Paul Piché writes and performs songs that span the subjects of life, love, and politics. Originally very folky in sound, usually only accompanied sparsely by his guitar and other basic instruments, over theyears Piché developed into a mature and profound performer, using his warm, deep voice to convey a wide range of emotions. L'Instant was released in 1993, and shocked some long-time fans by how modern it sounded. The album consisted mostly of love songs as well as "Voila c'que nous voulons," which became a theme song of the Québec sovereignty movement. A few years later, in 1996, L'un et L'autre provided a retrospective of Piché's body of work. The double CD set went gold and then platinum in Canada (100, 000 units sold).
But even still, it had been almost six years with no new material from Paul Piché. That recently changed this year, when Le voyage was released. Piché's ninth album, it was released on September (ninth month) 9 (ninth day), 1999. Consisting of nine songs (there seems to be some sort of a pattern here:-), Le voyage is easily Piché's greatest work since his early days. The songs are very personal in focus and have a depth that was lacking on L'Instant, both lyrically and instrumentally. This album is indeed a voyage -- the titel track is a swirling journey of tempos and progessions, while other tracks have a very modern feel, like the current single "A ma hauteur," an introspective look at life, the universe, and how we relate to others. Vocally, Piché has never been stronger, and in general I feel positive about what future releases will bring -- I just hope we don't have to wait another six years to find out!
To learn more about Paul Piché, visit his site at Audiogram for a biography, discography, and sound and video clips. Another great site is Paul Piché: Le Voyage Web, which is bilingual English/French and has lots of information, news, guitar transcriptions, photos and translations to offer.
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