Existence, an ambitious progressive rock band, was formed in Quebec by Alan Charles (guitar, vocals, keyboards) who had been writing a concept album for years with his previous band. In 1991 he enlisted bassist Serge Delisle and his band in a his prog rock concept proejct. Although Charles had dreamed of a group that would be nameless and only known by the project they were working on, the rest of the new group voted down this idea, and the band took on the name of their current project, Existence. The next couple of years would see lineup shifts, but the group was able to complete the second half of the material to Charles' story. Soon Existence was performing the entire 90 minute concept in concert. In 1994 the group released the grand Fragile Whisperings of Innocence, the first half of the concept piece on record. Although the recording sessions were fraught with problems and the sound was not completely to Charles' liking, the record received a decent reception on college radio stations. The band then began a tour, but exhausted from the recording sessions, Delisle and drummer François Labelle both left the group. The band continued on, replacing the two lost members with Bruno Tessier and Alain Quesnel. Existence broke up in 1996 with the band wanting to go in different directions. Charles was soon writing new material though and with a new band recorded the EP, Another Fine Day Of... (1998) to see what the response would be. With an outpouring of interest from radio stations, Charles then reformed Existence as a group of freelance musicians working under his and with a reformed band, recorded Existence's second album, Small People, Short Story, Little Crime (1999). ~ Geoff Orens