La musique d’Astorias, c’est un baiser volé au coin d’une rue achalandée, un chauffeur de taxi qui fredonne en essayant de retrouver son chemin, un cigare oublié qui se consume à la table d’un café, une vieille radio qui grésille dans un entrepôt du port, un lampadaire qui éclaire une rue déserte, deux amants enlacés pour qui le temps s’est arrêté.
Astorias est ensemble de jazz acoustique à géométrie variable qui explore des thèmes urbains : l'aliénation, la mélancolie, le déracinement et l'exil mais aussi la fête, la débaucherie, la camaraderie et l'amour. Le bandonéon devient le poumon qui insuffle au cours du destin un vent tragique, jusqu’à la résolution finale et définitive.
Denis Plante - bandonéon, direction artistique
Sophie Lemaire - chant, flûte
Stéphane Allard - violon
Marc Villemure - guitare
Jean Félix Mailloux - contrebasse
Isaiah Ceccarelli - batterie
DISCOGRAPHIE
"Astorias : Roméo & Juliette Tango", Flores de Nacar, nacar-03, 2008. Télécharger sur iTunes ou sur Cd Baby.
"Astorias : Cinema", Astorias trio, Dorian recording, DOR-90318, 2004. **écoulé
ASTORIAS DANS LA PRESSE
THE GLOBE & MAIL, PAULA CITRON July 15, 2008
ROMÉO ET JULIETTE TANGO
Ensemble Astorias and Troupe Contempotango
Le Festival de Lanaudière, at the Amphithéâtre de Lanaudière
in Joliette, Que., on Sunday
The popular Sunday-afternoon concerts at le Festival de Lanaudière are eccentric fare. While the other performances of this prestigious annual event are anchored squarely in classical music, on Sunday the festival casts a wider musical net, and Roméo et Juliette Tango is a quintessential offering.
Composer/musician Denis Plante has reduced Shakespeare's famous play into 17 musical sections moving between instrumentals, songs and dances. To convey the feeling of a tango supper club, some members of the audience were actually sitting at café tables onstage.
Montreal-based Plante is both one of Canada's greatest bandoneon players and foremost composer of tango music. He heads the formidable quintet Ensemble Astorias, which includes Stéphane Allard, violin; Marc Villemure, guitar; Jean-Félix Mailloux, bass; and Isaiah Ceccarelli, drums. Each man is a soloist in his own right, and composer Plante has given himself and his fellows some dazzling virtuoso turns throughout the show.
The bandoneon is the heart of Argentine tango. Resembling an accordion or concertina, its plaintive and melancholy sound is the wellspring for tango's lament. Even when a number is jaunty, as in Fanfare pour une nuit de noce blanche, which expresses Roméo's fellows on a drunken debauch, the element of sadness is always present.
Plante composes jazz-influenced tango music that sounds absolutely authentic, and it is not surprising that he has been called the spiritual son of Astor Piazzolla. In fact, the name of Plante's musical group honours this great Argentine tango composer. Yet, within this distinctive musical genre, Plante is able to convey subtle changes, from the innocence of Roméo and Juliette's first meeting, to the passion of their immortal love, and the final agony of their tragic deaths.
In this, Ensemble Astorias is aided by chanteuse Sophie Lemaire. She has a low, throaty voice with a breathy top admirably suited for the darkness of tango, and she can pour on the power or pull her voice back when necessary…
Pour obtenir de l'information sur nos concerts, écrivez-nous un courriel, votre adresse sera ajoutée à notre liste confidentielle d'envoi.
bandoneon@sympatico.ca
