Ensemble SuperMusique
• Interprète

Musicworks 99 (Canada)

Reviews: Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, 2007

[…] One of the things FIMAV does best is provide a window on what’s lively in current Quebec music. A longtime collaborator with Montreal’s Ambiances Magnétiques scene, the festival this year presented composer-saxophonist Joane Hétu’s Filature, a lyrical work with roots in her early work as a weaver. It’s a three-part work, scored for ten musicians - who included cellist Mélanie Auclair, bassist Normand Guilbeault, and saxophonist Jean Derome - with images appearing on three screens that begin with moving and combining threads that go through various colour and tempo shifts. In three parts, the work combined medieval and contemporary music elements in a seamless way, beginning with an all-male quintet, then following with an all-female, before the two combined for the third and final movement. […]

— Stuart Broomer, 1 décembre 2007 [3444]

Les Nouvelles d’Archimède 46 (France)

Jeux littéraires: Autobiografil

En 2007, toute la terre est occupée à s’imprégner de simulacres télévisés, téléphonés, encodés. Aucune Muraille de Chine ne résiste à Google, clé omnipotente. Rien ici ou là qui ne puisse dans la seconde franchir océans et continents. Aussitôt advenu tout sera connu, répertorié, normalisé, banal… Tout? Non! À l’écart de la planète enrégimentée, des «villages» singuliers résistent encore et toujours à la normalisation. Et la vie retrouve sel et sens pour qui rencontre les Irréductibles parmi nos semblables. La musique, fade poudre instantanée, s’est-elle dissoute dans l’onde électromagnétique universelle? Pas toute la musique! se réjouissent les auditeurs de Joane Hétu, chanteuse et saxophoniste québécoise. On fait l’expérience d’une émotion brute, fondamentale en assistant à son interprétation de Filature avec l’Ensemble SuperMusique. Filature transpose sur scène le passé de tisserande de Joane Hétu, en trois actes qui «filent» la métaphore: la Chaîne (cinq hommes), la Trame (cinq femmes), le Motif (orchestre complet… et public ébahi). Contrepoint de virtuose sobriété, la vidéo de Pierre Hébert pare en direct les sons de Hétu, Auclair, Del Fabbro, Gignac, Guilbeault, Labrosse, Roger, Tanguay, Venba et de l’ange oumupien Jean Derome… Programmateurs de concerts, invitez sans délai ces Québécois sur le vieux continent: ce serait la pire surdité que de ne vouloir les entendre.

— Yvan Maurage, 1 octobre 2007 [3396]

Coda Magazine 334 (Canada)

Heard and Seen. Fimav Returns to Form

[…] Weaving is right up there with painting and sports as hackneyed clichés for describing music, but Joane Hétu’s Filature took a tight focus on each thread and every tie in her tapestry. The piece, performed with Montreal’s Ensemble Supermusique, was based on her time spent as a fabric colourist, and effectively displayed her personal sense for composing and arranging and for turning nostalgic memories into music. Pierre Hébert’s real time video manipulations, tight shots of cloth and twine, supported Hétu’s musical vison well. […]

— Kurt Gottschalk, 1 juillet 2007 [3375]

Downtown Music Gallery (ÉU)

24th Annual Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville

[…] The final day began with a wonderful set by Joane Hétu’s Ensemble SuperMusique called Filature. Joane Hétu runs the great label from Montreal, Ambiances Magnétiques. Her longtime partner is Jean Derome and both of them play alto sax, do vocals and compose at length. Both Joane and Jean consistently release excellent, diverse discs on Ambiances Magnétiques and I always look forward to any project that either works on. Just about every year, someone from this label (like Diane Labrosse, Normand Guilbeault, Danielle Palardy Roger or Pierre Tanguay) does something special up at Victo. Filature is Joane Hétus most ambitious project yet and it will take a while to absorb its many layers of ideas. It featured ten musicians, five women and five men with Pierre Hébert doing video projections. Joane refers to it as sound/theatre and that sounds right. Joane was once a weaver before concentrating on becoming a musician and the theme of weaving is the central thread throughout this work. The first part is called The Warp and featured the five men on alto sax or flute, violin, trumpet, contrabass and drums. The music was an exquisite blend of lovely harmonies, short drones, acappella vocal sections and haunting music. The video images were of a single tree branch with some occasional growth. The second part, The Weft featured the five women musicians on violin, cello, flutes, sampler, percussion & alto sax. Most of the women contributed charming vocal sounds along with their contemplative, cinematic music, sometimes sparse but always enchanting. The third and final part was called The Pattern and it featured all ten musicians. It began with just a few repeating notes and evolved through different grooves and sections. I love the way the vocals and instruments shared stunning harmonies with each other. Joane has a gift for breaking up the melody and having different members share their lines so that whole band sounds like one refined tapestry of sound. It reminded of the superb magic-music that Fred Frith’s Keep the Dog used to play and yes, Jean Derome was an integral part of that band many years ago. The images of twine, knots, rope, faces and hands connected with the music just right. It was a marvelous set and I can’t wait for it to be released on disc! […]

— Bruce Lee Gallanter, 1 juin 2007 [3342]

Le Devoir (Québec)

En bref - Escale artistique au Vieux-Port

Demain et dimanche, la deuxième édition des Escales improbables prend d’assaut le quai King Edward du Vieux-Port de Montréal.

L’événement éclectique conjugue cette année autant de disciplines diverses que le théâtre de marionnettes, le chant lyrique, le cinéma et surtout la musique. Des musiciens-performeurs interprètent des oeuvres du compositeur Michel Smith à partir de machines-instruments ambulants. Nicolas Brault fait tomber des baleines du ciel dans un film-conte animé. Jean Derome et SuperMusique proposent une expédition de canot-camping allégorique le long d’une rivière imaginaire. Les côtes gaspésienne et italienne se croisent dans Cargo, théâtre d’image et de marionnettes. On découvre ces performances extravagantes et audacieuses en déambulant au bord du fleuve, comme une invitation au voyage.

• Coupure de presse

23 septembre 2005 [3100]