The energy level of Takami Nakamoto and Sebastien Benoits’s “Reflections” performance was on par with being in a sold-out concert with Benoits’s live, hard-hitting drumming on a full acoustic drum set and Nakamoto’s high-energy body movements while programming and manually manipulating the sound effects. I had seen Nakamoto at last year’s EM15, who was performing as NONOTAK with Noemi Schipfer in the A/Visions, and he consistently brings to the stage that full-force energy which greatly adds to the whole set. The music consisted of hard drumming with an industrial/reverb effect, and EDM beats that left the whole audience cheering and dancing. Of course, I cannot go without stating that their lighting set-up with the row of flashing, vertically and spatially placed, fluorescent tubes, alongside heavy, synchronised, white strobe lights placed on either side of Nakamoto and Benoits, was visually the perfect lighting set-up to match their sound.

Lumisokea’s set was an alluring and menacing experience with their heavy, trembling industrial and mechanical sampling and effects and their mainly triangular, green projections that descended from the stage downwards, onto and through the audience. The projection fell in a slim horizontal layer of light, so as it projected downwards onto the crowd, it had the very captivating effect as if the audience was being scanned in mass. These projections, along with the increasingly rhythmic, bass-driven, harsh break beats, were definitely a means to cause the audience to experience their performance in visual entrancement.

At the specially located Théâtre Maisonneuve quipped with its large screen, Maotik and Metametric’s “Omnis” struck the audience with geometric brilliance, taking everyone first on a spatial journey on screen and inside a winding tunnel, then to a space of cubic particles, and finally through a maze of industrial-like rooms of pipes. The opening of “Omnis” started off with one swift hit on a gong and progressed with ambient sounds, which were met with manual effects on a large bass drum in perfect timing to the visuals on screen. The visual transition to the room of long, industrial pipes was the turning point for the sounds to become intensified with loud effects, as though the steel pipes were gliding against each other and another moment where it sounded as if fluorescent tubes of light were shattering and exploding. The visual for me that immediately put me in awe was the large, 3D creature, resembling the merged structure of a butterfly/bird that flew into the room of steel pipes and had the appearance of ominously looking onto the audience as its wings were in motion.

The second performance in the A/Visions 1  was the absolutely magnificent choreography from Hiroaki Umeda. The A/Visions specifically presents artists with audio-visuals that are extremely creative and provide the audience with the means to feel 150% enthralled and in rapture of the artists’ work, and Umeda’s performance could not have fit this description any better. He started off dancing slowly in complete silence, meticulously and fluidly curving his body, but not long after and in increasing tempos, Umeda transforms his body both into a malleable and robotic form, breakdancing into every beat of the mechanical, glitch-based soundtrack. Watching Umeda do this alone with the sound effects would have already been enough to excite the audience, but he furthered and outdoes the visuals by spectacularly projecting stardust, white noise/transmission static, and segmented RBG strobe overlays onto his body, which in sequence of the glitch-based sounds at times differed from the projection on the screen behind him. But it is in the rapidness of his motions to match the high-speed sounds that made his performance unparalleled. Umeda’s choreography tests and breaks the limits our human capacity to move so intensely and strategically, all at inhuman speeds.

The selected performances in this year’s MUTEK have truly been an incredible pleasure to witness by some of the most talented, creative and exceptional audio-visual artists. You are surely missing out on experiencing the astonishing level of creativity and production if you haven’t gone to MUTEK yet!

Images by  Trung Dung Nguyen & Caroline Hayeur for MUTEK

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Of the artists listed, Cabaal and Clément’s – both of whom are Montreal natives – performance held my interest most. Cabaal (Ben Globerman) was the first artist of Nocturne 1 and set the bar with an hour-long, provocative, stellar-influenced performance. The beginning of Cabaal’s set was incredibly enthralling with an atmospheric introduction of deep, bass-filled vibrations coupled with astral, ambient sounds, and red floodlights that shone through a layer of fog. There were no visual projections that accompanied his set, which I greatly appreciated; only Cabaal illuminated by the haze of red from behind him. Visually, this brought his live performance to a more heightened experience. Any sort of projection would otherwise have taken away from experiencing his music.

His set was such that I couldn’t exactly predict where his music would lead to next as there were continuous turns into slightly different musical directions, transitioning from the space-ambient sampling and manual arpeggiations of sounds to quickened hi-hat tempos to more brighter synth beats and then to full-on club percussive beats. However, his overall performance was still cohesive in the end with the recurring bass beats that make your spine shiver. As an audience/listener, cohesiveness in this type of EDM performance is what you really hope to experience. What particularly made his live performance excitable for me was the venue-shaking heavy bass beats that progressed after the ambient segment started to build. The contrast in sound was irrefutably refreshing and enjoyable, and Cabaal’s live performance was definitely a gratifying aural exploration.

Hugues Clément’s new work, Dichotomie, was a much more sophisticated approach and development of his style in juxtaposing dualities. The last time I had seen his live video work was at Igloofest in early 2014, where his video work was evident of contrasted forms between classical and formalism art. In a year and half’s time, it is clear that Clément has really explored more complex and refined graphic manipulations to not only further his visual and conceptual theme of the organic (truth) versus the digital (deception), but to also to comment on these visual manipulations that are heavily reflected in the 21^st century, as seen through media and social acceptance/encouragement of falsified imagery.

The first half of his 30-minute video was the portion that I found visually entrancing with moving natural landscapes and 3D geometric forms that overlay and perpetuate within the scenery – such as the imagery of the pond amid the bleak, dead-winter field and a black, pulsating, 3D form with synchronised, black, spherical dots expanding outwards along to the heavy beats of the background music. The other extremely well done motion graphics was the flashing, geometric, fluorescent tube structure in a darkly-lit, digitally-created forest, the empty, black space with a large, disk of frail, white dust particles flying into the abyss, and the haunting, slow-motion dreamscape of cotton weeds, slowly blossoming with translucent flashes of red/purple hues.

The second half of Clément’s set revealed the explicit commentary of appearance in media, questioning what is beauty through the use of collaged imagery, such as mannequin hands, magazine covers, burgers, and a repeated, large advert of “Are you beach-body ready?” Although the two segments of Dichotomie were perhaps visually on polar ends, the exploration of the natural versus manipulation was made astoundingly clear and it is a pleasure to see the transformation of Clément’s graphic/motion video work.

Images by Trung Dung Nguyen & Kamielle Dalati-Vachon for MUTEK

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Their debut album, Sadnecessary, released on Oct 14th by Lichtdicht/Republic Records features a 14-track compilation. It is no surprise that this album went Gold in Germany and it is definitely no surprise that their music caught fire and spread through radio stations across North America.

But what makes this album in general so memorable? It’s their simplistic yet catchy beats combined with their rhythmic, acoustic guitar technique and a raspy-like, soulful vocal style that you can immediately recognize. The cohesiveness of the songs throughout the album and the bittersweet lyrics versus upbeat melodies, as the album title implies, sets off the mood to dance but also to feel a sense of lost nostalgia all the while.

Usually it’s easy to point out which songs in an album are the ones that are likely to be a favourite – of course, “Stolen Dance” would be one of the top ones because it is arguably the most upbeat song – but having listened to the album numerous times, they all are equally and individually catchy and all have their own unique characteristic that makes the song enjoyable to listen to.

Guaranteed that after you listen to Sadnecessary the first time, you’ll want to listen to it over again to keep in that innocent, blissful land that Milky Chance has provided.

Their spring 2015 North American tour was announced not too long ago, so definitely check out their show if they’re coming to your city!

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Diamond Version’s debut album, CI, released by Mute Records is a 10-track compilation of provocative songs that interpret society versus machine. The German duo and co-founders of Raster-Noton, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) and Olaf Bender (Byetone), have come together and collaborated with other musical talents (Niel Tennant from Pet Shop Boys, Kyoka, Leslie Winer, and Atsuhiro Ito) to produce this captivating album.

CI (Corporate Identity) presents and comments on a digital world where mankind takes on the robotic lifestyle. The songs are blissfully saturated with distorted/grinding sound effects, grooving bass lines and vocal samples – all infused with electronic/industrial beats. The titles mirror the lyrical content within each song, shining light on mass-marketing and the need for self-infatuation. For example, “This Blank Action” immediately starts off the album with lyrics of an egocentric playfulness, identifying vanity without merit.

“Make.Believe” is quite a beautiful and bittersweet end to the album. From the beginning there are harsh sound effects cutting in and out (along the lines of an ongoing radio feedback and alarm), but almost two-thirds into the song comes an ambient melody, contradicting the tension from not only this track, but all of the songs in the album. It is the only and final song that reveals a more human side of reflecting life and the idea of change for the better. The title, consistently again, pulls the concept of the song together.

You’ll find yourself gyrating along to the crunching beats of Diamond Version’s debut album in its representation of human nature’s perverse, psychological complacency to revere in superficial identities.

Release date: June 3, 2014

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Three performances. Second night of EM15. One astonished girl. EM15’s A/VISIONS 1 has been the most creative line-up of performers I have seen thus far. This three-hour event which ran on May 28^th from roughly between 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM at Cinéma Impérial was a sold-out show with Mantra Percussion, Nicolas Bernier/Martin Messier, and Nonotak, and for a good reason. Let’s paint this jaw-dropping, visual and aural experience from the perspective of one who got there early enough to get a front-row seat.

Mantra Percussion, a six-man group from New York, was the first act of the evening, performing “Timber” with their hexagonal instruments comprised of what appeared to be 2 x 4 lumber of different lengths. The wood pieces are the platform of their sound creation and are laid horizontally and propped up from the floor at hip-length. Colourful strobe lights lay at the feet of the stands on each side, matching the tempo of their drumming. If the sound of a construction site with men hammering on wood was what you were expecting, it would not be the case for “Timber.” Instead, the audience gets intrigued by an echoing, rainforest-meets-tribal soundscape.

Using what looked to be bass drum mallets as well as their own hands and sound effect pedals as a means to generate the sound, their set was a manifestation of how human hearing functions: the dynamics of sound being heard from afar versus being heard within close range via the distance and placement of where they were drumming on the wood. The closer to the middle that they drummed the more vibrant and concentrated the sound. Whereas, the farther they drummed towards the ends of the wood, the more panned and distant the sound became (eg. think of your ear drum being at the center of the wood panel and your ears being at the ends).

At the beginning, all members were drumming at same time, but transitionally, they began to use their circular position surrounding their hexagonal instrument by means of playing one after the other repetitively which intensified their sound. With their progressive and varying intensities, speeds and sequences of each member drumming, you can imagine the swirling effect of the sounds panning in and out, as if going through a reverb-filled vortex.

Along the lines of incorporating wood into their performance (but on a completely different level and scope) was the work of Montreal-based Martin Messier and Nicolas Bernier, MACHINE_VARIATION. The ingenuity of their wooden/industrial machine – an incredible structural piece on its own – was personally the most eye-widening and jaw-dropping sculpture put into action I have ever witnessed. The sheer performing aspect of Messier and Bernier as they come onto stage with a determined composure and act as one with their machine was quite the experience. This massive, rotatable structure on stage – designed to perfection and comprised of long, wooden beams fixed together in a criss-cross arrangement, with metal rods, hooks, and vertical wires all operating cohesively – already has the audience captivated. But, when the sounds of feedback and mechanical processing start, so does the mechanical operation of Messier and Bernier.

It truly is a physical performance to undergo for both performers and also gets you to the point of not being able to blink for fear of missing one of their very rigid and addictive movements. Both pull, lift, shake, and slam the moveable, wooden levers fiercely and with such timely precision along with the sequencing of sounds that you really believe the structure they built is an extension of themselves. I definitely commend them as I would assume that with such force and constant grabbing and slamming of the wooden pieces, they would have handfuls of blisters. Their physical performance alone of constantly being in motion and walking towards different areas of their structure was impressive and you can see the sweat building and their bodies becoming slightly overworked – a perfect way to get fit and perform an astonishing work of art.

The final performance, LATE SPECULATION, was nothing short of spectacular. Paris-based, Nonotak, presented audio-synced projections through opposing projectors, while operating techno-glitch music inside triangular-prism-shaped screens. With one of the screens facing frontally for the audience to view and the two other sides receding into the back of the stage, various white geometric patterning, flashing, sliding side-to-side, inwards and outwards, as well as an array of neon green horizontal lines segmenting the screen, created a digital, rave-infused atmosphere. It’s an interesting concept to watch sound designer, Takami Nakamoto, and visual artist, Noemi Schipher, literally inside their own creative zone and dancing to their work (Nakamoto controlling the beats, of course, doing the majority of dancing), while the audience watches them.

Their performance is the type that can be enjoyed and appreciated from both the audience and the performer’s point of view. From the audience viewing, it’s a visual pleasure in our modern age to watch digital projections flashing and syncing to music that will, at the least, make you tap your feet to the beat if not have you dancing in your seat. But surely it’s an energetic and sublime feeling to be the performer in the center of the projected lights that encompass the work space.

The performances in A/VISIONS 1 are exactly the kind of line-up that is expected from MUTEK and ELEKTRA’s festival – the type to blow your mind with the creativity and originality of artists.

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PARA_VISIONS 1: FOG WORKS kicked off the opening night of this year’s EM15 with a sensory explosion. The sole performing artist of this event, Tim Hecker, held the first of two sonic performances in the wonderful space at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal on May 27^th, performing almost back-to-back, hour long sets, at 8:30 and 11pm.

PARA_VISIONS could not have been a better event name as Hecker’s work certainly went far “beyond” regular aural and visual expectation. As the crowd gathers into the room – the space already dark with soft, ambient streams of spotlights, spread variously around from a 30 foot ceiling – the fog grows increasingly thick and the spotlights start to fade less and less as Hecker’s performance starts.

The sounds begin and so does the pure, audio engulfment. The volume of the sounds and the strength of the vibration from which it trembled from the speakers through the floors – and what felt like was shaking and piercing your very existence – was the most astounding feeling the art of sound can ever bring to you.

Most of the room (myself included) chose to sit on the carpeted floor where the vibration was at its strongest. Entranced by the thick fog and captivated by the intensity and industrial ambience of Hecker’s audio, it almost seemed as if the audience is part of an A.I. entity being freed from bondage. It’s quite bewildering because as the volume of the sound starts to seep in through your ears and through your body, you could try to look at everyone around you and it would appear as if they were just a sea of blurred bodies, and this fog and whirring, pulsating sound surrounding you is all you really can feel. Hecker’s work becomes this intensely saturated soundscape that will put you, irrevocably, in a zone of heightened meditation.

If machines could talk, Hecker would have provided their resonating voices and rapturous existence – all which could be felt from that night’s PARA_VISIONS performance.

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The festival brings together the aural-visual experience in the most body-bumping way possible – sometimes even bumping into others on the floor.  Both stages have DJs spinning simultaneously while VJs have their video work displayed on elaborate installation screens.  I’ve had the pleasure of watching the video work of both Hugues Clément at the Vidéotron stage and Bobby Digital at the Sapporo stage.

The Vidéotron stage is enclosed by beautifully lit 3-foot-high ice-blue cube structures that illuminate the area.  As it’s structured as such, being inside the area and watching Hugues Clément’s video work feels that much more intimate.  Clément’s work merges both formalism and classicism elements, and because his theme creates this visual juxtaposition, the imagery moving to the beats makes the experience more provocative.

Over at the Sapporo stage, Bobby Digital presents his work using very clean and stimulating graphics of geometric forms in a colourful, repeated manner.  Both house and techno beats spun by DJs Tazz and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs work well with Bobby Digital’s work and create a warming invitation to dance away the cold, which I certainly didn’t miss my chance to accept!  Because the Sapporo stage is situated in the largest open space and has the largest video projection installation of the two stages, the crowd easily forms faster and so does the warmth.

Igloofest is the perfect way to break out of the winter blues and immerse in a wonderful time with spectacular visuals, music, and company.  Just don’t forget to dance it out on the floor!

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