The last time, he sang about Route 138 which runs along the river to the North Shore on the album Mishta Meshkenu (2018) as an allegory of the path that we trace during our time on Earth. Florent Vollant now takes a look at those who made the journey alongside him: three years after his brush with death, the musician sings about life and those who make it beautiful. Tshitatau means “you are” in Innu-aimun; “Those who are with me”, specifies the musician, who offers the most touching album of his long career.
Helped by his son Mathieu McKenzie, Florent Vollant moves slowly to the kitchen table where the electronic tablet is placed by which we will discuss, him in Maliotenam, us in Montreal, at the other end of the 138 “that I “I’ve borrowed it so often that I know it by heart,” he says. I know the road in the sun, in the rain, in the snow, day and night. The only way I don’t know it is backwards. »
“This is my first interview!” » jokes the musician, pretending to be nervous, at the dawn of the release of his sixth solo album in more than 35 years of a rich career started within the Kashtin duo. Vollant has apparently lost none of his sense of humor: “I’m fine, thank you, but I’m slow,” he concedes. Mathieu, leader of the folk-rock group Maten, smiles beside him. Slow ? A euphemism, his precious collaborator André Lachance would later say: “When people ask me how Florent is, I answer: “Florent was always very slow, but his accident didn’t help him!” It didn’t make him worse either: Florent lost none of his liveliness or his speech. »
In April 2021, the musician was urgently hospitalized after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Were you afraid, Florent, of not being able to complete this album project started two years earlier? Never, he decides. When Mathieu informed André of the accident his father suffered, he assured him that this project would reach its destination, whatever the cost.
In 2019, Florent invited André to start work on this album; by submitting song models to the veteran, the musical direction took shape by itself. Tshitatau is the first album entirely written and composed by André Lachance, even the text in Innu-aimun, “from ideas and words unearthed in dictionaries”, explains the composer, who has been working with musicians from the Maliotenam community since about twenty years old, but doesn’t speak the language. “I rearranged the text so that it fits,” notes Florent. “I’m not used to a collaborative project like this,” he adds; Usually, I manage my own affairs. I am like a lone wolf” who now continues to chart his course with his pack.
The missing friend
Tshitatau is a miraculous album, firstly because of the resilience of Florent Vollant, who had to somehow regain the use of his singing voice. Mathieu asked Mathilde Côté (backing vocalist on the album) to help him learn to sing again: “You can hear it in her voice, this resilience,” says the son. André, director, confirms: “She seems softer, huh? There is this sensitivity that we managed to find during the recording,” which was done in the Makusham studios, co-managed by Mathieu, with the care of sound engineer Kim Fontaine. “Well, we had no choice in working with it… There is less strength in the voice than before, its timbre is different, too, but it adds something to the songs rather than taking away from it. »
Silky and fragile, Florent Vollant’s voice has never seemed so transparent, bathed in folk orchestrations with a country and rock flavor – and even reggae, on the very successful Nishim Ue. Everywhere, the melodies embrace us, arms wide open. We feel the group spirit through the harmonies of the choir called “La Rezz”, gathered around the voice of Vollant, on Uitsheuini for example, at the start of the album.
And what can we say about the work of the late Réjean Bouchard on guitars, except that Tshiatatau will be his ultimate masterpiece? One of the most sought-after studio and stage musicians in Quebec in the 1980s and 1990s, the now legendary musician gave luster to the great albums of Pierre Flynn (Le parfum du chance, 1987, Jardins de Babylone, 1991) , by Richard Séguin (Journée d’Amérique, 1988, Aux porte du matin, 1991), by Daniel Boucher (Ten thousand mornings, 1999), in addition to collaborating with Kashtin and Florent Vollant since the mid-1990s.
“Réjean told me: “Florent, your album will be my last project.” We didn’t know if he was going to be able to play,” recalls Vollant, who remembers his friend’s talent, immense, and his patience, at least as great: “He always knew that I was going to go where he thought I had to surrender. »
Florent had asked his old friend to act as artistic consultant on his new album; however, when it was time to record at Makusham Studios, the hired bassist had to withdraw at the last minute due to a virus. André Lachance: “We decided not to postpone the recording sessions, so we asked Réjean to play bass, since he can play everything. Within three or four days, he had recorded all his tracks. I asked him if he wanted to go back to each song to play the instrument he wanted, and he did. He played as only Réjean could, he is a fabulous musician. » Réjean Bouchard died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 67.
Florent Vollant sings about him and all the others he has encountered on his path. “I just want people to feel what I sing,” assures Florent Vollant. The text of the songs, performed in Innu-aimun, is summarized in the album notes by a simple idea. “This word is written at the bottom, not too long, long enough for you to make your own story in the song. If I succeed in this, I will have done a lot to help you understand who we are and where I stand. People [de ma communauté] are with me, on this album, and I am proud of it. »
There is no coincidence: Tshiatatau appears just before National Indigenous Languages Day, March 31. This recognition of indigenous languages, defended by Mathieu McKenzie, who campaigns for better representation of First Nations musicians on our stages and our radio waves, is slowly gaining ground, rejoices Vollant.
“We work very hard on it,” he comments. The battle is not won, we are aware of that; We have known for a long time that indigenous languages are in decline. Our languages are losing speed. So, we have to come back with songs. I offer texts in Innu-aimun. I suggest that people listen to me, and if that helps restore vigor to the language, I will have done my part. You don’t just have to speak them, you have to sing them. I want people to recognize my language through my music. »
Tshittau
Florent Vollant, Makusham Music
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2024-03-30 06:59:54
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