[…] Weaving is right up there with painting and sports as hackneyed clichés for describing music, but Joane Hétu’s Filature took a tight focus on each thread and every tie in her tapestry. The piece, performed with Montréal’s Ensemble Supermusique, was based on her time spent as a fabric colourist, and effectively displayed her personal sense for composing and arranging and for turning nostalgic memories into music. Pierre Hébert’s real time video manipulations, tight shots of cloth and twine, supported Hétu’s musical vison well. […]

Le festival Suoni Per Il Popolo aura lieu du 1^er au 30 juin 2007 à Montréal. Une soirée dédiée aux artistes de l’étiquette Ambiances Magnétiques aura lieu le 17 juin 2007: Marie-Soleil Bélanger + Normand Guilbeault + Ensemble SuperMusique + Martin Tétreault + Nous perçons les oreilles (Joane Hétu, Jean Derome) seront à la Casa del Popolo pour cette occasion.

[…] The final day began with a wonderful set by Joane Hétu’s Ensemble SuperMusique called Filature. Joane Hétu runs the great label from Montréal, Ambiances Magnétiques. Her longtime partner is Jean Derome and both of them play alto sax, do vocals and compose at length. Both Joane and Jean consistently release excellent, diverse discs on Ambiances Magnétiques and I always look forward to any project that either works on. Just about every year, someone from this label (like Diane Labrosse, Normand Guilbeault, Danielle Palardy Roger or Pierre Tanguay) does something special up at Victo. Filature is Joane Hétus most ambitious project yet and it will take a while to absorb its many layers of ideas. It featured ten musicians, five women and five men with Pierre Hébert doing video projections. Joane refers to it as sound/theatre and that sounds right. Joane was once a weaver before concentrating on becoming a musician and the theme of weaving is the central thread throughout this work. The first part is called The Warp and featured the five men on alto sax or flute, violin, trumpet, contrabass and drums. The music was an exquisite blend of lovely harmonies, short drones, acappella vocal sections and haunting music. The video images were of a single tree branch with some occasional growth. The second part, The Weft featured the five women musicians on violin, cello, flutes, sampler, percussion & alto sax. Most of the women contributed charming vocal sounds along with their contemplative, cinematic music, sometimes sparse but always enchanting. The third and final part was called The Pattern and it featured all ten musicians. It began with just a few repeating notes and evolved through different grooves and sections. I love the way the vocals and instruments shared stunning harmonies with each other. Joane has a gift for breaking up the melody and having different members share their lines so that whole band sounds like one refined tapestry of sound. It reminded of the superb magic-music that Fred Frith’s Keep the Dog used to play and yes, Jean Derome was an integral part of that band many years ago. The images of twine, knots, rope, faces and hands connected with the music just right. It was a marvelous set and I can’t wait for it to be released on disc! […]

Le 31 mai 2007, la Galerie B-312 (Montréal) vous convie à une rencontre de musique improvisée avec Jean Derome, Joane Hétu, Pierre Tanguay et leur invitée spéciale venue d’Europe, Catherine Jauniaux — surnommée «le sampleur humain»… Attendez vous à une improvisation libre, enjouée et dynamique de la part de ces musiciens. Aussi, les expositions de Jacko Restikian, Made in China, et Randall Anderson, Travaux récents, se poursuivent simultanément jusqu’au 16 juin. En passant, on vous invite à allumer l’>actuelleradio.

Profitez du taux de change plus avantageux et roulez, libres, vers New York pour écouter Nicolas Caloia, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Jean Derome, Lori Freedman, Joane Hétu et Danielle Palardy Roger dans diverses formations du 25 au 27 mai 2007 à l’espace The Stone (ÉU). Ça vaut vraiment le détour… Retrouvez leur univers sonore en écoutant des extraits de leur musique sur la page de Canevas «+».

Joane Hétu présentera son projet Filature où, dans un univers visuel et scénique riche, s’entremêlent chansons rock, musiques minimalistes et improvisations. L’artiste fougueuse sera en compagnie de l’Ensemble SuperMusique (Mélanie Auclair, Guido Del Fabbro, Jean Derome, Claire Gignac, Normand Guilbeault, Diane Labrosse, Danielle Palardy Roger, Pierre Tanguay, Némo Venba) et du cinéaste et artiste visuel Pierre Hébert. Ce concert sera présenté le 21 mai 2007 au cinéma Laurier de Victoriaville dans le cadre du Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), dont la programmation complète est en ligne (pas moins de 23 concerts de musique actuelle!). D’ici là, vous pouvez faire un détour virtuel et écoutez des extraits en ligne de son dernier disque Nouvelle musique d’hiver.