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Hybrid harmony
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A foundation of melancholy and magic realism, channelled through a silken, synthetic/organic mesh of keyboards and strings, propelled by robust but refined rhythm, with a voice that ebbs and flows, more musical instrument than human noise. That’s Elsiane, a local duo whose 2006 debut album, Hybrid, continues to make waves two years on. Following its recent American release, the duo embarked on a successful tour supporting Delerium, and Europe is next. “It was destiny, I guess,” says Elsieanne Caplette, recounting the way she met drummer Stephane Sotto in 1999. “I picked up the Mirror and there was a ‘bassist wanted’ ad with a list of influences. At the time, I was just looking to meet musicians in Montreal that shared the same interests, so I called, we met, and we started working together right away.” This spelled the end of Sotto’s old band, and of Caplette’s life in Peru, from whence she had moved only a week prior. Having been born to a Peruvian mother and Québécois father in l’Islet-sur-mer, QC, immigration was a cinch. And leaving home was surprisingly easy, albeit bittersweet. “I was playing with a band, making electronic music, and I realized there wasn’t an avenue for what I wanted to do in Peru,” she says. “Around the same time, I lost some family members, so I thought, ‘This is it—there’s nothing left for me here.’” The influences listed in that fateful classified ad were Rage Against the Machine, Tool and Massive Attack, and only the latter bears any resemblance to Elsiane. But the project did evolve through several permutations, at one point shedding its electronic skin almost entirely. “That’s when I started exploring my roots, world music, classical music,” says Caplette, who played piano and violin as a child and studied at a conservatory in Lima. She’ll forever be indebted to one of her instructors there, whose unconventional curriculum cost her dearly. “She was the only one who insisted on teaching Peruvian music and jazz, and she fought so hard for that that she lost her job. But she continued teaching; she opened up her own school. This woman is a model for me.” WITH DUO GROOVE AT LES SAINTS ON |
