ARTS & CRAFTS TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM FROM JEAN-MICHEL BLAIS

JEAN-MICHEL BLAIS ANNOUNCES Il
MONTREAL-BASED PIANIST TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM ON APRIL 8 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

LISTEN TO ALBUM TRACK “NOSTOS” FEATURING BUFFLO VIA FACT
 

PHOTO CREDIT: ERIC MORRISSETTE

Arts & Crafts is proud to announce Il, the debut album from Montreal-based pianist Jean-Michel Blais. Blais possesses incredible melodic sensibilities as well as an ear for minimalism, using beauty and consonance as a basis for experimentation. Today FACT premiered “Nostos”, the “blearily beautifulfirst single from Il, featuring electronic musician Bufflo.  Il is out April 8 via Arts & Crafts and is available to pre-order HERE

LISTEN TO AND SHARE ALBUM TRACK “NOSTOS” FEATURING BUFFLO

Jean­-Michel Blais is a 31 year­-old pianist from the province of Quebec. His enchanting instrumental compositions pair the melodic pop sensibilities of Amélie-­era Yann Tiersen and Arts & Crafts alumni Chilly Gonzales with the breathtaking technical skill of classical minimalists like Philip Glass and Erik SatieIl is his debut album of original compositions. 

 Blais grew up in a rural French Catholic town in Quebec bereft of Culture save for a giant encyclopedia he’d read feverishly as a child. At age 9, Blais began tinkering on his family’s organ, improvising, and at age 11 he started to write original compositions and began taking piano lessons. A natural talent, by 17 he was invited to the Trois-­Rivieres Music Conservatory and began training as a classical pianist. However, Blais was entering the throes of teenage rebellion and found the constraints of formal training a cumbersome rigid structure. Gravitating towards experimentation, Blais wasn’t content to be told how to play, and instructed to not improvise or compose.

A few years later, he attracted the attention of famed playwright and director, Robert Lepage, who introduced Blais to a who’s-who of Quebec’s entertainment industry. With no particular plan for a music career, he quickly took a step back and decided it was time for more explorations.

He moved to Europe in his mid­-twenties, living in Berlin, and spent six months in South America. During that time he’d intermittently compose music with long gaps of not even touching a piano. Blais finally settled in Montreal where he rediscovered his love for composing and performing which caught the ear of Arts & Crafts. Written and recorded at home over two years by improvising every day, Jean-Michel Blais’ debut album, Il, is now set to be released. 

Jean-Michel Blais – Il

 1. Hasselblad 4 (improvisation)

2. il

3. Dada

4. Nostos (feat. BUFFLO)

5. Hasselblad 2 (improvisation)

6. Budapest

7. Casa

8. Rondo majeur (trois mains)

 

Jean-Michel Blais Online

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