Motewolonuwok

When Jeremy Dutcher released his first opus, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, in 2018, very few people outside the classical world had heard him. A few months later, the Canadian Indigenous tenor, pianist, composer, musicologist and activist was harvesting prestigious awards and prizes while bringing the issue of fast-disappearing Indigenous languages to the centre stage. For his second album, Dutcher keeps his approach of including archival recordings of his ancestors, adding an analog depth to the story, while weaving lush orchestrations around them but with a slight difference: the album is built like a suite in 11 movements, building a crescendo that includes hymn-like songs coloured with hints of jazz and gospel, making the whole experience an almost spiritual quest.

Singing mostly in Wolastoqey (and sometimes English, to talk directly to the settlers), gifted with a powerful tenor voice coupled with an emotional piano technique, Jeremy Dutcher creates music that has never been created before in Canada. The album hedges the line between storytelling and composition in a witty and soulful manner and shall make ripples and waves around the world and mostly between the worlds.