Musician, composer, and producer Michael Cloud Duguay first gained recognition as a vital force within the early 2000’s Canadian DIY music community, contributing to dozens of critically acclaimed recording and performance projects as a producer, arranger, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist.
Following his beloved solo debut Heavy On The Glory (2012), Duguay spent almost a decade grappling with mental illness, substance addiction, and homelessness, but his commitment to music prevailed, and ushered in a new era of creativity. His newfound momentum brought on a thirst for exploration that has since led him to expand his practice well beyond his foundations in folk and rock settings. With his recent immersion in improv-driven ensemble music, site-specific audio installations, and field recording as well as curation and presenting, Duguay has situated himself at a focal intersection within the experimental music landscape.
Duguay's output frequently explores memory, nostalgia, and location, both literal and metaphorical, in the more literal sense. His fascination with the particular qualities of different spaces and with different collaborative dynamics has led to him to record and create music everywhere from the Yukon Territory’s northernmost fly-in community to the lantern room of mainland Canada’s easternmost lighthouse, and relatedly has prompted him to explore sustainable methods of recording. To date he has crafted three albums almost entirely with solar power.
Many of Duguay's projects have been recognized by institutions such as the Canada Council For the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Yukon Sound Commission, the City of Peterborough, the Electric City Culture Council, the City of Kingston and the Kingston Arts Council. He was recipient of the inaugural City of Kingston Artist-in-Residence in 2021, and has also held residencies at Westben, in Ontario and Hakoniemi Artist Residency in Karelia, Finland and the Old School Artist Residency in Hrisey, Iceland.
He is currently a performing member of, and the musical director for Scions, a creative music collective whose various acclaimed members traverse Canada, and leads the Halifax-based elctroacoustic improv ensemble, Talismanc Episode Assembly. He also performs as a member of the groups Global Sadness, Valleyspeak and alongside the likes of Steven Lambke (of the Constantines), Carson McHone, Alex Lukashevsky (of Deep Dark United), Fittonia, Sing Leaf, Jose Contreras (By Divine Right), and Lius Rhutilius.
Since 2021, Duguay has hosted Electric Rabbit Radio Hour, a stylistically diverse program from Frozen Section Radio that emphasizes exploratory approaches. He also presents concerts under the Miracle Territory banner in Peterborough, Ontario, following a stint as a booker/promoter for one of Canada’s most unique and heralded live music venues, Hotel Wolfe Island. In 2024, he launched the new label Watch That Ends The Night with his frequent collaborator, Award winning Halifax-based musician Andrew MacKelvie (New Hermitage, Scions, Jerry Granelli). The imprint's aim is to foster a spirit of experimentalism and collaboration outside of the boundaries of style while steadfastly maintaining a community-minded business model.
