After completing a major in percussion performance at the University of Moncton in 2003, Pierre-Guy spent five years immersed in various and diverse Montréal musical communities, with frequent international voyages enriching his sonic palette. He has performed with such experimental and folk music projects and participated in recordings of Black Ox Orkestar and Sam Shalabi’s Land of Kush, as well as composing numerous theatre and film scores. His travels abroad during this time included a period of study under darbuka master Misirli Ahmet in Istanbul, curation and performances at the Sanayeh art house in Beirut. Through this continual collaboration with musicians from various musical backgrounds and geographic origins, Pierre-Guy has developed a unique percussive style deeply influenced by Middle Eastern, Turkish and Balkan modes. 2009 found Pierre-Guy back on the waterfront of Charlo in a house converted into a home studio. At a distance from the distractions of Montréal he has worked to develop a new sonic language, fusing an eminently metropolitan sensibility with the quiet stillness of the countryside of his origins. With Affaires Étrangères, the first recording to emerge from this studio, he distills this broad and sometimes far-flung swath of influences into a confident, astute and passionate statement that is both worldly and deeply idiosyncratic.
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