Her voice is celestial and her spirit, down to earth: Loreena McKennitt has rocked souls for nearly 40 years with albums resulting from meticulous research that weave links between the West and the East. She returns to Quebec for concerts where the pieces of The Visitdisc which revealed it, will be in the spotlight.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
Before getting into music, Loreena McKennitt wanted to become a veterinarian. Her life has not led her to take care of animals, but certainly to take care of her fellow human beings. His music has always exuded a softness imbued with mystery, brings comfort and gives the feeling of being connected to the essence of the human experience: joy, pain, daydreaming and the need to feel connected to this around us — both people and places.
She clearly says her desire to do good when she approaches the tour which will pass through Montreal (Sunday and October 9 at Place des Arts), then Quebec and Sherbrooke. “I envision it as a calming experience,” she says, in light of the current political climate and the period of upheaval the whole world has just gone through due to the pandemic.
This appeasement will first pass through the songs of his album The Visit, which she will perform in full on stage for the first time in her career in the second part of the program. An essential milestone in his discography, the disc released in 1991 revealed to the world his celestial voice and his music rooted in the Celtic tradition, but mixed with influences from the Near East and Asia Minor.
This mixture can be heard from All Soul’s Night, a piece that opens the album: even before hearing its song, which is part of the Irish tradition, one is drawn in by the resonance of the Indian tamboura and an Arab melody. Loreena McKennitt has always had her arms wide open: she has never hesitated to make the typically Celtic instruments sing (Irish flutes, bagpipes, violin, bodhran, etc.) with the Persian qanun, the viola da gamba or even the electric guitar and keyboards.
Anthropologist at heart
Introduced to Celtic music at the end of the 1970s, Loreena McKennitt deepened her knowledge of it by traveling to Ireland “to track it down in its natural environment”. “Finding myself so close to his beating heart had a strong impression on me, she recalls, but I quickly understood that one cannot understand traditional music without knowing the social context and the circumstances in which it has grown. »
A little like an anthropologist, she carried out research that made her discover the migrations of the Celtic peoples to the gates of Asia Minor. “The more I immersed myself in the story, the more doors opened,” she says. I wondered how these connections could have a relevant contemporary resonance. »
Her quest has transformed her into a kind of soul engineer. His records, like the music of Jordi Savall or the novels of Amin Maalouf, first seek to build bridges between eras and cultures. Loreena McKennitt nods happily and admits that this has even been her hidden intention for a long time.
By bringing together scattered elements, by introducing these different sounds and sometimes even different visions of the world, I have the impression of having become a kind of diplomat. We are so absorbed by our Western culture that we sometimes forget that there are other sensitivities and other points of view – and vice versa. Music is one of the few universal mediums and can be the bridge we need.
Loreena McKennitt
Dive back into the world of The Visit to design edition 30e anniversary published last year and preparing for the concert reminded him of the many trips to Ireland at the turn of the 1990s in search of information and inspiration and the “warm and friendly” atmosphere of pubs on winter evenings. What Loreena McKennitt is most nostalgic about, however, is that sense of community she felt very strongly growing up in northern Manitoba and a slower life, “where you do less, but more deep”. According to her, this would be beneficial to the planet, which suffers from our way of life based on overexploitation.
She applies this approach at her scale, on her farm in Stratford, Ontario, where she rents plots to breeders by practicing land rotation and with a view to sustainable development. “We are already seeing the benefits in terms of biodiversity after only five or six years,” she notes enthusiastically.
This anchoring in nature and its community is essential to it. “I know that the path I took, my career in music, is not something natural. That’s why I’m staying here, in Stratford, where I can have a normal life, she said. I have also been doing a vegetable garden since I was an adult. It is my sanctuary, the most tangible element of my life. This rootedness is also what gives him the wings to make his voice and our souls fly.
Sunday and October 9, 8 p.m., Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts