About Sunshine (feat. Clay and Friends, Ariane Moffatt, D R M S & Ruffsound)

Producer D R M S and Ariane Moffatt deliver SOMMM, an ageless and uncomplicated collaborative work that comes at just the right time. Musician, songwriter and director Étienne Dupuis-Cloutier (aka D R M S) is the man behind the albums by Fanny Bloom and Dumas, and now SOMMM, created in collaboration with Ariane Moffatt after connecting on tour. This unique opus features eight original songs produced entirely by the duo, who invite singer-songwriters Marie-Pierre Arthur and Rosie Valland to join them on pop-tinged tracks. For nearly 30 minutes, SOMMM not only borrows the codes of keb rap, alternating fluidly between French and English, but also its beatmakers. Producer Ruffsound, to whom we owe some of Quebec hip hop’s greatest hits, puts his commercial pop touch on “Finir seule” and “Sunshine”, enhanced by the bilingual rhymes of the catchy Clay and Friends. FouKi, LaF and Maky Lavender, up-and-coming rappers from Montreal’s emerging hip hop scene, are also featured on the brilliantly crafted summer rap tracks. While SOMMM’s rhythms evoke summer, their lyrics also recall the anxious atmosphere that currently prevails. Dealing with loss of bearings, life’s challenges and relationships with lightness, the collaborative album can be listened to again and again, from one end to the other with ease. A whole that is undoubtedly more than the sum of its parts.

Ariane Moffatt and Étienne Dupuis-Cloutier take us on a track-by-track journey behind the scenes of their new collaborative album. Don’t miss the discussion (left) that Paroles & Musique editor Eric Parazelli had with Moffat Moffatt and Étienne Dupuis-Cloutier about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. We’ve known her for quite a while now. Ariane Moffatt seems to age backwards, and she hides her secret of the fountain of youth. Étienne Dupuis-Cloutier is a behind-the-scenes hero that loves left-of-centre pop music. As a sought-after producer, he’s set the voices of Fanny Bloom, Dumas, Cœur de pirate, and Eli Rose in his backdrop of lush, fresh instrumentation. Together as SOMMM, Moffat and Dupuis-Cloutier have created a turbo-charged electro-pop offering, with hints of rap, trap, and even jazz. Their music is perfect for springtime, right here and now, and couldn’t have come at a better time to heal broken hearts. The duo de-constructs its eight songs for the readers of Words & Music.