The Masquerade: How Angine de Poitrine rewrote the rules of musical identity

Two musicians from Québec have spent the past year becoming one of underground music’s most unlikely success stories. They rarely speak about themselves. Their faces are hidden behind oversized papier-mâché masks. Their songs are titled “Sherpa”, “Tamebsz” and “Yor Zarad”, with many performed in a language that exists only within the band’s mythology. 

Yet Angine de Poitrine, French for “angina pectoris,” or chest pain, is attracting the kind of attention independent acts spend years chasing.

Their Live on KEXP session introduced them to a global audience, placing the duo alongside artists launched by the platform. Festival bookings followed, and online forums quickly filled with the same question: who exactly are they? The answer depends on who you ask.

To new listeners, Angine de Poitrine seems to have appeared fully formed. Long-time followers of Québec’s experimental scene tell a different story. Reddit threads, archived concert listings and old performance videos have fuelled a theory that the duo are the latest incarnation of La Poësse, later known as La Poexe, an experimental project from Saguenay built around baritone guitar, drums and theatrical performances. The similarities are striking, though the band has never confirmed any connection.

The masks have become central to that mystery. In interviews, Khn and Klek have explained that the characters were born almost by accident after they were booked to play the same venue twice in one week. Performing anonymously under a different name soon evolved into a fictional universe complete with its own language, costumes and recurring characters.

That world is held together by remarkable musicianship. Khn performs on a custom-built double-neck microtonal guitar, using loop pedals to build dense arrangements, while Klek’s drumming shifts between changing metres without losing momentum. Their music draws from punk, progressive rock, folk and free improvisation, yet resists easy classification.

The masks may have started the conversation, but the originality of the music continues to turn curious listeners into devoted followers.