If you thought The Besnard Lakes' first record "The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse" is as experimental as pop gets, you ain't seen nothing yet.
It was that first 2008 album that designated husband-and-wife pairing of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek as one of the most innovative bands currently working on Montreal's eccentric music scene.
But with their newly minted second recording "The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night", a maddening mix of classic pop and wall-of-sound sonic experimentations, it's clear that the band is now even less interested in being pop than it was before. One l listen to their latest single "Albatross" and you know they're heading into heady musical territory, channeling the musical ingenuity of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson with the wall-of-sound power of My Bloody Valentine. And while their music is still radio-friendly, The Besnard's bigger ambitions isn't to create hit songs, but art.
It's as much a component to their marriage as their music.
"We've always wanted to explore new soundscapes and sonic textures," says Olga. "We have the time and studio to make music that's as big and beautiful. We make music the way we want to."
There aren't many places in the country as forgiving as Montreal is for indulging new music, which is why bands like Arcade Fire and Stars eventually drift across North America to be there. A native of B.C., Goreas learned her bass chops playing with the Vancouver band Speedbuggy before meeting Lasek, the band's multi-instrumentalist and her husband of 10 years.
Initially, the pair shared a similiar vision of making music more classically textured than rock and roll. Goreas admits that she really didn't know specifically what that meant until they started recording their first album.
"We don't know what direction we're headed in. It could be AC/DC or Dirty Projectors. We're going through a rock-thing lately, but we like to find new things. We don't stay with the same thing for long."
Recorded in 2009 using vintage analogue equipment including 1968 Neve mixing console, the same board Led Zeppelin used to record portions of "Physical Graffiti", their second album "Roaring Night" features guest performances by members of Montreal's better-known bands including Stars, Murray Lightstone from The Dears and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
"You don't get that community anywhere else but Montreal. The scene is very supportive. I think that's why the music scene here is so psychedelic."
At this point, The Besnard's musical ambition rarely exceeds their grasp. Their first album "The Besnards Are the Dark Horse" was nominated for a 2007 Polaris Music Prize before moving into motion pictures, producing the seven-minute short "Because Tonight" (which you can view on the National Film Board website nfb.ca) More recently, they scored American actor and director Mark Ruffalo's "Sympathy For Delicious" while Goreas will be heading to Nunavut this July to be a part of a National Parks project.
In the future we want to incorporate more theatrical lighting, video and projections on our live shows. That is, if we have the room."
The Besnard Lakes and The Young Galaxy play Zaphod Beeblebrox at 27 York St. tonight, June 16. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door and online at Ticketweb.ca
denis.armstrong@sunmedia.ca
