Career
He is a composer, guitarist, bass guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist and singer. Lussier has collaborated with such figures as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage. His work, which combines elements from all major genres, is often referred to within the discourse of New Music, or Musiques Actuelles, in French.
Born in Montreal, Lussier began his musical career in 1973 in Chambly as part of the progressive rock group Arpège.
In 1986 he joined Duchesne"s Les 4 Guitaristes de l"Apocalypso-Bar. He began doing soundtrack work in 1979, via a collaboration with Duchesne on the music for a short film called Tanobe.
Lussier has written or co-written the scores to more than thirty-five films, including Chronique d"un génocide annoncé, a documentary about the Rwandan Genocide by Danièle Lacourse et Yvan Patry. Lussier played guitar for the popular singer Pauline Julien between 1982 and 1984, though also working on music of a more esoteric nature, blurring distinctions between progressive rock, jazz and improvisation, modern composition and circus music
His first solo album, Finance, Financial du travail (version I), was released in 1983 and consolidated his reputation as a quirky, humorous and talented guitarist-composer.
Lussier is featured prominently in Step Across the Border (1990), a documentary feature film by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel about the work and travels of Frith. In 1983, Lussier co-founded the Ambiances Magnétiques record label and recording collective with Derome, Lepage and Duchesne, and produced an extensive body of work in this environment. His best known work,, was created during this period, and album which intersperses musical material with taped recordings of Quebec residents discussing the importance of the French language.
In the late 1990s, Lussier recorded two albums for solo guitar and a pair of collaborations with Martin Tétreault which reflected an interested in the history of musique concrète and electro-acoustic composition and theory.