Sylvie Chenard

Biography

Feminist, pacifist, and anti-capitalist, Sylvie Chenard weaves her social activism into her music. This guitarist from Montreal is well hidden in the city's underground, but her albums are well worth seeking out. She pairs electric guitar playing derived as much from Robert Fripp as Derek Bailey to her haunting wordless vocals. She has chosen the whale as a totemic symbol of sorts, calling her various projects "Projets de la Baleine" -- projects of the whale. After many self-released albums and home productions on CD-R, she released a pair of CDs on the high-profile avant-garde label Ambiances Magnétiques in 2002.

In the booklet of her first CD, Les Projets de la Baleine (1996), Chenard has listed her main guitar influences. How embarrassing for a feminist, they were all men. No matter, she feminized their names: Claudette Fradette, Andréa Duchesne, Renée Lussier, Freda Frith, Billy Friselle, and Marcia Ribot. Joke aside, this roaster gives a good idea of her tastes and scope, with a particular emphasis on the Conventum-4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso Bar-Fred Frith connection. Born in Valleyfield (Quebec) in 1957, Chenard's track record is an amalgam of activities in photography, web art, music, and social work, all intertwined. She plays the electric guitar since the early '80s and gave her first solo performance in 1987. Right from the start her approach included collaboration with other artists (musicians and from other fields) and a form of social engagement.

After spending time in various regions of the province of Quebec, she settled in Montreal in the early '90s and released two tapes, Urgences Ordinaires, Pts. 1 & 2. A grant from the Ministère de la Culture allowed her to create the multidisciplinary performance "Opéra Stase" in 1993, but support was cruelly lacked afterwards. Her first collection of poems and texts, Chansons et Chroniques de la Baleine was published by Triptyque in 1994. Two years later, she released her first CD, which summed up the previous decade, marked by solo multi-tracked compositions. The next years she would explore territories closer to improvisation, favoring the complicity of a duo setting. A bunch of home CD-Rs for social-musical projects, web art pieces, and installation followed, but she also produced the impressive three-CD set Hybride. By then a fixture in Montreal's underground scene with ties to anti-globalization groups, her case screamed for at least minimal recognition. The label Ambiances Magnétiques signed her, and two albums of duets, Océan à Vendre/For Sale (with Jon Asencio, a duo project called Les Cravatistes) and Océan pour la Suite (with Martin Tétreault, Alexandre St-Onge, and Maryse Poulin) came out simultaneously in fall 2002. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide