Elisapie Isaac steps out with first solo CD

In a week when the loudest buzz in the music industry was made by the Beatles — their re-mastered 40-year-old catalogue selling multi-millions — one might feel sympathy for an Inuit singer-songwriter with a new album at the same time.

Elisapie Isaac launched her first solo effort, There Will Be Stars, in Montreal last week.

And with a jam-packed audience at the Just For Laughs theatre, her performance gave fans a close-up view of what it’s like to gaze on the birth of a northern star.

The Salluit native mounted the stage in her little black dress and blood-red stiletto heels, bathing in spotlights, posing perfectly for the part of sexy pop diva.

A quartet of string musicians swept the singer into “Navvaatara” (I Found It), Isaac’s voice weaving intimacy and innocence, breezing through the cool jazzy tune.

Passing through her lips, Inuttitut sounds like the most beautiful tongue in the world and the crowd — among it many northerners — went completely wild.

Just years after she first wowed listeners as one-half of the duo Taima — winning best aboriginal album at the 2005 Juno Awards — Isaac’s personal CD signals the artist’s newfound confidence as songwriter and performer.

“Being a singer was a hobby before,” said Isaac in an interview. “Even saying I was an artist was bizarre. Now I know what I want and it’s only me that I have to defend.”

Perfectly trilingual, Isaac’s album includes three tracks that feature lyrics switching back and forth between Inuttitut and English.

They also share hints about the ins and outs of love.

“Out Of Desperation” rocks gently with its irresistible sing-along quality, while “Turning My Back” puts fingers to snapping and hands to clapping with its Latin-inflected disco beat.

Of the three bilingual numbers, “Nothing In This World Is Free” is musically the most complex, the tasty electric guitar parts playing off neat ukulele and dobro bits.

Isaac’s words metamorphose into pure English for “Butterfly,” her voice displaying the infectious child-like air she turns on with such ease, the song’s bouncing beat styling it an instant favourite with the audience.

Isaac finds the language for her lyrics via her emotions and inside the message she tries to create. But her identity as an Inuit singer is more than just an image.

“It depends on what inspires me,” she said. “I grew up listening to songs in English and it’s not easy finding metaphors in Inuttitut because the language is so straightforward.”

She hinted, though, that an all-Inuttitut album may be in the works.

“Arnaapik” displays Isaac in her mother tongue at her best.

Dedicated to her three-year-old daughter, Lilly Alacie, the song is gentle enough to sing to a child at bedtime yet slyly hooks you as it builds to its chorus:

“Ippigusutsialangavit/Tukisimatsiarasulangavit inuusirnit/ Asiuliruvit qummut takusaqattalutit ulluriarnit

[Ed: Translation: You will be alert/And try to understand your life/And when you’re lost look up towards the sky to the stars.]

With “Inuk,” her voice blazes and soars like an anthem, the music haunted with reverb guitar and deep background throat singing. The song addresses the hopelessness and negative attitudes that lead too many Inuit towards suicide.

Isaac urges to her people to take responsibility: “Qangani inuk sangituungulirniqa/Ati immini makigiatuinnalauri/Inusiq suli ingirrama/Siqini suli nuiniarmimat/

[Ed: Translation: Since when did an Inuk become weak/Come on, lift yourself up/Life keeps on going/The sun will always come up again.]

“Do You See Me” is styled as a hymn for her late father. It reveals Isaac’s early musical influences as a child in Salluit.

“Growing up, church was the only place where I could sing,” she said. “I’m very spiritual because that’s the way Inuit have always been and the most beautiful music is gospel.”

“Wish Song” is this album’s perfect gem. It’s Isaac’s tribute to Montreal singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. The simplest song here, the chorus repeats:

“I wish you I wish you hope/I wish you love and tenderness/I wish you strength/I wish you dreams and happiness/”

As with many of her songs, Isaac seems to be speaking a message straight to someone close to her, yet the personal quality curiously transcends the strictly private.

By far the most raw and real number is “Moi, Elsie,” with French lyrics written by Quebec singer-songwriter Richard Desjardins.

The words read like a letter never sent by an Inuit woman to a Qallunaq southern man after their temporary sexual affair has ended, eerily capturing the feelings in such relationships — the illicit desires, the memories that linger.

“Comme à ces filles dans les baraques/peuplées à mort dans le désordre/avec des cousins qui les traquent/dans l’garde-robe, au bout d’une corde./”

[Ed: Translation: “Like those girls in those shacks/Packed with people all messed up/With their cousins who still hassle them/from the closet where they hanged themselves.]”

Above all, this is a song that may resonate with northerner and southerner listeners alike, its truth-telling message laying bare the longings of the heart.

“It’s autobiographical, it’s me and my friends,” she said. “I decided I’m going to sing one for the girls.”

Yes, Elisapie, there will indeed be stars. And you will be one among them too, very soon.

• Elisapie Isaac’s website

• Buy Elisapie’s new CD