Biography
André Duchesne served as a central participant in the late-1970s avant-folk ensemble Conventum while helping launch the “musique actuelle” collective and its associated label Ambiances Magnétiques early in the following decade. He has issued recordings far more sparingly than many colleagues yet has pushed guitar-driven rock further than most musicians tied to the Ambiances Magnétiques circle. His catalog encompasses avant-prog, rock & roll, film scoring, large-scale orchestral works, free improvisation, and unaccompanied classical guitar.
Born and raised in Montreal, Duchesne began studying acoustic guitar in the 1970s the same way many local teenagers did. Unlike most of them, however, he quickly grew dissatisfied with the basic chord progressions favored by Harmonium and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Together with René Lussier, Jean-Pierre Bouchard, Jacques Laurin, Bernard Cormier, and poet Alain-Arthur Painchaud, he assembled Conventum, an underground group that fused Quebec folk elements with absurdist verse and progressive structures. The band produced two albums: À l'Affût d'un Complot in 1977 and Le Bureau Central des Utopies in 1979.
In 1983 Duchesne joined Lussier, Jean Derome, and Robert M. Lepage to establish Ambiances Magnétiques as an artist-run outlet for experimental music. His earliest release on the label was the 1984 set of modern rock songs titled Le Temps des Bombes. A more widely noted project soon followed: the five-piece, four-guitar rock group Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, whose members included Lussier and Bouchard from Conventum, Roger Boudreault, and English drummer Chris Cutler, formerly of Henry Cow. The quintet issued two albums and toured Europe and the United States before disbanding.
The early 1990s found Duchesne working on several fronts at once. He wrote film scores for the Gagné brothers, of which only the soundtrack to Le Royaume ou l'Asile has been released, and unveiled his largest composition to date, L' ou 'L, at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville in 1990. The symphonic character of that piece stood in contrast to the aggressive riffs of Locomotive, still considered his strongest album and ensemble, which featured guitarists Claude Fradette and Francis Grandmont together with drummer Rémi Leclerc.
After 1992 Duchesne kept an extremely low profile, appearing on releases by modern traditional singer Michel Faubert and forming occasional rock projects such as Diesel and No Band's Land that never recorded. His 1999 return, Réflexions, presented him alone on classical guitar and failed to match the expectations of many listeners. Polaroïde, released in 2001, documents a free-improvisation trio session.
Born and raised in Montreal, Duchesne began studying acoustic guitar in the 1970s the same way many local teenagers did. Unlike most of them, however, he quickly grew dissatisfied with the basic chord progressions favored by Harmonium and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Together with René Lussier, Jean-Pierre Bouchard, Jacques Laurin, Bernard Cormier, and poet Alain-Arthur Painchaud, he assembled Conventum, an underground group that fused Quebec folk elements with absurdist verse and progressive structures. The band produced two albums: À l'Affût d'un Complot in 1977 and Le Bureau Central des Utopies in 1979.
In 1983 Duchesne joined Lussier, Jean Derome, and Robert M. Lepage to establish Ambiances Magnétiques as an artist-run outlet for experimental music. His earliest release on the label was the 1984 set of modern rock songs titled Le Temps des Bombes. A more widely noted project soon followed: the five-piece, four-guitar rock group Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, whose members included Lussier and Bouchard from Conventum, Roger Boudreault, and English drummer Chris Cutler, formerly of Henry Cow. The quintet issued two albums and toured Europe and the United States before disbanding.
The early 1990s found Duchesne working on several fronts at once. He wrote film scores for the Gagné brothers, of which only the soundtrack to Le Royaume ou l'Asile has been released, and unveiled his largest composition to date, L' ou 'L, at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville in 1990. The symphonic character of that piece stood in contrast to the aggressive riffs of Locomotive, still considered his strongest album and ensemble, which featured guitarists Claude Fradette and Francis Grandmont together with drummer Rémi Leclerc.
After 1992 Duchesne kept an extremely low profile, appearing on releases by modern traditional singer Michel Faubert and forming occasional rock projects such as Diesel and No Band's Land that never recorded. His 1999 return, Réflexions, presented him alone on classical guitar and failed to match the expectations of many listeners. Polaroïde, released in 2001, documents a free-improvisation trio session.
Albums
