Jean-Michel Blais

Jean-Michel Blais, a pianist from Canada, crafts primarily improvised pieces that echo the sensibilities of Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel alongside early minimalist figures such as Philip Glass. Rather than clinical precision, his music conveys spontaneity and feeling, as heard in “Dada” from the 2016 debut Il, while he also weaves experimental production methods into his recordings. His catalog features the 2017 collaboration Cascades with CFCF, the Polaris-nominated Dans ma main from 2018, and the 2022 album Aubades, which entered the Top 15.

Raised in Quebec, Blais began playing both organ and piano during childhood. He enrolled in classical training at the Trois-Rivières Music Conservatory yet chose to follow an independent route. After periods in Berlin and South America marked by occasional music-making, he settled in Montreal and recommitted to serious composition. Arts & Crafts issued his first album, Il, in 2016; the CFCF joint project Cascades followed in 2017. His second solo release, Dans ma main, arrived in May 2018 and earned a Polaris Music Prize shortlist.

November 2018 brought Eviction Sessions, Blais’s fourth project on Arts & Crafts. The eviction notice after seven years in his apartment, prompted by neighborhood gentrification, directly spurred the recording; the same space had hosted the sessions for his debut, lending the work an intensely personal character. In October 2019 he supplied the score for the Canadian film Matthias & Maxime, earning a special mention at the Cannes Soundtrack Awards. His third solo album, Aubades, surfaced in 2022 and, buoyed by widespread Canadian national press, climbed to number 14 on the charts.