Biography
Pierre Cartier, a bassist whose understated presence aligns with the archetype of the unobtrusive accompanist, has nevertheless made notable contributions to recordings by numerous Montreal-based artists, above all those connected to the Ambiances Magnétiques circle. His dual pursuits of classical music and avant-garde jazz have led him to forge a distinctive compositional voice, most prominently across the 1990s through large-scale cycles setting poems by Yves Bonnefoy and Blaise Cendrars.
He completed double-bass studies at the Conservatoire de Montréal in 1976 and embarked on a classical career that continues to occupy him. Performances and recordings have placed him with leading Montreal ensembles including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Parallel to these activities he concentrated on medieval repertoire and studied Gregorian chant, composed for the viola da gamba duo Les Voix Humaines, and maintains a performing range that extends from eleventh-century music to present-day works.
Cartier has also sustained a vigorous jazz practice. While still engaged in classical training he met Pierre St-Jak and Jean Derome, becoming a member of the latter’s first group, Nébu, in 1973. When Derome and three fellow musicians established the Ambiances Magnétiques collective and label, Cartier appeared on early releases by René Lussier and André Duchesne. The association with Derome proved the most sustained: he has been regularly featured in the saxophonist’s larger projects, among them Confitures de Gagaku in 1988 and Je Me Souviens in 1997, participated in the duo Les Granules, has belonged to Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms since its formation, and plays in the trio Évidence with drummer Pierre Tanguay, a band devoted to Thelonious Monk.
His first album under his own name, Dirigeable, appeared in 1987; Chanson du Fil followed two years later. Both works operate within post-bop and hard-bop frameworks touched by free jazz, yet Cartier favors structure and composition over the improvisational approach taken by Derome. After an extended interval he returned with Les Fleurs du Tapis in 1996, his first Ambiances Magnétiques release, still grounded in jazz language. In 1990 he began composing Chansons de Douve, an ambitious cycle for two opera singers and eight instrumentalists. Premiered in 1996 and issued by Ambiances Magnétiques in 1998, the work remains his most substantial achievement, a striking fusion of his varied musical pursuits. Dis Blaise, drawn from Cendrars’ poem La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jeanne de France, was premiered in 2001 and pursued the same integrative direction, this time with Cartier himself serving as lead vocalist in Gregorian style.
He completed double-bass studies at the Conservatoire de Montréal in 1976 and embarked on a classical career that continues to occupy him. Performances and recordings have placed him with leading Montreal ensembles including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Parallel to these activities he concentrated on medieval repertoire and studied Gregorian chant, composed for the viola da gamba duo Les Voix Humaines, and maintains a performing range that extends from eleventh-century music to present-day works.
Cartier has also sustained a vigorous jazz practice. While still engaged in classical training he met Pierre St-Jak and Jean Derome, becoming a member of the latter’s first group, Nébu, in 1973. When Derome and three fellow musicians established the Ambiances Magnétiques collective and label, Cartier appeared on early releases by René Lussier and André Duchesne. The association with Derome proved the most sustained: he has been regularly featured in the saxophonist’s larger projects, among them Confitures de Gagaku in 1988 and Je Me Souviens in 1997, participated in the duo Les Granules, has belonged to Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms since its formation, and plays in the trio Évidence with drummer Pierre Tanguay, a band devoted to Thelonious Monk.
His first album under his own name, Dirigeable, appeared in 1987; Chanson du Fil followed two years later. Both works operate within post-bop and hard-bop frameworks touched by free jazz, yet Cartier favors structure and composition over the improvisational approach taken by Derome. After an extended interval he returned with Les Fleurs du Tapis in 1996, his first Ambiances Magnétiques release, still grounded in jazz language. In 1990 he began composing Chansons de Douve, an ambitious cycle for two opera singers and eight instrumentalists. Premiered in 1996 and issued by Ambiances Magnétiques in 1998, the work remains his most substantial achievement, a striking fusion of his varied musical pursuits. Dis Blaise, drawn from Cendrars’ poem La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jeanne de France, was premiered in 2001 and pursued the same integrative direction, this time with Cartier himself serving as lead vocalist in Gregorian style.
Albums
