Diane Labrosse made her mark in 80s/90s eclectic groups Justine, Les Poules and Wondeur Brass. Her 1995 solo debut Face cachée des choses typified much that’s engaging about Québec’s New Music: an enviable knack of delivering formal complexity with a seemingly effortless ease, often alive with joyous humour. Likewise, Petit traité de Sagesse pratique (A Short Treatise On Practical Wisdom) wears a broad smile as it reexamines 37 proverbs in 49 minutes with much fleet instrumental interplay, vocal breathlessness and hilarity, oblique melodies, sampled fragments and turntable snap, crackle ’n’ pop Top-notch support from AM regulars including Jean Derome, Joane Hétu, Martin Tétreault and Michel F Côté.
