Review Text
In the musical vignettes of Les Projectionnistes you will hear many divergent strains : love of brass bands and film soundtracks (noir atmospheres and frenetic chase scenes included), but also modal jazz, Raymond Scott-styled eccentric cartoonishness, scorching Hendrixian guitar rock, avant-garde textures, tight funk horn riffing, some Hammond B3 flavors, a Latin tinge, and maybe even a bit of punk for good measure. But Projectionnistes music is no random pastiche of sounds thrown together willy-nilly; the band merge all of the aforementioned influences and more together into a unique and singular sound, one that seems utterly familiar because you have heard these stylistic antecedents before, but never combined together in quite the same way. Ear-catching melodies, clever arrangements, monster grooves, killer chops, sensitivity, and subtlety are all part of the puzzle, yet all fit together seamlessly, such that the lines between the puzzle pieces disappear from view. With Claude St-Jean at the helm, who is also the musical director of the brass band L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus, the musicians that make up Les Projectionnistes come from diverse backgrounds. They have worked in Montreal's jazz, rock and "musique actuelle" scenes : Bernard Falaise on electric guitar, Pierre Labbé on tenor saxophone, Roberto Murray on alto saxophone, Tommy Babin on acoustic bass and Rémi Leclerc on drums.
