Les Louanges consists of Vincent Roberge .. and that’s it! Writer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, Les Louanges’ sound is truly tailor-made : a jazz-infused, undeniably groovy pop sound, boasting poetic yet relatable texts. A music born in the streets of Lévis, first heard at the Francouvertes and today saluted as one of the most important new music out of Québec in recent years. If Les Louanges is part of the new wave of artists who skillfully blend genres, most importantly, he’s managed to create his own. After releasing his first EP, Le Mercure, an indie rock gem, Les Louanges came back strong with his first album, La nuit est une panthère, released September 2018, via Bonsound.
A few months later, his first full-length appeared on countless end of year round-ups and the critic’s pick quickly turned into the people’s darling. Sold-out shows started racking up as well as invitations abroad and pretty soon, Les Louanges packed his bags and shipped out. First stop was the Trans musicales of Rennes, alongside Aloïse Sauvage, then a trip to Austin, Texas for SXSW and back to France, for a headlining series of shows, namely at the Printemps de Bourges, selected as part of the INOUïS.
Back in Montreal in the spring of 2019, Les Louanges was awarded the Rapsat-Lelièvre prize, in partnership with Belgium, thereby asserting the growing buzz overseas. Locally, Radio-Canada then named Les Louanges Breakthrough Artist of the year. Soon after, the Francos de Montréal kicked-off the summer season. In the span of a few days, Les Louanges was granted the prestigious Félix-Leclerc award and played his biggest show ever in front of a very sold-out Club Soda. After rounding up an important tour throughout summer 2019, Les Louanges heads home the head filled with new ideas and goes straight to the studio. Just as he's finishing up the five songs that will eventually become the Expansion Pack EP, Vincent Roberge learns his first album is nominated on the Polaris Music Prize short list. Shortly after, ADISQ also rewards La nuit est une panthère with a grand total of nine nominations, namely Breakthrough artist of the year. His first album will go on to win the Félix for Record of the year - Critic's choice, Record of the year - Alternative and Musical arrangements of the year.
Expansion Pack was released September 27th 2019 and enjoyed an enthusiastic reception. If that Expansion Pack of four new songs (plus a short outro) is any indication of what's to come for Les Louanges, we can expect a few other classic albums, writes Philippe Renaud at Le Devoir.
