{"id":57432,"date":"2024-04-30T15:07:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T19:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/magazine\/uncategorized\/chansons-prescriptions\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T14:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T18:40:19","slug":"song-prescriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/magazine\/culture\/song-prescriptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Song Prescriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

In these pages, from the first issue, I have had the pleasure of spreading the joys and infinite universes of literature. Now, here I am settling down on the banks of song, a literary art if ever there was one, which I practice in my spare time as a songwriter. The theme of this new issue lifts us up and is perfectly suited to the name of this emerging section, intended for Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois or French-language music: song prescriptions, which I humbly offer you as remedies for the storms and tempests of life. Happy listening!<\/p>\n

\u201cL\u2019amour\u201d <\/strong><\/span>a song from the album C\u2019est<\/em> dr\u00f4le<\/em> la<\/em> vie<\/em>, from Christophe Ma\u00e9, 2023<\/h3>\n

After looking everywhere for happiness on Il est o\u00f9 le bonheur<\/em>, Frenchman Christophe Ma\u00e9 tackles another enduring clich\u00e9 on \u201cL\u2019amour\u201d as a duo with Malians Amadou and Mariam: love. Some will be allergic to it, like the rest are to happiness, but the official video clip is enough to win over even the most jaded. The Ugandan group Masaka Kids Africana, which shares the joy of dance with orphans in the country, is invited to the floor first, and the children move with all their soul and a smile to convince us that this is a pervasive feeling, dizzying and stirring all at once. So strong that it can make us \u201cfumer une cigarette\u201d (smoke a cigarette), but then make us butt out almost instantly! Amadou and Mariam\u2019s synthesizers will quickly loosen up your legs, and Ma\u00e9\u2019s gravelly voice will reconcile you\u2014or not\u2014with the clich\u00e9 which is nicely reactivated at the turn of childhood.<\/p>\n

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Suite pour personne <\/strong><\/span>an album from Jeanne C\u00f4t\u00e9, 2023<\/h3>\n

A big winner in 2023 at the Francouvertes competition, Jeanne C\u00f4t\u00e9 has a gift for the bittersweet. Her album Suite pour personne <\/em>is a collection of songs that have their feet in the water\u2014and yet, their current never swallows us, because their wind is lively and brisk. Two titles particularly attract attention in this sense. In \u201cOuragans,\u201d with its piano in tendrils and waterfalls, we keep our distance from reality, but with the Other, we can restitch the bond, with that gentle call to \u201cSerre-moi la main\u201d (shake my hand). Because it\u2019s well known that \u201cdes fois, faut que la vie nous arrose, pour se mouiller\u201d (sometimes, life has to water us to get wet). And with \u201cY peut mouiller,\u201d Jeanne C\u00f4t\u00e9 fights back against the bad weather of a Sunday evening where the air is heavy; how can we combat this fever of greyness and these shady areas that assail our lives? When we have nothing left to lose, why not welcome the rain? And \u201ctourner dans l\u2019orage, courir comme un chien fou\u201d (turn into the storm, run like a mad dog). A soothing, hypnotic album.<\/p>\n

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\u00ab blood pareil \u00bb <\/span><\/strong>a song from the album monde autour<\/em>, from Comment debord, 2023<\/h3>\n

If you are not yet familiar with Comment debord, a group whose album homonyme <\/em>featured titles such as \u201cChalet\u201d and \u201cVille fantombe\u201d that stood out on the radio, their recent offering has all the groove it takes to expand their fanbase. I admit that I had a big weakness for the first track, \u201cblood pareil,\u201d in which singer R\u00e9mi Gauvin clings to a tele- phone booth to reinvent his ideals. To put it bluntly, he dreams of a world where a social project can be synonymous with the search for other people \u201cqui veulent aller danser apr\u00e8s le souper\u201d (who want to go dancing after dinner). Nothing less. It may seem frivolous, but \u201c\u00e7a serait-tu blood pareil\u201d (don\u2019t you feel the same in your blood)? All the melodic and percussive lines are entitled to their solo, then get tangled up in a joyous harmony. And then, there is a desire for the horizon that rumbles in living rooms\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cY a-tu du monde qui ont envie de s\u2019embarquer dans quelque chose de plus grand qu\u2019eux autres Y a-tu du monde qui ont envie de s\u2019arranger pour modifier leur petit bonhomme de chemin\u201d (\u201cAre there people who want to embark on something greater than themselves? Are there people who want to find a way to change their little path?\u201d)<\/p>\n

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Inuktitut <\/span><\/strong>an album from Elisapie, 2023<\/h3>\n

Although Elisapie\u2019s fourth album is one of covers, it is nevertheless one of her most personal. Drawing on resurfaced musical memories, which constituted refuges for her people and herself against the erasure of their culture in the Far North, the Inuk artist translates a dozen pop and rock hits, from Fleetwood Mac to Led Zeppelin, into her language. The result is captivating and gives the original music a new aura with which it will never be able to part. The song \u201cQimatsilunga\u201d (Queen\u2019s \u201cI Want to Break Free\u201d) resonates with volcanic power, and Metallica\u2019s \u201c The Unforgiven\u201d becomes, with \u201cIsumagijunnaitaungituq,\u201d a bed of moving waters while adorning itself more than ever with its legendary calling. But with \u201cUummati Attanarsimat\u201d (Blondie\u2019s \u201cHeart of Glass\u201d), Elisapie hits a home run, the love story becoming as mystical as it is enveloping. An essential object of reappropriation, atmospheric and earthy.<\/p>\n

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