David Simard is a Canadian artist based in Paris whose patient observation of life’s dark corners and forgotten places has resulted in a stunning collection of 11 songs intended to be savored. Drawn from material gathered over the past eight years, Simard’s second full-length is infused with flavours from the various locales he’s lived in, from Montreal to Paris to a ghost town in Northern B.C.

The lyrical and musical makeup of The Heavy Wait is an effortless combination of gilded European elegance and small-town noir. Simard and his band recorded most of the album in a charged, live-off-the-floor session in Arcade Fire’s old “Petite Eglise” studio. They dug in hard and deep to produce a quiet intensity so palpable and persistent that the album builds in strength with each passing track. Waves of horns and lap steel guitar, sparsely placed piano, and haunting clarinet lines recorded later in Paris and Vancouver rush to complement the live performances. “The Heavy Wait” was the band’s chosen mantra during that first session and it persisted until the final note was captured.

Born in a small fishing village in northern British Columbia, David Simard has always imbued his work with a sense of space and a hint of nostalgia. Simard’s arrangements evoke the landscapes he’s studied and lived in, while his lyrics intimately relate the stories of characters met and imagined, along with more than a few of his own experiences.