PIERRE KWENDERS PRESENTS NEW SINGLE, “NIATA”

May 11, 2023

LISTEN / SHARE “NIATA” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NIATA” HERE

FROM DELUXE EDITION OF 2022 POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE-WINNING ALBUM,

JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE, OUT JUNE 30, 2023 ON ARTS & CRAFTS

PRE-ORDER JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE DELUXE LP HERE

PLAYING SELECT NORTH AMERICAN & EUROPEAN FESTIVALS THIS SUMMER

“His every song summons an international midnight.” — The New Yorker

“The sounds go beyond electronic to include Congolese rumba, pop, R&B and spectacular moments of jazz that completely overwhelm the senses. … a wonderland of rich textures.” — CBC Music

“Written across multiple cities and countries, the songs on this emotional opus range from festive to spiritual, carefully reflecting the artist's present outlook on the world.” — Exclaim

“Kwenders draws on and reassembles Black musical diasporic forms to exhilarating effect.” — Complex, “The Best Canadian Albums of 2022

Photo Credit : Camille Sauvayre // DOWNLOAD HIGH RES

José Louis And The Paradox of Love, the acclaimed 2022 record released by Congolese/Canadian artist and icon Pierre Kwenders, “is an endlessly listenable album that combines pop, R&B and electronic music with melodic vocals delivered in a mixture of Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba and Kikongo.” (The New York Times). Today, Kwenders presents “Niata,” a new single from the forthcoming deluxe edition of José Louis And The Paradox Of Love, out June 30 on Arts & Crafts. Following the infectious single “SMT” (aka Social Media Therapy), “Niata” reminds of the boundless sonic spectrum that colors Kwenders’ 2022 Polaris Music Prize winning album.

Produced by Portuguese musician / DJ Branko, “Niata” captures the newfangled dancefloor rhythmics and multilingual storytelling of Kwenders’ heartfelt, celebratory music. Singing in a signature blend of Lingala, French, and English, over a minimal melodic beat, the charismatic Kwenders delves further into his journey of love and personal discovery. “‘Niata’ is a song that calls to be cautious and careful,” says Kwenders. “Reminding us that curiosity killed the cat, everything requires moderation, and that, in love, no one wants to walk on eggshells.”

LISTEN / SHARE “NIATA” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NIATA” HERE

MORE ABOUT PIERRE KWENDERS
Born in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kwenders borrows his stage name from his late grandfather, a widely respected businessman and community figure. Following his mother’s footsteps, in 2001 Kwenders immigrated from Congo to Montreal. José Louis and the Paradox of Love is a culmination of personal growth and the musical dexterity Kwenders has honed over the years, converging his strong songwriting capabilities with the bravado he possesses as a DJ. The album explores an ongoing search to grasp the universal complexities of romance, sometimes through the lens of Kwenders’ own intimate experiences. The songs were written and recorded over the span of four years, and the album is symbolically titled after his birth name, José Louis Modabi. Through different moments of tension and release, romantic narratives of beauty and disaster are packed into powerful poetic musical vignettes.

LISTEN / SHARE / BUY / STREAM “SMT” HERE

PRE-ORDER JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE DELUXE LP HERE

PIERRE KWENDERS TOUR DATES
Sun. May 20 - New York, NY @ Slow Factory x NY Live Arts Planet Justice
Fri. June 9 - Saint-Georges de Beauce, QC @ Festival Solstice *
Sat. June 10 - Montreal, QC @ Mural Festival *
Sat. June 17 - Toronto, ON @ Luminato Festival
Sat. July 2 - Trois-Rivières, QC @ FestiVoix (Scène du Jardin Bell)
Wed. July 5 - Montréal, QC @ Club Montréal TD (Festival International de Jazz de Montréal)
Sat. July 8 - Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival (Birds Hill Provincial Park)
Sat. July 15 - Cartagena, ES @ La Mar de Músicas
Sun. July 16 - Dour, BE @ Dour Festival *
Thu. July 20 - Ostrava, CZ @ Colours of Ostrava *
Fri. July 21 - Ostrava, CZ @ Colours of Ostrava
Sat. Aug. 12 - Gaspé, QC @ Festival de Musique du Bout du Monde *

* DJ set with Moonshine

BUY / STREAM JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE

“HEARTBEAT” (FEAT. ANAIIS) VIDEO

“PAPA WEMBA” VIDEO

“KILIMANJARO” VIDEO

"YOUR DREAM" (FEAT. NGABO) STREAM

“KILIMANJARO (LIVE)” VIDEO

PRAISE FOR JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE

“[José Louis And The Paradox Of Love is] an endlessly listenable album that combines pop, R&B and electronic music with melodic vocals delivered in a mixture of Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba and Kikongo.” — The New York Times’ T Magazine

“[José Louis and the Paradox of Love is] a fluid, immersive work, vast but cohesive, elusive of genre, border, or trend.” — Rolling Stone

“Since his 2014 debut LP Le Dernier Empereur Bantou, Pierre Kwenders has been an invaluable force in Canadian music with his experimental and playful approach to Congolese rumba.” — The FADER

“A beguiling mix of multilingual Afropop, rhumba and R&B.” — The Guardian

"Kwenders exudes a poetic warmth that's hard to resist." — MOJO

“Kwenders’s music is transportive, beguiling, and emotionally relatable” — Bandcamp

"Inventive and heartfelt, a brilliant use of many genre conventions that respects them all but bows to none. Kwenders isn’t simply blazing a narrow trail here but opening up a cosmos." — PopMatters

“Rooted in a free-floating Congolese rumba-inflected electronic sound, José Louis and Paradox of Love is full of loose grooves and feather-light hooks.” — Loud And Quiet

“This Congolese-born, Montreal-based artist’s third album is a well-crafted, groove-driven blend of Congolese rumba, R&B and various electronic styles, combining bright synths, propulsive rhythms, occasional ringing guitars and soaring horns with buoyant melodies and multilingual lyrics.” — KEXP

“...the songs showcase him singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo over skittering programmed beats complemented at times by jazzy sax, rumba guitar, plucked mbira, and guest vocalists and producers from around the world.” — Washington City Paper

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE DELUXE TRACKLIST:
1. L.E.S (Liberté Égalité Sagacité) (Feat. King Britt)
2. Your Dream (Feat. Ngabo)
3. No No No
4. Imparfait (Feat. Sônge)
5. Papa Wemba
6. Religion Désir
7. SMT
8. Makambo Ya Gaga (Skit)
9. Heartbeat (Feat. Anaiis)
10. Kilimanjaro
11. Niata
12. Coupé
13. Sahara
14. Radio trottoir - Interlude
15. Good
16. Church (Likambo)
17. Vibraçao (Feat. Sarah Kalume)

PIERRE KWENDERS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
TWITTER

PIERRE KWENDERS ANNOUNCES DELUXE LP, SHARES NEW SINGLE “SMT”

March 21, 2023

**PIERRE KWENDERS ANNOUNCES DELUXE EDITION OF 2022 POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE-WINNING ALBUM, JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE, OUT JUNE 30, 2023 ON ARTS & CRAFTS**

LISTEN / SHARE / BUY / STREAM “SMT” HERE
PRE-ORDER JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE DELUXE LP HERE

PLAYING SELECT NORTH AMERICAN & EUROPEAN FESTIVALS THIS SUMMER

“His every song summons an international midnight.” — The New Yorker

Photo Credit : Jøe Ekonen // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Pierre Kwenders, the “arresting Congolese Canadian musician whose scramble of genres, languages, and worlds sounds like the future” (The New Yorker), last year released his deeply personal and innovative album José Louis And The Paradox Of Love on Arts & Crafts, going on to win the coveted 2022 Polaris Music Prize awarded to the Best Canadian Album.

Fresh off two stints of touring North America in support of the album, including a stop at KEXP, Kwenders today announces a deluxe edition of José Louis And The Paradox of Love, out June 30, 2023 on Arts & Crafts, and presents its lead single, “SMT”. José Louis And The Paradox of Love Deluxe features three brand new songs—“SMT”, “Niata”, and “Good”— along with “Vibraçao”, a reworked version of original album standout, “Heartbeat”, this time featuring Sarah Kalume. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Kwenders also announces a run of festival dates in North America and Europe. A full list of dates are below.

Lifted from the recording sessions of José Louis, “SMT” is an infectious dancefloor track that is both a love letter to and an intervention with social media. An acronym for Social Media Therapy, “SMT” sees Kwenders calling out the magic and the pitfalls of total connectivity. Kenders sings in his signature blend of English, French, and Lingala over a minimal soca-inflected beat with melodious flourishes courtesy of the international production trio of PEDRO (Portugal), ESQO (Chile), and CarloMarco (Chile).

“‘SMT’ calls for a reflection on our use of social media networks and rather good or bad we must question its effects,” says Kwenders. “At this moment in time, social media has taken an important place in our day-to-day lives. As beneficial as it may be, we can find ourselves trapped - what happens online also affects us in real life. Nonetheless, it has become a problem solver, an outlet for joy, pain and communication. It makes us laugh, cry, support, look down upon, and apologize endlessly. After all that we do it all again. The online wailing wall or maybe the Goliath of our generation. Social media therapy is what we need. Social media therapy is a necessity.”

LISTEN / SHARE / BUY / STREAM “SMT” HERE

Born in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kwenders borrows his stage name from his late grandfather, a widely respected businessman and community figure. Following his mother’s footsteps, in 2001 Kwenders immigrated from Congo to Montreal. José Louis and the Paradox of Love is a culmination of personal growth and the musical dexterity Kwenders has honed over the years, converging his strong songwriting capabilities with the bravado he possesses as a DJ. The album explores an ongoing search to grasp the universal complexities of romance, sometimes through the lens of Kwenders’ own intimate experiences. The songs were written and recorded over the span of four years, and the album is symbolically titled after his birth name, José Louis Modabi. Through different moments of tension and release, romantic narratives of beauty and disaster are packed into powerful poetic musical vignettes.

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

PIERRE KWENDERS TOUR DATES
Mar 24 - Garage Noord, Amsterdam, Netherlands *
Mar 25 - Couleur Café club, Brussels, Belgium *
Mar 31 - Village Ki-yi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast *
Jul 21 - Colours of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Jul 2 - Festivoix, Trois Rivière, Quebec
Jul 9 - Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival (Birds Hill Provincial Park)

More Festivals TBA
* dj set with Moonshine

BUY / STREAM JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE

“HEARTBEAT” (FEAT. ANAIIS) VIDEO

“PAPA WEMBA” VIDEO

“KILIMANJARO” VIDEO

"YOUR DREAM" (FEAT. NGABO) STREAM

“KILIMANJARO (LIVE)” VIDEO

PRAISE FOR JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE

“[José Louis and the Paradox of Love is] a fluid, immersive work, vast but cohesive, elusive of genre, border, or trend.” — Rolling Stone

“Kwenders draws on and reassembles Black musical diasporic forms to exhilarating effect.”
— Complex, “The Best Canadian Albums of 2022”

“A beguiling mix of multilingual Afropop, rhumba and R&B.” — The Guardian

"Kwenders exudes a poetic warmth that's hard to resist." — MOJO

“The sounds go beyond electronic to include Congolese rumba, pop, R&B and spectacular moments of jazz that completely overwhelm the senses. … a wonderland of rich textures.” — CBC Music

“Kwenders’s music is transportive, beguiling, and emotionally relatable” — Bandcamp

“Written across multiple cities and countries, the songs on this emotional opus range from festive to spiritual, carefully reflecting the artist's present outlook on the world.” — Exclaim

“Rooted in a free-floating Congolese rumba-inflected electronic sound, José Louis and Paradox of Love is full of loose grooves and feather-light hooks.” — Loud And Quiet

PIERRE KWENDERS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
TWITTER

POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE WINNER PIERRE KWENDERS RELEASES NO NO NO REMIX EP TODAY

January 12, 2023

**FEATURES THE JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE TRACK REMIXED BY GLOBAL ARTISTS VANYFOX, MAJOOS, AND SPILULU**

LISTEN / SHARE "NO NO NO" (VANYFOX REMIX) HERE

**BUY / STREAM JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE HERE**

USA & CANADA TOUR DATES START JAN 25

Today, Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and DJ, and Polaris Music Prize winner Pierre Kwenders (he/him) releases the No No No - Remixes EP – a three-track collection featuring renditions of the José Louis and the Paradox of Love album highlight “No No No” by a range of international remixers and vocalists. The original electro-R&B cut from the 2022 Polaris Music Prize winning album, which was produced by Haitian artist Michael Brun, is Kwenders at his most unguarded, revelling in personal discovery and a celebration of the Congolese women and artists who impressed upon his upbringing. With new input from Portuguese-Angolan producer Vanyfox, and fellow Congolese artists Spilulu, and Majoos, who layers verse in Lingala, Swahili, and French over the song’s alluring dancefloor rhythm, the No No No remixes delve into the borderless flavours and propulsive beats that courses through Kwenders’s music.

Of the remix collection and its contributors, Kwenders had this to say: “‘No No No’ remains one of my favourite songs off of the album. It's a true declaration of love where everything and anything is possible, and there are no boundaries. Vanyfox is the future of the Batida sound and has no limits to what he can do. Having him on the remix EP is both an honour and a privilege. We’re spreading the love. Spilulu is a pioneer of electronic music in DRC. True veteran of nightlife culture. His rendition of ‘No No No’ is pure dancefloor love anthem! With his smooth and sensual vocals Majoos represents for the new generation of Congolese music. I couldn't be prouder to have them all on this EP.”

LISTEN / SHARE "NO NO NO" (VANYFOX REMIX) HERE

Motivated by the intricacies of love, the songs of José Louis And The Paradox Of Love weave together narratives from memories of the past, sketches of Kwenders’ hometown, and reflections on the future. A storyteller at his core, Kwenders has dedicated the heart of his creation to the life-giving force of motherhood, and his journey to discover his own identity: “This is for all the kids from the diaspora,” he said in his Polaris acceptance speech. “This is my story. This is my African story, my Congolese story, my Canadian story. This is your story if you want to take it as yours.” With José Louis and the Paradox of Love, Kwenders arrives at a new juncture – a moment of resonance, carefully wrapped in freewheeling tapestry, hinged in reverence to its diverse heritage, yet reveling in the inventive combination of its elements.

WATCH / SHARE “KILIMANJARO” LIVE

Seamlessly working across Congolese rumba, contemporary electronic music, pop-R&B, and jazz-infused progressions with a range of global collaborators including Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Branko (M.I.A., Buraka som Sistema), Michael Brun (J Balvin), and Uproot Andy (Bomba Estereo), José Louis and the Paradox of Love is both an embrace of African musical tradition and an evolution of it. Singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, Kwenders similarly weaves his stories across the boundaries of language and geography.

WATCH / SHARE “PAPA WEMBA”

Born in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kwenders borrows his stage name from his late grandfather, a widely respected businessman and community figure. Following his mother’s footsteps, in 2001 Kwenders immigrated from Congo to Montreal. While his music-filled childhood quickly earned him a reputation as the most energetic dancer at family gatherings, it was when he joined a youth choir in 2008 that Kwenders would have his first formative musical experience. Collecting taxes by day and singing in church by night, this spiritually fitting experience brought a young Kwenders clarity on the role that music would come to play in his life. Inspired by “sagacité,” a way of life coined by Ivorian singer Douk Saga, which means to work hard in order to play hard, a decade later he’s established himself as an architect of modern African music, creating a unique blend of Afro-inflected electronic sounds inspired by Congolese rumba, propagated by the Moonshine collective, a post-border multidisciplinary artist collective celebrating diversity in dance culture since Kwenders co-founded it in 2014.

WATCH / SHARE “HEARTBEAT” (FEAT. ANAIIS)

José Louis and the Paradox of Love is a culmination of personal growth and the musical dexterity he has honed over the years, converging his strong songwriting capabilities with the bravado he possesses as a DJ. The album explores an ongoing search to grasp the universal complexities of romance, sometimes through the lens of Kwenders’ own intimate experiences. The songs were written and recorded over the span of four years, and the album is symbolically titled after his birth name, José Louis Modabi. Through different moments of tension and release, romantic narratives of beauty and disaster are packed into powerful poetic musical vignettes.

WATCH / SHARE “KILIMANJARO” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

José Louis and The Paradox of Love transcends genres including electronic, pop, and rumba and includes instruments such as the guitar, saxophone, cello, trumpet, violin, and the Mbira, a plucked idiophone from Zimbabwe. Just as Kwenders writes from a multilingual perspective, so too does he draw on his musical influences, searching for the precise nuances offered by each one to best emotionally resonate. Dipping into a wide range of cultures, the album was written and recorded over four years in a handful of cities across borders including Montreal, Lisbon, Seattle, New York City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

BUY/STREAM JOSÉ LOUIS AND THE PARADOX OF LOVE

Praise for José Louis and the Paradox of Love:

“Paradox presents Kwenders as a global ambassador of self-determination, pointing the way toward a more evolved era — one in which solidarity is built on the dance floor and multiple histories can coexist within a single, enigmatic individual.” - Rolling Stone

“An endlessly listenable album that combines pop, R&B and electronic music with melodic vocals delivered in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba and Kikongo." - The New York Times

“A beguiling mix of multilingual Afropop, rhumba and R&B.” - The Guardian

"Kwenders exudes a poetic warmth that's hard to resist." - MOJO

"Kwenders isn’t simply blazing a narrow trail here but opening up a cosmos." - PopMatters

“A wonderland of rich textures.”- CBC Music

PHOTO CREDIT: Julien Herger // HI-RES DOWNLOAD

ALBUM ARTWORK // HI-RES DOWNLOAD

PIERRE KWENDERS ON TOUR // TICKETS HERE

2023
01/25 - Winnipeg MB - West End Cultural Centre
01/26 - Saskatoon SK - Broadway Theatre
01/27 - Regina SK - Artesian
01/28 - Edmonton AB - 9910
02/01 - Los Angeles CA - Peppermint Club
02/02 - San Francisco CA - Rickshaw Shop
02/03 - Portland OR - Polaris Hall
02/04 - Seattle WA - Madam Lou’s
02/08 - Victoria, BC - Capital Ballroom
02/09 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret
02/11 - Calgary AB - The Palace, Block Heater Festival
02/16 - Ottawa, ON - Club Saw
02/17 - Toronto, ON - Adelaide Hall
02/24 - Montreal, QC - Aussgang

PIERRE KWENDERS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
TWITTER