Emphasizing openness rather than conceptual solidity, Olivier Roberge's residency project could bare the title Entanglement. Complex rhythms, sharp plays of syncopations, changeovers between improvised sections and painstakingly written passages, a variable and irregular meter, all packed in the series of pieces presented before a live audience on June 22, 2018. Both full of groove and deeply seated, this music – accompanied by graphic scores and a system of cuing gestures – expresses the drummer-composer's preference for tight structures where everyone in the band locks in synergistically in full presence, surrendering to the music.
- Olivier Roberge
- Drums
- Composition
- Réal Gagnon
- Mentoring
- Percussion
- Guillaume Tremblay
- Piano
- Saxophones
- Ida Toninato
- Baritone saxophone
- Naki
- Bass
- Sound objects
- Ovide Coudé
- Guitar
Born in Chicoutimi in 1997, drummer and composer Olivier Roberge graduated from the music program at the Collège d'Alma, where he obtained a first place in the Prix d’expression musicale in 2017. Introduced to music at the age of 11, it was on the drums that his journey began, which was expressed through formal studies at the École de Musique de Chicoutimi, then at the Collège d'Alma, but also through sustained involvement in various projects such as rock, punk and heavy metal bands, small jazz and background music ensembles, the Transison concert band from the city of Alma, all in both academic and professional contexts. He is currently pursuing undergraduate musical studies at Laval University.
Drawing freely from several sources of inspiration ranging from "Rush" to "Tool", from Chopin to Bartok through the sounds and harmony of jazz, the young musician's daily practice consists on the one hand of sitting at the piano to read, study and analyze music while quietly welcoming the compositional ideas that surface and, on the other hand, to fortify his instrumental technique and his rhythmic sense through the practice of traditional drum basics.
