The fourth Expérience evening at Esplanade Tranquille kicked off on Friday with a raw, digital, and intensely emotional performance by Montreal duo SLIBERIUM. Formed by KUMA and Sendji, the project transported festival-goers into a collective hallucination where industrial sounds, techno energy, and R&B sensibilities collided.
Their set, which blends techno, deconstructed club, experimental hip-hop, and witch house, stood out for its unique sound texture: saturated, grainy synths, digital glitches, and abrasive atmospheres. Driven by muffled, pulsating kicks, their music moved forward with a kinetic force that invited listeners to both move and let themselves be swept away by the trance.
Behind a minimalist setup—computer, mixer, standalone instruments—Sendji brought a sensual dimension to this digital landscape with his voice. Processed by autotune, his tone oscillated between human warmth and digital coldness. His inflections, reminiscent of alternative R&B, contrasted with the robotic voices scattered throughout the concert, creating a back-and-forth between intimacy and otherness.
SLIBERIUM has thus created a transhuman universe, where the world appears as a shifting territory: hallucinatory dreams and raw everyday life, electronic chaos and vibrant humanity, digital beats and pop sensibility. A first “victory lap” for KUMA and Sendji, who ended their performance in jubilant ecstasy, transforming their musical intimacy into a collective, festive, and uncompromising experience.
photo : Bruno Ailello Destombes
