Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
Ottawa-Based Pianist Huguette Lavigne Releases Shimmering, Atmospheric “Pixie Dust”

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • Ottawa-Based Pianist Huguette Lavigne Releases Shimmering, Atmospheric “Pixie Dust”
Huguette Lavigne
Fri May 19, 2023
Cashbox Canada

Much like its name, “Pixie Dust,” the new song from Ottawa-based pianist and composer Huguette Lavigne, is shimmering and transfixing, putting the listener under a hypnotic spell.

Check it out on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/5FuAEg8R239jAPy1afM6Dr

A wholly instrumental piano piece from her new album Jazzed Up Dreams, “Pixie Dust” manages to be both bright and haunting at the same time, evoking both optimism and an ache for bygone days.

When she wrote it, Lavigne imagined an enchanted forest, a mental or spiritual place to retreat from the many difficult demands on our time, resources, and attention in today’s increasingly difficult epoch.

“First, you find yourself on a mysterious path as you enter a strange, lush, and hypnotic green forest,” Lavigne invites us to imagine. “Then, you let yourself slip into enchantment, illusion, and the supernatural. With a sprinkling of golden, glitter-like fairy dust, you are mesmerized. Keep your eyes open for the green-goddess fairy at the end, you may even think that anything is possible.”

The corresponding video guides us on this journey, using beautiful animation to take us on a tour of a mossy forest alive with glittering fireflies, electric trees, shimmering milkweed, glowing mushrooms, moths, and butterflies, and, yes, plenty of fairies.

Lavigne came to the song via improvisation, sitting at her piano and just playfully experimenting until the entire work unfolded rather quickly. As part of her process, Lavigne does not fully write down her music, rather, she relies on her shorthand to summon her memory recall for future performances. The final piece is then impressively stored entirely in her head and fingers. Once her composition is recorded, she then moves onto the next score.

“Given the world’s seemingly precarious future, the social challenges, and other dire predictions, I’m happy to have created a theme that digs in to find the child in us, and the video delivers this to us splendidly,” she says. “Beautiful ethereal scenes unfold. The child escapes to a world of fairies and golden-sprinkled pixie dust.”

Huguette Lavigne was brought up in a milieu of three Canadian cultures - Franco Ontarian, Quebecois, and English Canadian. She has recorded three albums prior to her current one: Five O’clock Somewhere, Yin and Yang, and Free and Easy. Lavigne studied composition at McGill University and piano at l’universite de Montreal. Her music is influenced by elements of Neo-Classicism, Neo-Romanticism, Minimalism, Jazz, Folk, and Classical music from India. In effect, she creates a modern fusion of styles.

pianonotesottawa.ca

Reviews
Album
Huguette Lavigne
Month: Jan 2023
Lynn Miles It’s a TumbleWeedyWorld proclaims acclaimed Ottawa Singer-Songwriter Lynn…
JABBOUR Quebec’s Bilingual Folk/Roots Group JABBOUR Releases “Dans ton café” Single…
Harry Hannah Singer-Songwriter Harry Hannah Captures the Wistful Bitter-Sweetness of a…
Evelynne Ross Toronto Folk-Rock Luminary Evelynne Ross Releases Soulful New Song "…
Jane Bunnett & Maqueque Jane Bunnett & Maqueque Release Playing With Fire
Silka Weil Silka Weil Overturns The Bad And Dreams Up The Good In Folk-Pop “Capsized” Single
The Flakes Halifax Rock Band The Flakes Releases New Single and EP "PINK JETSTREAM"
nasmore 125,000 Streams In A Week! Regina, SK's Pop Maestro nasmore Greets You With…
Fake Magic Toronto Rock Trio FAKE MAGIC Explores The Ups and (Mostly) Downs Of…
Mystery Romance Mystery Romance Release the “Story of We”
Tissa Rahim Vancouver's Persian Powerhouse Tissa Rahim Debuts Soulful Acoustic Retelling of…
Month: Feb 2023
Emily Power Wasaga Beach’s Emily Power Releases Hopeful Pop “If I Fall” Single
 Frida Maria Swedish-Danish Pop Artist Frida Maria Creates “Magic” With New Single
Harriet Chung Multi-Talented Performing Artist Harriet Chung Releases “Today and Tomorrow”…
Josh Jones & Trevor Kidd Alexander Sharp Directs Sensual Grindhouse-Inspired Music Video for Josh Jones…

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 87
  • Page 88
  • Page 89
  • Page 90
  • Current page 91
  • Page 92
  • Page 93
  • Page 94
  • Page 95
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers