It’s a rare feeling to have an artist’s music seize you like some great invisible gauntlet. Jean-Michel Blais’ compositions are just that, a heart-stopping masterclass in neo-classical composition you won’t forget anytime soon.
To date the Canadian artist has two albums and a collaborative EP (alongside indietronic producer CFCF) to his name, and you’d do well to sit down and binge them back-to-back. It’s a gripping world to become swept into, one where time sits still and silence booms like dynamite.
If you pay attention to a single neo-classical artist this year, let it be Jean-Michel Blais.
In May 2018 Blais released his latest, the album Dans ma main, a handy effort that already has him shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize. Where his debut LP II was far closer to a down-the-line classical sound, Blais’ new record expands ever outwards, enriched by studio technology and an immense sonic feel.
Yet the sombre moments haven’t fallen to the wayside. roses and outsiders both revel in a finely muted ambience, their highs and lows falling at a far thinner amplitude than within the rest of the album.
In blind an arpeggio gathers momentum before dissolving into an IDM-esque breakdown, some of the album’s only hints at percussion shyly breaking into the mix. These powerful movements evoke a similar feel to the compositions of Jon Hopkins, Floating Points or Mark Pritchard; artists whose music is more fit for moving mountains than for accumulating radio play.
By the albums’ conclusion on chanson, the French word for song, Blais completes the journeyed feeling. Vocals and vocal samples even weave their way amongst the composition, as if the artist has woken up from his trance, finally ready to reach out and make first contact with the listener.
It’s almost impossible to imagine then, given the quality and emotiveness of his recordings, that a majority of Jean-Michel Blais’ music is improvised. Herein lies a crossover with the way he uses silence – pausing his playing to let the world in.
“If people are going to cough and babies are going to cry, instead of trying to hide it, why not embrace it?” Blais mentioned to the Montreal Gazette in 2016. “I like it when I stop and there’s something happening outside my window.”
“I think that’s why my music has a lot of pauses and silences, because there’s always something happening in the street. I’ll let it pass and then continue playing.”
Not only has Blais hit the ground running with a riveting style, his latest album shows a willingness to evolve that few posses. How many classically-inclined musicians, after the success of a genre-appropriate first record, would make the leap into electronica the way he has?
If Dans ma main is just the second step for Jean-Michel Blais, we’re in for a truly awe-inspiring ride.
Dans ma main is out now via Arts & Crafts / Caroline Australia.
