Pierre Lapointe unveils L’heure mauve, a musical work featuring new compositions as well as previously unreleased novel rendition of classics. The album is out today via Bonsound. At the invitation of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the multi-talented singer-songwriter has set to song the exhibition Nicolas Party: L’heure mauve, the first exhibition devoted to the Swiss artist in Canada.
L'heure mauve is available now on all digital platforms.
The album will also be released on vinyl this summer.
In the exhibition L'heure mauve, visual artist Nicolas Party explores the relationship humans have had with nature over the centuries, and creates a dialogue between his works and those of the MMFA's collection. It is in this same spirit of connectivity that Pierre Lapointe has thematically set to song each of the rooms that make up the exhibition.
Composed of two instrumental pieces and 12 songs, including one in German, the album is conceived in seven tableaux. Each of them brings together two songs: a reinterpretation of a classic song, as well as a new composition. The interpretations have been chosen to pay tribute to some of the greatest masters of song and classical music; Charles Aznavour, Léo Ferré, Erik Satie, Félix Leclerc and Gilles Vigneault to name a few.
Lapointe created this album with the desire to highlight a certain vision of classicism, while remaining definitely contemporary. For over a decade, I’ve been aspiring to revive a form of classicism in my music, a form of timelessness, while still remaining contemporary, explains the Quebec singer-songwriter. In the spirit of Nicolas Party's work, he tries to translate a certain sumptuous and bewitching melancholy with this new album: For this project, I was inspired to create an enveloping and dreamlike world that echoes the themes and structure of the exhibition designed by Nicolas Party, an artist whose work I greatly admire, he concludes.
Gracefully navigating the depths of our soul, these pieces by Pierre Lapointe explore through exquisite poetry some of the artist’s favourite themes: the ephemeral nature of existence, heartbreak and carnal desire. The overall feel is wistful, pierced by sparks of light. Produced by Philippe Brault, the album’s sounds combine piano, guitars, percussion and voice. Some of the titles – in which the Molinari Quartet notably participated – integrate beguiling arrangements composed of choral music, strings and wind instruments.
Thanks to the musical contribution of Pierre Lapointe, the public will be able to enjoy an amplified experience of this major immersive exhibition, on view from February 12th to October 16th, 2022, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. To enjoy this experience, have your headphones and your smartphone on hand. Then, in the galleries, look for the QR codes that will direct you to the soundtrack on various digital music services.
About Pierre Lapointe
In his 20-year career, Pierre Lapointe, one of the most productive singer-songwriters in the French-speaking world, has released 16 albums, including a dozen original works, created at least as many original shows, and collaborated with internationally renowned artists from the fields of contemporary art (from Sophie Calle to David Altmejd), classical music (Jean-Willy Kuntz, Yannick Nézet-Séguin), and popular music (Albin de la Simone, Hubert Lenoir, Mika, Clara Luciani, etc). Among these albums, several are certified gold and platinum, others have won awards in Quebec, in Canada as well as in France, with nearly one million albums sold worldwide.
About the exhibition Nicolas Party: L’heure mauve
Considered to be a major artist of our time, Nicolas Party is known for his meticulously composed pastels, his painted sculptures and his installations drenched in saturated colours. For his first exhibition in Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has given him carte blanche to create a dialogue between his works and a selection from the Museum’s wide-ranging collection. Through over 100 works and a series of monumental murals realized in situ, the Swiss-born artist presents a dreamlike experience on the theme of nature. The Museum’s galleries provide the canvas onto which this visual artist and muralist – cum curator and exhibition designer – expresses the full measure of his art. mbam.qc.ca
An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Curators: Nicolas Party, in collaboration with Stéphane Aquin, Director, MMFA, and Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator, MMFA.