Meet Khn and Klek de Poitrine, the mysterious Québécois duo behind Angine de Poitrine. Known for their microtonal sound, oversize papier-mache masks and black-and-white polka-dot costumes, the musicians have become an unlikely internet sensation by performing as 333-year-old alien time travelers.
The duo has gone viral over the past year, earning praise from high-profile rock musicians like Dave Grohl and Lars Ulrich, and they even opened for Jack White back in July. Now, they’re taking their otherworldly act on a European tour, with sold-out shows drawing fans eager to see the spectacle.
Do they look or sound familiar? You may have encountered them on your social media feed. Perhaps there’s a certain je ne sais quoi that makes you want to keep watching them play. You’re not alone.
At first glance, Angine de Poitrine looks like a surrealist art project that somehow wandered onto a rock stage. But beneath their avant-garde costumes is a technically ambitious musical act that blends intricate rhythms, looping guitar riffs and unusual pitches into a sound that’s as hypnotic as it is hard to categorize.
Who are these mysterious musicians, what exactly are they playing, and why can’t people seem to look away? Yahoo explains.
Who is Angine de Poitrine?
Angine de Poitrine doesn’t describe itself as a band, but rather as a “mantra-rock Dada Pythago-Cubist orchestra.” The group’s name translates from French to “angina pectoris,” a medical term for chest pain. Makes sense once you listen to them.
The anonymous musicians behind the rock duo from Saguenay, Quebec, perform under aliases: Khn de Poitrine plays a double-necked guitar and bass, and Klek de Poitrine is on the drums. Onstage, they communicate by forming triangles with their hands, both to each other and the crowd, and by making alien-like grunts and sounds. Their real names have never been publicly confirmed. All we know is that they’re not Lady Gaga or Elton John — they’re just “two random dudes,” as they told the Guardian.
The anonymity started off as something of a joke in 2019. Their main band was booked twice in a week at the same venue in their small hometown, and the musicians didn’t think anyone would want to see the same act perform again so soon, they told the Guardian. Lucky for them, the duo had a microtonal side project and just needed a disguise.
Their previous main band made massive papier-mache piñatas for the crowd to destroy in the pit at shows, sparking the idea of creating DIY masks to conceal their identities.
And the polka-dot aesthetic? That came from a spare guitar neck Klek used to build the duo’s first microtonal guitar. It was covered in polka dots from the previous owner, and the two ran with the look.
Add comedically long noses into the equation, and the result is a visual identity that’s … hard to forget.
But don’t let the visual absurdity distract you. Angine de Poitrine’s sound is built around microtonal music, which is hardly anything new. The technique uses pitches that fall between the notes of the 12-tone system commonly heard in Western popular music and has a long history in musical traditions across the Middle East and Asia.
They aren’t the first Western musicians to experiment with microtones, either. Radiohead, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Steve Vai and Jacob Collier are just some other musicians who have done this, too
Khn’s custom double-necked guitar and bass divide each octave into 24 notes rather than the usual 12, allowing him to play quarter tones. Because he can’t play both instruments simultaneously, he records riffs live into a looper pedal and stacks them in real time, which helps set the rock duo apart.
Playing such a technically demanding instrument with little room for error while wearing an oversize mask adds another challenge, which is why Khn uses visual markers on the frets.
Klek’s tight drumming holds everything together, navigating unusual time signatures such as 7/8, 10/4 and 17/4.
How did the duo go viral?
The two members of Angine de Poitrine met in their early teens through a mutual friend and were developing their sound years before their breakthrough came online.
Seattle radio station KEXP recorded Angine de Poitrine performing at the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France, in December 2025. The station uploaded the session to YouTube in February 2026, and the footage began circulating across social media.
Online, musicians, guitar enthusiasts and music commentators can be seen breaking down the duo’s microtonal guitar sound, unusual time signatures and looping techniques.
The duo’s appeal has extended beyond social media. Last month, Angine de Poitrine made their U.S. TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing a new song called “Zugzegk.”
The costumes may be what initially stops people mid-scroll, but Robert Zatorre, a professor at McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute, who specializes in the brain’s musical processing, believes the style of music offers a compelling explanation for why viewers keep coming back.
“People tend to like music which is neither too repetitive and predictable and boring, nor music that is too completely chaotic and random,” he told Yahoo. “There’s sort of a sweet spot between those two streams where there’s some structure that you can discern, but there’s also some novel theme.”
Angine de Poitrine, he said, occupies an interesting position on that spectrum. Its music is complex enough to sound chaotic at first, but repeated musical patterns give listeners something to latch onto.
“It’s quite complicated,” Zatorre said. “And at first glance, it sounds a bit chaotic. On the other hand, when you actually listen to it carefully, it turns out there are some elements that are repeated frequently, and so that helps.”
Why are more people being drawn to them?
In response to the band’s performance on Fallon, one commenter wrote, “This music scratches a musical itch in my brain that I didn’t even know I had.”
There’s a scientific explanation for that feeling
“The brain likes to discover novelty,” he said. “It likes new things. It likes to be able to learn.”
Music we enjoy activates the brain’s reward system, he explained, eliciting a pleasurable response. And that might be why the band’s music has struck such a chord with listeners.
“In this Ai stuffed internet, I feel like their music is super refreshing. I love the new jam!” one YouTube commenter said.
Zatorre pointed out that the duo’s appeal isn’t purely musical. Its outlandish costumes and fictional alien personas are also part of the draw. He said the band deliberately challenges the traditional image of a rock star — one who is tough or glamorous. Instead, Klek and Khn’s oversize masks and polka dots poke fun at rock-star conventions while their playing style demonstrates technical ability.
“Part of their novelty is that they’re shedding the traditional look of rock bands,” Zatorre said. “They’re very iconoclastic in that sense. They’re breaking the tradition, and they’re even making fun of tradition.”
That contrast may be exactly what makes the duo compelling to many people. The performance looks absurd, but the musicianship is anything but.
One commenter put it simply, “Don’t let the costumes fool you. Their skills are off the chart! One of the most exciting things to happen to music in a long time.”
