La route d'Altamont / Gabrielle Roy

La route d’Altamont is one of those quiet but profound books. It is fashioned as a book of memories, but it is a philosophical work centered around a theme dear to Roy’s nomadic heart: journey. Every character in this four-story cycle has le mal du départ.

J’écoute la radio : notes on Daniel Lavoie's concert tour (2012-2014)

©Spectra Musique

 

To see a big picture one needs to step away from it. In order to understand the role a concert tour played in a performer’s carrier one needs to wait a couple of years after the tour’s ended. So, what exactly was the J’écoute la radio tour? Now, 3.5 years later is the best time to answer the question.

La détresse et l'enchantement / Gabrielle Roy (Montréal : Boréal Express,1984)

 … car c’est souvent en errant seule dans les villes inconnues que je suis le mieux arrivée – mais à quelque chose d’autre que ce que je pensais chercher et qui fut presque toujours meilleur.

(Gabrielle Roy, La détresse et l'enchantement)

 

La détresse et l'enchantement is a great autobiography of a woman artist.  And as any great biography it is both unique and typical. Actually it is unique and typical on not just one, but at least two levels.  The first level is a story of a young woman searching for her path in life, and the second is a story of a Manitoban French-Canadian in the first third of the 20th century, and both stories are relatable and extraordinary at the same time.

Histoire du Manitoba français : de Gabrielle Roy à Daniel Lavoie (1916-1968) / Jacqueline Blay (Saint-Boniface, Man. : Éditions des Plaines, 2016)

This book is volume 3 of the series on the history of the French Manitoba published by Les Éditions du Blé / Les Éditions des Plaines and it covers 1916-1968, the period defined by existence of the Association d’éducation des Canadiens français du Manitoba (Manitoba French-Canadian education association), the organization that made possible teaching French language in Manitoba’s schools during those 50+ years when it was prohibited by the provincial government, thus saving the culture from becoming extinct.

Mes longs voyages (show) : Daniel Lavoie's live show, Canada, February 2017

If you go see Daniel Lavoie's new live show Mes longs voyages and are familiar with his eponymous and unabashedly dark album (released in 2016), you are in for a surprise. Because oh, what a magician that Daniel Lavoie is! Hop-la and all the blood, sweat and tears of the album turn into champagne! Effervescent and luminous, Daniel Lavoie sings, dances, switches (or ditches) instruments, talks, laughs, grimaces, savors his time in the limelight, as if trying to put behind him all the troubles that followed him in 2016 (and inspired the album) as fast as he can, and he effortlessly pulls the audience into his happy vortex. And as for that guy on the promo photos - the one who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders – one wonders what he has to do with this show…

Mes longs voyages (album) / Daniel Lavoie (2016, Spectra Musique)

By now I have listened to Daniel Lavoie’s new album Mes longs voyages (MLV) many times, and have found that it not only offers the listener some truly beautiful music, but is at the same time a poetic and philosophical statement of striking sincerity and poignancy. Clearly designed as an attempt to draw up a "balance sheet" of life's journey, it exposes the idea of finality and acceptance while at the same time offering a true declaration of love for fragile human beings and for life itself.

Particulités / Daniel Lavoie (Les Éditions des Plaines, 2015)

Je ne lis pas les poètes, j’écoute le ciel

(Daniel Lavoie, Particulités)

As bizarre as it might seem to review a book of French language poetry in English, I will do exactly that, although it is very difficult to find an English equivalent even for the book's main tonality, la tristesse. Not quite sadness, but rather a dark tint, a beautiful melancholy. Forget everything you know about Daniel Lavoie the entertainer, with his trademark sunny smile. The narrator of Particulités is disillusioned and detached as he dissects the Universe’s mechanics, awe-inspiring and mysterious, the work of a great higher consciousness. When the narrator then descends back to Earth he observes it almost as a stranger, who despite all the vain and cruel ways of humanity, through the mundane details of everyday life senses a higher light seeking transcendence through people, nature and art (“Je sais qu’un dieu séculier cherche, à travers moi, les mots pour me dire qu’il est là” - bulletin). 

Finutilité / Daniel Lavoie (Les Éditions des Plaines, 2011)

The easy charm of finutilité

If you have never heard Daniel Lavoie read in concert some of his poems/poetic essays before they became  Finutilité - you are in for a wonderful ride. And if you are the lucky one who has  - then you have probably already bought the book!

Finutilité easily charms the reader with the author's poetic vision, his ability to see and to connect images in a truly original way, his honesty and his unique poetic intonation.

La licorne captive live at Festival Classica, May 29 2015, Saint-Lambert (Quebec)

 

Daniel Lavoie sings La Licorne Captive, Festival Classica, St-Lambert, May 29 2015

La licorne captive at the Festival Classica in St-Lambert on May 29 was an event as beautiful as it was rare. After all that was indeed the only chance to date to see this show in North America (the Europeans had already had several opportunities to see it in France). I've been under the spell of the original album (Le chant du monde, 2014) for over a year now (here is why), and finally the fortune smiled on me, so last Friday I found myself inside a very full house in the Catholic Church of St-Lambert, located on one of the quiet streets of this nice suburb of Montreal. Voilà, La licorne captive in Quebec.

La Licorne Captive - Un projet musical de Laurent Guardo / Daniel Lavoie (2014, Chant du Monde)

[For an audience video from the official album presentation skip to Bonus 1].

La Licorne Captive (The CaptiveUnicorn) is an album that's sensual and darkly beautiful, with haunting melodies, and even more haunting poetic images. Its musical energy is quite strong, it sucks you in, takes you on a Dantean journey (or a sexy horror movie trip), throws you into catharsis, cures you with images of purity and love, and at the end leaves you with a poignant feeling which remains with you and is most beautiful.

Comédies Humaines / Daniel Lavoie (2007, GSI Canada)

Comédies Humaines is one of my favorite albums by Daniel Lavoie. No-no, one doesn't need to understand French in order to appreciate it. The music is enough, with its sensual and at the same time intellectual allure. However, as always the case with this author/singer, words matter, and they matter a lot.