Chicks and chicks will have new tunes to hum as of March 4: in collaboration with distributor madistribution.com, Télé-Québec will launch Hello friends !, a double album of new original songs performed by Passe-Partout, Passe-Carreau and Passe-Montagne and composed by Les Sœurs Boulay, Évelyne Brochu, Viviane Audet, Jérôme 50 and Julyan, Ingrid St-Pierre, Catherine Major and Benoît Archambault, among others. Will these songs pass to posterity like the Brush, brush, brush, The beautiful vegetables, Sometimes I’m scared Where Creole lullaby original seasons, songs set to music by the late Pierre-F. Brault?
Nicole Tardif, senior director general, communications, brand image and government affairs at Télé-Québec, is convinced of this. After revisiting the original repertoire composed by Brault and his lyricists (Bernard Tanguay and Michèle Poirier, especially) when Passe-Partout returned to the small screen in 2019, the management of Télé-Québec wanted to “extend the experience” by inventing a new repertoire based on the work of Pierre-F. Brault. “He’s the one who made the music of Passe-Partout immortal — we’ve been singing his songs for 40 years! “said Nicole Tardif yesterday during a virtual press conference bringing together the artisans of this musical project.
Among them is the singer-songwriter Benoît Archambault, who, in parallel with his work in the group Mes Aïeux, has been building up a repertoire of songs for young audiences for twenty years: “Pierre-F. Brault had a school. It remains for me the ultimate reference in children’s songs. This project is a way to pay tribute to what he has done and to be in continuity with his work. »
This new directory was created following a call for projects conducted by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) among Quebec songwriters. The CALQ, indicates Nicole Tardif, was inundated with proposals; the songwriters had to choose from fifteen themes defined by the production of the children’s show. According to producer Joceline Genest, of Attraction Images, “these songs are glued to the DNA of Passe-Partout”. “Topics with educational content [choisis] have been rigorously respected and even enriched by the creativity of the artists”, so that these songs naturally fit into the story of the new episodes of Passe-Partout, broadcast since the beginning of February.
The first of two discs of Hello friends ! includes the songs performed by the actors of the series, including the main ones, Élodie Grenier (Passe-Partout), Gabrielle Fontaine (Passe-Carreau) and Jean-François Pronovost (Passe-Montagne). The second presents the versions delivered by their authors. Benoît Archambault signs 3 of the 17 new songs: A beautiful day, That warms the heart and a charming piano-vocal ballad titled The clouds.
“That one is almost a spiritual song for children! announces Archambault. It says: “I feel sad or happy / sometimes even a bit of both / I can’t guess myself all the time […] After the clouds come the good weather…” It’s funny because it’s a text that could be addressed to adults, too.