Montreal-based trio É.T.É share their new album Sur ces eaux
The prodigious trad trio É.T.É released their new album, Sur ces eaux, on November 4, 2022.
With several nominations at the ADISQ Awards and Prix Opus, having already won a number of accolades, including “Trad Album of the Year” at the 2020 GAMIQ Awards, “Discovery of the Year” at the 2019 Prix Opus and the 2018, “Audience Award” at the Prix Festif and several international tour upcoming, the group led by Elisabeth Moquin, Thierry Clouette and Elisabeth Giroux has the wind in their sails. It was during a Trad music jam session in Montreal that the three acolytes decided to get together to create a new repertoire. Hailing from different musical backgrounds spanning classical, jazz, and trad music, they combined their different influences to make Quebecois trad with a unique sound and in their image: modern and dynamic, but also full of finesse and subtlety.
Although their lyrics are all taken from traditional repertoire, the majority of the instrumentation and the arrangements are original compositions that reflect the variety of styles they master.
The album is an epic journey that oscillates between strength and sweetness and where tradition meets modernity, feminism, and beauty. With a virtuosic use of violin, Irish bouzouki, guitar, and cello, the arrangements – inspired by traditional Quebecois and Acadian repertoires – are audacious, energetic, and refined.
Listen to Sur ces eaux below and learn more about É.T.É via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
We are a trad music trio from Montréal. The name É.T.É stands for the first letters of our names (Élisabeth G., Thierry & Élisabeth M.) and also means “summer” in french. We come from very different musical backgrounds, and that specificity shows in our music. We include cello and Irish bouzouki, which are not very typical to Québec traditional music, as well as fiddle, foot-tapping and step-dancing.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
“Sur ces eaux” is our third album and includes songs and tunes that are part of the traditional repertoire and original compositions. The album’s name could translate to “On These Waters,” as the songs are mostly water-themed and talk about traveling, exile, and impossible love through the perspective of the anonymous singers that passed these songs through the centuries. It is a very festive yet sometimes introspective album, and we are very proud of it! We’ve known each other for more than seven years now, so we developed a sound that we like over the years, but also tried to come out of our composition and arranging patterns, which was a very stimulating experience.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
When we arrange new music, we listen to raw recordings of songs or fiddle tunes, and we try to find the ones that have some uniqueness, some musical features that make us think: “we could really bring something special to it.” We like to listen to a lot of different genres when we’re on the road, so the sound of the artists that inspire us translates to our music, whether it is pop, progressive rock, or classical music.
Do you have any upcoming shows or festivals you’d like to tell us about?
We will have our album launch concert in Montréal on November 8th as a part of the “Coup de coeur francophone” festival and another concert in the Québec City area on December 3rd. We are currently planning a Belgium tour for March, and we will most likely have a fun summer all around Canada and USA.
What’s your goal for 2022?
We’ve been pretty busy in the past few months working on the new album and preparing for the album launch, so we’re looking forward to performing this new music to our friends and followers and just enjoy doing concerts!