KURATED NO. 200
READERS’ CHOICE 2023
Part Five
Contributor Gene Long places Innu artist Florent Vollant in his top four song choices of the year
Contributors
There’s no lack of variety and genre-jumping in Part Five of the Sixth Annual Edition of Reader’s Choice.
Newfoundlander Gene Long selects a beautifully balanced and engaging set of four songs.
And the third instalment of Jan Vochten‘s four-part playlist continues with 21 varied artists whose work ranges from African-tinged classical to gentle folk.
• SEMI-RETIRED WRITER Long’s four tunes are all “cover” songs by Canadian artists Florent Vollant, Elisapie, Annabelle Chovstek and Montreal band Bodywash.
• MUSICAL AFICIANADO Vochten features one of the year’s hottest acts – Caroline Polacheck – and South African newcomer Abel Selaocoe alongside Canada’s Feist and Bros. Landreth. Others include Lana Del Rey, Sam Smith, Ireland’s Susan O’Neill and Mick Flannery.
The 6th Annual Readers’ Choice
Kurated readers share their favourite music of the last year. Anything musical is welcomed whether its new, an old favourite, something self-composed and more. Thanks to all of you contributors!
Kurated is a music sharing project.
Share it with your friends!
Stay tuned and enjoy,
Gene Long
St John’s, NL
Montreal’s Bodywash is Rosie Long Decter and Chris Steward
My Top 4 Songs
• Tshissenitenanu (Everybody Knows)
• Qaisimalaurittuq (Wish You Were Here) (feat. The Westerlies)
• The Wall
• No Repair
(No videos above)
My selection of four songs of the year touches on the concept of covering and three of them come with video (see the blue links below):
1. Florent Vollant (of Kashtin fame and now a solo star) covers Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows in the Innu language (of Quebec/Labrador) and changes the lyric so it reads “Everybody knows what we are to do is make sure our fire doesn’t die out.”
2. Elisapie is a leading Inuk artist and performer from Nunavik, Quebec. Here she covers Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, in which, as she has said in interviews, the song reminds her of peers from her youth who died by suicide. With the brilliant New York brass section The Westerlies.
3. Annabelle Chovstek covers the time of the pandemic through a performance of modern dance in her Toronto neighborhood. The song is called Walls. For me, she is one of the most under-recognized artists in Canada.
4. Bodywash covers the scene of the morning-after in a beautiful, plaintive video for the song No Repair, from their 2023 sophomore album, I Held the Scene While I Could. My favourite video of all time (so far).
About Gene: Gene Long is a semi-retired researcher and writer who finds life in St. John’s at least as interesting as anywhere else and maybe a bit lovelier.
Jan Vochten
Mortsel, Belgium
American Caroline Polachek’s album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You topped critic lists around the world in 2023. (Amy Sussman photo)
South African cellist Abel Selaocoe
Playlist Part 3 of 4
23 songs on Spotify
Abel Selaocoe, a South African cello player brings together classical and African music traditions, a warm plea for the universality of music. Musicians are free to draw without restraint from all musical traditions, use all instruments and sounds. Cross-pollination often produces exceptionally beautiful results.
My list of 91 songs (divided into four parts this year) is the result of a long selection process.
I mostly limited myself to one song for each artist in the interest of brevity.
About Jan: Jan Vochten, 74, lives in Mortsel, Belgium. His 91-song playlist was gleaned from an initial list of 270!
