Voivod has never been a band that does things the conventional way, so it’s no surprise that their latest release, Symphonique, pairs four decades of dystopian prog-thrash with a full symphony orchestra. The live album captures the third of three orchestral shows the band performed, recorded last summer with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra in Quebec City. Drummer Michel “Away” Langevin spoke to Rodrigo Altaf about how the project came together, what’s next for the band, and why playing with an orchestra is beautiful, nerve-wracking, and everything in between.
The song selection for Symphonique was deliberate. Away says the band gravitated toward tracks with a more progressive rock approach, ones built around multiple movements rather than straightforward thrash. “We sort of stayed away from the really trashy stuff,” he said, “although we kept from the first album, ‘Nuclear War,’ because we thought it could sound like a very scary military march with an orchestra.” They also chose to include Syd Barrett‘s “Astronomy Domine,” which Away says “turned out very good.” The overarching framework was cinematic. “We figured the order of the songs to make it sound like a soundtrack for a movie or something like that.”
Arranging those songs for orchestra fell largely to Hugo Bégin, working in close collaboration with guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain, who teaches jazz at the college level and brought substantial chart knowledge to the sessions.
“He was the one giving cues to the arranger,” Away explained. “Ideas like, let’s say, the band could stop there, the orchestra could keep going, and then Snake could sing alone with the orchestra.” For his own part, Away fed the arranger a very specific sonic vision: “I really wanted it to sound like a dystopian movie, mainly influenced by the early cyberpunk movies like Mad Max, Blade Runner, Terminator. And I also mentioned Planet of the Apes, because they had some avant-garde music mixed with the soundtrack. As soon as I heard the orchestrator’s first demos, I immediately felt like I was in a sci-fi movie.”
Many of Voivod‘s songs were already drawing from modern composers like Shostakovich, Bartók, and Penderecki long before the orchestra showed up, which helped make the pairing feel earned rather than grafted on. “It might seem like a strange match for many people,” Away acknowledged, “but it was more organic and natural than people would think.”
The process took about two years from song selection to stage, and playing the material live with a full orchestra brought its own unique pressure. “As a drummer, it was especially stressful,” Away said, “because if I miss one beat or one bar, the whole orchestra gets lost.” He also had to stay locked in visually with conductor Dina Gilbert, who developed cues with the band throughout the process. “There are many breaks where we have to look at each other, and then we start again.” By the third concert, the Quebec City show that ended up being recorded, the nerves had settled enough for Away to actually enjoy it.
The orchestral setup also meant Voivod had to think differently about who was holding the reins at any given moment. Songs like “Forgotten in Space” and “Cosmic Drama” open with the orchestra alone before the band enters, and the arrangements throughout are built to give both sides real sonic space. “We couldn’t go crazy with rearranging every single part,” Away said, “but we really wanted the songs to be different than the originals, while keeping the strange vibe of Voivod‘s music.”
One dimension of the show that remains locked in the vault for now is the visual component. Away put significant work into the stage visuals, supplying original artwork that was animated by multiple artists in a range of styles, from traditional 2D to 3D CGI, with some AI animation in the mix. “The only problem is it made for a very fantastic experience for the public, but to film it and release it on Blu-ray or DVD was really out of our range financially.” A video release could still happen: Voivod has a symphonic show planned for January in Saguenay, the northern Quebec city where the band formed in 1983, this time with the local orchestra. “Maybe we can film this one,” Away said, hopefully.
The artwork for Symphonique is Away‘s own, depicting Voivod‘s recurring alien protagonist, the Kögel, recast in the image of the Phantom of the Opera. “It’s like a Kögel turning into the Kögel of the opera,” he said. Chewy pushed for warm, luminous colors over the cold palette Away had initially explored, a choice that reflects the visual spectacle of the shows themselves. “I got the vinyl copies a couple of weeks ago, and it looks really amazing.”
Beyond Symphonique, Away laid out a formidable list of active projects. A new studio album is in progress, recorded in stretches of three songs at a time around the band’s touring schedule at Radical Studio, where they’ve been working for over a decade. Three songs are already tracked, with more planned for the fall. The album is a concept record with the Kögel returning as a central figure, and Away says the symphonic experience has bled directly into the writing. “It might sound a bit like a dystopian movie soundtrack, hopefully.” He put the release window for late next year.
Also in the pipeline: a video game called Nuclear Warrior, built around late-1980s and early-1990s arcade aesthetics with Chewy adapting Voivod music into 8-bit format; a long-awaited documentary called We Are Connected, which has finally cleared its music rights; and a reissue campaign covering the band’s self-titled album and both Catharsis and Infini from the Jason Newsted years. Further down the road, Away is still hoping to release material from the Eric Forrest era, including a concept album that was demoed in the late 1990s and professional multi-camera footage from the Dynamo festival circa 1995-1996. “That’s a dream of mine,” he said.
On the lyrical side, Away noted that Snake‘s writing has shifted away from distant science fiction scenarios toward present-day subject matter, though the line between the two keeps blurring. “The science fiction is here, and it has caught up with the Voivod concept for sure.”
Voivod heads to Europe for a run of shows in June, July, and August, with a return to the United States in October and a potential Canadian run in September under consideration. The set list for the touring cycle has been significantly refreshed, Away said, with songs the band hasn’t played live in decades making the cut. For a band with a back catalogue too large to pull even one song from every album, that counts as a serious event.
Symphonique is out now. Grab your copy here.
