Having early and tremendously learned guitar playing, Québecer Francis Marcoux undertake composition studies at Université de Montréal. Founder of L’Hexacorde in 1998, he has since arranged and composed several works for guitar ensemble — aside from attending the concerts production of this ensemble. “The idea behind Otanitso is a short melodic motif set in ostinato. I wanted a challenge, kind of a game: to construct a varied music upon a musical idea that could have been as well useful for a rock band like Slayer. I took this connection as an opportunity to write a very rythmic piece where some of my primary impulses could lay off a bit — indeed, some of the musical ideas from my teenage years. Moreover, I wanted to experiment the percussive aspect of some notes agglomeration, in accordance with their density. With my concern on building a very varied music upon the same ostinato, rythmic sections alternate with sections less elaborated in a contrapuntal sense.”

Étienne Guérin [English translation: Patrick Poulin, iv-04]