Polaris 2026: Angine de Poitrine's double win

If you have not heard of Angine de Poitrine yet, the 2026 Polaris Music Prize has given you a very good reason to start. The Quebec-based math rock duo took home the prize on September 22 at Massey Hall in Toronto for their album Vol. II, and in doing so they made history: they also walked away with the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize for the track "Fabienk," the first act ever to win both in the same night. The album prize comes with C$30,000, and the song prize adds another C$10,000, but the real story is the music itself.

Coming out of Saguenay, Angine de Poitrine is not your average rock band. The duo performs under the pseudonyms Khn de Poitrine on guitar and bass and Klek de Poitrine on drums, and they have been playing together since they were 13, two decades now. Their sound is built on complex microtonal compositions in the math and experimental rock vein, and their image is just as specific: large papier-mâché masks with huge noses and black-and-white checkered suits. Vol. II, released on April 3, 2026, is a six-track record where most songs run over six minutes, and it opens with "Fabienk," the same track that snagged the song prize.

That song is also the reason the band has been quietly blowing up. A live session recorded for the U.S. station KEXP, filmed in Rennes, France, went viral in February 2026 and had passed 16 million views by June. Later that month, they made their U.S. television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they played an unreleased song called "Zugzegk." For a duo that keeps its members anonymous, that is a lot of eyes and ears. Their influences run from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Frank Zappa to Leo Brouwer, John Scofield and Gentle Giant, and the commitment to the craft goes all the way down to the gear: in 2023, Khn commissioned a double-neck hybrid instrument from Saguenay luthier Raphaël Le Breton, with microtonal frets and phosphorescent markers to help him see the fretboard through the mask.

The Polaris itself is worth the context. Established in 2006 and modelled on the UK and Ireland's Mercury Prize, it is a Canadian not-for-profit that honours the most artistically significant album of the year, judged on merit alone rather than genre, sales or popularity. This year's winner was chosen by a panel of 205 members, a change from the previous large-jury model, and the shortlist of ten albums was whittled down from a longlist of 40. The other names on that list tell you the company they were keeping: Aquakultre's 1783, Begonia's Fantasy Life, Bibi Club's Amaro, Charlotte Cornfield's Hurts Like Hell, Beverly Glenn-Copeland's Laughter In Summer, Les Louanges' Alouette!, Peaches' No Lube So Rude, Rochelle Jordan's Through The Wall and Tanya Tagaq's Saputjiji. To come out on top of a list like that, and to take the song prize as well, is no small thing. If you are looking for something that sounds like nothing else on the radio, Vol. II is the place to start.