BIO – The New Age Adventure
A MUSICAL STYLE IS BORN IN QUEBEC
Jean-Pierre Labreche is an explorer by nature. Whether it be music, travelling or spirituality, the Montreal-born composer, arranger and musician is always looking for new boundaries to break. “I’m an explorer in my soul and my greatest pleasure it to discover new things.”
As a professional keyboardist, Labreche has played every conceivable genre of music – RnB, Funk, Soul, Latin, Reggae, Rock, Blues, Jazz, and Classical. His musical journey has taken him from dance cover bands to Avant-garde jazz ensembles and to rhythmic World-beat groups. Yet it is his exploration of Electronic music that placed him on the musical map.
In the 1980s, Labreche found himself at the forefront of a new musical genre – Organic ambient music – or what was commonly termed “New age” in those days. What started out as a request for music for a friend’s Tai-Chi class, turned Labreche into a pioneer of ambient sound and composition in Canada. “My only guideline was to create something spacey and relaxing.”
In 1983, Labreche released an album called Yi-King, a collection of three instrumental compositions inspired by the I-Ching, the ancient Chinese Book of Change. Released as an audio cassette, the album found a responsive audience and sold over 50,000 copies primarily in Quebec – earning this independent release the equivalency of gold status in the Canadian music market.
In light of this success, Labreche released a follow-up, Yi-King II, in 1985. Boasting higher production values, the second album placed the audio emphasis on the latest generation of synthesizers and samplers. Woodwind instruments and female vocalists were added to the mix to transform the Yi-King venture into optimal bliss.
In 1987, Labreche composed the soundtrack for Sadhana: Back to the Source, a documentary about a young westerner following the call of his soul and discovering India. Directed by Quebec filmmaker Jean-Pierre Piché.
Two years later, in 1989, Labreche added a third part to his Yi-King series with Yi-King III. Using state-of-the-art keyboard and computer technology, Labreche’s relaxation pieces were more sophisticated than previous ones and featured the Japanese shakuhachi flute. The two Yi- King follow-ups were also commercially successful, each selling around 50,000 copies.
Oreade Music, the Dutch record label that specializes in music that, according to its early motto, is “effectively relaxing, delightful and inspiring”, released Labreche’s Yi-King series on CD in the early 1990s for Europe’s burgeoning New Age music market. Now available here for the first time as legal digital mp3 downloads, the whole Yi-King series and Sadhana movie soundtrack were remastered in 2019. Labreche’s music can be enjoyed as it was originally intended.
”Yi-King I by Jean-Pierre Labreche is a little masterpiece of relaxation music”
Yves Ducharme, (responsible for the musical section of the bookstore L’Ésotérique Nouvel Age and New Age distributor) Le Guide Ressources, winter 1988
Press reviews
What did Sadhana reviewers wrote?
”The talent of Jean-Pierre Labreche, creator of the Yi-King series (one of the great names of Québécois New Age music) arises again in the soundtrack of the movie Sadhana… The style of the work is moreover, surprising… especially if one thinks that the author is a Westerner, whose musical and philosophical background has nothing in common with that of India. The performance is flawless and Labreche’s incursion in these new areas expands his means of expression.”
Stéphane Desjardins, journalist, Le Guide Ressources, May-June 1988
”Labreche is indisputably, the forerunner of the new wave of New Age music in Quebec. Released in 1983, Yi-King I is the first New Age music cassette to have met with a great success in Quebec. With more than 50,000 copies sold, and in the absence of any form of publicity or promotion, it emerges as a classic of New Age music in Quebec. With limited means, Labreche has proved that talent always comes through.”
Gilles Bédard, president of the Association Nouvel Age du Québec, Le Bulletin de l’ ANAQ, winter 1989
Sample tracks and videos
To purchase the New Age albums, click the Amazon button bellow. If you wish to buy Storytelling of the Tribes album, then click the Bandcamp button
The first video is a CBC Radio-Canada Newswatch interview about New Age music.
The second is a video clip of a NewWorld music reggae composition: Water Jammin.
NewWorld music album:
STORYTELLING OF THE TRIBES
Wishing to explore the rhythms more in depth, Labreche went straight to the source. He traveled to North and West Africa and crossed 11 countries on motocross, including the Sahara desert. His immersion in African culture is told to you in words and images on the page: THE AFRICAN ADVENTURE. The Storytelling of the Tribes album he composed after, was recorded with his musician friends Land of the Tribes and is directly inspired by this extraordinary trip to Africa.
Since then, Labreche has continued to compose and extend his talents as an arranger, director and sound engineer for local artists. He founded his own production studio in Montreal: Mile End Funklab studio.
