Sixteen digits and one letter. Uppercase, the letter. We say to ourselves that it is wanted, necessarily symbolic: the letter seems to stand out from the arbitrary lot, to rise straight up, victorious. As if to signify the complementary character of this access code to the digital version. As if to signify that the essential is elsewhere, real, touching, palpable: a book containing three volumes of Useless Poes which are sung or recited, and the three corresponding albums. Bori repeats McLuhan: the medium is more than ever the message.
Last year, the first volume of his Useless Poes was launched in the air, and only in the air, just to float in the cloud. Who saw him pass? “There have been some, the people who have done me the honor of accompanying me over the years have known about it, but many have also been disappointed: the booklet was not easy to find and, when it was found, Not everyone enjoys listening to songs while reading the lyrics on a computer screen. »
Bori as in borinevitable
This intangible publication, in the “poutt poutt world” (dixit Bori in 2006), where reference points are so easily lost, forced by distribution problems and troubles at Productions de l’onde, was not only a stopgap , but a barely identified non-flying object. “It’s true, you could almost say that it didn’t exist. But at least the project has continued to live its life, until it manifests itself in a very physical way today. » Yes, there is an access code included for those who would also like, for practical reasons, to access one or other of the 55 tracks scattered over the three discs of the Useless Poes and to the texts collected in the book of the same name (from Poesimaginary in Poézizi), but it’s extra. Linked to the whole.
It doesn’t get any less digital than that. There is no access code. You have to be there.
The project, it should be remembered, is the outgrowth of the show Garneau/Bori, presented from 2017 to 2020, where poems by Michel Garneau had found a musical counterpart in Edgar Bori (with the help of his multi-instrumentalist accomplice Jean-François Groulx). It was Garneau himself, shortly before his death in 2021, who inspired Bori to write a sequel, a passage of the torch of sung or recited poetry. “Michel Garneau said that poetry had to be read twice. A first time to get through it, a second time where you start to understand what it’s about and the real work can begin. »
Bori as in borideally surrounded
Thus, the first volume of Useless Poes is it an “open proposal” where very diverse collaborators, from Tire le coyote to Yannick Rieu, from Shampouing to Bon Débarras, have pushed the texts from all sides and all sides, here in jazz, there in electro, folk, world music. “They had all the freedoms. To Christian Frappier in Poesidyllic, I said: you can reverse everything, permute, mix. All I ask of you is not to take a word away. The arrangements are fragmented, you can hear me singing well, but I’m part of a whole. »
In the second volume, we find many of the same titles (and quite a few others), but recited, the beautiful timbre of Bori’s voice in evidence, the musical atmospheres in the background. It is quite fascinating to compare the Poesimaginary sung at Poesimagined rmentioned, both Poesenomable, And so on. In song, we let ourselves be lulled by the phonemes, we catch the passage of lines, while in recitative, the attention is heightened. “And you don’t have to listen to/read the twenty-four poems. We can take all the breaks we want. It is the privilege of the reader. »
Bori as in borinitiatives
The third volume is that of additions, instrumental versions, recent songs. The Fanfare Pourpour and Yannick Rieu interfere, who seize and appropriate a title each. “From a certain moment, there were initiatives. When you open, some come in! To have known that it would take six years, I would not have embarked on that, but at the same time I am completely happy with what it has become, it got me out of the woodwork. »
In fact, he tells us about Limoges. The spectacle of his Useless Poes, which he baptized there and which he will come to Quebec in the fall, is that of Bori alone, without musicians, without guitar. A man, a voice, songs, poems. “I’ve spent the last month learning the lyrics by heart. We’ll see how it goes. Little feverish tremor in the tone. “I think the whole project led me there. We dressed the pieces, we put the words in front, and there, there’s only me and the words. And the people. I do small rooms, 80 seats, 100 seats, I don’t use amplification. It doesn’t get any less digital than that. There is no access code. You have to be there. »