offered us sounds a little more rooted in the British house music culture (where she comes from), her mix between techno, melodic voices and UK house rhythms proved to be a particularly fertile ground to welcome her colleague from overseas: Denis Ferrer, an influential artist of the electronic scene for more than fifteen years. 

While Syreeta and Lia Plutonic surfed a little more on the hybridization of house and techno, Dennis Ferrer clearly returned to the roots of New York house, to offer us a very disco-funk-tech-house set. Very melodic, very progressive, very 90s, with classics like Ain’t Nobody (Loves me better).  At the front of the stage, a crowd of all ages danced. Proof, once again, of the unifying capacity of house! 

Their very vibrant sets were able to welcome with undisguised joy the main artist of the evening, Skepta, performing under her project Mas tiempo, which quickly increased the BPM a notch. Although he is better known for his performance-productions as an MC-rapper, the London-based artist has been able to stand out in recent years with his very rhythmic mixes, sometimes deconstructed, but nevertheless particularly progressive and always very house. 

On the agenda: UK Drill and Grim, drum and bass, house, to finish on techno prog. The crowd was already unleashed, while more than a dozen couples saw, from the top of my terrace, climbing on each other’s shoulders. There are balloons flying in the air, bodies colliding while dancing, voices screaming and snowflakes falling on the tops of our heads. 

A very nice end to the winter evening, for a very nice program of this Saturday evening of Igloofest.

Africa

Alain Oyono: The New Saxophonist in Town!

by Sandra Gasana

Initially, I wasn’t planning to cover last Saturday’s show at La Brassée, I was going as a spectator, to discover the man everyone’s talking about at the moment, Alain Oyono. Originally from Cameroon, but living in Senegal for over a decade, the saxophonist, who is a member of Youssou N’Dour’s “Super Étoile de Dakar” orchestra, gave us an amazing show. So much so that it was hard to keep it to myself, so here it goes.

By way of introduction, he opts for gentleness with The Beginning, which also marks the start of the artist’s solo career, before showing us his singing talents on Loba, which means God in Douala, the language spoken in the coastal region of Cameroon. These tunes immediately remind me of Kenny G, whom I used to listen to over and over again in my youth.

Against a backdrop of carefully arranged instrumentals, and equipped with a laptop, pedals and mini-console, Alain, who is also an author, composer and performer, manages not only to play his instrument but also to engineer it. On some tracks, notes from piano, afrobeat or afro jazz are used as a basis for him to improvise on as he pleases. On other tracks, he introduces pre-recorded ambient noises, backing vocals and other sounds to complement his instrument.

In his latest EP released in 2023, entitled Transcendance, he pays tribute to nature, notably in the track “Ma nature”. “This album is dedicated to the ecosystem, especially in these difficult times. Fortunately, you’re bringing the warmth back here tonight,” he says, addressing the crowd.

Several instruments are added one after the other in the second half of the concert.

Alain returns to the stage first accompanied by Dauphin Mbuyi on bass, then a few songs later, Deo Munyakazi joins the duo with his inanga, a traditional Rwandan string instrument similar to the zither. Together, they create magic before our astonished eyes. They are joined by Dicko Fils, from Burkina Faso, with a bewitching voice reminiscent of the Sahel, and the charming Sylvie Picard, who enchant us each in their own way.

And just as we thought the concert was drawing to a close, Raphaël Ojo arrived with his djembe to add the finishing touch. The concert turned into a jam session, much to the delight of the audience, who gradually realized that they were in for a unique experience. The owner of La Brassée told me that this was one of his favorite concerts. “Are you enjoying it as much as I am right now?” he asked me between songs. “I’m floating,” I replied.

The concert couldn’t end without a tribute to the giant Manu Dibango, with a cover of the classic Soul Makossa, which pleased the couple sitting next to me. All in all, La Brassée audiences can count themselves lucky to have discovered an artist who will surely be making a name for himself on the Montreal art scene in 2025 and beyond!

Photo Credit: Peter Graham

Hip Hop / R&B

Only The Righteous au Balattou

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Only The Righteous est un groupe formé à Montréal en 2017. Alliant leur passion pour des sons tels que le Hip-Hop, le Jazz ou le R&B, ainsi que des musiques telles que le kompa, le makossa ou le bend skin, ils proposent un spectacle plein de rythme et de chaleur, porté par des compositions et des reprises en français, anglais, créole ou médumba. Clerel et Only the Righteous sont des musiciens locaux qui savent comment s’y prendre. Ils jouent un style de musique Motown, des vibrations uniques et douces.

Only The Righteous is a group formed in Montreal in 2017. Combining their passion for sounds such as Hip-Hop, Jazz or R&B, as well as music such as kompa, makossa or bend skin, they offer a show full of rhythm and warmth, carried by compositions and covers in French, English, Creole or medumba.Clerel and Only the Righteous are local musicians who know how to do it. They play a Motown style of music, unique and smooth vibes.

POUR ACHETER VOTRE BILLET, C’EST ICI!

Ce contenu provient du Balattou et est adapté par PAN M 360

Classical / période romantique

OSM | Between Icelandic Basses and Bruch’s “Unforgettable” Concerto

by Judith Hamel

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), under the direction of conductor Dalia Stasevska and violin virtuoso Randall Goosby, presented a program on Wednesday evening featuring composers Thorvaldsdottir and Price, as well as Bruch and Dvořák.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Archora, commissioned by several major orchestras and premiered in 2022, opened the concert with a spellbinding 20-minute soundscape. Designed to evoke a textured universe, the work transports the audience into an exploration of the ensemble’s sonic and energetic potential.

From the very first notes, the hypergraves invade the space, creating an imposing, palpable sound mass. The screeching cymbals add an organic dimension, while the winds click their keys and use their breath to amplify the work’s mystical atmosphere. All this adds up to an almost living narrative. Then the organ, with its imposing presence, amplifies the impression of immensity, of a room larger than ourselves. The twenty minutes passed with great fluidity, like a single wave that sweeps over us. The apparent stability of the sounds, achieved by the interweaving of the musicians’ breaths, gave a superhuman impression.

American soloist Randall Goosby then took to the stage to deliver a straightforward performance, carried with finesse by his great mastery of the instrument. Max Bruch’s “unforgettable” Violin Concerto No. 1, though somewhat frustrating for the composer in its eclipsing power over his other concertos, remains a landmark work in the German Romantic repertoire. Tonight, in the “Adagio”, Goosby was able to express the full intensity of this inner romance. It was in the third movement, however, that the soloist really came into his own. He unfurled himself in the passionate, dancing themes that hint at Bruch’s Hungarian origins, as well as in the final, technical passages. These playful accents resonated particularly well with his light, easy-going playing. A young virtuoso who didn’t overwhelm us with his musicality, but whose technique and ease are impressive.

Florence Price’s Adoration opened the second half in an orchestrated version for violin and orchestra by J. Gray, putting a second female composer in the spotlight. This short piece was particularly well suited to Randall Goosby, who effectively conveyed the emotional charge through his straight but honest playing. However, an OSM concert is no exception: just as he was about to raise his bow, Goosby was interrupted by the telephone of an audience member who was listening to the recording of his performance of the first part at full volume. With humor and patience, he lowered his bow and said: “You can play it again if you want”. But no sooner had he started to play than a cricket buzzer sounded in the hall. Fortunately, the crickets were out of place, but they gave the audience a good laugh.

Although the concertante gave the evening its title, it was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, fiercely conducted by Dalia Stasevska, that stood out as the highlight. Dalia Stasevska’s conducting was particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on drastic contrasts of nuance and the exaggeration of certain rhythmic passages. This symphony, with its bucolic atmosphere, was thus deployed through moments of lightness, straight trumpet lines and the exaggerated popular character of certain dancing themes. The fourth movement, which opens with a flamboyant trumpet call and ends with groovy chromatic passages, ended the concert on a welcome note of youthfulness.

Photo credit:  Randall Goosby – Kaupo Kicks ; Dalia Stasevska – Antoine Saito

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