Musician duets with ancestral Indigenous voices on debut album

For his debut album, Jeremy Dutcher incorporated century-old recordings of songs in the fading Wolastoq language, spoken in the Tobique First Nation where he grew up. Dutcher says he wanted to highlight the beauty of the songs. (April 25, 2018) 1. SOUNDBITE: Jeremy Dutcher, musician PLACELINE: Toronto CREDIT: The Canadian Press STORYLINE: Singer Jeremy Dutcher's voice is an instrument that's reaching across a century of Indigenous history. The 27-year-old operatic tenor's debut album marks an exercise in duality, as the trained musician combines his interest in classical and electronic music with a stunning array of archival recordings he found in a dusty Quebec archive. ``Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa'' is an ambitious 11-track project that weaves the past and present together in hopes of drawing attention to the fading Wolastoq language. It's spoken in the Tobique First Nation, one of six Wolastoqiyik reserves in New Brunswick where Dutcher spent much of his youth. On his album, the singer duets with the ancestral voices he found preserved on wax cylinder recordings. Each song carries an alluring emotional intensity that transcends the perceived boundaries of words. ``At first, there was no thought to make a record _ that came a little later,'' Dutcher says of the five years it took for his concept to take shape. ``As soon as I heard those voices from 110 years ago, there was a sense of responsibility.'' Dutcher says he's watched the Wolastoq language fading fast as elders die and few young people learn to speak it.