Lou Canon

In ancient Greek theatre, the chorus was a group of performers that would appear onstage to communicate with audience members and demonstrate how one might respond to the action of the play. It was a theatrical device that allowed the audience to better understand characters (often all played by one actor). The chorus offered insight and shaped expectations of scenes to come.

Lou Canon’s third album,  Audomatic Body, opens with “The Chorus.” Mimicking the dramatic mechanism of the same name, it features most of the voices that will later be heard on the record, and starts to sketch out motifs that will resurface throughout the nine songs that follow.

“Reimagine the body,” a breathy croon echoes in the first line. “Slow down the pleasure, no protest in desire,” the modern-day chorus continues.

It’s an introduction to a collection of songs that hear Canon reflecting on the evolving nature of relationships; the struggle to stay together, the wax and wane of passion, the ways that sensuality can change as years go by, an ode to the human experience.

Sonically,  Audomatic Body is more immediately melodic than 2017’s Suspicious — an album that was moody and atmospheric and textural, best listened to through headphones in a quiet space.

Parts of the new album were recorded with Grammy-winning producer Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Timber Timbre, Basia Bulat) in Montreal, while others were made in home set-ups at a little cabin in the Russian river, up north in Grey County, in Prince Edward County and in Toronto.

Audomatic Body belongs on its very own plane. Its swampy waters filled with electric eels, where natural and synthetic vibrations coalesce beneath Canon’s delicately distorted, sometimes almost-whispered vocals. Flashes of intimacy (“Next to You”), imagination (“Invisible Desire”), loss (“Sleeper Wave”) and rejuvenation (“For Life”) punctuate the entrancing set of songs — just as the voices in “The Chorus” foretold.

Amongst those voices are Ariel Engle of La Force, Bruno Capinan, Sebastian Chow, Hayden Desser, Frannie Holder, Levi Kimeza, Tim Kingsbury of Arcade Fire and Brendan Reed.

It’s only fitting that Engle described the feeling of singing on it as “entering into a boudoir,” likening it to a woman’s private room; a beautifully decorated retreat space for drawing, dreaming, sulking, entertaining a lover — or whatever.

“The boudoir became the visual, perhaps even physical, manifestion of Audomatic Body,” Canon explains.

The title borrows from ancient languages, playing on the Greek-rooted “auto” (meaning “self”) and Latin-rooted “aud” (meaning “hear”). It’s about growth, hearing one’s own body, recognizing sensual needs and finding a place where you give into pleasure… “I surrender in the ancient chamber.”

Lou Canon released a follow-up, remix album, Reimagine the Body, on January 26th, 2022.

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