Eric Chenaux

Eric Chenaux is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and sound sculptor based in South Central France. A key figure in Toronto's improv and indie music scenes for many years, he's worked in settings from experimental, vanguard, and modern classical composition to jazz, country, and folk. Chenaux's albums, including 2012's Guitar and Voice, 2018's Slowly Paradise, and 2022's Say Laura LP explored a pleasant yet utterly innovative contrast of mangled guitar tones and softly crooned vocals. 2024's Delights of My Life effortlessly walked the tightrope between vocal jazz and unpolished, vanguard indie pop.

From Toronto originally, he records exclusively on Montreal's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Constellation%22">Constellation</a> label, offering a clutch of solo albums drenched in experimental songs and canny melodies, charting an adventurous and uncompromising path through avant-folk, out jazz, and pop composition, all of them increasingly rooted in a unique and elemental juxtaposition of fried, frazzled, semi-improvised guitar and smooth, clear tenor balladry.

Chenaux's first band, the post-punk trio <a href="spotify:artist:5CQo6x0I8Fnb5pyPNnaWSK">Phleg Camp</a>, self-released their eponymously titled debut cassette in 1989 and followed it with the full-length Ya'red Fair Scratch on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cargo+Records%22">Cargo Records</a> in 1992. Following the band's split, Chenaux concentrated on composing for the guitar as half of the duo Lifelikeweeds, who only issued a two-sided single. While Chenaux was active during the rest of the '90s, he wasn't recording. In 2001, he and Martin Arnold co-founded the boutique label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rat-Drifting%22">Rat-Drifting</a>. In 2003, he resumed recording with Love Don't Change, a duo album with former <a href="spotify:artist:4ZvzWjIAH25n5YqTRYUpuT">Crash Vegas</a> vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:2dqNcgtPgXlvG94uq6Utuz">Michelle McAdorey</a>, and Blasé Kisses, with his experimental cover band the Reveries.

Chenaux signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Constellation%22">Constellation</a> in 2006, and released the first of his singer/songwriter albums, Dull Lights, and also appeared on labelmate <a href="spotify:artist:2CbeYAeoh6tWJhlJU3fI9c">Sandro Perri</a>'s Plays Polmo Polpo. The guitarist's sophomore effort, 2008's Sloppy Ground, highlighted his technically advanced and highly original guitar playing. The Reveries privately issued a CD-R titled Play the Music of Sade the same year. Warm Weather with Ryan Driver appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Constellation%22">Constellation</a> in 2010. The album showcased a shift, as multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and jazz composer <a href="spotify:artist:1BpBBlB6sX4q6ZfNNE7U2n">Driver</a> -- also a member of the Reveries -- added new elements to Chenaux's musical architecture. That same year, Chenaux played guitar and sang on Martin Arnold's Tam Lin album.

In 2012, the songwriter released the completely solo Guitar & Voice, a highly experimental recording that showcased various playing and recording techniques alongside textural elements. That year he also issued the limited-edition The Sentimental Moves, recorded in collaboration with recording engineer and sound and video artist Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (<a href="spotify:artist:0DzUC2ocl1XZuP0wmQw831">Black Hand</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3mjy0fneW0GyVeueXLXSuS">Jerusalem in My Heart</a>). A split 10" with singer Eloïse Decazes also appeared.

Chenaux spent a few years playing shows with several artists, including <a href="spotify:artist:7zqKJUndHEicKKhJZfxfDY">the Guayaveras</a> and the Draperies; he also became a member of the jazz quintet Drumheller and provided narration for <a href="spotify:artist:1mFUQFGWGDeKw83MCdb6AI">Norberto Lobo</a>'s film (and soundtrack) Fornalha. Skullsplitter, his fifth album on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Constellation%22">Constellation</a>, was another solo effort mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. It was released in February 2015.

In 2018, Chenaux released the six-track Slowly Paradise; recorded in France, it was co-produced by the artist and Cyril Harrison. He teamed with sound artist Marla Hlady for 2019's Fluff, and in 2022 he returned with the solo LP Say Laura. The album showcased an intimate and reflective side of Chenaux's artistry as it found him experimenting with a subtle rhythmic, innovative guitar style.

In 2024 Chenaux released Delight of My Life, his eighth solo long-player, accompanied by his working trio that includes <a href="spotify:artist:1BpBBlB6sX4q6ZfNNE7U2n">Ryan Driver</a> on Wurlitzer and vocals, and Philippe Melanson, who provides electronic percussion and voice. The set picked up where Say Laura left off, doubling down on subversions of classic, timeless jazz-inflected balladry amid the expansive interplay of the trio. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi