Michel Madore -

Michel Madore is a Québécois multi-instrumentalist, composer, and visual artist from Montréal who released the 1976 Barclay album Le Komuso à Cordes and the 1978 Kébec-Disc album La Chambre Nuptiale.

Background

Michel Madore was born in 1949 in Montréal. He studied mathematics at the Université du Québec, then pursued work as a composer and multi-instrumentalist. In January 1975, Madore entered Studio Six and Studio Jean Sauvageau with soprano saxophonist–synthesist Ron Proby and drummer–percussionist Mathieu Léger. Pianist Philippe Beck and bassist Errol Walters completed the principal ensemble; Dionysos bassist Fernand Durand joined the project before Barclay prepared the first LP.

Le Komuso à Cordes

Michel Madore released his debut album, Le Komuso à Cordes, in December 1976 on Barclay. The title translated as The Stringed Komuso*.

The album contains a running sequence of seven Madore originals, co-arranged with Proby and performed on 12-string guitar, ARP and EMS synthesizers, cimbalom, ocarina, carillon, and piano; backed by Beck, Walters, and L’Orchestre Sympathique drummer–percussionist Mathieu Léger completes the principal ensemble. Durand plays electric bass on “Juggernaut.”

“Calligraphie (Mac)” spirals through polytonal chords, phasing, chamber-like timbres, and accumulating electronic dissonance. “Ballade” drifts on acoustic figures, string-synth haze, and plaintive ocarina phrases. “L’Avant-Dernière” extends a serene acoustic pattern through piano turns, electronic effects, and firmer ensemble motion.

“Stanley” hovers on spacious synthesizer arcs and sustained upper-register tones. “Rush” careens through jazz-inflected passages, rolling drums, and forceful saxophone lines. “Juggernaut” suspends layered motifs inside a long, slowly transforming electronic expanse. “Bâli” closes with birdsong, bell tones, 12-string guitar, and airy synthesizer lines.

A1. “Calligraphie (Mac)” (7:21)
A2. “Ballade” (3:52)
A3. “L’Avant-Dernière” [The Penultimate] (7:31)

B1. “Stanley” (3:56)
B2. “Rush” (6:07)
B3. “Juggernaut” (9:21)
B4. “Bâli” (2:00)

Sessions spanned January 1975 through August 1976 at Studio Six and Studio Jean Sauvageau in Montréal, where Madore co-produced with engineer Peter Burns, a recent soundman on the second Harmonium album Les Cinq Saisons.

Médialog art director Pierre Monat oversaw the sleeve, with features a cover illustration by Montréal multidisciplinary artist Jacques Charbonneau and backside photography by André Roussil. The front places two geometric panels of animal and cosmic imagery against a white field, with a rainbow band at lower left.

Barclay lifted “Ballade” as a 1976 single (b/w “Stanley”) under catalog number 60382 for the Canadian market.

*Komusō were Japanese mendicant monks, wandering musicians, and members of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism who flourished during the Edo period (1600–1868).

La Chambre Nuptiale

Michel Madore released his second album, La Chambre Nuptiale (The Bridal Chamber), in 1978 on Kébec-Disc.

Francine Larivée conceived La Chambre Nuptiale as a multimedia installation that questioned conventional marriage, family structure, and assigned gender roles. GRASAM presented the work at Complexe Desjardins in Montréal in July 1976 as part of the Olympic cultural program. Madore composed the three-part score and performs every part on the recording, moving among synthesizers, Casavant grand organ, piano, vibraphone, cimbalom, flute, twelve-string guitar, percussion, and wordless voice.

“Cycle 1: Le Couloir” creeps through layered string synthesizers, spatial electronic effects, recorded laughter, and sustained drones. “Les Anges qui passent: Dialogue” unfolds through ominous pipe-organ masses and slowly shifting harmonies. “Cycle 2: La Chambre, une vision” fractures an electronically altered wedding march into droning synthesizers, VCS-3 effects, a brief acoustic passage, and an unstable closing sequence.

A1. “Cycle 1: Le Couloir” [The Corridor] (14:05)
A2. “Les Anges qui Passent: Dialogue” [The Passing Angels] (6:20)
B1. “Cycle 2: La Chambre, une Vision” [The Chamber, a Vision] (18:34)

Sessions spanned July 1975 through March 1978 at Studio Jean Sauvageau in Montréal, Marc Studio in Ottawa, and the National Film Board of Canada facility. GRASAM and Madore produced the recordings. Electronic composer and instrument builder Jean Sauvageau worked with returning soundman Peter Burns. Denis Houle and National Film Board engineer Jean Besse completed the recording staff. Madore mixed Nuptiale with Sauvageau, the recent co-founder of the Québec electroacoustic organization ACREQ.

Montréal artist Jacques Lafond conceived the graphics, while Larivée supplied the liner notes. Contemporary work by Lafond includes photography for the 1978 Éditions Graff artist book Graff Dinner. The front reproduces a collage of embracing couples around a central altar and paired coffin forms beneath black title lettering.

Egg issued the French edition in 1979 through Barclay.

Later Activity

In 1978, Michel Madore settled in Paris. He began painting in 1982 and mounted his first exhibition in 1988. His later output expanded into drawing and sculpture. Literary work includes the poetry collection Le Livre de Yu and the essay volume Carnet d’atelier. Le Noroît published Ratures et repentirs in 2017 as a further artist text.

Discography: