Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar

Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar
Left to right: Jean-Pierre Bouchard, Roger Boudreault, André Duchesne, René Lussier
Background information
Origin	Montreal, Canada
Genres	Experimental music
Years active	1986–1989
Labels	Ambiances Magnétiques
Past members	André Duchesne René Lussier Jean-Pierre Bouchard Roger Boudreault Chris Cutler Ferdinand Richard Claude Fradette Rémi Leclerc

Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, also known as Les Quatre Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar (English: The 4 Guitarists of the Apocalypso-Bar) was an electric guitar quartet founded by André Duchesne in Montreal, Canada in 1986. It was one of the first electric guitar quartets and was billed as a band from post-apocalypse Canada "inspired by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix".

Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar performed for four years in Canada, the United States and Europe. They released two albums, in 1987 and 1989.

In the mid-1980s, experimental rock guitarist and composer André Duchesne from Montreal, Canada began writing contrapuntal compositions for a guitar quartet. To perform them he recruited René Lussier and Jean-Pierre Bouchard from Conventum, Duchesne's late-1970s avant-garde folk-rock group, and Roger Boudreault, a jazz guitarist. The quartet premiered at the 4th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville at Victoriaville, Quebec in October 1986 with ex-Henry Cow drummer Chris Cutler. Duchesne wanted drums to complete the group's sound and asked Cutler, who was already playing at the festival with Cassiber, to perform with the quartet. Also present at the festival was ex-Henry Cow guitarist and composer Fred Frith, who was playing in a duo with Lussier. Frith was impressed with Duchesne's guitar quartet and later wrote an extended composition, "The As Usual Dance Towards the Other Flight to What Is Not" for them to play. In 1989 Frith formed his own guitar quartet, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet.