Mentana presents their new radio single Winnipeg Girls, taken from the Rise From the Wreck album.
Co-produced by Mentana and Philippe Brault, Rise From the Wreck is a driving, pulsating guitars, a powerful, raspy voice, angelic harmonies, soulful piano, and feverish rhythms. That, in a nutshell, is what the new Mentana stellar Rise From the Wreck album is like. Thematically, their deft and deeply felt storytelling is a tapestry of resilience, wanderings, and the idea of facing the unknown. There’s something absolutely cinematic in scope in their gritty folk stylings.
Moving across time and space, taking us on intimate journeys that follow bruised and broken characters through the Western Canadian Badlands, into Winnipeg dive bars, under the wide open Texas sky, and all the way back up to singer-songwriter Robin-Joël Cool’s roots in a tiny Acadian hamlet that only survives in the imagination, like so many ghost towns that have been swallowed up by time. This album bears witness to all the contradictions that exists in the Americas.
It is an ode to the adventurous spirit that brought so many to these shores, seeking fortune, glory, or simply survival, but also a cathartic exploration of the tragedies that define what was once called The New World.
Bio
Mentana is a Montreal-based band whose cinematic folk takes the listener on a journey in the midst of stirring narratives that weave and unfold like short films. Robin-Joël Cool’s signature gritty, raspy vocals and driving guitars are at the centre of their sound, while Viviane Audet’s velvety piano and angelic backing vocals round out the higher register. The rhythm section, comprised of Yannick Parent on drums and Erik West-Millette on bass (West Trainz, Neil Young, over 200 sound recordings, 50 as producer/composer) chugs along languorously on certain tracks and charges like a runaway train on others.
In 2014, the band independently released a first EP called Western Soil. In 2015, they signed their first record deal, enlisted the help of Montreal-based electronic music producer Leon Louder and recorded Inland Desire. After the album launch in March 2016, the band toured across Canada and Europe. At the time, Mentana was featured in a TV documentary by Germany’s ZDF. As a result, Inland Desire shot straight to the top of the iTunes Germany Folk Music charts. On three occasions, they were invited to play at the German Ambassador’s residence in Ottawa, Canada.
Aside from their work with Mentana, Viviane and Robin-Joël compose a wealth of music for film, documentary, and theater. Over the past ten years, they have written original music for some twenty projects and have been nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards, the Gemini Awards, and l’ADISQ.