Hélène Barbier unveils new single “Lapin” and announces her upcoming album “Panorama”

On November 14th, 2025, Hélène Barbier will release Panorama, her third album and first via Bonsound. To mark the occasion, the Montreal singer and bassist is unveiling a new single today. The spellbinding avant-pop tune Lapin highlights her soft, captivating voice and sets the tone for her upcoming album.

The Montreal launch show is scheduled for November 27th at La Toscadura as part of the Festival Triste. Hélène Barbier will also celebrate the release of Panorama on November 28th with a show at Le Pantoum in Quebec City. 

Lapin is an effective lesson in simplicity. The minimalistic arrangements allow us to savour every drum beat, every cascading guitar riff, every note of Barbier's assertive bass line, while her nonchalant voice completes the package. The introspective avant-pop track doesn’t take itself seriously; it's a wry laugh that defuses the drama, an anti-magic song.

The lyrics tell the story of someone who doubts themselves, who is unable to find the right words, and who waits without really knowing why. Hélène Barbier exposes the strategy we often use when indecision paralyzes us; waiting for a providential sign that will never come, to tell us what to say or do. It’s a feeling she knows well, but one she approaches here with a light heart, preferring to highlight the absurdity of her shortcomings with humour rather than be frustrated by them.

Joy and anxiety come together on Panorama, Hélène Barbier's upcoming album. Characterized by haunting melodies, stripped-down choruses, and a subtle layer of nonchalance that reinforces the songs' magnetism, this avant-pop album was crafted over a period of three years. Born in response to the stress caused by certain events that disrupted the daily life of the Montreal singer and bassist, these nine tracks sound as if they were postcards sent at different moments in life, even if their intriguing lyrics leave room for interpretation. 

Though it is a very personal album, Panorama is also a collective effort. After taking the time to refine her songs and remove elements she felt were superfluous, Hélène Barbier called on Ben Lalonde and Joe Chamandy (Retail Simps), with whom she has been making music for many years, as well as Claire Paquet, Thomas Molander, Samuel Gougoux (Corridor, Trafic des Airs, Victime), Wes MacNeil (Night Lunch), Mélanie Venditti, Alexandra Levy (Ada Lea), Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and producer Emmanuel Éthier.

Influences from the past and present mingle in these deliberately hard-to-date recordings; it's as if The Shaggs had taken guitar lessons from Tom Verlaine in Montreal in 2025, before forming a band by divine accident. The resulting album delivers a symphony of gooey jangle pop riffs, throaty melodies, and tangled grooves.

About Hélène Barbier

Hélène Barbier seeds melodies that ferment and blossom in the shadows, pairing hummable lines with alien tunes conjured in someone else’s psyche across time and space. Siamese fragments. She creates an imbalance through juxtaposition. Four simple notes become evocative alongside four disorienting, different notes, and this simplistic rule has become a basis for complex play.

After releasing Have You Met Elliot ? in 2019 and Regulus in 2021, the France-born, Montreal-based artist will release her third album, Panorama, this fall. Enlisting musicians based on their willingness to break from tired chords, worn fills, and needless flourish, Barbier switches between English and French atop aggressively anti-complicated avant-pop melodies. 

Keen to highlight the humour and beauty of everyday life, whether it be a road trip with her dog Toody or gardening in the small flower bed in front of her house, Hélène Barbier has nevertheless written many songs from Panorama in response to anxiety and health problems that surface when everything else seems to be going well. 

In addition to cultivating her creativity with her musical endeavours, Hélène Barbier is deeply engaged in the Montreal music scene, notably through her involvement with Celluloid Lunch, an innovative independent label she co-founded with her husband Joe Chamandy, who also plays guitar in her band.

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