La Villa Strangiato

03/16/2026

Upcoming Ottawa-Gatineau gigs:

March 20 - Brass Taxx @ Irene's Pub, 9pm
March 21 - Overture [Rush tribute] @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
March 23 - Triplicate @ Robo Lounge, 7pm
March 24 - Crown Lands @ Shenkman Arts Centre, 7pm
March 27 - Finely Tuned Elephant [album release] with Justin Duhaime Trio and Archivers @ The Rainbow, 7pm
March 27 - Nick Schofield @ National Arts Centre, 4th Stage, 8pm
March 28 - DarkSpeed @ Barley Mow Merivale, 7pm
April 8 - ANCIIENTS @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
April 11 - Top and Bottom Brass with Bill Mahar @ Parkdale United, 7pm
April 26 - Angine de Poitrine @ Minotaure, 7pm
April 28 - Carl Mayotte @ National Arts Centre, 4pm Stage, 8pmMay 1 - En pleine face [Harmonium tribute] @ Minotaure, 7pm
May 2 - Triumph @ Canadian Tire Centre, 7pm
May 8 - Valvehead, Girlboything @ The Rainbow, 7pm
May 8 - The Reverb Syndicate @ SAW Gallery, 8pm
May 8 - Abacab [Genesis tribute] @ Cégep de l'Outaouais, 8pm
May 15 - Childhood's End [Marillion tribute] @ Cégep de l'Outaouais, 7pm
May 16 - Brass Camel @ The Rainbow, 8pm
May 28 - Pete Roth Trio feat. Bill Bruford @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
June 20 - Living The Dream [Dream Theater tribute] @ Salle Jean-Despréz, 7pm
June 19-June 28 — Ottawa Jazz Festival @ NAC / Confederation Park

02/19/2026

Imminent - gigs:

February 19 - Arkona, Serene Dark @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
February 21 - Primeval Well, Nirthal, Groa Willing @ Avant Garde Bar, 8pm
February 21 - John Geggie with Claire Devlin and Tommy Crane @ GigSpace, 7pm
February 27 - Ash Ravens with Almyr Jules @ Live on Elgin, 7:30pm
February 28 - Atlantis Jazz Ensemble [album release] @ Minotaure, 8pm
March 4 - Prime Rib Big Band @ Irene's Pub, 8:00pm
March 6 - Idioteque @ Overflow Brewing, 8:30pm
March 7 - Patche @ Minotaure, 7pm
March 14 - Smelloship @ The Rainbow, 7pm
March 20 - Brass Taxx @ Irene's Pub, 9pm
March 21 - Overture [Rush tribute] @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
March 24 - Crown Lands @ Shenkman Arts Centre, 7pm
March 27 - Finely Tuned Elephant [album release] with Justin Duhaime Trio and Archivers @ The Rainbow, 7pm
March 27 - Nick Schofield @ National Arts Centre, 4th Stage, 8pm
April 8 - Anciients @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
April 11 - Top and Bottom Brass @ Parkdale United Church, 7pm
April 26 - Angine de Poitrine @ Minotaure
April 28 - Carl Mayotte @ National Arts Centre, 4pm Stage, 8pm
May 2 - Triumph @ Canadian Tire Centre, 7pm
May 8 - Abacab [Genesis tribute] @ Cégep de l'Outaouais, 8pm
May 28 - Pete Roth Trio feat. Bill Bruford @ Rainbow Bistro, 7pm
June 20 - Living The Dream [Dream Theater tribute] @ Salle Jean-Despréz, 7pm

01/08/2026

Imminent - gigs:

January 7 - Prime Rib Big Band @ Irene's Pub, 8:30pm
January 9 - Justin Duhaime Trio @ Night Oat, 7pm
January 10 - No Helmet, Triple Threat Pony, Feed After Midnite @ Minotaure, 7pm
January 12 - Ed Lister Group feat. Marc Decho @ Minotaure, 9:15pm
January 13 - Angela Verbrugge @ Night Oat, 7pm
January 17 - Dr. Keith Hartshorn-Walton: Tribute to Ray Draper @ Parkdale United Church, 7pm
January 19 - The Musical Box @ Salle l'Odyssée, 7pm
January 22 - Mark Ferguson Quartet album release @ Gigspace, 7:30pm
January 22 - Wormwood, Scalding, Norilsk @ Dominion Tavern, 8pm
January 25 - Funk Yo Self w/ Jermaine Holmes @ Live on Elgin, 7pm
January 28 - Collected Strands @ Southminster United, 12pm
January 29 - Primary Colours @ National Arts Centre Fourth Stage, 8pm
January 30 - Smelloship, Friendly Frogs Freak Show @ The House Of Targ, 8pm
January 31 - Benjamin Deschamps' No Codes @ National Arts Centre, 8pm
February 12 - Ad Infinitum, Seven Spires, Tulip, Sovereign Council @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
February 14 - Kim Mitchell, David Wilcox @ Hard Rock Café
February 19 - Arkona, Serene Dark @ Overflow Brewing, 7pm
February 21 - Primeval Well @ Avant-Garde Bar, 8pm
February 27 - Ash Ravens w/ Almyr Jules @ LIVE on Elgin, 7:30pm
March 6 - Idioteque @ Overflow Brewing, 8:30pm
March 7 - Patche @ Minotaure, 7pm
March 27 - Finely Tuned Elephant album release @ TBD
March 27 - Nick Schofield @ National Arts Centre, 4th Stage, 8pm
April 28 - Carl Mayotte @ National Arts Centre, 4pm Stage, 8pm

12/15/2025

In response to several requests since Thursday, I'm pleased to share for on-demand listening the final episode of La Villa Strangiato as it was heard live December 11, 2025 on CHUO 89.1 FM in Ottawa.

[link in comments]

And in the end, it's been an immense privilege to host this program since first getting my start at uOttawa's campus community radio station in 1999. Since those very humble beginnings, I've been proud to bring you nearly 900 shows en français featuring hundreds of progrock, jazz fusion, avant-garde metal and experimental folk artists, and countless hours of classic and new releases from mainstays like the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway to equally worthy efforts from around the block, and around the world.

Unlike great works of art which do have staying power, the same sadly cannot be said for not-for-profit, community radio. It inhabits a delicate place at best in the arts and culture space and simply cannot exist without the student funding that has always been its lifeline. Times have changed, priorities have changed, and attitudes toward arts and culture seem to have shifted as well. And so, after 50 years, CHUO will cease its live broadcast schedule on Monday, December 15. (Pre-recorded content will continue to be aired until the station's CRTC license to broadcast terminates in March.)

Before signing off for the last time, I'd like to thank the co-founders of La Villa Strangiato, Yann Grenier and François Laflamme, who brought the show into existence back in 1996, as well as all hosts who've sat behind the mic at one time or another these past 30 years: Gary Lauzon, Philippe Beaudoin, Gilles Potvin, Tim Spekkens, and Etienne Plante.

Immense gratitude is also due to all the artists, labels and promoters who've been generous with their time, their work and their support of La Villa Strangiato these past decades. It's been great getting to know some of you personally through email correspondence, or over a beer in Ottawa and further-flung places like Vancouver, Uppsala, Copenhagen, Berlin, Lyon, Istanbul, Edinburgh, Tel Aviv, Tallinn and beyond. The passion for what you do will continue to inspire long after this final episode graces the CHUO airwaves.

In closing, let's bring the curtain down tonight as fittingly as possible with the music of King Crimson, Banco, Octobre feat. Pierre Flynn, Echolyn, Anekdoten, Kaschalot, The Night Watch, John Sund, Argo Vals*, "ATOLL" and RUSH. [*don't miss my interview with this visionary Estonian composer and guitarist)

Thanks for tuning in these past 26 years — let's see what the next 26 might bring.

It's been a trip.

12/04/2025

Please tune in tonight (December 4, 2025) from 7:30-9:00pm (EST) for another possibly next-to-last episode of La Villa Strangiato — only on CHUO 89.1 FM in Ottawa. Remember that you can always access the live broadcast via the station's website at chuo[.]fm and over here at tunein[.]com.

But first, In case you missed it:
CHUO 89.1 FM has long been an important platform in Ottawa-Gatineau to provide a space for diverse voices and music. Unfortunately, the radio station has entered a period of profound financial difficulty resulting from an October 2023 referendum vote by 7% of uOttawa undergrad students to defund their only on-campus radio station and independent media organization.

To keep CHUO on the air while we explore various options to continue our broadcasting mandate and maintain our broadcast and admin space in the basement of Morisset Library on the uOttawa campus, we are aiming to fundraise $150,000 between now and December 15.

For La Villa Strangiato listeners who would like to support the station and this program's valuable mission of bringing you the best in progrock, jazz fusion, avant-garde metal, experimental folk and other musical oddities from Canada and abroad that you will not hear anywhere else, please follow this link to donate. Thanks for reading this far!

This week, we'll be leading off possibly the second-last episode of La Villa Strangiato on CHUO with the music of Italian gems PFM from their 1973 release Photos of Ghosts, a mostly English-language effort released on ELP's Manticore Records label.

Into the first half hour, let's check out some really deep cuts by ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett off his 1979 Spectral Mornings solo record, followed by some choice Bill Bruford, Albert Marcoeur and The Flower Kings.

For our second half, it's back to Italy and the music of Paolo "SKE" Botta from his 2011 stunner 1,000 Autunni on Fading Records. We'll keep things moving with the minimalist focus of guitarist Stephan Thelen, the bodacious bass of Antoine Fafard, and the friendly fuzz of Winnipeg's MahoganyFrog.

For this week's Pioneers and Legends of French Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion, it's music by Noëtra — a stellar ambient fusion ensemble that recorded Neuf songes in 1979 but were unable to release it — until the nice folks at Musea Records did so in 1992. But the program concludes in Vancouver with one of Canada's greatest up-and-coming bands, Brass Camel.

Thanks again for tuning in these past 26 years — especially during these strange days. "I care if you listen".

Listen live / Écoutez en direct:
https://player1.radioplace.co/player/popup/chuo-fm
https://tunein.com/radio/CHUO-FM-891-s20289/

CHUO-FM - Since 1991, we’ve been proudly playing whatever we want. Not bound by a single genre of music, CHUO invites our listeners on a journey of discovery. CHUO is radio that speaks your language. We open up conversations with the community – delving into...

11/27/2025

Please tune in tonight (November 27, 2025) from 7:30-9:00pm (EST) for yet another unfailingly reliable episode of La Villa Strangiato — only on CHUO 89.1 FM in Ottawa. Remember that you can always access the live broadcast via the station's website at chuo[.]fm and over here at tunein[.]com.

On this week's program, we'll be serving up a healthy offering of prog rock, eclectic jazz and thoughtful metal — the kind that keeps you coming back here week after week. Up first is Hurdy Gurdy, one of those peculiar early Danish bands of the early 70s caught somewhere between the blues and psychedelia, right on the cusp of the progressive rock movement about to sweep the continent.

Into the first half hour, it's over to the UK to hear some prime Nucleus with Ian Carr on flugelhorn, off the band's sublime 1973 release Roots. Music also from Iron Maiden's classic Somewhere in Time, and, while we're at it, another band you would have heard a lot on Canadian radio in the early 90s, The Tea Party, in town next Saturday for a gig. Rounding off the set you'll also hear one of Montreal's most successfully creative bands of the 2000s decade, Torngat.

For our second half, Norway's Saywhat are up first, as we continue our exploration of this jazz-folk ensemble's recent output, followed by the worthwhile heaviness of Cortége and ANCIIENTS. We'll also be digging into a brand new release by Canadian bass virtuoso Rich Brown entitled Nyaeba, on the Whirlwind Recordings imprint.

For this week's Pioneers and Legends of French Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion, we'll be hearing a fantastic track off the fourth album by "ATOLL"s, Tertio. To conclude, Portugal's wildly experimental Fadomorse have the honours.

Thanks again for tuning in these past 26 years — especially during these strange days. "I care if you listen".Listen live / Écoutez en direct:

https://player1.radioplace.co/player/popup/chuo-fm
https://tunein.com/radio/CHUO-FM-891-s20289/

CHUO-FM - Since 1991, we’ve been proudly playing whatever we want. Not bound by a single genre of music, CHUO invites our listeners on a journey of discovery. CHUO is radio that speaks your language. We open up conversations with the community – delving into...