Existence emerged in 1992 with a first concept, a rock opera, simply entitled Existence. The four musicians were presenting their creation in clubs of the Montreal area to a mystified crowd that was given a small libretto to help follow the story. There was no actor, no scenery, no special lighting. Just music played with passion. 90 minutes of pure Existence music played in two acts! For the audience who had never seen anything like that in a club before, it was quite a shock but also a revelation!
In February 1994, Existence’s first act was released as the Fragile Whisperings Of Innocence album. The band then embarked on a small tour of the province of Quebec still playing the full concept. In 1995, Existence started opening for bigger acts to try reach more people. They concentrated on the major songs of the first concept but they also started adding new material to their act.
1998 saw the release of an EP entitled Another Fine Day Of… after a pause of two years. Existence wanted to test the radio market with three songs written for the next concept. The title track, an 8-minute progressive rocker, reached the 11th spot on the chart of WRKO radio station in Detroit.
Existence released its second full concept - Small People, Short Story, Little Crime - in August 1999. The team mystified many more fans and music specialists with an impressive bunch of songs filled with emotions and breathtaking musical passages where violin, guitar and piano lead a dance – sometime tragic, but always beautiful.
And the album concept is one grande oeuvre! It comes with a 56 pages magazine complete with articles, editorial, readers’ mail section, movie & album reviews and ads. Each article is related to a song and the song lyrics, in bold face, are worked into the text of the articles. CD and magazine are packaged in a cardstock slipcase that serves as the inner and outer sleeves.
Since its release, the album got more than 30 ecstatic reviews from many underground music publications, mainly from Europe but also from the USA and Canada.
Although Existence has been more than quiet in the last few years, each members of the band doing other stuff on the side, they did play with legendary progressive rockers Focus (also signed to Black Pearl Productions) in a small tour of Québec in 2002 and a few other shows in the Montreal region.
But Existence will be back soon! The band has 2 albums worth of material ready for release and two new concepts in preparation! Soon to be released, the album Silent Screams in Violence, act II of Existence’s original 1992 rock opera concept, will be followed by a new concept called Lust & Passion. These releases will be followed by a stage show.
Just wait, you haven’t seen anything yet!
