THE ALBUM 8 TABLEAUX INSPIRED BY RIOPELLE’S WORK AVAILABLE MARCH 1ST
Flore Laurentienne, Mathieu David Gagnon’s incomparable project, shares the final single “L’Île-aux-Oies,” before the release of his album 8 tableaux available this Friday on digital, CD, and vinyl formats. Preorder it here. Drawing inspiration from the works of Jean Paul Riopelle during the composition of this opus, Mathieu is now preparing for two sold-out concerts in late March at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Salle Bourgie, alongside more than 15 musicians.
The composer explains the creation of this song, which was inspired by its namesake in the middle of St. Lawrence’s River – an island closed to the public:
“This is a musical tableau where three cycles of slightly different lengths cross each other to create an ever-changing rhythm.”
An animated video directed by Joey Proteau accompanies the release, illustrating the three intercrossing cycles in order to bring the melody’s concept to life.
This opus is part of a residency project with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) that took place last November, surrounded by works selected for their depth and landscape dimension, serving as a prelude to the major concerts on March 23 and 24, at the MMFA’s Salle Bourgie. But first Flore Laurentienne will head to Ottawa on February 29 for a concert at the National Arts Centre. Buy your tickets HERE.
Mathieu shares the creative process behind the new opus:
“Music is an art that takes place over time, whereas painting is a frozen frame at a precise moment in the painter’s creative flow. With ‘8 tableaux,’ I tried to give a musical form to a painting.
But how to achieve this, how to stop time in music?
By basing the structure of the pieces on cycles that recur again and again, the ear can be led to believe that the music was there before and will be there afterward. With no beginning and no end, all that’s left is a musical freeze-frame…
Following this approach, I quickly realized that music and painting both call for contemplation, he explains.
Another concept I worked around with this record is the notion of randomness in music. Riopelle is often associated with the Automatist movement. His greatest works of the ’50s are for me, more reminiscent of romantic abstraction, or even of a great organic and organized chaos (a link to be made with nature here). It’s from this reflection that I tried to integrate the notion of controlled randomness, or rather, chaos filtered by emotion,” concludes the composer.