TRACKLISTING
- This Ain't Life
- I've Always Said Love
- Hello Eyes
- These Things
- Simply Fly
- Light Can Be Low
- Delights Of My Life
PRESS
THE QUIETUS
« Think woozy, semi-improvised jazz ballads colliding with celestial sophisti-pop, a concept akin to what might occur if Talk Talk were avant-garde minimalists from the cosmos, the retrofuturist bent of what sounds like a pocket stylophone occasionally appearing through the cracks like a broken radio frequency attempting to make contact. »
UNCUT
« Dreamy jazz ballads sprouting strange, fibrous growths. For anyone who’s ever dreamt of a Chet Baker/Nels Cline/Mouse on Mars supergroup.»
MUSICWORKS
« ‘Delights of my life’ might be Chenaux’s most inviting offering yet, introducing subtle grooves and soulful harmonies to his cock-eyed crooning…like all Chenaux’s music, the album’s relaxed tones and lyrical and slightly psychedelic melodies invite and reward the listener’s attention without demanding it.»
VANGUARD ONLINE
« This is jazz, a playful bending and poking at a song, just enough to bend and poke the listener’s brain into a different frame of reference.»
THE MONTHLY (AU)
« There’s a wryness at play in presenting them as an ensemble : sure, if you squint you can hear a classic guitar-keys-drums combo. But accompanying Chenaux’s vocals and guitar, Driver’s dexterous chords are lightly dusted with sci-fi sound effects, and Melanson isn’t playing drums at all – he’s manipulating percussion samples, drawing on brushed cymbals, pops of woodblock and snare, even timpani. It’s a jazz trio in a funhouse mirror.»
KLOF MAG
« Eric Chenaux has an overwhelming back catalog of solo and collaborative work going back to the early 1990s, and all of it is worth dipping into. But on his last two or three solo records, he hit upon a strange and beautiful alchemy that is quite unlike anything else in popular music (or in jazz, for that matter). ‘Delights of My Life’ is a continuation of that magic formula but with a more collaborative focus. Chenaux’s spellbinding run of form shows no signs of stopping.»
FREQ
« A welcome return with just enough surprises to make ‘Delights Of My Life’ an essential extension of his catalog.»
LE DEVOIR
« 'This Ain't Life', the opener, is already worth the price of the album, a flowing groove introduced by extraterrestrial sounds, Chenaux singing his impressionist poetry» -
THE VINYL DESK
« ‘Delights of My Life’ combines relatively straightforward jazz ballad singing with interludes of just-slightly-too-weird instrumentation, most notably on the pleasingly curious, ten-minute « This Ain’t Life» with its incongruously oddball synth parping.»
Ondarock (IT)
“'Delights Of My Life' pone tutto quanto sopra esposto al servizio dell’album più soul del musicista canadese, ma soprattutto coinvolge a pieno titolo gli altri due artisti in un processo creativo sempre più elaborato e sinuoso (...) in favore di unimmersione più profonda nelle pieghe del jazz (da cui la tipica denominazione trio) e una più sensibile attitudine al soul e al blues."
Eric Chenaux
Delights Of My Life
Release date: 31/05/2024
Credits
Eric Chenaux : voice, electric guitar
Ryan Driver : wurlitzer, voice
Philippe Melanson : electronic percussion, voice
Recorded and mixed by Cyril Harrison at Le Pouget, Condat-sur-ganaveix, Correze
Produced by Eric Chenaux, Cyril Harrison, Murailles Music and Constellation
Artwork: Mariette Cousty
All songs written by Eric Chenaux SOCAN/ASCAP with lyrics written in collaboration with Ryan Driver (except “Delights Of My Life” by Eric Chenaux).
Thanks to Marcelline Delbecq, Forian Fouché, Bernice, La Crue, Marco Stangherlin, Olivier Touche, Antoine Marchalot, Maud Herrara, Eric Cazdyn, Jérôme Castel, Scott Thomson, Karen Ng, Aimée Dawn Robinson, Alexandra Hoàng Gilbert, Alexandre Bourit, Ernest Bergez, Emily Windows, Eloïse Decazes, Carol Reef, Charlène Dinhut and Florian Caschera, La Calade and Martin Arnold.
A special thanks to Rémy Poncet for the Wurlitzer.
With the support of the CNM, the financial support of the Canada Council For The Arts, the Government of Québec, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.