Valleymakers

Dans l'univers de ce sextuor anglo local, il y a de l'indie pop, du folk, de l'orchestral, mais point de section rythmique. En lieu et place des montées de tension d'usage: de beaux climats romanesques, intemporels, où trônent les voix paisibles et les plumes vaguement littéraires des chanteurs Noah Segal et Megan Alford, ainsi que d'élégantes courtepointes de six cordes acoustiques, de cordes et de vents. The Night of the Fox Hunt et Blueberry Blouse fonctionnent particulièrement bien: on pense à Bright Eyes en plus sobre, tandis que Starry Crown marque un agréable détour bluegrass. Quelques débordements vocaux mal taillés d'Alford, mais sinon, que voilà un agréable voyage hors du temps. - VOIR - Olivier Lalande

Call & Response is a series of Q&As with bands, artists and random people we dig that live in Montreal, visit here, or have some dubious connection to the city.
Valleymakers are a Montreal-based orchestral pop collective made up of Noah Segal, Megan Alford, Nick Lavigne, Ali Marquez, Elisse Kleiner, and Elyze Venne. The band run their classical training through contemporary indie folk filters to come up with a sound that's as rich as it is poetic. Valleymakers lay out their narratives as well with their lyrics as they do with their instruments (take a listen, for example, to the flute interludes in "Blueberry Blouse"). Their songs swell and sway, like in "It's My Body in the Tree You're Tearing Down", and listening to their self-titled EP, you can't help but do the same.
The band have a debut EP Launch party scheduled at O Patro Vys this Saturday, Aug. 20. Before they take the stage, we thought we'd ask them the world's most important questions:
Who is your favorite Canadian Artist??Currently Dan Bejar - Destroyer
Besides family, friends, other music, and long summer nights, what in?uences your music the most??Wikipedia, Old English idioms, Canadian poetry, and Lars Von Trier ?lms.
Where is the best place to listen to your music??Any dwelling built before the turn of the century.
How does the space of this city, and your neighbourhood in particular, affect the way Valleymakers approach music-making (if at all)??Sometimes I forget what year it is, living in Mile End. Because of the architecture, fashion, and cafe culture, I feel like I'm living in any other time but my own. Ideally, some of the sincerity of yesteryear comes through in our music. I see our songs as postcards from the past.
What do you love most about Montreal??The Urbain at Bagels Etc.
What do you love most about Poutine??As a kid, my pops would bring me mini-gol?ng and we would have a big poutine and soft serve.?Best poutine in the city: Green Stop in Verdun (ask for brown sauce)
What do you hate most about Poutine??Although it brings back comforting memories, I now call it "Dirty Poutine," and I can't function for three hours after eating one. Worst poutine in the city: La Belle Province in the bowling alley, Ville St Laurent.
Have you ever actually made a valley? Or even one of those papier maché volcanos for a science project??Not exactly. I grew up on a mountain in the Laurentians, overlooking a valley. My Dad planted all the trees in it, so I guess you could say I'm a valley maker by proxy. Megan had never seen a valley until this year.
Who was your ?rst live concert? Was it everything you had ever imagined??Red Hot Chilli Peppers at the Bell Centre when I was 14. No, it was not.
If your music was a famous historical ?gure, who would it be and why??Herculine Barbin - woefully hopeful.
What's the best way to spend a million dollars in 10 minutes??I would probably buy plane tickets for my bucket list of countries I want to visit - India, Argentina, you name it.
What's the best place you've ever been to??The Place - in Guilford, Connecticut. You eat on tree stumps and throw ?re-roasted clam shells over your shoulder.
What's the worst place you've ever been to??Fort McMurray, Alberta. Asides from the obvious, I was cut off from karaoke one night after butchering The Temptations, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg".??How did you spend your 16th birthday? ?Drunk, alone.
Your EP blends an interesting mix of classical orchestral sounds and contemporary folk. Is this hard to pull off live? What can we expect from your EP Launch show??All of the pre-show work can be very challenging, but once we're all on stage together, there is a great feeling of release. We can't predict what will happen in a live setting, but the band is comfortable just riding the evening out. For the EP Launch show, we have completely new arrangements and added instrumentation for most of the songs. We also have some fun new tunes to try out that were written post-recording of the EP. We also get to spend the night with two other great acts, Christopher Durning, one of my favorite Montreal songwriters, and a fantastic band called Harp Of The North.
- Midnight Poutine - Jeremy Morris

Pour du plus frais et plus nouveau encore, rendez-vous ce samedi 20 août au O Patro Vys pour le concert de lancement du premier EP du sextuor montréalais Valleymakers. Voilà une belle découverte pour les amateurs d’indie-folk à la Bright Eyes: charmantes mélodies, textes étoffés, poétiques et arrangements bien charpentés. La particularité du groupe est l’absence de section rythmique: tout est porté par la guitare acoustique, les voix de Noah Segal et de Megan Alford ainsi que par un alliage de cordes et de vents, sans qu’on ne sente aucun vide. Christopher Durning et Harp of the Northofficient en premières parties.
- NIGHTLIFE - Olivier Lalande

Lovely Little Song about Death
My first encounter with Valleymakers
By Alexander Ross
 
"On a non-discript backstreet in the trendy cosmopolitan quarter of Montreal, sits an authentic dank Canadian pub – filled with beer swilling, flannel shirt wearing, ginger bearded, red hockey capped truckin' and huntin' folk. It was on the little stage of this misplaced drinking hole that I first experienced the fledgling Valleymakers.
The earthy sounds of the double bass seamlessly entwine with the guitars and entangle with the violin, coaxing the listener into a dangerously intoxicating day dream. There is a sparkle in eyes of the band's two pretty-as-a-picture porcelain dolls as they sing tales of murder and misfortune.
Their show is comparable to the original Brothers Grimm fables, spun into a beautifully layered web of elegant string parts (with a splash of french horn and dash of flute). Valleymakers lure the audience into a deliciously dark and eerie world with enticing harmonies and delightful melodics, dancing over deeply sinister and unsettling undertones.
Sitting, sipping my bitter dark ale, I studied the crowd of shadowy faces. My head was swimming and there was a peculiar taste in my mouth...
This is the work of four professionally trained and highly talented artists, who know exactly the effect their music is having on their bewildered listeners, and who are taking a perverse pleasure from the whole unsavoury business. Its folk music, or rather folklore, incorporating strands of country, maritime and classical sounds, with various literary ties and biblical misappropriations.
Oh! The melody – irresistible as the Pied Piper flute – driving a perfect innocent to commit crimes so heinous and unnatural as can not be spoken. Like some sort of cultist Armish neo-Pagan whatnot, this music creates the atmosphere of a small town left too long to its own devices, where devoted townsfolk driven mad by the sweet-as-honey music offer up their children for sacrifice before a twisted false god. Mischievous forest creatures, these Valleymakers be. Sirens, water spirits, here to entice us into their arms and then down – down to a slimy watery death.
But not tonight – the music ends, the ale runs dry and I am left to stumble home, with a distrusting eye on every shadow, but humming a sweet sweet tune.
- gigreviewer.com

- Valleymakers live in studio performance on 90.3 fm CKUT's Underground Sounds, April 4th, 2011 (hour 2)
(https://secure.ckut.ca//cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl?action=showaudio&show=monday,20:00)

- 90.3FM CKUT

THURSDAY, 30 JUNE 2011

Valleymakers: Gorgeous Chamber Folk or Why Every Day Is Canada Day

It's OK to be jealous that they thought of a better band name than you, but be happy that they're putting it to good use. Valleymakers' self-titled EP is gorgeous and knows it. And, for all of the bands that come out of Montreal, they turn the lineage into something meaningful: Leonard Cohen's close-to-God sparseness gives way to lush, quietly cathartic orchestration. The best argument I've heard for virtuousity in a long time.

- Paul Krumholz - Some Lost, Some Found: a music blog

VENDREDI 6 MAI 2011
Les Valleymakers à la Casa del Popolo

"De si bons musiciens consolidaient certes la patience du public qui attendait vaillamment l'arrivée des Valleymakers. Sur la scène, le groupe inspire d'emblée une certaine fascination: les membres dégagent sérénité, calme intérieur, paix, ou, disons le plus simplement, de l'amour. Leur musique évoque la tendresse des meilleures chansons de Leonard Cohen, et la simplicité apparente de la facture se soustrait à la complexité sous-jacente de l'écriture, contrepoint et harmonie soignés servant ces petits bijoux de chansons - car les mélodies et progressions coulent si bien qu'on oublie combien elles nous surprennent! L'influence de la musique classique est indéniable, influence appuyée par une grande maîtrise de la chanson, refrains, couplets et pont musical complétant une poésie riche et ouvragée à la manière d'un authentique storyteller.

Je pourrais parler longtemps des Valleymakers, qui est un véritable coup de coeur pour moi. Écoutez la flûte se marier aux voix, la clarinette au son du violon, et les frottements de la contrebasse se jouxter aux solos de flûte. Noah Segal, guitariste, et Megan Alford, assurent les voix, accompagnés de Nick Lavigne à la contrebasse, Ali Marquez au violon et à la voix, Elisse Kleiner à la flûte et Elyze Venne-Deshaies à la clarinette.

Aux inconditionnels de la chanson, retenez le nom de ces trois artistes. Et si possible, traînez leur musique dans vos oreilles cet été.

Pour entendre la musique des Valleymakers, c'est ici : www.myspace.com/valleymakers"

***English to come***
- Petite Musique de Nuit - Claudio Pinto

- "Starry Crown" featured on Montreal's quintessential blog, Midnight Poutine, in
their "Montreal Weekend Playlist Podcast #200"
(http://www.midnightpoutine.ca/weekend_playlist_podcast/2011/03/the_midnight_poutine_podcast_-_mar_22_-_28_2011/ - Midnight Poutine

. - FACTOR