le fly pan am
Le Fly Pan Am formed in Montreal in 1996 and played their earliest shows with many of the city's emerging instrumental/experimental rock groups including: Exhaust, godspeed you! black emperor, and The Shalabi Effect. They played in various alternate venues and extra-official lofts and warehouses during the late-90s. The band continues to comprise its four founding members: Roger Tellier-Craig (guitars, tapes); Jonathan Parant (guitars, tapes); J.S. Truchy (bass, tapes); Felix Morel (drums, tapes). A fifth member Eric Gingras (guitars, organs, percussion) joined the group in 2002.
The band's first release was a split 7" with godspeed, issued by a local `zine aMAZEine in 1998. They began recording their first full-length later that year; it was released as a self-titled CD and 2xLP by Constellation in 1999 to unanimous praise.
As Montreal's rock instrumentalists began to cross-pollinate and collaborate during this period, Fly Pan Am found themselves working with sound artist Alex St. Onge; they premiered their first joint piece at Constellation's Musique Fragile concert series in 1998, and went on to record it for their first album. Alex has remained a regular guest, appearing on various tracks throughout the band's recorded work.
Roger was recruited by godspeed in 1998, touring and recording heavily with them until he left the band in 2002 to focus on Fly Pan Am and other projects. His collaboration with Alex St. Onge in the duo Et Sans resulted in a debut album on Locust, released in 2001, as well as a forthcoming self-released 3" CD.
Jonathan, J.S. and Felix have also been involved in various noise, improv and hardcore bands and events over the past 6 years. Jonathan released a solo record on Squintfucker Press in 2003, J.S. has played in hardcore/noise bands Wisigoth and Air Raid Siren, and Felix has featured in various rock-improv events, as well as playing with Boredoms/Mike Patton-inspired improv band Goa! and bossa nova inflected pop group Sonito.
Fly Pan Am remains the central conceptual and compositional vehicle for all four musicians. The band released an EP re-working and re-editing various fragments from their debut album, then issued their second full-length, Ceux Qui Inventent N'ont J'amais Vecu (?), in 2002. This was a massive leap forward for the group, a highly original and critically celebrated juxtaposition of dry funk, 60s French pop and musique concrete that brilliantly updated the terrain charted by bands like This Heat and Brise Glace. These releases, along with the band's new record N'Ecoutez Pas, have all seen worldwide release through Constellation.
In the last two years, Fly Pan Am has also been collaborating with electronic artists Tim Hecker and Christof Migone. Much of this work is still in progress, but the first fruits appear on Constellation's recent Song of the Silent Land compilation, as well as on one track from the new record.
Fly Pan Am has toured Europe and North America numerous times, sharing bills with godspeed, Do Make Say Think, Stereolab and Broadcast, among others. They have performed twice at Fonderie Darling, the Montreal installation art center run by Quartier Ephemere. They spent a week performing in Portugal in 2002, at the invitation of Visao Periferica, and played the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in 2004. They will be touring extensively in North America and Europe during the fall of 2004.