Guitarist René Lussier (b. Montreal, 1957) is a major figure in Quebec’s new/experimental music scene. He leads a multifaceted career as a composer, improviser, soundtrack maker, singer-songwriter, and record producer. His credits include over 60 film soundtracks, among them Robert Lepage’s phenomenal Moulin à images (2008-2012), and over 30 records, the most widely known being Le Trésor de la langue, a ground-breaking work on oral history that earned him the 1989 Paul Gilson Award.
Lussier has led free improvisation workshops and ensembles of various sizes in Canada and Europe. He distinguished himself in several bands and projects (among them: Conventum, Les 4 Guitaristes de l’Apocalypso-Bar, Keep the Dog, and The Fred Frith Guitar Quartet), and performed and recorded with a long list of collaborators including Gilles Gobeil, Robert Marcel Lepage, Jean Derome, Martin Tétreault, Hans Reichel, Eugene Chadbourne, poet Patrice Desbiens, and Québécois fiddler Liette Remon.
He has composed commissioned works for Vancouver’s Now Orchestra and Hard Rubber Orchestra, Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, and New York ensemble Bang on a Can, among others.
René Lussier received the Freddy Stone Award for “his artistic integrity, innovative spirit, and contribution to Canadian new music,” and the Canada Council for the Arts’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award “for outstanding artistic achievement and excellence.” His eclectic artistic process is guided by experimentation.