artist MAZ

Inspired by the likes of John Zorn and Béla Fleck, Marc Maziade (guitar, banjo, podorythmia) invites you on a voyage through Québec’s musical memory, down to the depths of modal jazz and into trance-inducing modern melodies.

On this first album, he collaborates with some of the Montréal’s best up-and-coming musicians: Robin Boulianne (violin, mandolin, podorythmia), Olivier Hébert (double bass), Gabriel Godbout-Castonguay and Jean-François Debellefeuille (Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Moog). Each of them lends his personal flavour to the arrangements, making MAZ a unique, contemporary universe deeply-rooted in tradition.

In February 2007, Marc Maziade gets carte blanche from Festival Ste-Rose en Blanc to put together his own musical project. First, he calls upon Robin Boulianne (violinist and composer) with whom he already shares a passion for traditional and jazz sounds. To complete the group, he invites the most inspiring musicians from his cohort at Université de Montréal: Louis-Joseph Cliche and Olivier Hébert. Later, Maziade records a first version of Quasi-s-pace with Lévis Bourbonnais, Olivier Hébert and Jean-François Debellefeuille, the soundtrack to a modern dance show with the same title. Over the next few years, MAZ’s musicians reunite for a few performances. In 2011, the band finally jumps headfirst into adventure and produces its first album, Télescope.

With Téléscope, MAZ breathes new life into traditional Québec music by drawing inspiration from today’s musical trends. The band creates pieces that achieve a daring and efficient balance between fervour and trance, between acoustic and electric sounds, between self-affirmation and openness.

This instrumental collaboration is a vibrant representation of modern-day Québec and its rich cultural identity. The musicians are eager to become its messengers on the North American and European circuits.