EPK Traverse - Laura Risk

TRAVERSE: ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT

Winner of Quebec’s prestigious OPUS Prize for Album of the Year – Traditional Québécois Music, Traverse is a musical journey into the heart of traditional fiddle music that resonates with nuance and vitality. “Gorgeous, refreshing” raves The Guardian, while Songlines calls their music “mature, dignified and rewarding.” With Laura Risk on fiddle, Nicholas Williams (Genticorum) on accordion and flute, Rachel Aucoin (Eloise & Co.) on piano, Traverse draws from deep immersion into traditional musical communities, from Montreal to the Gaspé via Scotland, as well as a curiosity towards innovation and exploration. The result is “melodically memorable, beautifully played, heart-lifting music, full of intelligence, delicacy and detail” (RootsWorld). The band features three top musicians who have each come to Quebec from elsewhere—Laura from California, Nicholas from Ottawa, and Rachel from the Maritimes—and have been deeply involved with traditional Québécois music for decades. Together, they play with knife’s-edge precision and a rare intuitive connection that draws listeners into a riveting musical experience.

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WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING

“Gorgeous, refreshing”

“Scratchy in-the-room atmospheres and subtle experimentations on piano, flute accordion and trumpet lift her arrangements into unexpected places.”

★★★★ “Mature, dignified and rewarding”

“‘Stéphane Landry et les Frères Pigeon’… twines urgent violin strokes with steadily keyed piano chords… ‘Retreat Marches’ [is] a slower and more pensive piece of playing that sees violin and accordion follow each other closely enough to mistake one for the other in places. Gorgeous… Songs like ‘Hommage aux Maheux’ begin almost subdued, with Aucoin’s single piano notes supporting Risk’s lower violin line, before blooming into rich and euphoric music. But it’s all done with plenty of taste and balance and doesn’t overdo the flourishes.

“Melodically memorable, beautifully-played, heart-lifting music, full of intelligence, delicacy and detail”

“In the track titled ‘Retreat Marches’ the first, The Montreal March, is by one of the best known and highly regarded living West Highland fiddlers, Aonghas Grant… He wrote the tune for [Risk], which says a lot about his regard for her work. Her fiddle and the melody side of Williams’s accordion duet with perfectly synchronised grace-noting and lift, before Aucoin’s piano joins them for the big surging swing of the second march… The overall sound of the trio has something of the spring and lift of the Scottish-rooted Cape Breton style. There’s the splendidly bouncy ‘Le Rimouski,’ learned from famous Québec fiddler Jean Carignan’s younger brother Marcel, the warm ‘Hommage aux Maheux’ from the repetoire of Philippe Bruneau, and the three dance tunes from Québec fiddlers that comprise ‘Douglastown.'”

“[Traverse is] a reminder that traditional music was meant to be passed along person to person through love and personal connections. That’s how it’s lived as long as it has and how it will continue after we’re all gone.”

“An acclaimed interpreter of the Québécois fiddle tradition, Laura Risk may have originally made her name in the Scottish fiddle world, but her many years in Montréal and her extensive research and publication into the back roads of French-Canadian fiddling give her a ton of cred. On her new trio album with accordionist Nicholas Williams of Genticorum and French-Canadian pianist Rachel Aucoin, she brings together Scottish and Québécois tunes, original and traditional, into a lovely mélange of cultures… For fans of the purely traditional, Risk has some great renditions of tunes from Jean Carignan and Philippe Bruneau, tunes from her research into the wild Douglastown repertoire of the Gaspé Peninsula, even a very old Scottish tune from the 18th century.”

“Listening to this work of meticulous research and creativity, we discover that music truly can traverse time and place and bring us joy through the ages.”

“If you’d like to listen to a recording that encapsulates history and joy in equal portions and just makes you want to dance, Traverse, by Laura Risk, with friends Nicholas Williams and Rachel Aucoin, is absolutely the one. Laura has an incredible sound that’s based in her complete command of her fiddle… She is as meticulous a player as she is a music researcher, but with the addition of a soul full of passion and a drive for capturing the heart and community that is often hidden within the notes…. [Traverse] celebrates life, the living, those who came before us and the musical communities in which we find ourselves.”

PHOTOS

Click on images to see photo credits

LIVE VIDEOS

Videography by Olivier Arseneault (first 3 videos)

ALBUM PROMO VIDEOS

Videography by Olivier Arseneault

TRACK INFO FOR DJs

1. Stéphane Landry et les frères Pigeon (4:16): Medley of 2 reels (both B minor). Begins with 10 seconds of crackling sound (feet) and then slow fade-in of instruments. Both tunes are lively and uptempo. Ends with 8 seconds of crackling sound. ISRC: CBCCN2300001

2. Elsa’s (4:37): Medley of 3 jigs (G major, B minor, E major). Piano and dance intro, fiddle enters at 0:20. First tune medium tempo and introspective, second and third tunes upbeat and driving. ISRC: CBCCN2300002

3. Retreat Marches (4:07): Medley of 2 retreat marches (D major, A modal). Begins with accordion and fiddle duo, piano enters at 2:00. Slower march tempo, majestic feel. ISRC: CBCCN2300003

4. Peggy and the Doctor (6:58): Medley: slow air followed by a jig (G major). First tune is played by accordion and fiddle. Piano enters at 3:15 for second tune, medium tempo and lively. ISRC: CBCCN2300004

5. Jerry’s Waltz (3:12): Waltz (D major), features flute. ISRC: CBCCN2300005

6. Jane Risk (5:03): Instrumental ballad (C major), features trumpet. ISRC: CBCCN2300006

7. Le Rimouski (3:15): Uptempo, lively reel (G major, modulates to C and F, ends in G). ISRC: CBCCN2300007

8. Hommage aux Maheux (4:06): Slower reel (D major), expansive feel. ISRC: CBCCN2300008

9. Douglastown (3:17): Medley of 3 reels (G major, E minor). First tune is medium-tempo, second and third tunes are fast and driving. ISRC: CBCCN2300009

10. Another Voyage (3:31): Slow air (D major). ISRC: CBCCN2300010

Label: Laura Risk; Catalogue #: RISK2301; UPC: 875531024722

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Originally from California, now living in Montreal, Laura Risk performs and teaches Québécois and Scottish fiddling internationally and has over a dozen albums to her credit. Her distinctive sound and compelling interpretations of traditional tunes are intensely personal yet grounded in meticulous archival and ethnographic research. She has toured with Cordelia’s Dad, Triptych, Ensemble Galilei, and dancer Sandy Silva. She is co-author of The Glengarry Collection: The Highland Fiddle Music of Aonghas Grant (Mel Bay) and her co-production of the CD Douglastown: Music and Song from the Gaspé Coast received the 2014 Prix Mnémo for documentation of Quebec’s intangible cultural heritage. She is also an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Nicholas Williams is a multi-instrumentalist (flute, accordion, piano), singer, and composer who has developed a reputation as a versatile and sought-after musician in the traditional music scenes of Québec and New England, playing with ensembles such as Genticorum, Crowfoot, and the Kehler & Williams Duo. A recipient of the Aldor prize and multiple Canadian Folk music awards, he is featured on over 50 albums as a recording artist and producer. He has performed and taught around the world, always interested in exploring the meeting ground between tradition and innovation.

Born in New Brunswick with roots in Cape Breton, Rachel Aucoin (piano) was raised in an Acadian community and now lives near Quebec City. She has performed and recorded with trad music phenoms Natalie MacMaster, André Brunet, Eric Favreau, Lissa Schneckenburger, Donnell Leahy, and many more. She is also founder and director of the Quebec trad music and dance camp Souches à Oreilles. She is a recipient of the Aldor trophy (Québec) and her duet recording Grandes Rencontres, with accordionist husband Sabin Jacques, was awarded the Prix du Patrimoine 2019 (Chaudière-Appalaches), the Prix Gus Viseur (Paris), and honored at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. In fall 2025, she will release an album with the Vermont-based ensemble Eloise & Co.