When celebrating one’s rich cultural background, it should be no surprise when the resulting album is bursting with a love only the artist could share.
That’s the feeling Montreal’s Dominique Fils-Aime’s Polaris Prize Short List nominated album, Stay Tuned!, brings to the table. The second release in a trilogy celebrating the history of African-American music, the album uses minimalist jazz elements set behind a particularly rhythmic wall of gospel and soul and is as smooth as anything found on Detroit radio in the 1960s. The songs are haunting, often feeling as though they came from a place of both struggle and strength, and leave you hypnotized and singing softly to yourself.
Mysterious and full of a deep passion, Dominique Fils-Aime brings a soaring and smooth record, worthy of the Polaris Music Prize attention. But will the Polaris jury chose Stay Tuned! as the Canadian Album of the Year? Found out on September 16, when the winner is announced at the Carlu in Toronto during the Polaris Music Prize Gala.
Limited tickets to the event are limited and go on sale August 2 via Ticketmaster. For those who cannot attend the Polaris Music Prize Gala, the event will be live-streamed globally at cbcmusic.ca/polaris.
Born and raised with thoughts and aspirations of becoming a famous bassist in Sarnia, ON; Emily Plunkett now lives in Gatineau, QC, and considers National Capital Region home sweet home. A product of the Beatles, MuchMusic and the Southwestern Ontario summer festival circuit (circa 2000), her interest and love in concert photography came almost completely by accident when her journalism program at Algonquin College required courses in photojournalism (and she quickly realized that photos taken at concerts using a DSLR are enormously better than ones she was taking on a point-and-shoot she bought for a trip to England). She is extremely proud of the fact she has seen Sloan in some form or another 25 times.
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