L'Énigme du retour / Dany Laferrière (2009, Grasset)

I found Dany Laferrière's  L'Énigme du retour fascinating. What caught my attention from the beginning was its form. I  am not sure it's truly a "novel" ("roman"), I thought it was more of a long poetic essay. The combination of free verse and prose is enchanting. The subject was also very new for me, as I know so little about Haiti. And as any good book would do, this book made that previously obscure to me country somewhat closer. What made this book especially captivating were the common points I have with the author. The narrator's complex relationship with his own past, national identity and time in general are all issues that I can relate to.

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.

William Blake's Songs of Experience, an album by Laurent Guardo, 2011.

 

Here are a few words about Laurent Guardo's early album "William Blake's Songs of Experience". Curiously labeled anything from "lounge" to "international" and even "Broadway" (I am looking at you, Amazon.com), to me this album's music sounds more like modern jazz with strong ambience and psychedelic overtones, although perhaps it's simply difficult to categorize precisely. This is a meditative music, but depending on the mode d'emploi it can make a very different impact on the listener. If one puts earbuds on and surrenders to the album completely, this music is likely to overpower one's reality and take one with it to its own philosophical space, which begins with Blake's great poetry and stretches to the depths of the listener's own mind. However, when enjoyed in a company of friends it makes a great background music for a quiet conversation about life...

Prélude aux 12 hommes (Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Montreal, November 9, 2015) : Gilles Bélanger and special guest Daniel Lavoie

In tiny and totally charming Montreal's Théâtre de Quat’Sous (a perfect venue for an intimate show) Gilles Bélanger, the composer behind the legendary "Douze hommes rapaillés" project, invites one of the 12 "hommes" (participants of that project) every evening over the course of two weeks this November for a conversation about the "Douze hommes", music, songwriting and personal paths in the music business. I saw the show on November 9 when Daniel Lavoie visited the stage.

Daniel Lavoie sings Gaston Miron : a note from the audence

A photo from Douze hommes rapaillés, most likely taken in the Parc de la Francophonie in Quebec City on July 11, 2011. The original source of the photo is unknown. Immediate source: http://www.daniellavoie.ru/dl/index.php/en/creativework/concerts/440--2011

A few years ago  I had a chance to see one of a handful of live performances of the legendary Douze hommes rapaillés, the one that took place in in the Parc de la Francophonie in Quebec City on July 11, 2011. (For the details, see my earlier post). The 12 extraordinary French-Canadian singer/songwriters/poets/political activists and just plain handsome men were creating an enormous energy on that open air stage and beyond. But this post is about Daniel Lavoie.

Douze hommes rapaillés : an outsider's view. (Quebec City, July 11, 2011 Festival d'été de Québec)

Photo credit: Agence Spectra

One goes to a lot of shows during lifetime, but some stay in memory in every detail, years later, as if you saw them yesterday. Douze hommes rapaillés at the Québec City Summer Festival in 2011 became one of those shows for me, although, curiously enough I was by no means the target audience for it (not being French-Canadian).  

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.