Montréal

Hip Hop

Haviah Mighty • Lou Phelps • CJ Flemings

by Alain Brunet

Winner of the 2019 Polaris Award, Toronto rapper Haviah Mighty now sets her sights on the Montreal audience, starting with those checking her out at the Belmont. Since the release of her excellent opus 13th Floor, there’s been little question of her eloquence, her impact, and the quality of the beats wrapped around her machine-gun verbiage. Haviah Mighty is a strong personality, an ego reinforced by multiple victories over adversity – her own condition as a black woman has become a formidable weapon, formidable material for her hip hop expression. She needs to be seen on stage! Sharing the bill are Louis-Philippe Célestin, alias Lou Phelps, younger brother of Kaytranada, and CJ Flemings, another Montreal rapper.

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Folk / Folk Rock / Indie Rock / Rock / Singer-Songwriter

Salomé Leclerc

by Alain Brunet

Salomé Leclerc undeniably found her path while exploring Les choses extérieures, by far the most conclusive recording of a career still in its early stages. Echoes of the concerts that followed were mostly enyhusiastic, and the cycle is not yet over. This abundantly talented lyricist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, director and performer, certainly one of the dominant figures in French-speaking North America at the turn of this decade, needs to be seen live. You’ll have to get off the couch to appreciate the more robust live versions of her excellent album’s tunes, to which are added her best works of earlier vintage. A must, without a doubt.

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Dark Ambient / Electronic / Experimental Techno

SNTS

by Alain Brunet

The eminence noire of experimental techno with industrial accents, the German artist SNTS arrives masked and hooded like the Grim Reaper, a spectral and fiercely anonymous figure. His music is darker than dark, dystopian, even apocalyptic. His rhythms are violently binary, his grooves tinged with finely chopped sounds, processed voices, symphonic fragments, mystical psalmodies and more. Needless to say, this darkness is accompanied by a cold, clinical, resolutely Germanic aesthetic. A great night, guaranteed! SNTS shares the program with Montrealer Softcoresoft, whose praises we sang in mention of a program presented earlier in February at the SAT.

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Classical / Classical Period / Modern Classical

Sarah and Emily Oulousian

by Alain Brunet

Born to a Chinese mother and Armenian father, Montreal sisters Emily and Sarah Oulousian put their pianistic talent to work for Mozart, Chopin and Gershwin. This program is part of the series Les Mélodînes, presented by the Pro-Musica concert society. Since early childhood, the older sister has wowed her audiences. She was a champion on the show Virtuose, in fact, and continues her journey on the ivories. In concert with her younger sister Emily, Sarah Oulousian offers a program of classical, romantic and modern works, from Mozart to Gershwin, Schubert and Chopin.

PROGRAM
Emily Oulousian:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, I. Molto allegro and II. Adagio
Frederic Chopin: Etude Op. 25 No. 4 in A minor
Sarah Oulousian:
Franz Schubert: Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3 in G-flat major
Frederic Chopin: Scherzo Op. 39 No. 3 in C-sharp minor
Duo:
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

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« In Hoc Mundo »

by François Vallières

The McGill Baroque Ensemble presents an original program in a concert called In Hoc Mundo (In This World). In residence at the university, the orchestra performs works by two European clergymen living in South America, as well as music by one of the few native Baroque composers of the New World. First comes the music of Juan Pérez Bocanegra (?-1645), a Franciscan monk of Spanish origin, who spent a good part of his life in Peru and participated in the development of religious music in the region. Then that of Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), an Italian Jesuit who settled in Argentina in 1717, and then travelled to Brazil and Paraguay. The third composer will be the Mexican composer Juan Garcia de Zespedes (c.1619-1678), who was also a singer, viola player and teacher in the Puebla region of Mexico.

PROGRAM
Hank Knox: Conductor 
Works by Juan Pérez Bocanegra, Domenico Zipoli, Juan Garcia de Zéspedes

Hard Rock / Progressive Metal / Rock

(CANCELLED) Opeth • Graveyard

by Christine Fortier

Photo credit: Jonas Åkerlund

Proof of the Swedish band’s success with Montreal audiences, the MTelus concert has been sold out since January 17. The tour, led by singer, guitarist and composer Mikael Åkerfeldt, follows the release of the album In Cauda Venenum last September. In an interview with Hop ‘N’ Music, an Italian publication dedicated to music and beer, keyboardist Joakim Svalberg mentions, among other things, that Opeth members didn’t know that Åkerfeldt had started composing their 13th album until he had finished. Since their debut in 1989, the progressive death metal band, which has steered into prog-rock metal since Heritage (2011), has been delivering its lyrics in English. On In Cauda Venenum, Åkerfeldt decided to write and sing in his native language. The musicians have also recorded an English version, but they consider the Swedish to be the original version. (Christine Fortier)

Musical Theatre

« Please Thrill Me »

by Michel Rondeau

Photo credit: Chris Filippini

Edmonton-born but based in Montreal, Sean Nicholas Savage is a singer-songwriter who has been active on the indie scene for a dozen years and has made as many records. His songs for Please Thrill Me are the culmination of his exploration of major pop-music genres over the course of his albums. The narrative: two punks, Jazz (Savage) and Pop (Adam Byczkowski), meet while boarding a freight train. One is looking for himself, the other wants to go home to a big city by the sea. There they meet a series of characters, including the Artist (Jane Penny) and Rocky (Lulu Hugues), driven by all sorts of desires and ideals.

For this ambitious production, Savage has enlisted the services of actress and director Sophie Cadieux and the Pantomime Opera Ballet collective, which specializes in multidisciplinary shows.

In English, with French surtitles for certain performances.

Other performances of this show at Théâtre La Chapelle:
• Tuesday, February 18, 8 p.m.
• Thursday, February 20, 8 p.m.
• Friday, February 21, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, February 22, 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• Monday, February 24, 7 p.m.
• Thursday, February 25, 8 p.m.
• Wednesday, February 26, 8 p.m.
• Friday, February 28, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, February 29, 9 p.m.
• Sunday, March 1st, 4 p.m.

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Baroque / Classical

Forestare Guitar Ensemble

by Michel Rondeau

Crédit photo: Jean-Charles Labarre

The Montreal-based Forestare Guitar Ensemble – 12 classical guitarists and a double bass player – invites you to a modern reinterpretation of pieces from the baroque repertoire, by Vivaldi, Lully and Johann Sebastian Bach. During this concert, not only will the ensemble recount the story of the Baroque period’s composers with humour, but it will also draw a parallel with the history of New France, at the same time. You will even learn what kind of relationship the early settlers had with the First Nations. Music as an excuse to go back to our roots.

Other performances of this show:
• Wednesday, February 19, 7 :30 p.m. at Quai 5160 – Maison de la culture de Verdun
• Sunday, March 29, 2 p.m. at Centre culturel de Pierrefonds
• Friday, April 17, 8 p.m. at Église Saint-Joachim de Pointe-Claire

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R&B / Soul / Soul/R&B

Soul Secret Agency

by Alain Brunet

Soul Secret Agency takes an in-depth look at classic soul/R&B, totally dominated by Motown and Stax Records during the ’60s. The Montreal collective draws on retro soul to tinker with songs “about love, desire and self-discovery”, according to the band’s Bandcamp profile for their eponymous album released in May 2019. Produced by Danny Trudeau, this opus was recorded by Howard Bilerman at the famous Hotel 2 Tango studio. Soul Secret Agency is made up of director, composer, arranger and bassist Danny Trudeau and singer Abigail Galwey, joined by guitarists Eric Lemelin and Francis Veillette, keyboardist Willis Pride, drummer Pascal Lepage and percussionist Elli Miller Maboungou. Of note, singer Dominique Fils-Aimé is featured on this recording… Will she be appearing on stage for this show under the Soul Secret Agency banner?  

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Classical

Quatuor Molinari: « Musique d’épouvante »

by Michel Rondeau

Anyone who has seen Alfred Hitchcock’s famous Psycho, with its key moments enhanced by Bernard Herrmann’s extraordinary soundtrack of strident, dissonant violins, knows how bowed string instruments have a palette of disturbing sounds. With this concert entitled Musique d’épouvante (“music of dread”), the Quatuor Molinari invites us to explore them.

Three strong works on the programme here. Shaking up tradition at the time of its creation in 1962, the 1st quartet of the Polish composer Krzyszstof Penderecki’s “ String Quartet No. 1” takes us into a noisy universe, at the time called “sonorism”. Created in 1981, Canadian R. Murray Schafer’s “String Quartet No. 3” is a work that moves in every sense of the word since, in addition to its dramatic power, its karate shrieks and its various onomatopoeias, it includes scenic shifts that contribute to its sonic spacialization. Finally, from 1970, the quasi-mythical Black Angels by American composer George Crumb presents 13 tableaux in which good and evil confront each other in a bitter battle, during which tam-tams, glass harmonicas, maracas, and glass sticks lend a hand to the strings.

Other performances of this show:
• Thursday, February 20, 7 h 30 p.m. at Maison de la culture Frontenac
• Sunday, February 23, 3 p.m. at Maison de la culture du Plateau Mont-Royal

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ZoHZiYL5g
Experimental / Contemporary / Pop

U.S. Girls + Lune très belle = sold out

by Alain Brunet

Photo: Julio Henriquez

Meghan Remy, an American transplant based in Toronto, is the pilot of U.S. Girls, whose eighth album, Heavy Light, will be released on March 6. If an early taste is what you want, too late, her show at Le Ministère is already sold out. It’s not unreasonable to presume that the band will be back soon enough to meet the demand. So while awaiting the release of her opus and her next Montreal stopover, we can share a few clues: on the Royal Mountain (Canada) and 4AD (international) labels, Heavy Light is a composite album: disco-funk, indie chamber pop, rock, lounge jazz, chanson d’auteur… Meg Remy and her ace team have put together some very ambitious arrangements with sensitive, subtle and often self-deprecating lyrics. Read more here on 6 March!

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Electronic

DJ Guy Laliberté

by Alain Brunet

In his post-Cirque du Soleil life, Quebec billionaire Guy Laliberté has artistic ambitions, which we have been observing since he launched PY1, his pyramid disco that has been the talk of the town in 2019. It seems he also likes to DJ, in addition to sticking his nose (not that of the space shuttle) into the artistic direction of his new operations. His ambition is to get the Stereo night owls dancing on a Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Have you ever heard him mix? What does it sound like in front of a real electro audience? What is the real artistic value beyond glamor ? What will his next performance deliver? You be the judge of that, provided of course that you enjoy jet-set nights.

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