LA GUEPE (THE WASP)

The bandoneon betrays Osvaldo Montes's Argentinian origins. He uses it profusely in the Canadian film La Guepe, directed by Gilles Carle in 1986. The piano, in the other hand, reveals his song-writing nature, and the melancholic spirit of his work.

This CD recovers one of his earliest works, one of the first since his arrival in Canada. Montes puts music to a tragic revenge story: Chloe (Chloe Sainte-Marie), a pilot, witnesses her two little children unintentionally killed in a car crash. The drunk driver, Delphis (Donald Pilon) turns out to be someone rich and powerful. Halfway between thriller and drama, the soundtrack is tinged with a certain narrative tension (The wasp's crash), but above all with a painful sadness (Prelude for Chloe),expressed here through bandoneon (with the virtuoso Arturo Penon), piano (Jimmy Tanaka) and strings (the musical arrangements are provided by Richard Gregoire). These musical instruments are the perfect tools for Montes (who is also in charge of synthesizers and keyboards) to create a scoresheet tilting towards the unexpected drift of the events. The composer shows his eclecticism (Plane waltz, Voodoo ceremony), without neglecting the narrative (Disco theme, and the Japanese Commercial presented as the CD's first bonus track).

If there is an outstanding song in The Wasp it is, without a doubt, the main theme, Tangaggio. Montes writes it upon the forms of the Tango, using bandoneon, piano and strings. The theme translates musically the painful emotion carried away by the Argentinian accordion, while the strings tilt it towards Tragedy. It will be repeated in several tracks throughout the CD, with a different orchestration (even in a bandoneon solo). It will also become a song,with French lyrics, performed by the heroine, Chloe Sainte-Marie, in a suggestive transposition of the theme's dramatic feel. Montes's beautiful score reflects faithfully the intentions expressed in his own website: The images surprise us, push us, talk to us; sometimes they ask for permission, sometimes they beg for company, sometimes they let us fly on our own, but they are always joint, image and music, in perfect unison, speaking a common language. It is a gift for the soul. --- from the label

Release Date: 2018/2/20.

1. Tangaggio
2. Prelude por Clohe
3. Accident de La Guepe
4. Delphis
5. Valse diner
6. Tangaggio (Reprise 1)
7. Valse avion
8. Assassinat de Delphis
9. Escaliers
10. Tangaggio (Reprise 2)
11. Prelude per Clohe (Reprise 1)
12. Delphis (Reprise 1)
13. Ceremonie vudu
14. Thme discotheque
15. Tangaggio (Chanson- Lyrics by Gilles Carle)
16. Tangaggio (Bandoneon solo)
17. Tangaggio (Reprise 3)
Extras
18. Comercial Japonais
19. Prelude Pour Clohe (Cue 6)
20. Prelude Pour Clohe (Cue 8)
21. Tangaggio (Piano solo)
22. Ceremonie vudu (Version 2)
23. Tangaggio (Piano solo 2)
24. Tam Tam Guepe
25. Prelude Pour Clohe (Reprise 4)
26. Flecha asesina