Raôul Duguay

Artist

Duguay was born in Val-d'Or in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, an event that he later chronicled on the semi-autobiographical track "La bittt à Tibi" on his first album. He began writing poetry in the 1950s, and his first two anthologies were published in 1966 and 1967.

He met Walter Boudreau in 1967, and the two artists formed L'Infonie shortly thereafter. This project was intended both as a music group and a new approach to collective improvisation; Duguay published its manifesto in 1970. The group released a number of albums on the avant-garde side of Quebec's progressive rock and jazz-rock scenes before dissolving in 1973. Boudreau and Duguay have re-united on occasion since then, including in 2007 for an Orgues et Couleurs festival.

Duguay released his first solo album in 1975, entitled Alllô tôulmônd; this album features "Tôuttt etô bôuttt," one of his best known tracks. The following year, he performed in front of 400,000 people at the province's Fête nationale, an annual Quebec nationalist cultural event. Duguay released several more solo albums in the seventies, eighties, and nineties; after a gap of eleven years, he returned with J'ai soif in 2010. His song "La bittt à Tibi" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.

Duguay also provided the music for the film Les Fleurs Sauvages (1982), for which he received a Genie nomination. In 1984, he took part in a musical collaboration with Parti Québécois legislator Gilles Baril. In 1996, he provided the text for a revised version of Terry Riley's In C.

Duguay has continued to publish works of poetry. His sixteenth volume, entre la lettre et l'esprit, was issued in 2001. He has also worked in the visual arts as a painter and sculptor.

Politics

Duguay is a longtime supporter of Quebec sovereigntism. In his poem Trente Lettres (1995), he described Canada as a father who "never gave mother [Quebec] an orgasm." In 2010, he signed a public letter criticizing the organizers of Quebec City's Festival d'été for booking mostly anglophone acts to perform.

Duguay ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1972 federal election as a non-affiliated candidate in Longueuil, under the name "Raôul Wéziwézô Duguay." He finished well behind Liberal candidate Jacques Olivier. In the 1998 provincial election, he ran as a candidate of the governing Parti Québécois in Brome-Missisquoi. He finished second to Liberal incumbent Pierre Paradis.

Discography

Anthologies