Press Release

For immediate release

Quebec band MIRIODOR goes International!

For nearly 30 years, Miriodor has been creating truly original music, which is both melodic and bewildering, always shunning the trends. With several albums under its belt, the band is now internationally acclaimed and has an increasing number of hard-core fans.

Following the release of its seventh album, Avanti!, Miriodor has presented its new material in a series of concerts, namely at the Festival d’été de Québec (opening for Van Der Graaf Generator), at the Festival des musiques de création du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and at the Festival de jazz OFF in Montreal.

Miriodor was invited recently to two important international festivals: the Rock in Opposition Festival (RIO), in Carmaux, France on September 19^th (along with big names such as Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Gong and Art Bears, and also the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music Festival in Washington D.C., for a double-bill with famous Belgian band Univers Zéro.

Two more concerts are also scheduled: one in Montreal, on September 12^th, at Café Chaos. And one in Montpellier (France), on Sept. 21, with two French bands, Dure-Mère and The Unknown Project.

The line-up for these shows will be: Bernard Falaise (guitar), Pascal Globensky (keyboards), Pierre Labbé (saxophones), Rémi Leclerc (drums) and Nicolas Masino (bass, keyboards). Faithful soundman Bernard Grenon will accompany the band.

Miriodor is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for this series of concerts.

Sept. 12 / Café Chaos (2031, St-Denis, Montreal, Québec)

Sept. 19 / Rock in Opposition 2010 (Cap Découverte, Carmaux, France)

Sept. 21 / Le Baloard (21 boul. Louis-Blanc, Montpellier, France)

Sept. 25 / Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music / Embassy of France

(4101 Reservoir rd. N.W., Washington D.C., USA.)

Information : 514-288-1323 or contact@miriodor.com

www.miriodor.com

www.cuneiformrecords.com

www.progquebec.com

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One of Miriodor song, Dare Davil from the CD Avanti!,  was selected as a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) in instrumental category.

We are very honered given that it was chosen out of approximately 15,000 entrants!

A jury composed of many great musician (http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/prizejudge.htm) will vote and the winners will be announce in April.

The public is also invited to vote for their favorite work.

To do this go to this page:

http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/PVWelcome2009.htm

Put your email address.

You will receive a link where you will be able to listen to all the songs in competition and vote.

You can also vote every day, untill March 31, if you want!

Thanks and fell free to pass this information…

Rémi Leclerc
from Miriodor

Bernard Falaise :: guitar

Pascal Globensky :: keyboard

Pierre Labbé :: sax

Marie-Chantal Leclair :: sax

Rémi Leclerc :: drums

Nicolas Masino :: bass and keyboard

Bewitchment starts off the album in a dark, gloomy mood characterized by the superposition of an almost Black Sabbath-ish distorted bass line doubled by a guitar over which Pascal Globensky’s synthesizers add a nice, gentle, post-apocalyptical feeling. The first break appears at 2:10, with the appearance of a mechanical, quasi-industrial rhythm generated by a beat box of the type Kraftwerk might have been using early in their career. It seems rather strange that over such a machine-like texture, Nicolas Masino would play some kind of moody Wurlitzer piano that makes one think of Led Zeppelin’s No Quarter, over a bass line reminiscent of Chunga’s Revenge by Frank Zappa. Perhaps inspired by all these moods from the 70s, Bernard Falaise states a theme at 3:15 that could be described as David Gilmour-esque, before breaking at 3:54 in an acoustical, almost folky interlude that will be violently interrupted at 4:42 by the return of the first theme.

The song’s next section, at 5:03, is a kind of silly dance built upon funky grooves and angular melodies, which reminds this author of an old and vastly underrated band from Québec named Sloche. An extended coda in a more subdued mood starts at 6:44. Notice how its steady, quarter-note rimshot pulse pulls in and out of sync with the melody and bass lines, which use odd meters. At 6:59 the bass line changes but the melody stays the same, an effective device that will be used on a couple of occasions throughout the album. The song ends in a sparse and whimsical way with a keyboard solo (7:43) and re-statement of the closing theme (8:38).

Over nine minutes long, Bewitchment seems representative of Miriodor’s latest approach to musical composition, which features longer pieces than on previous albums, and divides each work into various recurring (thematic) or non-recurring (episodic) sections. In that sense, each composition becomes a sort of symphony in miniature, based on the alternance of slow and faster sections, regular and irregular meters, «spacey» and «hard rocking» textures, and so forth. Quite curiously, the way in which the music often shifts to very contrasting moods, keys and rhythms, may remind the listener of Schumann’s extended piano pieces, which tend to proceed in a comparable manner.

Thomas the Impostor
Musicologist of Serious and Silly Stuff