Conventum

Conventum was formed in 1973 by several of Quebec’s best self-taught, counter-cultural musicians. On their first album À L’Affût d’un Complot, guitarist and singer-songwriter André Duchesne is joined by guitarist extraordinaire René Lussier, violinist Bernard Cormier, bassist Jacques Laurin, and guests such as Louise Forestier and Charles Kaczynski. The music of Conventum blends acoustic chamber music with rock as well as traditional folk and early music, all masterfully played. It is full of delicate passages and an enticing classical-folk fusion, so while one can label it avant-folk-prog or something like that, the music is not inaccessible. That is except for the live bonus tracks on the ProgQuébec CDs which are much weirder and may be of no value to non-French speakers what with all the dramatic, theatrical speech.