Louy Tremblay doesn’t need to close his eyes to be transported by the music. As soon as he sits down in his high-performance listening room, a vinyl on his record player, he embarks on a journey through time and space.
“If I play a Miles Davis record, I feel like I’m with him in the studio at the time of recording. He is there, in front of me. And with each piece, I feel his anger at the time, ”says the Drummondville audiophile, a keen reader of music history.
This listening room would make any music lover dream. Designed by a specialist, it offers an unparalleled musical experience thanks, in particular, to a very high fidelity audio system powered by two independent electrical circuits. Soundproofing is provided by acoustic panels imported from Ukraine. And each screw of the resilient bars is glued to prevent vibration.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
This listening room quickly became an attraction for friends and a resting place for the couple.
His discotheque, made up of a thousand vinyls, rests in shelves that cover part of the walls. Album covers, arranged here and there, hint at a collection filled with jazz and progressive rock. Above are large photos of Frank Zappa and Roger Daltrey.
“As soon as you enter this room, you feel that you are somewhere else,” explains Martine Bélanger, Louy Tremblay’s lover and retired soldier.
The heavy door clicks behind us, the lights are dim and the musicians on the posters are watching us. With the amplifier tubes and the curtains behind the devices, it’s like stepping into the theatre. We know something is going to happen. It’s like a date!
Martine Belanger
“We lock ourselves in and we trip, confirms Louy Tremblay. We sit down and let ourselves go where the music takes us. »
The cathartic effect of music
Music has always occupied a large part of Louy Tremblay’s life. As far back as he can remember, his father was constantly playing records around the house. “It was a bit like in the movie CRAZY My father used to sing to the tunes of Jean Ferrat. »
In high school, her musical universe was enriched by meeting a librarian who not only put books in the hands of students, but also records. “It was a kind of Claude Rajotte. He made us discover lots of progressive rock bands. We would then see them perform at the Montreal Forum,” he says.
But it was above all following a serious car accident, suffered at the age of 18, that music played a salutary, even cathartic role in his life. Hips and legs in pieces, Louy Tremblay remained hospitalized for several months before undertaking a long rehabilitation. Reading and music were then his only escapes. This is where his mind began to travel according to his musical discoveries.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Louy Tremblay
My indemnity benefits from the SAAQ, I spent them on the purchase of an audio system and records. All I did was read and listen to music.
Louy Tremblay
“I learned that you can relive history through music,” he says, picking up the album Quadrophenia, from The Who, as an example. It’s the story of the class struggle in England in the 1960s. It’s terrible. »
Once his convalescence was complete, Louy Tremblay set out to make up for lost time. Thanks to his student job in an audio chain store, he was able to afford all the show tickets and build the record collection of his dreams.
Reduced to ashes
His beloved nightclub, however, was reduced to ashes in the fire of his apartment in Montreal in the late 1990s. “I did not see how I could rebuild it,” recalls the now 60-year-old man. , retired from the entertainment and sports industry.
A twist of fate, however, put him on the road, 10 years later, in Toronto, to a retired firefighter and great music lover. The latter donated a large part of his vinyls to him. “I opened the boxes and boxes, and I couldn’t believe it. I could then think of rebuilding a collection. »
It was this patient reconstruction, spanning a dozen years, that culminated in the design of a listening room in the couple’s new home, built in 2019. It quickly became an attraction for friends and a resting place for Louy Tremblay and Martine Bélanger.
“When the music starts, you immediately feel invaded, enveloped, transported, explains the latter. The quality of the sound will seek all our emotions. This room is an oasis. »
Louy Tremblay confirms it. Just as he did when his friends installed an audio system in his hospital room, he can sit for hours listening to his music without moving. “Whether I play Dave Brubeck or Steve Hackett, I still get goosebumps,” he says.
Do you also have a favorite piece whose story deserves to be told?