The ever-talented Montreal-based composer and pianist Jean-Michel Blais has released his fourth album, mirador, via Arts & Crafts.
If you have followed Blais’ work, you already know how beautiful and emotional his compositions can be, but mirador feels like a major expansion of his musical world.
This is a beautiful and sweeping maximalist classical album that goes far beyond the piano.
Blais surrounds his compositions with choirs, strings and an array of other instruments, creating something that feels enormous, cinematic and wonderfully immersive. There is a real sense of movement throughout the album, as though each piece is taking you somewhere new.
mirador is described as an odyssey spanning choirs, strings and the music of the Andes, travelling from Spanish caves to Estonian forests and eventually back to the basement in Nicolet, Québec, where Blais first imagined these adventures.
I really like that idea of the “mirador” is an imaginary lookout where you can step away from the world and dream about what might be beyond it.
You can hear that sense of imagination throughout the album.
There is wonder here, but also vulnerability, discovery and a feeling of constantly moving forward.
Blais describes the album as beginning with a hazy dream, taking detours, improvising, falling, getting back up and continuing until eventually arriving somewhere — sometimes somewhere completely unexpected.
That description fits the music beautifully.
What makes mirador especially striking is how collective it feels.
While Blais may be the composer and the person at the centre of it all, the album feels like the work of a much larger musical ensemble.
The choir and instrumentation give these compositions a richness and scale that can feel almost overwhelming in the best possible way.
There are moments that feel intimate and delicate, followed by passages that open up into something much larger and more majestic.
It is classical music that doesn’t feel confined by the traditional expectations of the genre.
Instead, Blais creates something adventurous, contemporary and deeply personal.
mirador is the kind of album I can see myself returning to again and again, discovering new details with every listen.
Jean-Michel Blais has created something truly special here. For me, mirador is easily one of the best albums of 2026.
mirador gets: 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷
Jean-Michel Blais’ mirador Is a Sweeping, Beautiful Classical Journey
