Express_2019_05_08

A R T S

ROOTS FOLK DUO MOONFRUITS HAS DEEP MUSICAL ROOTS

GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca

Milroy, adding that her own background in music includes being involved with choirs. “We like to use our voices as instruments.” “In our heart of hearts,” Millaire said, “we like to think of ourselves as a two-person band.” The name they chose when they decided to become a performing duo reflects their love of roots music. Moonfruits, Milroy explained, comes from her own childhood memories of playing with words. “I made up ‘moonfruit’ as a word to mean ‘mushroom’,” she said, chuckling. “Moonfruits are things that grow by the light of the moon and take root slowly and quietly, until suddenly we are all surrounded by a carpet of mushrooms.” Milroy has experience singing a cappella and the two of them would likely be happy to harmonize with their voices alone. But they also include traditional folk instruments like banjo and acoustic guitar as part of their live performances, and add in a bit of glockenspiel and kalimba for good measure. Frequent nominees for the Trille Or award, this year their debut album, Ste-Quequepart (Saint Somewhere), earned them a Trille Or for roots album design, which they share with illustrator Élodie Evanno of Brest, France, and graphic designer Gabrielle Dubois, a former L’Orignal resident now living in Montréal. The album is a musical narrative, in French, telling stories about the people and places in an imaginary little Canadian town. While their first album is all in French,

Moonfruits get to the roots of roots style folk music in a truly typical Canadian way by exploring everything and then putting it all together like a musical cultural mosaic. “I studied classical music for a number of years,” said Alex Millaire, one half of the Ottawa roots folk duo, during a phone interview prior to their Vankleek Hill concert show May 3. “And I always had rock band jobs on the side.” During a busking tour of Europe with nothing but an acoustic guitar to play on, Millaire realized that all of his musical influences were also present in most traditio- nal, and non-traditional folk music. Especially roots style folk music. “I’ve always like roots music,” Kaitlyn Milroy, the other side of Moonfruits, said, with a chuckle. “Plus I also listened to whatever records my parents had in their collection, and I thought it was cool.” Living in Ottawa as part of the local music scene, and given their mutual interests, it seemed natural that Milroy and Millaire ended up jamming together whenever they found the time after their regular “day job” routines. “We would meet up and play on park benches,” Millaire said, laughing. “We liked to play around a bit with our voices and have our own ‘sound’,” noted

Moonfruits, c’est Kaitlyn Milroy (à gauche) et Alex Millaire. La musique roots que ce duo d’Ottawa compose et interprète trouve un terrain fertile pour grandir parmi leurs fans et le public qui assistent à leurs concerts bilingues. Leur dernière apparition a eu lieu à Vankleek Hill durant la fin de semaine du 4 mai, dans

their live concerts feature a mix of French and English. In the end, for both of them, whether composing or performing, there is one question for which they are always seeking an answer.

“What is the song about?” said Millaire. Enjoy samples from their debut album at, along with details on future performances.

LOCAL PLANTAGENET ARTIST FEATURED ON NEW COLLABORATIVE ALBUM

EAP NEWSROOM news@eap.on.ca

Aigles Bantam B hockey team. Traditional Inuit throat singing is a game or competition usually done with two women. There is a leader and a follower. The leader sets the rhythm, the pace and the sound, and the follower repeats the sound. Each person is trying to ‘trip up’ the other and therefore, the songs normally end in laughter. The duo is featured on several songs on the album, including This Moment on the Sea , which opens with throat singing, combined with seagull sounds on the violin.

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Heidi Langille, a Plantagenet resident and member of the throat singing duo Siqiniup Qilauta, is featured on a new Canadian collaborative album. Canadian adventurer, writer and miner David Newland recently released his fifth album, titled Northbound: The Northwest Passage in Story and Song , a live collection of original songs based on his travels in the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. The album, which was recorded live at Trinity United Church in Cobourg, Ontario, features several Canadian artists including Inuit throatsingers Siqiniup Qilauta Sunsdrum, made up of Lynda Brown and Heidi Langille. The album also includes other artists, such as the band Uncharted Waters with Sam Allison, Saskia Tomkins, Steafan Hanni- gan and Oisin Hannigan, fiddler Alex Cheung and jawharpist Lois Suluk. The album was officially released on April 26. Siqiniup Qilauta does Inuit cultural performances that include throat singing, drum dancing, games and singing traditional songs. The name of the group, Siqiniup Qilauta, roughly translates to The Sun’s Drum. The name was influenced by an Inuit legend the duo of women heard about the sun. When the sun has a complete halo around it, it indicates good luck and the halo represents a drum. The group is located in Ottawa, Ontario, and has travelled nationally and internatio- nally. Lynda Brown was a participant in the Governor General’s Leadership Conference and Heidi Langille is a 2010-2011 Natio- nal Aboriginal Role Model. Langille lives in Plantagenet and coaches the Saint-Isidore

avec automobile aux endroits suivants : livreurs de journaux et circulaires VILLE DE RIGAUD les mercredis VILLAGE DE ST-ISIDORE ET LE RURAL les jeudis Veuillez faire parvenir votre demande à : M. Gilles Normand 1100, rue Aberdeen, Hawkesbury, ON K6A 3H1 Tél. : 613-632-4151, poste 245 • Téléc. 613-632-6383 Courriel : gilles.normand@eap.on.ca

Heidi Langille, résidente de Plantagenet et membre du duo de chant guttural Siqiniup Qilauta, figure sur un nouvel album canadien. Sur la photo, Heidi Langille avec ses deux enfants, Eli et Gregory. —photo Kyle Beland

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