Les Poules

Joanne Hétu, Diane Labrosse and Danielle Palardy Roger have been making music for over a decade in various groupings but retaining throughout the femme Québécois auteur atheistic. Hétu's voice scats ruminatively in some forgotten language, dancing with the clatter and joust of Roger's percussion. These two connect wonderfully as protagonists as Labrosse's samples provide stately interventions and observations as varied as tamboura–like drones and bubbling water. There is great mystery in this music, as one feels the familiarity of being with the sounds of home and the outdoors yet trying to understand that strange radio station that seems to tune in and out. While this music may be described as soundscapes, it has too much of the insistent narrative of an improvisational through line to be a passive listen, and it is the narrative of three women that rises out of it all. This is a unique and sophisticated work.