Petit traité de sagesse pratique (“A Short Treatise on Practical
Wisdom”) is a series of miniature songs whose texts—some ironic or
mocking, others of (intentionally) questionable value—are drawn from those
great popular guides we call proverbs. These reflections on morality, often
out-of-date, are re-examined, reworked, and ‘de-moralized’ by Diane
Labrosse, who humorously offers them up as collected pearls of wisdom, restrung on
a new thread.
Petit traité de sagesse pratique is also a collage of atmospheres, moods and
textures fixed in space. The pairing of lyricism and noise, of improvisation and
written composition, and of humor and poetry, is the driving force, and Diane
Labrosse ties everything together by drawing inspiration from baroque and medieval
music, from folk and contemporary music, from jazz, from jingles, from blues, and
so on.