Biography
Eric Chenaux, a Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and sound sculptor, makes his home in South Central France. Long a central presence in Toronto’s improv and indie communities, he has performed across a wide spectrum that stretches from experimental vanguard work and modern classical pieces to jazz, country, and folk. His recordings—among them the 2012 album Guitar and Voice, 2018’s Slowly Paradise, and the 2022 LP Say Laura—juxtapose heavily processed guitar textures against quietly sung melodies. In 2024 he issued Delight of My Life, balancing vocal jazz with raw, forward-thinking indie pop.
Originally from Toronto, Chenaux releases exclusively through Montreal’s Constellation imprint. Across a series of solo projects saturated with experimental songwriting and shrewd melodic turns, he has traced a bold, independent course through avant-folk, out jazz, and pop forms, all increasingly anchored in the singular meeting of scorched, semi-improvised guitar and lucid tenor balladry.
His earliest group, the post-punk trio Phleg Camp, issued a self-released cassette in 1989 and followed it with the 1992 full-length Ya'red Fair Scratch on Cargo Records. After the band dissolved, Chenaux focused on guitar composition within the duo Lifelikeweeds, which produced only a single two-sided release. Though active throughout the remainder of the 1990s, he did not record during that decade. In 2001 he and Martin Arnold established the boutique label Rat-Drifting. Two years later he resumed releasing music with Love Don't Change, a duo album alongside former Crash Vegas singer Michelle McAdorey, and with Blasé Kisses, credited to his experimental cover band the Reveries.
Chenaux joined the Constellation roster in 2006, unveiling his first singer-songwriter statement, Dull Lights, while also guesting on labelmate Sandro Perri’s Plays Polmo Polpo. His second solo effort, 2008’s Sloppy Ground, foregrounded his technically sophisticated and highly personal guitar approach. That same year the Reveries privately distributed a CD-R titled Play the Music of Sade. Warm Weather, a 2010 collaboration with Ryan Driver, appeared on Constellation and introduced fresh dimensions to Chenaux’s sound through Driver’s multi-instrumental and improvisational contributions. Also in 2010, Chenaux contributed guitar and vocals to Martin Arnold’s Tam Lin.
The fully solo Guitar & Voice arrived in 2012, an audacious set that highlighted unorthodox playing and recording methods together with pronounced textural detail. That year also saw the limited-edition The Sentimental Moves, created with recording engineer and multimedia artist Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, as well as a split 10" alongside vocalist Eloïse Decazes. Chenaux subsequently performed with the Guayaveras and the Draperies, joined the jazz quintet Drumheller, and supplied narration for Norberto Lobo’s film and soundtrack Fornalha. His fifth Constellation album, Skullsplitter, another solo project mixed by Moumneh, surfaced in February 2015.
Recorded in France and co-produced with Cyril Harrison, the six-track Slowly Paradise was released in 2018. Chenaux partnered with sound artist Marla Hlady for 2019’s Fluff and returned in 2022 with the solo LP Say Laura, an intimate, contemplative work that spotlighted a restrained yet inventive rhythmic guitar language. In 2024 he delivered his eighth solo long-player, Delight of My Life, featuring his working trio of Ryan Driver on Wurlitzer and vocals plus Philippe Melanson on electronic percussion and voice. Building directly on Say Laura, the album intensifies its playful reworkings of classic jazz-tinged balladry within the trio’s open-ended interplay.
Originally from Toronto, Chenaux releases exclusively through Montreal’s Constellation imprint. Across a series of solo projects saturated with experimental songwriting and shrewd melodic turns, he has traced a bold, independent course through avant-folk, out jazz, and pop forms, all increasingly anchored in the singular meeting of scorched, semi-improvised guitar and lucid tenor balladry.
His earliest group, the post-punk trio Phleg Camp, issued a self-released cassette in 1989 and followed it with the 1992 full-length Ya'red Fair Scratch on Cargo Records. After the band dissolved, Chenaux focused on guitar composition within the duo Lifelikeweeds, which produced only a single two-sided release. Though active throughout the remainder of the 1990s, he did not record during that decade. In 2001 he and Martin Arnold established the boutique label Rat-Drifting. Two years later he resumed releasing music with Love Don't Change, a duo album alongside former Crash Vegas singer Michelle McAdorey, and with Blasé Kisses, credited to his experimental cover band the Reveries.
Chenaux joined the Constellation roster in 2006, unveiling his first singer-songwriter statement, Dull Lights, while also guesting on labelmate Sandro Perri’s Plays Polmo Polpo. His second solo effort, 2008’s Sloppy Ground, foregrounded his technically sophisticated and highly personal guitar approach. That same year the Reveries privately distributed a CD-R titled Play the Music of Sade. Warm Weather, a 2010 collaboration with Ryan Driver, appeared on Constellation and introduced fresh dimensions to Chenaux’s sound through Driver’s multi-instrumental and improvisational contributions. Also in 2010, Chenaux contributed guitar and vocals to Martin Arnold’s Tam Lin.
The fully solo Guitar & Voice arrived in 2012, an audacious set that highlighted unorthodox playing and recording methods together with pronounced textural detail. That year also saw the limited-edition The Sentimental Moves, created with recording engineer and multimedia artist Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, as well as a split 10" alongside vocalist Eloïse Decazes. Chenaux subsequently performed with the Guayaveras and the Draperies, joined the jazz quintet Drumheller, and supplied narration for Norberto Lobo’s film and soundtrack Fornalha. His fifth Constellation album, Skullsplitter, another solo project mixed by Moumneh, surfaced in February 2015.
Recorded in France and co-produced with Cyril Harrison, the six-track Slowly Paradise was released in 2018. Chenaux partnered with sound artist Marla Hlady for 2019’s Fluff and returned in 2022 with the solo LP Say Laura, an intimate, contemplative work that spotlighted a restrained yet inventive rhythmic guitar language. In 2024 he delivered his eighth solo long-player, Delight of My Life, featuring his working trio of Ryan Driver on Wurlitzer and vocals plus Philippe Melanson on electronic percussion and voice. Building directly on Say Laura, the album intensifies its playful reworkings of classic jazz-tinged balladry within the trio’s open-ended interplay.
Albums
Hello Eyes
2022
Say Laura
2022
Slowly Paradise
2018
Skullsplitter
2015
Guitar & Voice
2012
Warm Weather (with Ryan Driver)
2010
Sloppy Ground
2008
Dull Lights
2006
Singles
Live
