Canadian singer-songwriter Richard Laviolette has died. He was 41.
The Guelph-based musician experienced the onset of Huntington's disease symptoms last fall. According to the announcement of the tragic news by Steven Lambke of You've Changed Records — the label that released two Laviolette albums, 2010's All of Your Raw Materials and 2017's Taking the Long Way Home — Laviolette's symptoms had been rapidly worsening since May, and he chose to receive MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). The singer-songwriter passed away peacefully yesterday (September 5) evening.
"Richard was the first artist we worked with at YC, outside of our immediate founding circle," Lambke wrote. "I had played shows a few times with Richard and loved his A Little Less Like a Rock… CD. It was beautiful and mysterious and intimate, in its hand-sewn sleeve, its depiction of ants and universes and neighbourhoods and alphabets. When he gave me a CDR of All of Your Raw Materials at a house show in Guelph, I loved it instantly. This is a defining album for me, a lesson in love and courage and community. It is an album for life."
Lambke continued, "Everything I can think to say today about love and loss and the way to celebrate life through music, Richard has said in one of his songs. They burst with life and mortality, with guts and glory, with love, justice, honesty, and a beautiful mischief. These songs were expressions of the particularities of Richard's life and his voice, and they were songs that found embodiment in that particular body, and in his voice, but they always, magically, transcended these specifics."
Lambke went on to say that there is a final Laviolette record coming, which the artist had completed over the past few months. It's called All Wild Things Are Shy.
Exclaim!'s own Vish Khanna also remembered "the great" Laviolette on the latest episode of his Kreative Kontrol podcast, which you can listen to here.
Read Lambke's tribute to Laviolette in full below.
The Guelph-based musician experienced the onset of Huntington's disease symptoms last fall. According to the announcement of the tragic news by Steven Lambke of You've Changed Records — the label that released two Laviolette albums, 2010's All of Your Raw Materials and 2017's Taking the Long Way Home — Laviolette's symptoms had been rapidly worsening since May, and he chose to receive MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). The singer-songwriter passed away peacefully yesterday (September 5) evening.
"Richard was the first artist we worked with at YC, outside of our immediate founding circle," Lambke wrote. "I had played shows a few times with Richard and loved his A Little Less Like a Rock… CD. It was beautiful and mysterious and intimate, in its hand-sewn sleeve, its depiction of ants and universes and neighbourhoods and alphabets. When he gave me a CDR of All of Your Raw Materials at a house show in Guelph, I loved it instantly. This is a defining album for me, a lesson in love and courage and community. It is an album for life."
Lambke continued, "Everything I can think to say today about love and loss and the way to celebrate life through music, Richard has said in one of his songs. They burst with life and mortality, with guts and glory, with love, justice, honesty, and a beautiful mischief. These songs were expressions of the particularities of Richard's life and his voice, and they were songs that found embodiment in that particular body, and in his voice, but they always, magically, transcended these specifics."
Lambke went on to say that there is a final Laviolette record coming, which the artist had completed over the past few months. It's called All Wild Things Are Shy.
Exclaim!'s own Vish Khanna also remembered "the great" Laviolette on the latest episode of his Kreative Kontrol podcast, which you can listen to here.
Read Lambke's tribute to Laviolette in full below.