Music transcends language bilingual, francophone artist Ariane Moffatt says as she deftly describes the groovy tunes that won her national acclaim in 2012 and her first Western Canadian tour this winter.
Singing in English and French, Moffatt opens the door for anyone to understand the soulful electronic creations she’s personally dubbed “folktronica” owing to their broad scope of instrumentation and heavy electronic underpinnings.
Yet, ensuring her English audience connects with the French and vice versa is more a matter for the seductive energy behind the beats driving tunes like Hôtel Amour.
“People that like music, they are interested in the sounds,” she said. “…The lyric content is not in big plenty for this record. ‘I want to go to hotel.’ Everybody can understand that.”
Funnily enough, the logic holds on instrumentation as well. Known for an incredibly eclectic style that might see her experimenting with jazz one moment and folk the next, she says she’s never been a virtuoso.
Piano got her into music, the guitar followed, but really it wasn’t until she started playing around with different sounds and a keyboard that her love for the combinations she could make really flourished.
This makes sense when one considers the root of her musical obsession.
At its core, Moffatt’s art is less about fantastic sound and more about what makes one want to move—and she attributes this to her family.
Her father was into sports and education and physicality was strongly encouraged in her home.
An interesting take on the battle between the arts and sports, Moffatt’s incredible success proves a love of one artistic creation need not negate a passion to move to a groove.
After an incredibly busy touring year, featuring shows at Webster Hall in NYC and two full European tours, she will include dates in Toronto at the Rivoli en route to her first western tour.
This will be her first run of dates out west and is intended to showcase the release of her 2012 album MA and MA Remix.
MA was long-listed for the Polaris Prize in 2012, hit number one on the Canadian iTunes chart, number one on the Billboard top selling Canadian albums chart mid-year and made CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi’s top 20 albums of the year.
MA Remix was released in the fall and is a collaboration with Montreal DJ/producer Poirier, featuring some of the biggest names in electronica – Dubbel Dutch, Nautiluss, Bonjay, Plaster as well as remixes from Poirier and Moffatt herself.
Altogether it should be an impressive show when she steps into one of Kelowna’s music hotspots to live stream a show across the country.
Ariane Moffatt plays the Streaming Café Monday, Feb. 25.
