Beast

In 2004 the Montreal-based aggressive trip-hop outfit Beast arose from the partnership of vocalist Béatrice Bonifassi and DJ/composer/drummer Jean-Phi Goncalves. Each had already logged nearly two decades of separate work in the industry; among those credits were Bonifassi’s contribution to the soundtrack of The Triplettes de Belleville and Goncalves’s collaboration with Lauryn Hill while drumming in Plaster. Their first joint assignment came in 2006 on a project for the video-game publisher Ubisoft. Sensing a rare rapport and a common taste for the cinematic melancholy of groups such as Portishead, the pair began shaping a full-length record. After nearly two years of refinement and a signing to Pheramone, the self-titled album Beast appeared in early 2009.