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.
Following Have You Met Elliot ? in 2019 and Regulus in 2021, the Montreal-based singer and bassist’s new album, Panorama, is set to be released in the fall of 2025. With its gooey jangle pop riffs, throaty melodies, and tangled grooves, this third solo album evokes a dying jukebox spitting out its last perfect songs.
Keen to highlight the humour and beauty of everyday life, whether it be a road trip with her dog Toody or gardening in the small flower bed in front of her house, Hélène Barbier has nevertheless written many songs from Panorama in response to anxiety and health problems that surface when everything else seems to be going well. Highly personal yet open to interpretation, these nine songs boast memorable melodies and simple choruses, making them feel like postcards sent at different moments in Hélène's life.
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.
