Safia Nolin: Personne

By Kerry Doole

Safia Nolin - Personne (Bonsound): This Montreal-based singer/songwriter made the 2016 Polaris Prize longlist with her album Limoilou, and she continues to take an adventurous musical approach. A new EP, Seum, came out on Friday, and it incorporates both acoustic and grunge-inflected rock in its material.

The four songs on the EP have each been recorded in so-called "sunset" and "sunrise" versions, one acoustic and one rock. The version chosen for the video for brand new single Personne definitely falls into the rock camp, and the self-created clip transposes Nolin into the universe of the notorious video game The Sims, which she has been fond of since her teenage years.

Heavy guitars frame Nolin's gutsy and emotionally expressive vocals on the short but definitely not sweet track.

On Facebook last week, Nolin posted "It's today that this anger/sad EP is finally seeing the day. I am extremely proud of this project. I recorded this in the spring and spent months in between doing all the visuals and clips. I'm very down with this and I want to say thank you for being open to my fucked up ideas again." 

For Seum, Nolin worked with a band in the studio for the first time, and she co-produced the EP with Félix Petit (Les Louanges, Laurence-Anne, Hubert Lenoir).

To reflect the duality of the new EP, Nolin will host four concerts to celebrate the release of Seum. She will perform two shows - the first with a band of three musicians and the second, unplugged - at Pantoum in Quebec City, on Dec. 9 and 10 respectively. On Dec. 16, she will give another acoustic performance in Montreal at the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, followed by one more full band concert at Foufounes Électriques the next day. A tour across Quebec will follow in the spring of 2022. Dates here.

Let's hope Nolin's creative risk-taking pays off.

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Publicity: Take Aim Media