New Music: The Night Owls release self-titled album

The NIght Owls

Photo: Anne-Sophie Coiteux

Montreal-based indie/folk/rock/country duo The Night Owls drop the title track from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, slated to drop in spring 2022.

Talking about the song, the twosome share, “We like to play music at night. The only thing that matters is each other because in those times we feel like there’s only the two of us in the universe.”

The Night Owls are Simon Arsenault and Marianne Bourgeois. Arsenault, a session player, studied classical music, jazz, and electro-acoustic at Cegep Saint-Laurent, Université de Montreal, and at UQAM. Self-taught singer-songwriter Bourgeois studied cinema and psychology, all while writing songs and poetry.

Relegated to home during the pandemic, they wrote new material. Before they knew it, they had an album’s worth of songs.

Produced by Arsenault, mixed by William Gaboury, and mastered by Richard Addison, “The Night Owls” features the talents of Marianne Bourgeois (vocals), Simon Arsenault (guitar, backing vocals), Marc-Antoine Dauphin (drums), Nicolas Fontaine (bass), Antoine Loiselle (pedal steel), Jolyane Lemay (backing vocals), and Laure-Anne Francoeur (backing vocals).

“The Night Owls” opens on deliciously graceful guitars, followed by the entry of Bourgeois’ crystalline voice, smooth and radiant, harmonizing with another female voice. A low-slung, drawling steel guitar imbues the tune with wistful colors. When the drums and bass enter, the harmonics take on flavors of indie-folk with hints of SoCal soft rock.

“Laying down the words in the book of our lives / Letting our love grow as the seasons pass / Listening to the wind whispering beneath our wings / Looking at the horizon unafraid of the darkness that’s yet to come.”

Crying tones fill the solo with oozing coloration as the rhythm resonates on the deep, rumbling bassline. With two layers of color, one subterranean and throbbing, the other luminous and creamy, the tune assumes sumptuous washes of sound.

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At once enchanting and memorable, The Night Owls bewitch listeners with gorgeous harmonies and lyrical descriptions of taking satisfaction in the shadows of the night.

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