Annie-Claude Deschênes signs with Bonsound and releases MENACE MINIMALE, a dystopic yet catchy first single

A key figure on the Montreal independent music scene for almost twenty years, Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says, PyPy) reveals the first single from her solo project, MENACE MINIMALE, which infuses the melodies and rhythms of synthpop with an eerie sense of tension. The song is a joint release between Bonsound (Canada) and Italians Do It Better (rest of the world).

In this ode to ephemerality, Annie-Claude seeks to redefine her thought patterns under the pressure of time. The grinding bassline gives a menacing tone to the track, while the urgent and cadenced rhythms evoke humanity’s constant race against its own obsolescence. The result gives the impression of dancing to the sound of minutes lost forever under the judgmental gaze of surveillance cameras and introspection.

Over the course of the last two decades, Annie-Claude Deschênes made her mark as a singer, musician, songwriter, performer and visual artist with Duchess Says and PyPy, two bands that are known as much for their electrifying performances as for their artistic sensibility. She shared the stage with a number of internationally renowned artists, including The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, The Black Lips, The Hives, The Hot Snakes and Buzzcocks, among others. Duchess Says and PyPy's extensive touring has taken her all over North America and Europe, playing venues, bars and festivals (Primavera Fest, Eurockéennes de Belfort, OSHEAGA, Sled Island, etc.) as well as golf courses, factories and churches.

The artist’s exploratory approach to staging and sound design takes a new direction with the genesis of this solo project: the urgency that characterizes her work remains, but frustration and aggression give way to introspection and vulnerability. Annie-Claude Deschênes explores and reinvents herself under her own name, driven by a constant need to create outside of her comfort zone while bending the pre-established conventions of stage presence.