Montreal-based artist Quinton Barnes releases his new ambitious album Black Noise. Released via Watch That Ends The Night Records, the record takes an assuredly different approach to radically innovate his methods of expression. It presents a bold sonic evolution and showcases the talents and efforts of a diverse collective of Montreal-based artists and musicians in collaboration.
Inspired by Afropessimist thought and the work of economist Jacques Attali, alternative hip-hop artist Quinton Barnes became interested in noise and its function within the context of Black music. He situates noise within a context of Black cultural expression, fusing it with soul and gospel-inspired vocals, pushing the limits of Black genres to their sonic brink.
For Black Noise, Barnes partnered with composer Michael Cloud Duguay who curated an ensemble out of experienced noise performers and free improvisers living and working in Montreal, including members of anti-colonial free jazz quarter Egyptian Cotton Arkestra (James Goddard, Markus Lake, Ari Swan, and Lucas Huang), exploratory multi-instrumentalist Matt LeGroulx, experimental reedist and instrument maker Naomi McCarroll-Butler, and audio engineer Ky Brooks. The creative process began with Barnes and Duguay commissioning and recording a suite of original classical piano music which was then sampled, manipulated, and deconstructed to build foundations for lyric-writing and improvised ensemble performances in the studio.
Collaboratively exploring different iterations of ‘noise’ through the lens of Barnes’ Black Noise theories and Duguay’s tightly conceptualized creative process, the album coalesced piece by piece. The album’s material ranges from deconstructed acid funk to an avant-garde post-rock cum footwork, harsh noise, frenetic breakbeat, orchestral drone, to Barnes’ most heartbreakingly beautiful ballad work yet.
Foregrounded throughout is Barnes’ patently potent lyricism and dynamic vocal performance, exploring themes including Black nihilism, overlooked Black genius, precarity and poverty, grief and triumph. With a world-class ensemble of instrumentalists supporting him, and Duguay’s refined penchant for sonic worldbuilding, Quinton Barnes has accomplished something unprecedented in both conceptual scope and delivery.
Photography by Chelsey Boll
Quinton Barnes + Black Noise Ensemble perform at Le Guess Who? 2025 on Sunday 9 November. Also performing at the festival are a.o. Adrian Younge, Lonnie Holley & Friends, keiyaA, and more.
