951 - Joane Hétu "Castor et compagnie"

On this side of the Atlantic, the experiments continue in a more agressive fashion in Montréal. 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.
in Hollow Ear

«… Si Joane Hétu se révèle être une chanteuse expressive, à la voix tendre, ou enjouée et gaie (selon le thème abordé), elle est aussi, et surtout, une compositrice et une musicienne/instrumentiste confirmée, qui fait de ses chansons de véritables chefs-d’oeuvre d’orchestration, faits d’arrangements subtils, malicieux, savoureux, auxquels ont contribué Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse et Pierre Tanguay…»
Revue & Corrigée #27 (France), 1 mars 1996