Le Vent du Nord March 2019 Album of the Month

Le Vent du Nord

Territoires

Borealis

Longtime readers might recognize that the Quebeçois band Le Vent du Nord gets a lot of praise on this site. There's a reason for that. For the past 17 years, Le Vent du Nord (The North Wind) has consistently raised the bar for musical excellence. Their hot-off-the-presses new release Territoires celebrates many things, including the intersections between city and village. If you go to the band's Website you'll find an excellent video of their song "Adieu du Village" in which the band brings cool vibes and some rock and roll flavoring to a song that's a poignant blend of old and new–a reworking of folk traditions from the Montérégie region (100 km. east of Montreal) with some eco-awareness tossed in as well. You'll experience a twisty tune that's driven by the powerful voice and cranked up hurdy-gurdy excursions of Nicolas Boulerice, who just happens to live in a pretty small village: Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu (pop. 1,700), an hour northeast of Montreal. Bass player Réjean Brunet and his brother André hail from a wee place as well, Lacolle, just across the border from the Champlain Islands of Vermont. And if you really want to get into the sticks musically, journey with Le Vent's Olivier Demers (fiddle, feet, bombarde, guitar) to the sparsely populated "Côte-Nord," where the St. Lawrence dumps into the Atlantic. The band gives this song a gentle, dream-like treatment.

Le Vent du Nord also plumbs history. "Le Pays deSamuel" is reflection on explorer Samuel de Champlain from the Francophone point of view. This song is also indicative of the tightness of the quintet's music. As is often the case in Quebeçois music, clogging feet (from Demers) set the rhythm through which hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki (Simon Beaudry), bass, and fiddles (Demers and André Brunet) lay down joyous melodies. The integration of feet, voices, and instruments is seamless and flawless. Another venture into the past is "Louisbour" [sic], an interpretation of an Acadian song that's given a wistful a cappella treatment replete with harmony and chorale-like effects. (The French fort of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia was captured by the British in 1758 and set the stage for the transfer of French-speaking Canada to British control.)

Every track on the CD is a treat. "Chausaro" zips along at a nice clip, Réjan's melodeon makes "Le Step A Alexis" feel like a kitchen party, "Le Jardinier" is a cheeky little number, and "Evolution Tranquille" is an ironically titled merde-kicker that will make you bust out some hard soled shoes and give clogging the old college try. There's a bit of everything on this release, even some sweet, quiet Celtic-style folk: "La Mère Á L'Échafaud." One of the only things better than listening to a Le Vent du Nord recording is catching them live. I've been lucky enough to do that a good half dozen times, but you can see them in a videotaped 2017 Shrewsbury Folk Festival appearance. As you'll see, this is a leave-it-all-on-the-stage kind of band.    

Rob Weir

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