Hélène Barbier seeds melodies that ferment and blossom in the shadows, pairing hummable lines with alien tunes conjured in someone else’s psyche across time and space. Siamese fragments. She creates an imbalance through juxtaposition. Four simple notes become evocative alongside four disorienting, different notes, and this simplistic rule has become a basis for complex play.
Barbier enlists musicians based on willingness to break from tired chords, worn fills, and needless flourish—expertise aside. She switches between English and French atop aggressively anti-complicated avant-pop melodies. Off-kilter beauty ensues. Pretension and contrived professionalism are kept far away as these sketches find mature forms in an album that keeps the tedium of square music at bay.
In addition to cultivating her creativity with her musical endeavours, Hélène Barbier is deeply engaged in the Montreal music scene, notably through her involvement with Celluloid Lunch, an innovative independent label she co-founded with her husband Joe Chamandy, who also plays guitar in her band.
