WATCH A POWERFUL NEW BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO WITH WICIW CHOIR
WATCH / SHARE WICIW CHOIR VIDEO HERE
MOTEWOLONUWOK AVAILABLE NOW VIA SECRET CITY RECORDS
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(Still Image From WICIW Choir Video)
Jeremy Dutcher’s sophomore LP, Motewolonuwok – his defiant, healing and queer exploration of modern indigeneity – has been shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize 2024, alongside Elisapie, Charlotte Cardin, Allison Russell and more. The winner will be announced during the gala in Toronto on September 17.
As a previous winner of the Polaris Music Prize (2018), today, Jeremy is thrilled to share a moving new video to celebrate his nomination and unveil some of the processes behind the astonishing Motewolonuwok.
“There are lessons you’re taught and ones you come to know experientially — some are both. The lesson is that ‘there is no better medicine than singing together’. Something I was told from a young age but didn’t truly internalize until the process of creating this last album, Motewolonuwok,” explains Dutcher.
“Bringing this album to fruition and insisting on its vision was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done — and it was only through the collective support of this amazing group of singers that it came to pass. The WICIW Choir was built from every corner of my life, bringing together the voices I admire most, and is made most beautiful by its inclusivity, truly an ensemble for every voice type. Getting to share some wolastoqey latuwewakon with these dear collaborators was a transformative experience for me; we can learn so much from teaching. From my depth, I give gratitude to each of these singers who gave this record it’s truly voice: the spirit of collectivity,” he concludes.
The WICIW Choir is : James Baley, Meghan Jamieson, Teiya Kasahara, Keith Lam, Jonathan MacArthur, Marion Newman, Lydia Persaud, Alex Samaras, Karen Weigold, Alanna Stuart, Katrina Westin.
WATCH / SHARE WICIW CHOIR VIDEO HERE
Currently on tour, Dutcher recently performed at the International Montreal Jazz Festival, the Riddu Riđđu Indigenous Festival in Olmmáivággi, Norway, and the Vancouver Folk Festival.
He headlined Servant Jazz Quarters in London, England and played the Cambridge Folk Festival last week. Jeremy will be back on the road in Canada in August and September and will be performing with the NAC Orchestra in Ottawa on September 13, as well as opening for Feist at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St-Catharines on September 18. Tickets are on sale here.
MORE ABOUT JEREMY DUTCHER
With his most recent release – Motewolonuwok – Jeremy Dutcher was crowned in the UK as the MOJO Rising Artist for its September issue, with the record receiving ★★★★ from the magazine, stating, “there is real weight behind these songs, and Motewolonuwok carries it with sombre grace.” Rolling Stone France also shares the ★★★★ status calling the album “a total and captivating success,” while Télérama adds, “richly orchestrated, his intimate ballads unfold an intense dramaturgy to transcend the pain of oppression and express the soothing beauty of resilience.”
BUY / STREAM MOTEWOLONUWOK HERE
Dutcher originally vaulted himself into the upper echelons of Canadian performance with his 2018 debut, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Since winning the Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award, performing for NPR Tiny Desk, and collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma and Beverly Glenn-Copeland, in 2023 Dutcher returned with Motewolonuwok, a moving and radiant exploration of contemporary Indigeneity and his place within it, presenting his most expansive work yet. The new album also marked Dutcher’s first time writing and singing in English. A powerful invitation for collective healing and understanding, “Shared tongue is a beautiful gift, with a complicated reason,” Dutcher explains. “These new English songs are also a way of singing directly to the newcomer, or settler, in their own language — a direct line of communication that seeks to platform his community’s stories of healing, resilience, and emergence to all that may hear.”
Motewolonuwok heaves with dynamic orchestration and the inherent drama of grand piano, recalling a long line of artists who have turned the classical establishment on its head to deliver compositions that are doubly ecstatic and modern — luminaries such as Julius Eastman, Perfume Genius, Arthur Russell, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and Merce Cunningham. More intimate and expansive than anything Dutcher has created before, Motewolonuwok hedges the line between storytelling and composition as both a transcendental protest record and an exploration of self. This is experimental pop as corrective medicine: a defiant, healing, and queer experience that fills any listener with power and wisdom.
PRAISE FOR MOTEWOLONUWOK
“Motewolonuwok” pulls from the sounds of renowned song carrier Maggie Paul, the flamboyant musicality of Jeff Buckley and the political sensibility of Nina Simone. Across 11 songs, Dutcher stares down the horrors of violence against Indigenous women and the suicide crisis, while drawing strength from the writings and music of his ancestors and peers." The Toronto Star, Best Music of 2023
“Jeremy Dutcher's follow up to his Polaris Music Prize-winning debut is a work equally stunning in its beauty and raw emotional power. The arrangements complement a vital storytelling voice that's impossible to absorb without being brought to tears." - Exclaim!, Best of 2023
★★★★ – Rolling Stone France
“There is revolution in this album… Motewolonuwok is about people rising up in the streets, about unity and community, about identity. Dutcher, who is a member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation), shares an operatic timbre with Anohni, his songs transmitting a similar sense of spiritual commitment. There is real weight behind these songs, and Motewolonuwok carries it with sombre grace.” ★★★★ – MOJO
"While Motewolonuwok doesn't shy away from the painful experiences of Indigenous peoples Dutcher's gentle approach — to "rise in beauty" and forge a path forward with grace — is a powerful beacon of hope during these dark, divisive times" - CBC Music, Best Albums of 2023
“A captivating set, with Dutcher’s extraordinary and expressive vocals underpinned by orchestral arrangements... Mesmerising, magical and often deeply moving.” ★★★★ - The Morning Star
“Dutcher yearns earnestly in a powerful voice that lands somewhere between Anohni and Curtis Stigers, doling out lush soul ballads, which deal with land sovereignty and queerness” – Uncut
"After expanding the boundaries of sampling with the award-winning debut Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa the classically trained tenor’s own range expands on Motewolonuwok. With flickers of jazz and pop and the occasional full orchestra, the composer sings in both Wolastoqey and English, inviting listeners to “take my hand / walk with me.” - The Globe and Mail, Best Albums of 2023
“As powerful as his lyrics, though, is Dutcher’s performance style.” – Vogue
“[Jeremy Dutcher] Brings forward the spirit of his people on this beautiful record.” — NPR Music
"Motewolonuwok is a landscape of rolling hills, gullies, open horizons and bright stars. It’s a defiant, gorgeous, collective taking-up of sonic space.” - RANGE Magazine, Best of 2023
“Richly orchestrated, his intimate walks unfold an intense dramaturgy to transcend the pain of oppression and express the soothing beauty of resilience”. - Télérama
“The song [Skicinuwihkuk] is tender and lyrical, but also takes flight on a wave of orchestral sound that amplifies the song’s emotional content” – WNYC “New Sounds”
Digital album artwork for Motewolonuwok // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
JEREMY DUTCHER TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
Aug 2-4 – Canmore, CA @ Canmore Folk Festival
Aug 8-9 – Lunenburg, CA @ Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival
Aug 20-21 – Bonne Bay, CA @ Writers at Woody Point
Sep 13 – Ottawa, CA @ NAC *performing with the NAC orchestra
Sep 18 – Ste-Catharines, CA @ FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
Sep 20 – Kingston, CA @ Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts
Oct 25-26 – Halifax, CA @ Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
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