Those who follow him know it: Jérôme Minière never does things like the others. Has the pandemic isolated us? The songwriter, he took the opportunity to surround himself in order to create The melody, the river and the nightan album less close to the head than to the heart.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
He has a sense of humor, Jérôme Minière. It was heard on Jérôme Minière at Herri Kopter, a record with pop accents where he x-rayed consumer society with a smirk. It can also be seen on stage, where he draws the spectators into his imagination, staging himself as in the theater, but without costume or pageantry. A game of tricks that undoubtedly allows him to overcome a shy nature.
His reserve also means that there has long been something cerebral in his songs, which are nevertheless made up of observations that can only emanate from a being endowed with great sensitivity. He readily admits it. When he was younger, he couldn’t make the connection between his head and his guts. “With the years and the experience, I’m less sure of what’s going on here, he says, pointing his head, and I try to listen more to what’s going on down below. »
And you can hear it The melody, the river and the nightdisc which he considers as the third of a cycle including In the digital forest (2018) and A clearing (2019). This 12e album of original songs in just over 25 years indeed shows the same desire to x-ray the fragmented world in which we live. With a little something more: the desire to offer comfortable music.
“The starting point is exactly that,” agrees the author and composer born in France and established in Quebec since the end of the 1990s.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Jerome Miniere
I just wanted comfortable songs. Like a place where I could feel good and which would make people feel good.
Jerome Miniere
A place where, in the midst of a pandemic, he did not want to be alone.
Surround yourself
Jérôme Minière is used to doing quite a lot himself on his records concocted for two decades in a small place located rue Jean-Talon, a stone’s throw from Plaza St-Hubert. “As I am often in my area, with COVID, I thought it was really too much in my area,” he says. So he surrounded himself.
He extended an invitation to Philippe Brault (director and collaborator of Pierre Lapointe, among others) with whom he worked as a musician in the theater in Thirsty, adaptation of the choral novel by Marie-Claire Blais. Then, he reconnected with Ngabo, singer of Burundian origin, for a song with soul accents entitled American night. He also invited his compatriot Françoiz Breut, with whom he toured and collaborated at the turn of the millennium, and sings in duet with a certain Fé sur warblera piece with almost Cape Verdean accents.
Who is this Fé, of whom there is no trace on the internet? “She’s my daughter,” he said, smiling. I wanted my son and daughter to help me with the backing vocals because they both sing really well. “It was not possible with his son, he regrets, but” warblerit was so convincing that it became more than back vocals”.
more sentimental
He emerges from The melody, the river and the night less anxiety than one usually feels in Jérôme Minière. His music, which always mixes electronic lutherie and acoustic instruments, is also more varied and light than before. In addition to the soul dabbled with Ngabo, we hear here and there traits that we associate more with Latin and Brazilian music.
It’s the “hidden thread” of the disc, he argues. Which is due to the percussion, but also to the important place occupied by the classical guitar and to the fact that the creator now fully assumes his affection for “sentimental” music such as boleros. We agree: Jérôme Minière has not metamorphosed into a Latin crooner for all that.
These colors that he adds to his sound palette bring warmth to his reflections on the passage of time and our relationships with others, which he renders in an even more intimate way than before. “It’s so difficult to hold a speech that speaks to everyone, it has become almost impossible, in fact, so it’s better to explore feelings or inner things, he notes. I know that for many people, it’s a banality. It depends on where we start: where I was starting from, it’s new to do that. And that makes it even more touching.
The melody, the river and the night
Jerome Miniere
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