Joane Hétu - Castor et Compagnie (1995)

Joane Hétu - Castor et Compagnie (1995)
Cycle de Chansons d'amour

Joane Hétu signs here a first CD of her own music and texts, Castor et compagnie, with longtime accomplices Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse and Pierre Tanguay.

Castor et compagnie is a cycle of songs for lovers of senses, sense and sounds, noise and lyricism, pleasure and erotism. The lyrics were inspired by the vocabulary of Hindu erotic books, Arabic love games and a few saucy songs. The music is daring and energetic, made of turbulent atmospheres, evocative lullabies and even love songs.
Joane Hétu is best known as a member of early AM female supergroups Justine, Wondeur Brass and Les Poules. An inventive composer, improviser and saxophonist, Hétu has always been exploring and developing a musical style of her own: a harsh, guttural voice flirting with a modern lyricism tainted with original textures, strident sounds and atonal harmonies. She is at her best with this difficult, yet sensuous expression of poetry that has the intelligence of its music.

in Hollow Ear (USA), June 1, 1997

Joane Hétu, wondeur-brasser and composer has released another jarring adventure, Castor et Compagnie. This is her first “solo” recording, although she is joined by AM regulars Diane Labrosse (keys and accordion), Jean Derome (brass, woodwinds, percussion and effects), Pierre Tanguay (percussion) and some bass tracks from Luc Bonin. The beauty of all the music Hétu makes is its refusal to be described by genre or comparison: jazz, new classical, punk-funk, experimental noise; Stockhausen, Glass, Beefheart and Zappa all seem vaguely appropriate until you really listen. Castor et Compagnie adds another element, one of erotic romance. The texts that inspire these pieces come from Hindi love recipes, Arabic sex-play games and old ribald folk songs, and the music created around them is a rich mix of lush and lustful, one moment a Brazilian cliché, the next a raw revel or a scream. Her edgy, acidic voice plays hard against all of this, and she takes the most obvious themes and makes them her own in surprising ways.

Joane Hétu: sax alto, voice
Diane Labrosse: keyboards and accordion
Jean Derome: brass, woodwinds, percussion, tape
Pierre Tanguay: percussion

1. Pourquoi s’affoler
2. Capitaine
3. Ah! Les beaux jours
4. Histoire à dormir
5. Papillons de nuit
6. Chanson de l’oreiller
7. Fleurs éclatantes
8. Les épices
9. La rouquine

An early Valentine Juju gift.
Released by Ambiances Magnétiques in 1995.

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