plus special guest
Toby Burke
wednesday 8 december
2004
La Java

new album Elk Lake Serenade
Loose Records/PIAS

"Hayden, le reclus des grands espaces"

Les titres et les pochettes de ses disques semblent vanter les vertus de la vie au grand air :
pour Skyscraper National Park (2001), un ours et un élan, pour Elf-lake Serenade, une promenade en barque.
En contraste avec le chant dépressif et l'humeur sombre de Hayden Desser, dernière révélation en date du folk de là-bas. Ses complaintes crépusculaires semblent surgies de l'autarcie d'une bicoque forestière,
perdue dans les frimas d'un hiver interminable.
De lui, on a pu dire qu'il possédait à la fois les aigus brisés de Neil Young et la langueur de profundis de Leonard Cohen. Autant dire que les années pèsent déjà sur les épaules du trentenaire originaire de Toronto. Ce reclus ne répond pas aux sollicitations des journalistes et cultive le mystère autour de sa personne.
Sur son premier album ( Everything I Long for, 1995), on croyait entendre Norman Bates ayant échangé son couteau contre une guitare désaccordée : une claustrophobie morbide, dans le droit-fil du courant lo-fi (pour low fidelity), cette esthétique du bricolage prônée par les groupes Smog ou Sebadoh.
Les cinéphiles firent sa connaissance en 1996 lorsque Steve Buscemi lui confia la chanson-titre (écrite avec l'acteur des frères Coen) du film Trees Lounge, chronique de piliers de bar dans un trou de l'Amérique. La chance semble lui sourire ; il signe avec Outpost, propriété du nabab David Geffen, pour The Closer I Get (1998).
Mais ce label disparaît, et Hayden avec.
Dans son coin, Hayden enregistre Skyscraper National Park et en édite lui-même 100 exemplaires, ce qui se révélera insuffisant. Pour le magnifique Elf-lake Serenade, il a encore oxygéné ses chansons, en les ornant de piano, de cordes et de trompette. Hayden trouve la beauté dans une oisiveté contemplative ( Woody , sur son chat) qui peut basculer de la mélancolie à l'horreur pure - il évoque, dans Killbear, comment il a abandonné sa mie...
aux griffes d'un grizzly.

Bruno Lesprit Le Monde du 25 octobre 2004


Hayden is a Toronto musician who's been releasing records for ten years. His international debut 'Everything I Long For' (Geffen) was released in 1996 after initial attention in Canada following two cassettes and several 7-inch singles. The album's home recorded songs appealed to critics and fans alike, making many year- end top ten lists. Following tours of the U.S, Europe and Japan, Hayden released 'The Closer I Get' (Geffen) in 1998 a more band oriented affair and a sonic and lyrical progression. Following over a year of touring and promotion, Hayden closed the book on chapter one of his music career. It wasn't until 2001 that he returned with the wonderful 'Skyscraper National Park' . Recorded at his home studio, it was filled with a warmth and beauty that was felt by music lovers everywhere and was a massive return to form. His new album Elk-Lake Serenade is out now and is once again generating a huge amount of praise. Album Of The Week - 4 stars - The Independent Album Of The Week - 4 stars - The Sunday Times 4 stars - The Independent On Sunday 4 Stars - The Guardian 4 Stars - Uncut 4 stars - Q

“Hayden draws from the traditions of eccentric folk-rock, but his ragged, harrowing concoction of acoustic gentility and electric anarchy stands as a genre all its own.” THE ONION/NEW YORK

“The album's unequivocal genius slaps you upside the head. Everything about this record -
musicianship, songcraft, lyrics – is superior.” MOJO - GOLD SEAL OF APPROVAL

"One of the best songwriters flying the Americana flag. Melancholy in places, virtually every lyric contains the essence of a great movie (or at least a killer movie scene ).SUNDAY TIMES
 
"Recalls Tindersticks, or the Penguin Café Orchestra, but mostly it brings to mind Neil Young, but it's a few albums since Neil wrote songs as pungent and distinctive as these." THE INDEPENDENT
 
"Lovely, cracked, off-key vocals, winsome melodies and brilliant lyrics..... he has his own thing going on; a thoughtful, subdued take on the everyday - funnelled through apologetically beguiling harmonies." TIME OUT

"The mysterious Canadian, has been ploughing his own idiosyncratic furrow for almost a decade. It isn't easy to describe what he does, but …chances are it'll grow on ya" THE GUARDIAN
 
"A ragged tumble of guitars, waft of steel and those exquisitely crumbled vocals."UNCUT 

"Like a technology-phobic Beck, off-kilter tales of ennui and dysfunctional relationships with a wry eye, but when he seeks the emotional jugular, he usually finds it."Q
 
"Is not only utterly delectable but manages to find genuinely new ways to shape heartbreak." The Sunday Times