Latest Release
- JUL 11, 2024
- 16 Songs
- Mercure en mai · 2022
- Les insomniaques s'amusent · 1992
- Travelling · 2020
- Quatre saisons dans le désordre · 1991
- Rêver Mieux · 2001
- Mercure en mai · 2022
- Signal (feat. Daniel Bélanger) [Jean-Michel Blais Piano Version] - Single · 2021
- Rêver mieux · 2001
- Juvenile · 2020
- Les insomniaques s'amusent · 1992
Essential Albums
- The title of Daniel Bélanger's third studio album translates as “dream better,” and its songs sketch a love affair's sleep-depriving dissolution and the happier new beginning that follows. Acoustic guitar, wind instruments, heady soundscapes (by electronic producer Freeworm), and Bélanger's soft, intimate voice combine to induce gorgeous, fragile trance states. The wordless, downtempo groove of "Fugue en sol inconnu" and simple piano accompaniment of "Dis tout sans rien dire" add variety, but it's calmly ecstatic tracks like "Intouchable et immortel" that best express Bélanger's hopeful reveries.
- After a decade in the band Humphrey Salade, Daniel Bélanger had nailed his distinctive songwriting voice by the time he released his 1992 solo debut: wry, whimsical, and enamored of wordplay. But with singles like “Opium”—all galactic imagery and pealing riffs—he established himself as a star on the rise. Les insomniaques s’amusent (Insomniacs Play) pairs lyrical flights of fancy with crisp guitars, atmospheric effects, and snappy snares, creating a moody alt-rock landscape that sounds entirely of its time, without feeling dated.
- 2020
Artist Playlists
- His cinematic art folk is the sum of disparate inspirations.
- Other singer/songwriters who've crossed over to the mainstream.
Compilations
- 1991
Appears On
About Daniel Bélanger
Daniel Bélanger’s warmth, wry sense of humor, and restless creativity have all helped him forge a strong and lasting bond with his many listeners in Canada. After developing his craft in the ’80s with his band Humphrey Salade, Bélanger—who was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1961—seemed to arrive fully formed as a solo artist with his 1992 debut Les insomniaques s’amusent. Though he would periodically return to his first album’s engaging and thoughtful blend of folk and rock, Bélanger soon proved to be an exceptionally adventurous artist, incorporating the influences of grunge and Radiohead into 1996’s Quatre saisons dans le désordre, diving into electronic music on 2001’s Rêver mieux>, and experimenting with psychedelic pop on 2016’s Paloma. Even a foray into musical theatre with 2010’s Belles-sœurs - Théâtre musical met the same rapturous response among fans and critics as the many other unexpected detours and directions Bélanger has taken.
- FROM
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- BORN
- December 26, 1962
- GENRE
- French Pop