I’m usually not one for the electronic shows at FME because I get my fill at MUTEK a week before, but this year I was unable to attend. The various cocktails of substances in my system, paired with many, many beers, also was also craving to move, so an electronic show felt like the right choice. So as we shuffled into the dark room of Petit Théâtre, Clément Leduc, known in the electronic scene as Hologramme, was unleashing some truly cinematic, Interstellar-coded synths, full of bleeps and bloops.
The backdrop looked like a form of hyperspace, an emerald grid that moved and pulsed with the noisy sampling. Hologramme isn’t your typical electro DJ—his house drops never come when you’re expecting them, and just when you start to feel the hazy beat, he switches it on you—playing intergalactic 3D chess with your mind. The Interstellar vibes continued, especially after the grid morphed into 2D plasters of the Earth’s atmosphere, and Hologramme finally freed us from his relentless, mutating bass. At moments, the show was too much for my feeble brain, and during others, I heard a kinship close to someone like Bonobo or Com Truise.
The Petit Théâtre was quickly turned into a sweaty discotheque, and for the 20 minutes I was there, all felt right and a little less heavy in Rouyn-Noranda.
