Cartier, Pierre

Dis, Blaise... chanson du Transsiberien

Label: Ambiances Magnetiques Country: Canada

A composer, doublebass player and singer, Pierre Cartier is involved in many different musics: gregorian chant and medieval music, baroque musique on period instruments, symphonic and contemporary musics, jazz (notably Thelonious Monk) and improvised new musics.

All of these practices merge into his music upon the fortunate meeting of poetry and song. Following the majestuous ceremonial of Chansons de Douve ,with poems by Yves Bonnefoy, Cartier now borrows the passionnate voice of Blaise Cendrars for his new project.

“I was not yet acquainted with the works of Blaise Cendrars when, flipping one day through the pages of an anthology of French poetry, I first fell upon the Prose du Transsibérien. I think I must have been deeply moved by this style of writing that resembled nothing I had encountered before, and which actually seemed quite alien to me then (I was working on poems by Yves Bonnefoy at the time); and yet, it touched me to the extent that I immediately felt the urge to sing this text. I also knew nothing of the almost mythical character—the traveller and adventurer—Cendrars had become, nor even of the man himself, whose voice resounded within me, pure and true. Vision, desire, violence, gentleness: this poem simply spoke the essence of suffering."-Pierre Cartier