Esmerine

Canada's Esmerine formed in Montreal during 2000 as an ambitious Juno Award-winning chamber rock ensemble. Cellist Beckie Foon and percussionist Bruce Cawdron, both veterans of Set Fire to Flames along with other local outfits including A Silver Mt. Zion and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, started the group after meeting during sessions for that instrumental side project. The pair initially operated as a duo and issued their first album, If Only a Sweet Surrender to the Nights to Come Be True, on the U.K.'s Resonant label in May 2003. Two years later they delivered the follow-up Aurora through the Ninja Tune imprint.

Additional musicians and guests expanded the lineup for the Patrick Watson-produced La Lechuza, Esmerine's 2011 debut on Constellation Records, which included appearances by Arcade Fire's Sarah Neufeld and experimental saxophonist Colin Stetson. For the band's fourth release, 2013's Dalmak, the musicians traveled to Istanbul to record with several Turkish players before completing the sessions in Montreal alongside engineer Jace Lasek; the album earned a Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year. That same year Foon launched her solo Saltland project with I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us.

Lost Voices appeared in 2015, its material shaped during a stay at Le Chateau Monthelon, an eighth-century manor house in France, and the package brought Esmerine a second Juno Award, this time for Recording Package of the Year. Over the ensuing two years the group recorded commissioned scores for the National Film Board documentary Freelancer on the Front Lines, focused on journalists in the Middle East, while Foon issued her second Saltland album; both experiences fed into the 2017 full-length Mechanics of Dominion. Once again tracked in Montreal with Jace Lasek, the record incorporated contributions from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Sophie Trudeau, violinist Cristina Zacharias, Turkish guitarist James Hakan Dedeoglu, and others. Bassist Philippe Charbonneau, previously a touring member, joined the core lineup of Foon, Cawdron, and multi-instrumentalist Brian Sanderson. The ensemble continued its run of mournful, cinematic statements with Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More in 2022, maintaining its expansive, largely acoustic and guitar-free instrumental approach rooted in avant-garde classical, post-punk, and various traditional styles.