Rien Faire + Bilboquets

Rien Faire

With their third album, Rien faire continues to carve out its own niche in the world of slightly offbeat French-language music that defies easy categorization.

And there’s always that desire to walk the tightrope. Music that’s both sophisticated and innocent, like a tightrope walker’s act. Music of detours, never succumbing to gratuitous complexity, seeking to reconcile experimentation with pop music.

Rough rhythms, catchy choruses, soft, caressing sounds, dances waiting to be invented—Rien faire pulls out all the stops, and their songs unfold like curious, bustling miniature worlds.

And while a distinct sense of the imminent end of the world runs through the lyrics of this new album, there’s always a touch of lightness and humor to be found. A smile despite it all, an attempt to shed light on the abyss into which we’re plunging.

Live, Rien faire strives to surprise: you never know what the next track will sound like, and that’s a good thing. The three bandmates bounce off each other and have fun with this playful, precise music. It’s exhilarating, oh yes.

Some people will want to know what it sounds like before listening. It’s not easy to pin a label on Rien faire, but if we want to play the comparison game, we could mention Brian Eno, Devo, and Ween—and why not Talking Heads, Philippe Katerine, or Broadcast… But does that really help you?

Bilboquets

Actress Pauline Laurendeau (a member of the ARFI collective) presents *Bilboquets*, a one-woman show that’s anything but ordinary. Have you heard of the gardener who lived on a flower bed so narrow that he eventually flattened himself into 2D? One day, in a fit of hypermnesic crisis, he created a vengeful operetta, in which he revived all the unbearable vocal textures and anthropogenic practices he had amassed over the course of his pitiful life.

Unfortunately, he cannot be with us tonight. Instead, there will be a quarrelsome but honest janitor, ghostly refrains, and even a resilient bush; but above all, the great storyteller of this tale—a manic-depressive bard—who will attempt to make sense of this constellation.