Guillaume Arsenault
“De l’autre côté des montagnes”, an intimate folk album with refined and delicate arrangements, where the guitar and voice stand in the foreground and create a sweet melancholic mood. Introspective and poetic texts draw vast landscapes and describe the sensation of gliding in an inner world. The beauty and the power of the melodies shine in a bare simplicity. Trumpet, harmonica and stringed instruments take place in the whole scene as expected. Tonic rhythms appear from time to time, immersing us into a heady feeling.
Guillaume, son of Ludger, son of Hector, son of Jos, was born in the small town of Bonaventure on Canada’s Gaspé Peninsula in 1976. He grew up by the river, to the rhythms of traditional Acadian and Québecois music and the rhymes of songsmiths such as Serge Fiori, Michel Rivard and Richard Séguin. He began appearing on stage before he even knew how to drive, performing songs he had scribbled in the margins of his schoolbooks. After studying science at Cégep de Gaspé, he set out with a quiver full of words to travel across North America. Two years later, he enrolled in the woodworking program at Collège Alma, but found himself spending most of his time with the school’s music and audio technology students.
With a demo in hand, Guillaume hit the road once again, appearing on stages in the Gaspé, New Brunswick [Acadia] and France. In 2001, he won top honors at the Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée, garnering the award for best singer-songwriter, the audience choice award and the Prix Télé-Québec. His dreams took shape and became L’Arbre (The Tree), the branches and roots of which were a production company, a concert tour and a first CD, Guillaume et l’Arbre.
Playing both solo and full-band gigs, Guillaume continued to pursue multiple paths. He taught songwriting workshops at elementary schools and high schools throughout Québec and France. Together with Pierre-André Bujold and Philippe Patenaude, he formed the band Les Hâmeçons Salés, creating a musical tale, Icitte Asteur, that was a huge success in the Gaspé.
In 2005, Guillaume was a finalist at Ma première Place des Arts, winning the Galaxie and Archambault awards. The following year, he won the Prix Coup de pouce at the Festival Vue sur la Relève, as well as the CALQ (Québec Council for the Arts and Literature) award for artistic creation in the Gaspé region.
In 2006, Guillaume got to work on Le rang des Îles, his second CD. He performed a number of shows across Québec with Tous les garçons and enjoyed the honor of opening for singer-songwriter Dumas. Le rang des Îles was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award.
In 2009, Guillaume Arsenault is back in full force with his third CD (and his début on the GSI Musique label): GÉOPHONIK. A tour is planned for 2009-2010.
For his fourth album “Oasis Station-Service” (2013), Guillaume Arsenault has decided to travel trough a western story.
Festival acadien de Caraquet, ChantEauFête en Charlevoix, FrancoFolies de Montréal, Coup de coeur francophone de Montréal, Boîte à bleuet d’Alma, Festival de la Morue de Bègles, France, Quai des Arts de Carleton, Salle Telus-Desjardins de Rimouski, Festival de Musique du Bout du Monde de Gaspé, Nuit Blanche sur Tableau Noir de Montréal and more.
Guillaume Arsenault (voice, guitar)
Charles Imbeau (trumpet)
Management & Booking - World
COOP Les Faux-Monnayeurs
Jean-François Guindon
514-312-7142
contact@coopfauxmonnayeurs.com
Label & Publishing
COOP Les Faux-Monnayeurs
Julie Desjardins
514-312-7142
julie@coopfauxmonnayeurs.com
Booking - France
BLEU BLANC LYS
Annie Le Roux
07 61 38 13 98
contact@bleublanclys.fr
