Laidlaw, Brian This Aster Adaptations Of Emile Nelligan LP Vinyl

This Aster is a suite of songs based on poems by the French-Canadian poet Emile Nelligan. Nelligan was born in 1879; published his first poems at sixteen, and was heralded as a rising star of Canadian literature. The poet produced his entire oeuvre by the age of nineteen, and was then, committed to a mental hospital where he remained for the rest of his life, and never wrote again. A century later, poet-songwriter Brian Laidlaw was offered a Hinge Artist Residency to live and work for a stretch of several weeks, translating Nelligan's poems from French into English, and then setting the texts to music. Working with his chamber-folk ensemble The Family Trade, the resulting tracks are an attempt to capture in English-language music the stirring effects in the original French-language poetry. This Aster is a soundscape of ghosts and snowfall, love and loss, and the golden rattle of falling leaves.

1. Gretchen (Shiver of Winter) 2. Shepherdess 3. Behold the Tulip (Autumn Evenings) 4. Sad Serenade 5. Autumn Tarantella 6. Snow Continues to Snow (Winter Eve) 7. Little Hamlet 8. The Old Streets 9. Pure Sorrow 10. October Roses