Échos des Mers du Nord

Considering their deep and mutual love for Nordic music, it’s not hard to see why Québécois foursome Nordri’s debut, Échos des Mers du Nord, is as shimmering as it is. Featuring a line-up of Anne-Hélène Chevrette on violin, David Jacques on baroque guitar (a guitar professor at Laval University), Sylvain Neault on violin and mandolin (he’s a guitar teacher at Laval, too), and Ian Simpson on double bass, Nordri’s debut is not only brimming with delightful tracks but there’s talent here for days. The result is that tracks like ‘Hommage à Vigneault’, which harbors stunning and masterful interplay between Neault’s mandolin and Jacques’ guitar, and ‘Avant le Départ’, with its delicate moodiness, are just the beginning.

Nordri’s finest hour (thus far) may well be ‘Festoyer Jusqu’à l’Aube’, a track that showcases the grandeur of this four-piece via an almost nine-minute epic journey through complex yet delicate sounds akin to total sensory overload. It’s blissful yet peaceful, bringing us to the most critical aspect of Échos des Mers du Nord: its duality. It’s all too easy these days to make a one-trick-pony affair, but Nordri aren’t built to be boring.

Simply put, there’s too much talent, diversity and inherent curiosity teeming throughout the group’s ranks to conjure anything but masterstrokes capable of reminding listeners of the long-forgotten magic that Swedish-infected Nordic music contains. Recorded at Studio Sonomax, with Mathieu Laprise twirling the knobs, Échos des Mers du Nord has something here for everyone: dance, rhythm-based acoustic music, or self-assured, jaw-dropping instrumentals. Pick this one up. You won’t be sorry.