(Published 06.11.07) ARRIVALS can include so much of the unexpected. After pretty smooth
and uneventful flights towards overcast Montreal I found customs to be
a breeze. Mutek very kindly provided a friendly driver from the
airport, and along with Parisian artist
(aka Cécile Schott) who performs tonight, and a writer from Berlin’s
De:Bug Magazine we headed into the
city. But much suburban-based traffic detained us by over an hour, so
we missed the opening cocktail reception, making it to the
contemporary hotel) at just around 8PM which was the time for the
first showcase, so I had to change plans and check in my luggage and
meet with the festival administration for my pass, etc. before heading
directly to the show.
So, it was immediately off to
Ex-Centris, a wonderful media
complex who have partnered with Mutek for years. The theaters are
intimate enough, but the acoustics are generally spot on. I entered
as Clinker (Gary James
Joynes) opened the festival with his new Provody work,
which was exquisite. Like a watery collage, deep in lightly warbling
drones, high on visually synthesizing a very restrained palette. It
was hazy, gloppy, striated, and cooling. He built his piece to a
sonic crescendo by using his heavily mixed vocals to smear together an
a/v wash of dark harmonies. One of the channels from which his voice
was being projected sparked some with hiss and fallout, but it was one
of those moments where technical difficulties work in one’s favor. A
bit more organic than his past work, Clinker’s performance seemed to
resonate with something innately lucid.
Randy
Jones presented his Six Axioms project which started as
white noise into which he dropped and plopped and stretched vivid
colors and sounds across the silver screen. He calls it a “structured
improvisation for radio drum.” Though low-lit he was interesting to
watch as he performed on what appeared to be a digital drumkit. When
he hit the flat surface colors would blast across the projection. As
a software guru, it’s interesting to see him present his inventions in
performance. It felt partly like a demo, while remaining overtly
experimental. Akin to both tie-die spin art and rock psychedelia of
the 60’s he twisted and tweaked his varying discordant sounds in
bright ways by using deceleration motifs by building on twirling,
swirling visual relationships. He creates imagery that is both
immediate and that correlates to most 2D contemporary art, with nods
aplenty to Warhol, Pollock and Richter.
Up next were Belgian’s
presented the North American debut of
Despite initially being hampered with some technical difficulties
which in short order showed their program code on screen, once the
performance began, it was an incredible a/v thrill ride. These gents
conjured the soul of something I could only infer to as velocity
music, quite physical. By far the evening’s stand out, the attitude
here collided the wavering overtures of older Spiritualized with Bond,
yes, James Bond! The images were superbly dramatic, vivid and
rushing. They use techniques that give you a mind-tripping sense of
dimension. When the sound got loud and pulsating, it was
exhilarating, when it was nearly ambient and tonal it was crisp and
clean.
Finally,
& Joe Gerhardt) took to the stage with two new works. This team,
now working together for a decade, first presented the ten minute
Brilliant
Noise which is a black and white piece they collaborated on
with a team of Californian solar scientists. The images of the surface
of one of our largest stars were brilliant, indeed. Fiery, swirling
nodes of contrast. The accompanying sounds were a wondrous cross
between Mum and DAT Politics,
alluringly cut-up (since they have worked with both artists in the
past, it was a lovely dovetail). Where Has the Future Gone?
was a Canadian debut by these Londoner’s and was a virtual
improvisation. With Wacom pad and stylus in hand they used
pre-formatted imaged and drew layers atop them, forming geometrics and
lines and other variants. The set was colorful and visually
arresting, demanding quite a bit of the viewer, attention-wise. Their
sound eloquently mirrored the boldness and subtleties in the
accompanying video, and vice-versa. I guess this is “live cinema”.
Their presentation had base hints of Carsten Nicolai
with a dash of what you may have seen in a flash from Dumb
Type.
Originally I had planned to do a series of daily
transmissions about the fest but got much too caught up in my private
space and time while here in Montreal that it will be much more of an
editorialized version of this year’s festival, which has been so
different for me than in past years. The programming is sleeker and
somehow broader, the venues are mostly the same with some minor
twists, and there are programs for a diverse audience. None of those
particulars is new in comparison, but there is a professional sleeve
rolled up which makes for easy proof in the mix here at the 8th
edition of Mutek. And as we now approach the final day of festivities
I want to take a few moments to look back at some of the highlights.
The top programming came in the form of the
A/Visions program which mostly included performers of visual music or
live cinema or performance cinema, or whatever the kids are calling it
these days. At Ex-Centris on Thursday evening
opened the show with a merge between guitars, heavy bass drone and a
film/video collage. The performance was good, and the way Templeton’s
guitar provided an opportunity to sit back and zone out was much
needed. Munson’s visual accompaniment was a bit less palpable as he
over-layed an organic slow-moving video imagery that was a bit like a
slide show with a scratched film loop that sort of degenerated over
time in purples and whites and blues. It opened the room a bit, but I
felt the a/v didn’t mix well here.
Next up
played straight-up and prepared stringed instruments, as well as
chimes, clarinet and music boxes. Her sound can wrestle between
classical twee and improv experimentation, but what happens during the
process is worth the ride. She was hampered with some odd technical
difficulties like her foot-pedals running out of battery and her
instruments not having been tuned up. As she coquettishly apologized
in her native French it seemed par for the course, yet pretty free
given the context of her music. Colleen aligns beautiful rhapsodic
melodies around quirky, playful discourse. Relying mostly on the
repetition of the mix provided by her foot-pedaling, she wielded her
multiple instruments like a futuristic virtuoso who is a bit roughly
musique concrete around the edges. She performed sans visuals, which
seemed odd given the format for this series.
The final performer in this program was
certainly one of the few outstanding moments in the whole festival.
Dusseldorf’s Hauschka
(Volker Bertelmann) brought his prepared piano to the stage vividly
accompanied on the screen by Semiconductor who
presented the evening prior. As was unexpected, I actually felt this
collaboration was even more dynamic than on Wednesday evening as the
three seemed very much a rehearsed unit in terms of delicately riding
the copious structure of very complex live composition. Hauschka’s
stage presence is declaratively offbeat and with a good sense of humor
he plays bright melodies that are poppy and startling. He’s a root
fusion of contemporary pop classical sounds stirred in a tall glass of
keen tonalities. The set was uniquely physical, especially as he
slowly, intently, tore down this taped piano parts. Though this set
overlapped the other show cross town, it was well worth staying until
the bitter undone end of it all.
Next it was over to the
where upon entry there were already large reverberations of power
volume coming from inside. It was
Spaceape. It was only a week ago that I was
introduced to this “new sound” which is basically a fusion of reggae,
techno, and dark industrial hip-hop. The sound was amped to an
excrustiatingly uncomfortable level, making it difficult to actually
hear the music over the din of the shaking rafters, so after about 1/2
hour I exited, partly because I also had to prepare more for the “Live
Cinema” panel in which I moderated the next morning at 11AM.
Unfortunately I will only experience the other performers of the
evening through hearsay, missing the anticipated presentation of Allemagne’s Rhythm and Sound.
Some of what I did hear this night was funky and hard which I quite
liked, and the vocal was just a hypnotic instrument, but the acoustics
made for a muddy loud wash for the sake of it.
On Friday June 1, the morning commenced after I pulled together my
notes from my conversation with the artists on the panel
Live Cinema and Beyond: Breaking Barriers in the Audio/Visual
Divide. Over the two hours plus we discussed a range of
topics from synestasia and risk to
synchronization and the fine art intersections as applied to the live
performance realm. This particular panel of performers, musicians,
video makers, software gurus and educators are some of the world’s
most formidable creators of this ever-developing multi-genre. The
responsive audience shifted during our presentation and all tolled we
probably had up to 50 or so people attend at one point or another.
Interspersed between video clips, questions and answers brought our
lively debate about the basic differences between what the panelists
do and what a traditional VJ does on stage to light. It was a very
good panel that could have truly gone on for an additional hour once
we started to discuss the references to the more formal gallery and
museum aspects of presenting some of this work in a similar, yet more
installation-based context.
After the panel a few of us from the panel and
audience hailing from New York, Los Angeles, Brussels and Seattle
joined around the table at an anarchist vegan lunch spot and had a
pitcher or two of sangria and some unusual treats. The conversation
continued and broadened as I am sure that will only continue in real
and virtual time. The afternoon continued with a few brushes through
the Cafe Electronika which was offset the lobby of
the boutique Hotel Godin where I had the pleasure of being
accommodated for two evenings. This set up provided both live and
broadcast over the Internet, many performances by Canadian acts, many
like Naw whose sound is transfixative, and well worth
the time of sitting in this retrofit chill space for a 1/2 hour here
or there. It was the perfect set up between things, and allowed for a
casual setting to hear music, while providing big comfy sofas and
natural light which was also a central meeting point for performers
and audience. I really enjoyed the space as it really erased any
divide between the two.
On Friday evening SAT provided
the open space needed for the featured performers. Opening the set
was Jamie Drouin and Yann Novak’s Auditorium.
The space was lit by mirroring tonal, stark white video, almost white
noise drone. The open hiss and whir and rumble opened quite slow and
steadily as the two were situated facing each other, dressed
completely in black. The deadpan drill of layered atmospheres they
created grew subtley larger with a far-reaching quadrophonic like
surround sound effect. On par with similar past performances in the
same setting by
at peak level as the a/v experience was fully immersive, wrapping and
slithering around me like a wild amphibian. One of the major
highlights this year by far. A duo to watch.
They were followed by Mutek staple
Robert Henke (Monolake) performing his
FM3‘s fascinating
Machine which has spawned so many collaborations. For all its
potential monastic pretense Henke’s performance was displaced when the
nearby bar did not close as requested during his set which has lots of
ambience and soft tones. As was the case, he was distracted and
outwardly shouted at the bartenders who immediately quieted down, but
it most certainly broke the tension of the work. As he then increased
volume the room started to spin with his signature way of weaving this
sense of site-specific cylindrical sound. He always puts on a show,
but his voice continued to resonate for twenty minutes thereafter.
When it faded, he was hampered by some of his sound channels fizzling
out with a few technical difficulties. He was noticeably unhappy with
his performance, but afterward, to offer a sense of his consummate
showmanship he continued on. Always dynamic, and despite the
unexpected live oddities, he sent most people in the room into a
cloudlike space.
For the remainder of the night it was over to the
cavernous Metropolis for a split venue/themed presentation.
In the larger room were mostly the dance music, in the smaller space
more experimental and quieter or quirky offerings. I tended to spend
most of the earlier part of the evening alongside LA curator
Crouch watching the mostly female driven evening of music by the
wash of heady and physical, cyclical and sensory sounds of I8U, the soft tweaky
dissonance and ambient layers of
my first exposure to the vivacious Bubblyfish doing 8-bit renditions of
The whole intimate space was filled to the gills with an audience
craving a very contained experience. This all started with a helmet
scream gaming match where two players stood side by side in a race
that used their voices to drive motor vehicles. Noisey and fun.
In the larger room I caught parts of
Matthew Dear‘s trio
his dark, almost new wave influenced vocal. Though what flowed from
his lips was just so-so (some said he sounds like the singer from The
Fixx, and I agree). Dear is unlike others who have switched routes
from electronic experimenters into funky crooners like
now using their vocals to meld mediums. Lidell who by comparison has a
superb singing instrument, makes Dear figure best behind the beats and
feats. They performed short songs and I wasn’t very impressed as I
have been with his Audion and solo work. Dear should
consider sticking to what he’s become apparently well known for, less
pretense and sheer pleasure grooves and experimentation. This went
too far into trite pop posturing, and playing 4 minute songs in a
dance venue that are hyped to hear a continuous sound wave, it was
just a truncating ADD experience. Mixed into the evening also were
Swiss Kalabrese and
the dance floor sense. They were fun to watch, real emotive
performers. Montreal’s own,
a completely tight set of dance music that led into the highlight of
the evening, Cobblestone Jazz who kept things going into the
wee hours.
I left at 3AM and things were still cranking. I can only say if this
set comes to your town, just go if you like to dance, they had a solid
center and reached out to envelop you with a non-stop beat filled with
starts, stops and ongoings. The night belonged to the rave performance
by this Vancouver trio known as
Jazz, one of the best dance acts on the scene today. They had the
crowd wrapt in the freshest pop beats that didn’t stop as they
seamlessly added bits of quirky digital sounds and aural ephemera. It
takes a lot to keep me on the dancefloor, and its been years, and I
stayed with them til nearly the sweet finish.
Due to much needed rest I checked out late at the hotel and attended
the palette pleasing professional brunch hosted by
Distribution. It was a great time to relax and spend with the artists
who performed the fest, as well as connect with other curators,
speakers and affiliates from years past as well, including former
Mutek Artistic Director, and Oral label head
represented Raster-Noton for Canada. It is always refreshing to be in such passionate conversation with him in regards to experimental arts that blur lines. His latest cadre of recordings are worth checking out.
On Saturday the rest of the day was spent
among friends at Atom Heart and then being treated to the amazing
Beerfest where I had the opportunity to sample
some of Canada’s finest breweries. Montreal’s Beerfest was like a big
bad frat house of connoisseurs of the sweet brew from all about the
land. You know the type (wink). We were VIP guests and were treated to
several tastes, beers with carrot, some that tasted like chocolate and
others quite flavorfully bitter. One of the fascinating things about
Montreal is there always seems to be some celebratory and well done
festival here and there, music or food or something pertly cultural.
But after much brew it was back to the Metropolis for a short few
hours of Mathias Aguayo & Roccness and the next
German guy to watch out for,
everyone together with hyped beats aplenty, and a smart snarl all the
way through. Music for the body, as long as you can stay afoot. Deep
bass rhythms, nearly tribal but on a low drum level, massaging my gut
(it helps after all that rich beer, believe me). I left after not so
long for rest, but the dancefloor was ablaze with a wave of bright
people. Sunday had the finale in store and it was time to take a
breather from the party of it all…..Off I go.
Another truly memorable year in Montreal
thanks to Alain Mongeau and his Mutek
Festival! A powerful salute to electronic music by all means
and modalities. I appreciated seeing more women and people of color
at this year’s event, it seemed like the most diverse rendition yet.
So, it was to the final event along the St. Lawrence, to the
2 at the Parc
Jean-Drapeau (celebrating its 40th year!) where we all danced for
hours with a cacophony of moths under Calder’s skyward Man.
Bringing back lots of memories of years past with a flurry of
brilliant eye candy offered by the many people below surfing the turf
(they bring in a huge lot of fake grass for the people to dance more
softly upon).
I entered during
Siminski (aka Heartthrob)’s set which was
the highlight of the evening, great way to start, eh? (Hey – I’m in
Canada after all!)…His airy signatures are whispy and dimensional
and he knows how to twist and turn a variety of angular sound
perspectives, hard to pull off outdoors. It was
dance-yer-ass-off-music of the highest caliber. Followed by an
interesting set by the Bay Area’s
different, and custom tailored for this particular setting. He
managed to use high pitched sine waves that hit the back of your ear,
but still maintained true to his cut-up, broken and discordant
assemblage, just with a much more purely funky skeletal structure than
usual. Lastly were Berlin’s newest answer to the prayers of the
wiggly masses in the form of the
Schablitzki and Sören Bodner have been making a pastiche of dancefloor
rhythms that combine punk, sampling and house and flavors of many
sorts since ’01. They play with and to the audience by using unique
starts and stops with a calculating tease. It was clear in the super
long set that went into the dark of night that these two bearish men
are on extended play for sure. Last night they even used a hook from
one of the more popular Orbital songs of yesteryear, or was it
Underworld? Yes, to hide these edges in dance music is magic, and
that’s what they performed, leaving the crowd tingly and feeling free.
See Flasher for a
documenting the weekend!
Until next year…..
For more information about Mutek, visit their website at mutek.ca.
