{"product_id":"this-aster-adaptations-of-emile-nelligan-brian-laidlaw","title":"This Aster: Adaptations of Emile Nelligan, Brian Laidlaw","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Aster is a suite of songs based on poems by the French-Canadian poet Emile Nelligan. Nelligan was born in Montreal on Christmas Eve, 1879; he published his first poems at sixteen, and was heralded as a rising star of Canadian literature. The poet produced his entire oeuvre by the age of nineteen, and was then, at twenty, abruptly committed to a mental hospital. Nelligan remained in the asylum for the rest of his life, and never wrote again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA century later, poet-songwriter Brian Laidlaw was offered a Hinge Artist Residency to live and work on the grounds of a different mental hospital – the Kirkbride, in Northern Minnesota – for a stretch of several weeks, translating Nelligan’s poems from French into English, and then setting the texts to music. Working with his chamber-folk ensemble The Family Trade, the band tracked This Aster onsite, recording everywhere from closets to cathedrals. The resulting tracks – full of haunted choirs, sweeping strings, and apocalyptic trumpets – are an attempt to capture in English-language music the stirring effects that Nelligan himself created in his original French-language poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Aster dwells in the perpetual autumn of that remarkable work: a soundscape of ghosts and snowfall, love and loss, and the golden rattle of falling leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Aster can also be found on Bandcamp, Spotify and other online streaming platforms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePurchase of This Aster includes a 11 x 11 insert containing ten different Emile Nelligan poems, as translated by Brian Laidlaw. Album artwork and design by Ian Huebert.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrack List:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSIDE ONE\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGretchen (Shiver of Winter)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShepherdess\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBehold the Tulip (Autumn Evenings)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSad Serenade\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAutumn Tarantella\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSIDE TWO\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSnow Continues to Snow (Winter Eve)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLittle Hamlet\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Old Streets\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePure Sorrow\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOctober Roses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"AccentSisters","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67815499268148,"sku":null,"price":10.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0608\/3395\/5892\/files\/thisaster.png?v=1792786601","url":"https:\/\/accentsisters.myshopify.com\/products\/this-aster-adaptations-of-emile-nelligan-brian-laidlaw","provider":"AccentSisters","version":"1.0","type":"link"}