Step outside, and the biting chill in the air tells you that autumn is certainly here. We have had snow, rain, and all-around miserable weather through October, with forecasts not calling for a reprieve any time soon.
The Dekker Centre's first musical concert, then, will be a welcome event for all those who are shivering. Alexis Normand's music has been described as "music that wraps its arms around you to create a warm sense of well-being." The Saskatoon-born jazz-folk musician will be at the Dekker Centre Thursday, sharing some of her musical warmth by playing songs from her latest album, Mirador.
Work on the album started in 2009. Normand had been living in Quebec and Ontario, studying song writing and teaching, but hoped to work on an album concerned more with her home province. Meeting Zoë Fortier, a Saskatchewanian visual artist, expanded the scope of the project.
Mirador became a collaborative project, based in the prairies and their sense of space. Normand would write a song and Fortier would create an accompanying painting, or vice-versa. Other songs were created based on experiences shared by both artists, or events from Saskatchewan's history. On the album, each song is paired with a single painting.
Prints of these paintings are to be placed in the lobby of the Dekker Centre for the concert. But Fortier will also have a more active role during the concert itself, a role that Normand compares to a "musician onstage."
As the musicians play, Fortier will manipulate images, filters and cut-outs in real time, creating shifting, ephemeral images to accompany the music. The animations are meant to complement the mood and subject of piece, with the result being a relaxed, warm experience evoking the vastness of the prairies and their subtle charm.
Saskatchewan is evoked musically, through vast soundscapes that recall Saskatchewan's endless skies. But its lyrical themes are also based around Saskatchewan history and themes. One song, for example, concerns Saskatchewan's history with residential schools. Another describes a child who grew up near the river with a curiosity about where it led. When he finally set out, following the river, he realized how wonderful home was and longed to return.
Fortier and Normand are both French-speaking Saskatchewanians - francosaskois. But the music that Normand writes is bilingual, intended for all of Saskatchewan. The concerts for the album will even feature booklets translating the album's lyrics for those who might not understand them. Normand stresses that she has tried to make the overall experience of the concert "as bilingual as possible," so speakers of either language should be equally comfortable there.
For more information about Alexis Normand, or to hear some of her songs, visit www.anormand.wix.com.
