As his debut in releasing French-first material, Trevor Murphy has dropped a summertime single under his new project, Sluice. “Un été sans frontières” is an upbeat, history-based and culturally driven number that gets back to Murphy’s roots.
Having grown up in the Par-en-Bas region in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, Murphy wanted to showcase where he comes from and some of the significant history behind his home region. Sticking to the regional dialect, culture and geography of Par-en-Bas, Sluice is digging into Acadian roots and incorporating them in the music.
Even the name Sluice points to Acadian history. It is a nod to both Sluice Point, where Murphy’s grandparents lived, and the traditional dikes Acadians built after they first settled along Canada’s eastern coast. Also known as aboiteaux, sluices allowed freshwater to drain from Acadian farmland at low tide but prevented salt water from inundating farmed fields at high tide.
The single is upbeat and captures the spirit of creating opportunity when starting life anew. Reminiscing on the feeling of freedom felt by the Acadians before the expulsion, “Un été sans frontières” brings listeners back to the early days of Acadian settlement in Murphy’s home region and lets them feel the joy of the era.
“I used to be afraid to speak French, even ashamed sometimes,” says Murphy. “Even though I spoke the language every day, we grew up with an understanding that the Acadian dialect just wasn’t ‘good enough’ or ‘proper’ French.
“It wasn’t until years after I moved away that I finally started to reconnect with those roots, to take pride in the place where I’m from and the way we speak, and to want to tell stories with this voice.”
Though Murphy previously released Nous Étions Icitte with Quiet Parade, this single is his first release in French first — not a translation of existing English material.