Angine de Poitrine is a Quebec experimental rock duo from Saguenay. Their musical concept, which they call “Mantra-rock dada pythago-cubist”, is based on both the game of the guitarist Khn, who plays on a microtonal double-handle (guitar and bass) instrument, that is to say fretted at the quarter of a tone, and building his music through a superposition of loops made in real time, and on that of the drummer Klek who ensures The popularity of the group takes off internationally in March 2026, thanks in particular to the video posted on Youtube by the radio KEXP, of one of their performances made in Rennes during the Trans musicales, which exceeds 16 million views. Khn and Klek come dressed up under white and black dotted costumes as well as large masks, originally papier-mâché. They therefore also include the visual in their artistic project and declare that they want to protect their anonymity through it.
Both musicians have been playing together since the age of 13. Their costumes and scenic characters were initially conceived as a “joke”. After being denied the opportunity to play two consecutive weeks in the same hall, they presented a concert under their real identity, and then another disguised. As the project evolved, members chose to remain anonymous. Since the beginning of 2026, a period marked by a rapid increase in their international reputation, the group has declined all the proposals from record companies, favouring the development of their project via the independent structure Spectacles Bonzaï. Their second album, Vol. II, was released on April 3, 2026, and gave rise to an international tour with shows in Canada, the United States, France, Portugal, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The duo also offer a free performance on the big stage during the 2026 edition of the Festival international de jazz de Montréal Vol. Vol. He is on the long list of the Polaris music prize in 2026.
Klek, the drummer of the duo, says he initially modified a guitar to make it microtonal: “I added extra frets to a guitar with a saw. (…) Then, immediately, as soon as we started playing with it, we just laughed, you know, because of the friction created and the proximity of the notes. Following these first experiments, Khn commissioned in 2023 from a luthier of the city of Alma, Raphaël Le Breton , a custom-made double-handle microtonal guitar. The guitarist requested that the instrument, unlike the standard guitars and bass hooped in half-tones, be hooped to play quarter-tones, thus carrying the number of divisions of the octave from 12 to 24 notes. The instrument also combines the body of a Stratocaster guitar with that of a Precision bass]According to Khn, the use of this instrument is part of the band’s aesthetics: “The very idea of the band was to take a somewhat satirical approach to rock in general. We wanted a form of exaggeration; the double-handled guitar was therefore the ideal choice to mock guitar heroes.
In an interview with Noise Magazine, when asked about their main musical influences, Klek quotes Gentle Giant’s progressive rock, while Khn talks about the avant-garde jazz of the Lizards Lounge and says: “I have always been a great lover of what is called, for lack of more precise term, ‘eastern music’, including Indian music, Japanese music, and other musical traditions. He also mentions their interest in Middle Eastern music, especially Turkish rock, while pointing out that their band’s often advanced comparison with The Residents does not have to be because they have never listened to this American lineup. They also cited the album Flying Microtonal Banana by King Gizzard & the Las a major influence, notably for his exploration of microtonal music in a rock setting.
