Jean-Michel Blais

Born in 1984 in Nicolet, Québec, Jean-Michel Blais trained in piano at the Conservatoire de Trois-Rivières before distancing himself from classical teaching and later returning to composition through improvisation. Based in Montréal, Blais creates instrumental music that sits between minimalism, neoclassical and contemporary writing, with a piano style closely linked to silence, resonance and the acoustics of spaces. His first album, Il, was first released in 2015 and issued on Arts & Crafts in 2016; recorded in his Montréal apartment, it retains ambient sounds and an intimate sonic proximity that remain associated with his work. In 2017 he collaborated with Montréal musician CFCF on the EP Cascades, a project that led him towards more electronic textures, further developed on Dans ma main in 2018. The same year saw the release of Eviction Sessions, and in 2019 Blais composed the soundtrack for Xavier Dolan’s film Matthias & Maxime. His discography continued with Aubades in 2022 and the EP Sérénades in 2023, a career that sees him moving between concert halls, festivals and indie stages.