ANGINE DE POITRINE In Ottawa, Canada

Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 11:33 AM

By Andrew DePedro, Ottawa Correspondent

Loving The Aliens: Intergalactic Quebec Duo Deliver A Spot-On Performance At Their Ottawa Bluesfest Debut On July 17, 2026

Live Photos By Andrew DePedro And Ryan Conway

Band Photo Credit: Radio-Canada / Andréanne Larouche

Two polka-dotted masked spacemen!
A drumkit!
And a double-necked guitar/bass!
And even their own hand signs and language!

Not since CARCASS has there been a band that has derived their musical inspiration from vocally transcribed medical reports as the infamous Saguenay, Quebec-based musical duo ANGINE DE POITRINE. Taking their name from the French medical term angina pectorisaka strangling of the chest or heavy chest compression, these pair of actual space lords comprised of guitarist Khn de Poitrine and drummer Klek de Poitrinehave been the talk amongst the rock community thanks to their complex and quirky microtonal compositions in the vein of math/experimental rock with even some jazz fusion elements. Think of how most jazz is centered around the notion that the listener needs to listen to the notes that aren’t being played and immediately dismiss that notion since ANGINE DE POITRINE will play those notes anyway. And while having formed in 2019, the duo have otherwise been performing together for two decades long before they brought in the polka dots and flashy triangles for broader context.

It clearly worked when ADP were brought to the RBC main stage at almost the last minute thanks to their increasingly enduring popularity as they were the only band gracing that stage who wasn’t a female country/rock artist that night. Polka dots blended with cut-off jean shorts and cowboy boots and the world suddenly was healing – and that was just during the opening number “Angor”. They may have appeared a bit comical at first as they waddled upon the stage in their restricted costumes to set up their equipment, but once they were plugged in and activated, ADPwerean unstoppable force. Forthcoming instrumental numbers such as “Yor Zarad”, “Tamebsz”, “Mata Zyklek” and “Sarniezz” were raw eclectic jazz/prog fusion workouts with equal parts neat-sounding metronomes and fast riffs. Khn appeared to be compressing as many freestyle jazz-inspired riffs as he was combined Vai/Satriani/Jake E. Lee influenced notes into their riffs and somehow making them work while Klek doubled down on their drumkit with precise tubthumping and an unstoppable blast-beating back foot. It may have been difficult to comprehend the definition of the song titles or even catch on the coded individual dialogue between the duobeyond a series of non-verbal guttural noises and triangle-shaped hand gestures, but that was also the fun of it all in leaving everything up to interpretation. Case in point as they were about to launch into “Mata Zyklek” after a rehydration break:

Khn: “….I think someone just shouted out a request for ‘Free Bird’. Is that a normal Earth thing?”
Klek: “Maybe. I’m just gonna play an ANNIHILATOR song backwards and faster and just assume that no one will notice.”
Khn: “Works for me.”

That’s just based on my interpretation anyway. I mean, that kinda was what most of the vibe from “Mata Zyklek” kinda gave off. And lots of vibes were in abundance throughout ADP’s set that day, starting from the quick warm-up session all the way down to the last triangle hand gesture. Once the crowd had finally mastered the triangle sign and even the accompanying arm motions, both Khn and Klek started a new body gesture: Circling their arms in some sort of global embrace so as to respond to the mass outpouring of love. They also somehow managed to grunt out “We love you, Ottawa Bluesfest” back at us as well.

And it wasn’t even just the crowd that were taken in by ADP’s cosmic instrumentation. SHERYL CROW, at first appearing slightly bemused as to why the Polkaroo and his twin brother were suddenly opening her set, was later seen attempting the triangle hand signal like she was about to announce her engagement while promising to learn how to successfully pronounce ADP’s name and even closed with a thrashier version of “Everyday Is A Winding Road”, likely inspired by Khn’s fast playing. Actual headliner/country’s latest hitmaker ELLA LANGLEY and her own fanbase known as Ella’s Fellas (they’re pretty much the male country fan equivalent of Swifties with less than a quarter of the annoyance factor) were long throwing down the triangle sign by the time she was on her second song. Even local songstress NAYANA eventually came around to the AD Phype after her own set at the main stage was suddenly moved up earlier by festival organizers once ADP’s profile was gaining them a larger audience that the band’s original spot at the Hard Rock stage would not likely handle.

Safe to say that at this literal stage in their epic journey, ANGINE DE POITRINE have spotted an ideal place for themselves in the music scene in 2026 after making many connections. We’ll see how everything shapes up for them over time.

Setlist:

“Angor”
“Yor Zarad”
“Tamebsz”
“Mata Zyklek”
“Sarniezz”
“Fabienk”
“Sherpa”

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ANGINE DE POITRINE