Now Entering Dreamland: Montag
By John Christensen on May 5, 2009 in library
How many openly gay French-Canadian electronica artists do you know of? Well, here’s one: Antoine Bedard. Hailing from Montreal and now based out of Vancouver, Bedard plays under the stage name Montag and is sometimes referred to as a “laptop musician,” which is a rather blunt and uninspired way of describing his incredibly unique sound.
I have had a lot of trouble deciding what genre to call Alone, Not Alone, his fourth album, released in 2005. Part of me wants to call it post-rock, as its twinkly overlaid rhythms often invoke Sigur Ros while part of me wants to call it jazz because its French-inspired rhythms and instrumentation often give more of a cozy jazz club feel.
All things considered, this is electronica at its core. Bedard does a masterful job of blending the many samples with his own rich and ethereal voice and the voice of collaborator Amy Millan, of Stars. The glitchy electronic noises never overwhelm the gentle acoustic guitar or keyboard. This sounds to me like a soundtrack from a very pleasant dream and that Bedard wavers back and forth between English and French throughout the album adds to the surreal sound.
The key word here, besides “twinkly,” “Canadian,” or “electronica,” is gentle. Alone, Not Alone is a very gentle album, which is not at all to say it doesn’t take risks or experiment. Rather, the genre and sound already push so many envelopes that it doesn’t need to be extreme. And it’s this coziness that gives the album its approachability. Recommend it to all your friends who “don’t like electronica”; this one’ll give ‘em pause.
Check these out:
Montag - Grand Luxe
Montag - Les Choses Se Placent
Montag - Perfect Vision
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