Québec Independent Album Labels

Dateline: 01/30/98

Danielle Tremblay is back with another column on the Québécois Francophone music scene. She is no stranger to the Québec music scene, having taught courses on the subject at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She writes for and sings with the Trio Vocal Jennifer Allen, a Sherbrooke group with a wide variety of styles, from ancient medieval airs to songs with a more contemporary beat.

She's also working with Yves Laneville, developing La chanson du Québec et ses cousines, without a doubt the best Web site around on francophone music history.

This time out she walks us through some independent album labels in Québec.
Yes, several independant québécois and francophone record companies can be found online. Here are but a few.


Audiogram:
Ravishing and richly interactive, this site includes textual, visual and sound portraits of all the companies' artists: Daniel Bélanger, Jean Leloup, Laurence Jalbert, LHASA, Beau Dommage, Sylvie Tremblay, Gogh Van Gogh, Basta, Michel Cusson, Bran Van 3000, Jim Corcoran, Richard Séguin, etc. French.
Paula's Note: See my profile of Audiogram previous feature.


Ondespirale/Spiralwave:
This company's site, with a cold elegance that's a bit "high tech", has the advantage of presenting artists in the fields of instrumental musique and songs in the "classical" style: Sylvie T. Gagné (from the Outaouais), DAK, Daniel Bouliane, Maurice Boyer, etc. French/English.


Passeport:
Record company presenting a glimpse of artists as varied as BORI (show tunes), Gaston Mandeville (folk), Suzie Doré (children's songs), Gildor Roy (country) and Laymen Twaist (rythm'n'blues and funk). French.


Zéro Musique:
Entertaining site, which is illustrated like an interactive comic. This company promotes the following artists: authors-composers-performers such as Annette Campagne (from Saskatchewan) and Luc de Larochellière (from Québec), the group Likwid and especially the comic François Pérusse («L'Album du Peuple»), in great demand in Québec with its sketches produced only with sound clips... French with some sections in English («News»).

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