Michel F Côté: biography

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Michel F Côté (1958) • residence: Montréal, Québec

• composer • performer (percussion)

— member of: BobBruireKlaxon GueuleMecha Fixes Clocks

Self-described as a perlustrator, thus eschewing all attempts at a simplistic identification, MFC sinks his own work to make sure it doesn’t take root.

(juste) Claudette is his latest musical endeavor. This quintet brings together Alexandre St-Onge, Bernard Falaise, Jesse Levine, and Gordon Allen. Initiator of Bruire, MFC led that ensemble from 1990 to 2001. The tale of that particular adventure is spread across three albums. With Falaise and St-Onge, he formed Klaxon Gueule. Four records have chronicled this displacements of that trio, chicken (&records, 2004) being their last release to date. Éric Bernier and Guy Trifiro round up another trio, bob, a word-churning pop band. Their debut CD, Unstable Friends, came out in April 2003 on &records. Mecha Fixes Clocks, a more recent ensemble (but just as unstable as the other ones), completed a first album for the alien8 label, Orbiting With Screwdrivers (2005). This sextet consists of Falaise, Jean René, Diane Labrosse, Frank Martel, and Martin Tétreault.

In March 2003, MFC co-founded a new record label together with Fabrizio Gilardino: &records was thus born out of a headblow against the impenetrable wall of the market. This suicidal business expects to outlive its own death for a long time.

A member of the Ambiances Magnétiques collective, Côté has developed a few obvious affinities with other elements from this brotherhood. Through the years, Diane Labrosse, Martin Tétreault, and Jean Derome have become key partners.

In May 1999, a first solo record documented the more musical side of MFC’s work: Compil zouave (exercice de phonométrie populaire). More recently (May 2004), he released a second solo effort: 63 apparitions, presented as a tribute to two composers Côté feels particularly indebted to, Érik Satie and John Cage. A third solo CD came out in September 2005: Flat Fourgonnette, a dazed salute to the pioneer music of North America.

His discography also contains two duo projects: Duo déconstructiviste(1993) with Diane Labrosse, and engineers off-la notte fa (2007), a collaboration with A_Dontigny.

In 2006, he joined forces with poets Martine Audet and José Acquelin to design a book-CD entitled Personne ne sait que je t’aime, published by Éditions Planète Rebelle.

The Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec granted him the use of Quebec’s studio in Rome between July and December 2003. There, he mainly learned how to cook pasta.

A collaborator of Robert Lepage (Ex Machina), he acted as composer/performer for the play Les Sept Branches de la rivière Ota (1995/1997); he also composed the soundtrack for the feature film (with Bernard Falaise, 1998), and music for the play La Géométrie des Miracles (with Diane Labrosse, 1998/1999), in addition to taking care of the sound and music design of Lepage’s techno cabaret Zulu Time (again with Labrosse, 1999/2002), in which Côté was also the musical director and a performer.

For a few years now, Côté has been collaborating on various theatrical projects by Wajdi Mouawad, Martin Faucher, Brigitte Haentjens, and Marie Brassard. In dance, he has worked with Catherine Tardif, Louise Bédard, Sylvain Émard, José Navas, and Brouhaha Danse. MFC has also made music for the silver screen: David Clermont, Serge Cardinal, Céline Baril, Ève Lamont, Luc Bourdon, and Francis Leclerc.

He was the musical director for the 9th and 13th editions of the award ceremony La Soirée des Masques (ARTV & SRC, 2003/2006); he was a radio host at SRC’s ex-Chaîne culturelle for several years (the programs Chants Magnétiques and Musiques Actuelles). MFC published a manifest for the music aesthetics clumsily christened “musique actuelle” (L’école du pick-up en 2 faces & 33 points & 1/3, revue esse, issue 30, 1996). Since 1999, he has been a permanent columnist for the same magazine. He has published other papers here and there; they all revolve around social matters, the ruin of politics, and what Jean-Luc Godard summarized in the following sentence: “Culture is the rule, art is the exception.”

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Michel F Côté: biography

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