Thousands of kilometers have been covered since 2011. They will no longer accumulate. Saturday, after the last of his 13e season, A nomad in the ear (ICI Musique) will no longer move. Will no longer move, not even a simple lobe. The show that crossed boundaries between genres, cultures and languages will not return.
His box was the only one exclusive to the so-called “world” music category. Or “mixed music”, a term adopted by the person who was at its helm, Catherine Pépin. Traditional and current, popular sounds went hand in hand for “surprising, rhythmic and captivating musical experiences,” according to the online description.
“The flood of love messages that I have received since…”: Catherine Pépin, throat tight with emotion, does not finish her sentence. The voice ofA nomad in the ear announced the news on the air and it is “since then” that its audience has reacted.
“A listener wrote to me that while listening to the Nomadicwe wonder why people are hitting each other on the face,” she reports, two days before the final recording.
This graphic statement sums up the mandate that Catherine Pépin and Emmanuelle Lambert, the friend, director and co-designer of this radio project, gave themselves while hanging out at one of Montreal’s summer festivals. These are the encounters they wanted, “unusual encounters”.
On Saturday evening, melodies on the oud (the instrument) could be followed by throat singing, salsa, fado, when all this did not merge. As the heiress of Chantal Jolis says: “A Cuban singer with oriental musicians; we were looking for a different sound. »
“Bad mix”
“The first name,” the host remembers, “was “Naughty mixture”. » Then, “nomad” came up during a brainstorm, in order to evoke “migration towards the other”. “ [On diffuse] messages of kindness, of openness, stories of women who take their destiny in hand, who play an instrument reserved for men,” says the ex of Macadam tribesa flagship program at the time of Première Chaîne.
“Lots of beautiful memories come back to me, of musical discoveries, of wonderful artists that I got to know and that I saw evolve. I have seen mixed music evolve. »
Aziza Brahim, Blick Bassy, Tinawiren, Voilà… The artists who come to Catherine Pépin’s head represent the Nomadic and its great sound distance, between committed songs and dancing rhythms, between electro and rock. When she quotes Aziza Brahim, a singer from Western Sahara born in a refugee camp, she evokes her courage. “We saw it emerge at the beginning of the Nomadic, she was very young. She is a courageous woman, who only talks about her people and this country that she would like to visit. »
“The word that comes up is courage,” she insists. Artists make music against all odds, in conflict zones, enter the studio at the risk of their lives. Women in Iran, for example, record clandestinely. » It gives her, she affirms, emotionally, “faith in humanity”.
“Catherine Pépin has opened a real space for mixed music, an intelligent, rich, playful and engaged space,” comments Bïa, a Montreal singer originally from Brazil, by email. I am convinced that the imprint of Nomadic will make listeners want to ask for a sequel, a relay, a proposal which will further enrich our musical landscape. »
The one who will host on Radio-Canada for a second summer Under the Bïa sun has “trust”. She assumes that the public station will find “a new playground for this brilliant repertoire”. The director of ICI Musique, Geneviève Levasseur, is reassuring, nothing more. “This music is everywhere in the schedule, it is in the DNA of the channel,” she says in an interview. We don’t let them down. »
For Catherine Pépin, who keeps her other Saturday platform — Time for a song will begin its… 13e season —, autumn will be a sign of newness. If A nomad in the ear falls, it is because another show, with a name and content still secret, will be born. “We wanted to give [au duo Catherine Pépin/Emmanuelle Lambert] a new mandate. It’s the trigger,” explains Geneviève Levasseur.
“The show will be even more vibrant and we will rediscover the evocative power of music [quand] we hear notes of Mongolia and [qu’]we imagine ourselves in the steppes. THE Nomadic won’t be very far,” said Catherine Pépin, her lips burning.
She closes the microphone Nomadic with the regret of the parent who sees their child move into an apartment. Serenely, she calls herself “mission accomplished”.
People are eager to discover, she assures. People wrote to him about “never having so much shazame only by listening A nomad in the ear “. She remembers the pandemic and confinement as “pivotal” moments. “Auditors organized parties virtual, put the Nomadic and danced together. It touched me so much,” she confides.
Arousing curiosity in a festive spirit, that was the Nomadic. And with all the accents, as the opening indicator suggested. Catherine Pépin advocated the diversity of voices and languages, often those in danger, from Occitan to local indigenous languages. His observation: music keeps them alive.
The last show will be emotional, without being “tearful”. Like the “optimistic view of the world” that Catherine Pépin wishes to preserve within herself after thirteen years of “nomadic” music.