As a teen-ager, Pierre Kwenders emigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Montreal, and the music that the singer cooks up as an adult evokes both locales, with lyrics in a quintet of languages and beats that call upon both Congolese sounds and electro-pop. His every song summons an international midnight. At Nublu 151, on Dec. 8, Kwenders plays his first New York show since winning Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, for “José Louis and the Paradox of Love,” a handsome LP released earlier this year.
As a teen-ager, Pierre Kwenders emigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Montreal, and the music that the singer cooks up as an adult evokes both locales, with lyrics in a quintet of languages and beats that call upon both Congolese sounds and electro-pop. His every song summons an international midnight. At Nublu 151, on Dec. 8, Kwenders plays his first New York show since winning Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, for “José Louis and the Paradox of Love,” a handsome LP released earlier this year.