Marie-Pierre Arthur

For the past decade, Marie-Pierre Arthur has been one of Quebec’s most beloved and respected artists. After gracing stages across the province and francophone Europe with her first three records, she felt the need to pause and explore new ways to write, play, and sing. Her latest effort, Des feux pour voir, finds Marie-Pierre at her most instinctive, creative, fragile and poignant.

This work greatly revolves around family, love, music, friendship, and time going by: when life gets too comfortable and anchored, when each element fits in its box, Marie-Pierre pushes off the implied limits of her own world, both present and future.

Coproducing Des feux pour voir alongside François Lafontaine and Sam Joly, Marie-Pierre found herself in creative experimentation, allowing herself to go beyond specific musical genres and styles. Each previous album included a slew of collaborators (François Lafontaine, Sam Joly, Joe Grass, Nicolas Basque, Robbie Kuster Olivier Langevin, Erika Angell, Lisa Moore, Pierre Girard), that has grown into a musical family, lending a special sensitivity to the recent creative process. As Marie-Pierre cowrote the lyrics with her close friend Gaële, artists Laurence Nerbonne and Louis-Jean Cormier also pitched in for a handful of songs. The result is an eclectic album, with shifting moods and expectations.

The first single, Dans tes rêves is evidence of these fruitful alliances. This fourth album shows once again Marie-Pierre at the forefront of her musical reinvention.

The musician’s solo career began back in 2009, as she released her first eponymous album, which quickly distinguished Marie-Pierre thanks to her high-flying folk rock. In 2012, a second record, Aux alentours, was greeted with critical acclaim and numerous honours (5 nominations at the Gala ADISQ, another at the Junos for “Francophone album of the Year”, a place on the coveted Polaris Prize list and winner of the “Best Pop Album” at the 2013 Independent Music Award). 2015’s Si l’aurore, which dug further into blue-eyed soul and soft-rocks sounds, further solidified her place in Canada’s musical landscape, winning a Felix prize for “Album of the Year – Adult Contemporary” and another Juno nomination.