THE CD PLAYER PLUS - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Gossip&News
Feedback
Sing It, Anne
That’s Anne Bisson, sitting at
the keyboard, singing songs
from her new album, Blue
Mind. Technically it’s her
second album, but the first one came out
a long time ago, and in the meantime she
carved out a solid career as a TV host.
And she does more than sing. The
songs on this album are her own.
Though she is francophone, all of the
songs on the album are in English
(an earlier song, on a sampler, was in
German). The music, also her own, is
inventive, veering in the direction of
jazz. And the words…
We first met Anne last November at
the inauguration of producer/musician
Guy St-Onge’s new mastering facility
north of Montreal (see Gossip&News
in UHF No. 86). It was in St-Onge’s
beautiful lakeside studio that she had sat
down at the piano, along with her bassist
and percussionist, who were careful
78 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
to leave the road clear for the lyrics. In
November Anne was champing at the bit
for her recording to be released, but her
recording label, Fidelio, wisely waited,
unwilling to let her be washed away
in a tidal wave of superstar recordings
that were being released in time for
Christmas.
You may have noticed the large Sonus
Faber loudspeaker behind her in the
picture above. The album launch party
was held in a hi-fi store, the Filtronique/
Son Or complex in Montreal. After she
had finished singing, the party guests
were invited upstairs in groups in order
to hear three different versions of one of
the songs: the original high-resolution
master recording, the commercial CD,
and a test pressing of the LP version.
Was there a difference? Need we
underline it? The master recording was
particularly lively, as one would expect,
and a small majority of visitors in the
first group voted for it. The LP did only
slightly less well, and the CD brought up
the rear, garnering just two votes. One of
those voting for the CD had found the
master and the LP to be overwhelming,
and he himself preferred to use music as
a pleasant background. Enough said!
As already indicated, Anne Bisson
doesn’t do jazz standards. These are
original songs, meant to be listened to.
Check out Do What You Please, September
in Montreal, and especially Secret
Survivor.
For Anne Bisson, this new recording
may be the beginning of a long-delayed
career as a singer-songwriter and as a
performer.