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Castor et compagnie

Joane Hétu / Castor et compagnie

acidic voice plays hard against all of this, and she takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways. — Hollow Ear, USA

… Ce disque présente un très heureux mélange de textes et de musiques d’une grande qualité. — Musicworks, Canada

Joane Hétu signs here a first CD of her own music and texts, Castor et compagnie, with longtime accomplices Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse and Pierre Tanguay.

Castor et compagnie is a cycle of songs for lovers of senses, sense and sounds, noise and lyricism, pleasure and erotism. The lyrics were inspired by the vocabulary of Hindu erotic books, Arabic love games and a few saucy songs. The music is daring and energetic, made of turbulent atmospheres, evocative lullabies and even love songs.

Joane Hétu is best known as a member of early AM female supergroups Justine, Wondeur Brass and Les Poules. An inventive composer, improviser and saxophonist, Hétu has always been exploring and developping a musical style of her own: a harsh, guttural voice flirting with a modern lyricism tainted with original textures, strident sounds and atonal harmonies. She is at her best with this difficult, yet sensuous expression of poetry that has the intelligence of its music.

CD (AM 037, 1995)

  • Label: Ambiances Magnétiques
  • AM 037
  • 1995
  • UCC 771028103720
  • Total duration: 54:51
  • Jewel case
  • 125 mm × 142 mm × 10 mm
  • 100 g

On the web

Download (AM 037_NUM, 1995)

  • This item is not available through our website. We have catalogued it for information purposes only.
  • This item can be downloaded and/or listened to at joanehetu.bandcamp.com.
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In the press

Kritik

Border Zone Zero, June 1, 1998

Review

Hollow Ear, June 1, 1997

On this side of the Atlantic, the experiments continue in a more agressive fashion in Montréal. Joane Hétu, wondeur-brasser and composer has released another jarring adventure, Castor et Compagnie. This is her first “solo” recording, although she is joined by AM regulars Diane Labrosse (keys and accordion), Jean Derome (brass, woodwinds, percussion and effects), Pierre Tanguay (percussion) and some bass tracks from Luc Bonin. The beauty of all the music Hétu makes is its refusal to be described by genre or comparison: jazz, new classical, punk-funk, experimental noise; Stockhausen, Glass, Beefheart and Zappa all seem vaguely appropriate until you really listen. Castor et Compagnie adds another element, one of erotic romance. The texts that inspire these pieces come from Hindi love recipes, Arabic sex-play games and old ribald folk songs, and the music created around them is a rich mix of lush and lustful, one moment a Brazilian cliché, the next a raw revel or a scream. Her edgy, acidic voice plays hard against all of this, and she takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways.

acidic voice plays hard against all of this, and she takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways.

Review

Fernando Magalhäes, Quarta-feira, January 8, 1997

Critique

Éric Boulé, Musicworks, no. 65, June 1, 1996
… Ce disque présente un très heureux mélange de textes et de musiques d’une grande qualité.

Critique

ImproJazz, April 1, 1996
… Castor et compagnie est un cycle de chansons pour les amoureux de sens, du sens et des sons où se côtoient avec bonheur érotisme, bruitisme et mélodie.

Critique

Pierre Durr, Revue & Corrigée, no. 27, March 1, 1996
… Si Joane Hétu se révèle être une chanteuse expressive, à la voix tendre, ou enjouée et gaie (selon le thème abordé), elle est aussi, et surtout, une compositrice et une musicienne/instrumentiste confirmée, qui fait de ses chansons de véritables chefs-d’œuvre d’orchestration, faits d’arrangements subtils, malicieux, savoureux, auxquels ont contribué Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse et Pierre Tanguay…

Critique

Octopus, no. 4, March 1, 1996

Discos

Rafa Dorado, Margen, no. 5, March 1, 1996

Critique

Bertrand Roux, Voir, September 14, 1995
… une poésie musicale où se côtoient allègrement amour et érotisme, tendresse et tensions…

Review

Chris Yurkiw, Montreal Mirror, September 14, 1995
… If your notion of a good time takes on the heretofore unfathomed form of Nina Hagen scatting, Nina Simone squawking, or Nico rocking, have I got a girl for you!…
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