Rebecca Foon and Bruce Cawdron are the founding members of a superb chamber rock ensemble from Montreal called Esmerine. Founded in 2001, Esmerine was an exploratory outlet for Cawdron, a marimba player and percussionist who once played drums in Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Foon, a cellist who once played in A Silver Mt. Zion. Following their Juno Award winning 2013 album Dalmak, Esmerine have returned with their glorious, charged up fifth album, Lost Voices, which is out now via Constellation Records and prompted them to tour throughout Ontario and Quebec in November. Here, Rebecca and Bruce discuss village scandals, dumpy Montreal and rent control, the wild spirit of Lost Voices, guitarist James Hakan Dedeoglu and the evolution of Esmerine’s sound, the importance of viable, sustainable communities, NOLA and water, Katrina and Sandy and climate change, Pathway to Paris, why it might get louder, the urgency to alter the world’s course, expressing ideas and anger via instrumental music, how Esmerine formed out of Set Fire to Flames and what Montreal was like some 15 years ago, the connection between Esmerine, Godspeed, A Silver Mt. Zion, and Constellation Records, Montreal Mile End music waves, making history, John Peel, electric marimba and changes in Esmerine, Jamie Thompson keeps himself busy, dreams of the future, orchestral visions, the song “A River Runs Through This City and that was it.
Related links: esmerine.com cstrecords.com vishkhanna.com
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