Angine de Poitrine’s out-of-this-world success hits close to home

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CTV National News: How musical act Angine de Poitrine took the galaxy by storm

Breaking down the ‘intricate and irregular’ music of Angine de Poitrine

SAGUENAY, Que. – Fans lined up outside a small venue in the Saguenay region of Quebec to hear and watch Angine de Poitrine, a musical act enjoying other-wordily success. The label-defying duo is in demand around the world, but launched its second album in its hometown.

“With all their fame, it is so cool that they are here,” said one fan outside the Café du Clocher.

Angine de Poitrine is honouring club dates booked long before they landed on global charts and played Quebec dates through April.

The two members of Angine de Poitrine, a French medical term for thoracic pain, are friends from the Saguenay region who have played together for more than two decades. But they are anonymous, hidden behind alter-egos called Klek and Khn, and wear black and white polka-dot costumes with papier-mache headpieces.

They pose as alien voyagers who landed on Earth aboard a pyramid-shaped space craft. They also speak an alien language that their manager translates in interviews.

Klek is the hard-hitting drummer. Khn plays a double-necked electric guitar and bass. The resulting sound is complex.

“If you look at the number of frets Khn has, it’s twice the number of frets,” said University of Montreal composition professor Pierre Michaud. “So, it’s not semitones, it’s quarter tones. Then there’s all the pedals that he plays, and the way he works is by layering different loops with his loop pedal.

“So, there’s a lot of mastery involved.”

Anti-AI music

Michaud says their masterful artistry is wrapped in a playful package that makes the act accessible to people around the world. But he also says it is hard to define.

“I think there’s definitely a punk attitude and a do-it-yourself ethic,” said Michaud. “Then we could talk about math rock because everything is really calculated. It’s intricate and irregular metrics.”

He also says their music hits the right notes at the right time because it does not sound pre-formatted.

“There’s all the discussions around AI and music in general,” said Michaud. “And to me Angine de Poitrine is the most anti-AI proposition musically that you could have, at least in popular music. So, it’s really two humans, even though they say they’re extraterrestrials.”

Some have called the result “a little bonkers,” but Angine de Poitrine is emerging as one of the hottest bands on this planet, perhaps this galaxy. Still, they are home in the Saguenay delighting fans from home.