They conceal their identities behind oversized papier-mâché masks covered in polka dots. They claim to be 333-year-old time travelers inspired by a musical quartet of monkeys from Borneo.
But Khn and Klek, the guitar-and-drum duo behind the microtonal group Angine de Poitrine, say there’s nothing particularly exotic about them.
“We’re not Lady Gaga. We’re not Elton John,” says the drummer, Klek. “We’re two random dudes.”
Still, in recent months the pair have become one of the underground’s most talked-about acts after a half-hour performance on KEXP went viral. The session introduced viewers to their hypnotic microtonal grooves, looping wizardry and surreal polka-dot personas. In it, Khn and Klek perform angular, groove-based pieces using a double-neck electric guitar that combines six-string and bass, modified by Klek and paired with a looping pedal.
Although they’ve tried to slow the pace of their sudden attention by granting few interviews, the duo recently spoke with The Guardian as they prepared to set out on their first U.K. tour.
I was 12 when I picked up a guitar and I instantly became very serious about it. I always had the intention of making a band.”
— Khn
The two hail from La Baie, a borough of Saguenay about 300 miles northeast of Montreal, and met through a mutual friend 21 years ago when Khn was 13 and Klek 14. The friend suggested they play music together.
“I ended up at Klek’s mother’s place making music in the basement,” Khn says, “and we started doing that for… forever.”
Klek had no aspirations to turn the project into a career.
“It was just like playing with Legos,” he says.
Khn felt the opposite.
“I was 12 when I picked up a guitar and I instantly became very serious about it,” he says. “I always had the intention of making a band.”
Although he played with many other groups in the area, he got the most satisfaction from playing with Klek and their friend.
“It was frustrating for me when the most interesting stuff I was doing was with two guys who had no ambition whatsoever.”
Years later, the two were living about 300 miles apart — Klek in Montreal and Khn in Rimouski — when Klek finally committed to starting a band. Khn had been sending him clips from jam sessions with local musicians.
“He said, ‘That was actually pretty good,’” Khn recalls. “‘You know, we could have started a band.’ Sometimes you just feel like, hey — I could have done this? Oh, I could do this. It’s not too late.”
We thought, ‘We’re gonna put polka dots everywhere. It’s gonna be funny.’”
— Khn
They launched their first group in 2013, and by 2019 they were back in Saguenay performing with their main band while quietly experimenting with a microtonal side project built around a modified guitar Klek had constructed.
One week, their main band was offered another gig just days after playing a show. Rather than return with the same lineup, they decided to debut the microtonal duo instead.
“It’s a small town,” Khn explains. “You can’t play the same venue within a two-week span.”
The costumes began as a practical solution: anonymity.
Their previous band had made “huge-ass” papier-mâché piñatas for audiences to destroy in the mosh pit. So when the new project needed a look, they simply made giant papier-mâché heads for themselves.
Inspired by a spare guitar neck a previous owner had covered in polka dots, they extended the design to their costumes, instruments and stage set.
“We thought, ‘We’re gonna put polka dots everywhere. It’s gonna be funny,’” Khn says.
Angine de Poitrine soon caught on, and the pair retired their main band in 2022. In 2024 they released their debut album, Vol. 1, followed this past April by Vol. II.
As Khn explains, their songs emerge from constant jamming and looping.
“We improvise and make a lot of crap, then you get a little spark,” he says. “A lot of the songs on the second album started with one riff that had something to it. Then you build from that.”
Despite their attempts to keep things low-key, their influence is already spreading. One young band has even covered their song “Sarniezz,” with both guitarists attaching cable ties to their fretboards to approximate Angine de Poitrine’s microtonal sound.
“I’m proud of that,” Klek says, “of people enjoying it the way it’s supposed to be.”
