Montreal folk quintet Mentana is excited to present “No Return,” the first single from its debut album Inland Desire, available on March 11 (and for pre-order now on iTunes). Robin-Joël Cool, Viviane Audet, Jonathan Fournier, Pablo Seib and Yannick Parent draw from folk and Americana as well as First-Nations rhythms to shape their original sound—a filmic folk that aims right for the heart. A must-hear, if you haven’t already.
No Return
Easy on the ears, “No Return” unfolds like a movie script, tracing the serial setbacks of a father who will go to any length to get custody of his kids. With his little ones in the back seat, he drives without stopping, propelled by his desire to be with them… until the point of no return. The song is a wrenching reminder of the power of parental love—a force that the band’s five members discovered recently, when all of them, over the course of 14 months, became parents. Carried by a frenetic rhythm and by the song’s musical suspense, Robin-Joël Cool’s smouldering baritone weaves with the clear soaring notes of Viviane Audet. A short trip through an all-too-human epic, “No Return” will be the soundtrack of the season.
Mentana’s breakthrough came in 2012 with the song “Islands and Rupees,” which was featured as the credit track of the Rafaël Ouellet film Camion. The band then launched a first EP, Western Soil, to critical acclaim. Shortly thereafter, “Devil on the Corner” became the theme song of Ouellet’s next movie, Gurov and Anna. In 2015, the German production company ZDF, filming a documentary about Canada, featured the band during Mentana’s stint at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. After the documentary aired last January, Mentana topped folk sales on iTunes Germany for three straight weeks. Through it all, the band has also been playing live, wooing audiences in Quebec and New Brunswick, gathering fans as they go. But Mentana is coming back to a home crowd, in Montreal: Inland Desire (on the Ste-4 musique label) will launch at the Sala Rossa on March 15.
Don’t wait until the ides of March: pre-order the album on iTunes today. Digital sales begin March 11. In the meantime, you can keep “No Return” on repeat until the first signs of spring.
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