Afro-Electro / Electronic / Hip Hop / House / jazz groove

MUTEK | Roaming, The Art of Bringing People Together According to Gayance

by Marc-Antoine Bernier

On Friday evening, Nocturne 3, Espace SAT was transformed into a veritable party thanks to Gayance, aka Aïsha Vertus. With Roaming, the Montreal artist delivered a dazzling collective performance, inviting the audience to share a taste for dance, change, and solidarity.

Surrounded by a close-knit group, Gayance has woven a story in several chapters, where each piece becomes an emotion to be experienced together. Alongside her are Funky Watt on musical direction and bass, Evan Shay on saxophone, Peggy Hogan on keyboards, and Judith Little-D on percussion and vocals. Three distinguished guests—Janet King, Yassin “Narcy” Asalman, and Magi Merlin—also joined in to punctuate the show with unique moments, giving the evening the feel of a collective story told in several chapters.

One of the most memorable moments was the appearance of Narcy, a pioneer of Arabic hip-hop. With a Palestinian flag projected behind him, he had the audience repeat the words “Don’t lose focus. Breathe,” reminding them that “It’s not about one, it’s about us.” ” Set to a jazz-tinged drum & bass beat, this rallying cry carried unexpected political and emotional depth, mourning and solidarity.

Between house, drum & bass, Caribbean grooves, and jazzy accents, Roaming took the form of a musical and emotional journey, eclectic and deeply human. An evening where the artists’ contagious energy transformed into a true call for togetherness.

Photo : Frédérique Ménard-Aubin

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Electronic / immersif

MUTEK | REM of A Different Kind… To Dream Together

by Marc-Antoine Bernier

As part of Nocturne2, the Satosphère hosted the world premiere of Rapid Eye Movement (REM, a well-known acronym for obvious reasons) last Thursday, an immersive performance conceived by British artists Bertie Sampson and YeffYeff, aka Reeps One. Conceived as a sensory journey through sleep cycles, the work invited the audience to enter a collective dream where voices and images dissolved into a single dreamlike flow.

The performance follows the five stages of sleep, focusing on the last one—REM, the intense dreaming stage just before waking. Beforehand, the artists collected visual, textual, and audio fragments from an online audience, which they then transformed into sensory material: we were literally immersed in people’s dreams.

On stage, YeffYeff experimented live with his voice, sometimes stretched, sometimes distorted, in dialogue with Sampson’s generative environments. His soundtrack, deeply rooted in the heritage of the British garage scene, summoned UK Garage, Future Garage and UK Bass.

To his right, Bertie Sampson manipulated the 360° projected visuals: moving architecture, flower gardens, human silhouettes, abstract textures. From the iris of an eye to hybrid landscapes between human constructions and nature, his images composed a moving map of the unconscious.

On the monumental scale of the dome, Rapid Eye Movement blurs perceptions and destabilizes landmarks, immersing the viewer in a living map of the unconscious. After MUTEK, the two artists will extend this dreamlike journey with new performances at the SAT starting August 26.

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dark wave / Drum & Bass / Hardcore

MUTEK | Anti-Music : Gadi Sassoon & Portrait XO

by Loic Minty

Every year Mutek somehow reinvents itself by managing to find artists at the center of a changing world. It reminds us that the only certainty is that there is none, even when considering the very definitions of music. Last night, in a barrage of sounds hardly close to anything I’ve ever heard, Gadi Sassoon and Portrait XO turned into Espace S.A.T. into Plato’s cave, reflecting back to the audience their very act of listening.

Closer to sound art than music, the majority of the crowd stood fixed in perplexity at the boldness of every new scenery, each as creatively unique as the last. Rhythms grew only to quickly be stormed by what sounded like the noise of a million machines; the loudness and speed breathed through the room like a steam engine. Finally, when all expectations of a normal set were dropped, form folded under meaning and unveiled the origami of meta-narratives. Something screamed in Italian—the message was immediately understood in all languages.

If the post-human aesthetic didn’t already make it clear enough, the AI videos of children dancing to music while tanks roamed the streets solidified the urgency of their statement. And while it may seem conceptually driven at first, the sounds and performance themselves were truly heartfelt. The expression was raw, untethered, channeling violence into a stream of clearly articulated gestures that looked at the issue from all material, aesthetic, and emotional dimensions. While the sounds verged into noise and were characterized by a powerful orchestration of metallic sounds, their set still held a close tie to breakbeats, creating a stark contrast to their long stretches of formless, ethereal soundscapes. In the end, they let loose and finished their set with densely populated drum loops, which they let play while dancing, greeting the crowd’s final cheers. The sounds settled along with a thick fog that had been following us up to this point. This set was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of what unruly experimentation stands for.

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Electronic

MUTEK | Al Wooten Keeps His Audience Spellbound For Two Hours

by Julius Cesaratto

To close Mutek Experience 2, London-based DJ and producer Al Wooton drew inspiration from his city’s rich musical tradition, which blends genres, to deliver a percussive and ever-changing set.

He began his two-hour performance with industrial textures. We passed through a dark atmosphere before gradually moving on to woody marimbas, sampled hand percussion, and African-inspired vocals. From then on, the rhythm took over, with percussion driving the show.

Wooton’s set flowed seamlessly between laid-back British bass music and Afrobeat, with touches of acid and baile funk. It gradually evolved into heavier rhythms and complex variations of drum patterns, punctuated by well-placed breakdowns. Bird and bat calls, along with pan flute samples, infused bursts of organic life into his immersive soundscape. The distorted, percussive vocals that intertwined toward the end were particularly striking. A raw, almost ritualistic energy.

Behind the turntables, Wooton was completely absorbed in his art, rarely looking up, but clearly focused on the groove. His control of tempo changes, breaks, and rhythmic escalation kept the dance floor moving, bodies swaying to the ebb and flow that echoed the tribal journey he was charting.

This rollercoaster approach kept the audience on the edge of their seats until the very end. The final moments—a percussive avalanche of bongos, samba whistles, pan flutes, and wild Latin vocals—had the crowd screaming and applauding as the set came to its triumphant conclusion.

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Electronic / expérimental / contemporain / micro-house

MUTEK | Yu Su & Myriam Boucher, A Journey Without Shores

by Marc-Antoine Bernier

On Tuesday evening at the SAT, the first installment of MUTEK’s Nocturnes opened with a spellbinding performance in which Yu Su’s music and Myriam Boucher’s visuals came together in a compelling dialogue between fluid sound and luminous vortexes. From the very first moments, we were immersed in a universe that was both intimate and expansive, where each gesture seemed to resonate with the previous one.

Yu Su’s live set began delicately, setting the tone with a shifting ambient backdrop, where a push-and-pull effect created by the interaction of the kick drum and airy synth evoked the sound of waves lapping against the shore. From the very first seconds, it was clear that Yu Su was inviting us to share in a collective dream, guided by delicate melodies and a dreamlike exploration.

Quickly, this state of microgravity shifted to the dance floor, propelled by pulsating house-style percussion. These changes in mood, characterized by unexpected contrasts, would mark the entire evening. Yu Su plays with the principle of fluidity, demonstrating a unique sensitivity for musical narration: a state of flux where motifs unfold endlessly, transporting us to a new world of sound.

Whether it’s ambient techno, progressive electronic, microhouse, experimental, or Balearic beat, Yu Su infuses it with a tangible, hypnotic, and lush atmosphere.

Visually, Montreal artist Myriam Boucher created an environment that perfectly resonated with the music, translating Yu Su’s intuition and emotions into a colorful tapestry. The meta-narrative, carried by a palette dominated by magenta, purple, and pink, enveloped the emotional and intuitive dimension of the performance: gentleness, innocence, romanticism, intimacy, creativity, and transformation, to name but a few.

Illustrating the idea of a journey with no specific destination, both expansive and playful, the visual flow unfolded in cyclical, hypnotic movements, creating a rhythmic back-and-forth with great magnetic power. These flows sometimes took the form of an abstract vortex with a mineral appearance, reminiscent of cave motifs or a shower of stars, but also the fluid momentum of brushstrokes gliding across a canvas.

This encounter between two worlds offered a moment suspended in time, where music and images intertwined to open up a space for inner travel, with no specific destination but rich in shared sensations.

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Electronic / expérimental / contemporain / percussions

MUTEK | Valentina and upsammy, Tactile and Atmospheric

by Marc-Antoine Bernier

For her second appearance at MUTEK 2025, Italian percussionist Valentina Magaletti returned to the stage at the Society for Arts and Technology yesterday, this time in a duo with Dutch producer Thessa Thorsing, aka upsammy. Together, they delivered tactile, atmospheric music that oscillated between rhythmic density and melodic clarity.

Their story began in 2023, when a commission from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam led them to explore the museum’s acoustic spaces. This immersion gave rise to a rich soundscape, nourished by resonances, listening to the architecture, and the meeting of two sensibilities. This collaboration has now been extended into a performance that serves as a prelude to their first joint album.

On stage, upsammy remixes recordings live using loops and granular synthesis, while Magaletti weaves his beats on drums, vibraphone, and various objects. Their textures blend together, making it difficult to distinguish between percussive gestures and electronic processing. Furthermore, Thorsing’s sensitivity was particularly evident in his meticulous work of transformation and recomposition, giving rise to constantly shifting soundscapes. At the same time, Magaletti’s jungle and drum and bass-influenced drumming blurred the lines, creating an ever-changing soundscape.

The audience was carried away by this shifting narrative during the 40 minutes of their performance, between improvised momentum and sketched structures, where echoes of drum and bass, techno, and electroacoustics emerged. Their sonic dialogue stood out as an invitation to explore, as if the sound itself were guiding the listener through a tapestry of architectural resonances and palpable emotions.

This encounter at MUTEK revealed a duo in full creative bloom, capable of transforming the stage into a veritable living laboratory. A promise that heralds an upcoming album as daring as their stage encounter at MUTEK.

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micro-house

MUTEK | An A-1 Experience With Stephen Beaupré

by Julius Cesaratto

Montrealer Stephen Beaupré treated us to his Experience 1, the first night of MUTEK outdoors with Return, the title of a finely crafted live set featuring micro-house, sophisticated samples, and hypnotic rhythms.

Drawing inspiration from new tracks from his latest album Vanishing Night, as well as exclusive unreleased tracks from an upcoming project, he performed exclusively original compositions for the first edition of the free series, presented at L’Esplanade Tranquille.

The local micro-house pioneer took to the stage wearing a small keffiyeh tied around his neck as a tie. Bathed in pink and red light, Beaupré turned up the heat with funky bass lines, which he seamlessly blended with ethereal, dreamy vocals that intensified as night fell on the Quartier des Spectacles. In the same vein, the crowd grew louder as the sun set over the Esplanade Tranquille. Thrilling!

Although Beaupré’s sound conveys a certain nostalgia, this pillar of the underground scene brought together young dance music fans and MUTEK veterans. Longtime festival-goers embraced their old friends, creating a sense of intimacy among the crowd. One of the most memorable moments of the evening came when the vocal loop of “Free, Free Palestine” rang out, layered over a powerful drumbeat. The chant echoed across the square, reflecting the unity of the dance floor, as attendees responded to this powerful—albeit modest—show of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

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Amérique latine / Breakbeat / Electronic / House / Techno

MUTEK | Nicola Cruz Sets The Tone at Esplanade tranquille

by Marc-Antoine Bernier

Nicola Cruz took to the stage at the Esplanade Tranquille at 9 p.m. to close the first night of the 26th MUTEK festival, in front of a large crowd who had come to experience his DJ set in person. Dressed in a turtleneck and denim jacket, with an attitude that was both playful and relaxed, he kicked off the evening with a understated yet magnetic presence.

This first DJ performance was part of a program that had already begun with Valentina Magaletti’s percussive and interactive performance, followed by Stephen Beaupré’s immersive live show, which featured synthesizers, drum machines, and Ableton Live.

The Ecuadorian producer’s equipment seemed simple: in front of him were four direct-drive turntables on which he played vinyl records from his collection. This traditional approach to DJing resulted in an eclectic set, blending techno, house, and breakbeat, while incorporating a wide range of musical influences, from the Balkans to Latin America, via the North American underground electro scene and European house.

This performance of electro-futuristic tracks demonstrated his deep attachment to resolutely physical music, which awakened festival-goers in a rhythmic communion, where the kinetic excitement continued to grow throughout the set.

Techno and electro beats resonated in the chest, triggering a visceral reaction: heads nodded, shoulders swayed, legs tapped the floor to the rhythm of the music. The most intense passages mingled with moments of trance accentuated by distortions, experimental beeps, and Latin percussion, all carried by subtle and enveloping rhythmic embellishments. In this space saturated with bass and percussion, the crowd became a single vibrating organism, breathing to the rhythm of a sustained kick. Other moments plunged us into dub techno, minimal techno, and microhouse, offering fluidity and relaxation, and putting festival-goers into an almost meditative state.

Having been granted an extra fifteen minutes, Nicola Cruz ended the evening on a high note, mixing all the genres explored throughout the set in an energetic finale marked by his edit of the Chicago house-influenced track It’s Gonna Be… (A Lovely Day). We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 26th edition of the MUTEK festival.

Nicola Cruz will perform again on Saturday, August 23, as part of Metropolis 2, starting at 11 p.m.

photo: Vivien Gaumand

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Brazilian / Forró / latino

JØY Brandt’s Joie de Vivre

by Sandra Gasana

You may be familiar with this name, as I mentioned it in my review of the Gilsons concert, where she was the opening act. This time, the Toronto-based artist returned to Montreal as part of a trio, accompanied by Mari Palhares on percussion and Samyle Carvalho on guitar and backing vocals. JØY, meanwhile, plays several instruments during her songs, including the triangle and kazoo, which I discovered that evening.

She began a cappella, her voice rising in a crescendo. She started with her own original compositions, such as A Calma Acalma and Vem, before performing a few covers of Brazilian classics, such as Morena Tropicana, which was very well received. The venue filled up as the evening progressed, mainly with Brazilians and fans of Brazilian music.

Some parts of the concert felt like spiritual ceremonies, with JØY occasionally attempting to express herself in French before returning to Portuguese.

“I am a Brazilian and Canadian singer and songwriter, and I come from northeastern Brazil,” she tells us.

The synergy with her musicians was palpable, particularly with guitarist Samyle, who had a smile on her face throughout the concert. In addition to her impressive guitar playing, she also provided backing vocals on several songs.

“The next song is about our thoughts on our worldview and how we use our time,” she says between songs. The party really got going when she sang Vumbora Amar and the whole room started dancing and clapping along. JØY seems to enjoy forró, a Brazilian music style from her region, the Northeast, while adding Latin and folk rhythms.

Curiously, there was no admission fee for the concert, as the artist opted for voluntary contributions, which the audience generously provided. Her manager, Ulysses de Paula of Showzaço Productions, was on hand to collect the contributions. He is behind many of the concerts by Brazilian artists in Canada.

She ended the concert with a walkabout, while the guitarist took over on vocals. She danced steps that seemed to come from her region, moving to the center of the circle surrounded by happy spectators.

“I’m going home with my heart full of joy,” she says in conclusion, before making way for the next group. My favorite was undoubtedly her cover of Tô Sem Você, a song I discovered this year and which is currently in my top three Brazilian songs.

This concert allowed Montrealers to discover her, and others to see her again, but it doesn’t seem like this will be the last time we see her in the city. She has a large network of Brazilian artists based in Montreal, and it was with them that she continued the evening in a more intimate “roda de samba” style, until we see her again on an even bigger stage than the Marche à côté.

Classical / Jazz / Pop

Virée classique | Improvisation Trip

by Alain Brunet

Fortunately, the rain had no impact on this improvisation game planned for Sunday by the Virée, since the exercise was conducted at the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme at noon. Actors, actresses, musicians and musicians put all their skills to the service of improvisation on a series of themes whose purpose is to captivate, make people laugh or even move them. Martin Racine was the referee and host of this improvisation game pitting two teams of actors (Emmanuelle Fadin, Julien Normand, Marie-Lune Falardeau-Drolet, William Bernaquez) against each other whose theatrical improvisations are this time accompanied by music imagined in real time. André Moisan on clarinets, Hélène Lemay on trombone and percussion, Jimmy Lahaie on guitars and electronics. In complete coherence and cohesion with the imposed themes (the seasons, The Sleeping Beauty, etc.), this power trio will have suggested several improvisations often inspired by well-known tunes, from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee to Van Morrison’s Moon Dance, including Joseph Kosma’s Dead Leaves, JS Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier and others such as When the Saints Go Marching In. We were not exactly in the strict classical corpus of the OSM, you understand!

photo: Gabriel Fournier

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Classical / Modern Classical

Virée classique | Discovery Trail: From Carillon Bells to Octobass Resilience

by Alexandre Villemaire

The Maison symphonique discovery tour is a recurring activity of the Classical Spree. Present at each edition, it allows the Montreal public to discover and take ownership of this great concert hall in a different and privileged way. Aside from the interior tour dotted with information stations, the demonstration and exhibition of the carillon bells and the octobass served as the heart of this activity.

With half an hour each – and they would certainly have gladly taken more – Serge Desgagnés, OSM solo percussionist, and Eric Chappel, double bassist and octobassist, presented their extraordinary instruments and answered questions from the audience composed of adults, young people, and children. It was beautiful and exciting to hear Serge Desgagnés share his enthusiasm for these new orchestral instruments, the fruit of the work of craftsmen from the Royal Eijsbouts Foundry in the Netherlands who made the ten bells, the largest of which (low F#) weighs 384 kg and the smallest (middle B) a mere 20 kg. For the colors and richness they bring, and which he demonstrated, Serge Desgagnés cherishes the dream of seeing his family of bells grow. To reach the entire chromatic scale? Why not!

The same interest and passion drove Eric Chappell, whose instrument dates back to 1850 and whose function was to amplify the orchestra’s lower register for large-scale works. In addition to explaining the history of his instrument and the challenges that its maintenance and mobility can generate, the latter was honored at the conclusion of the session as the audience heard a composition made for a quartet of instrumentalists including the octobass, two cellos and an oboe. Entitled Resilience, this work by the young Quebec composer Thierry Côté uses a figurative language, inspired by nature, its beauty, and its strength that dominates human beings and leads them to face the elements, both philosophical and natural.

The work, lasting approximately eight minutes, does not confine the octobass to a pedal role. The instrument’s low notes rumble, but move, are active, and in turn nourish the cello and oboe lines, which weave different instrumental melodies around this constant harmonic support. Each instrumental line feeds into each other in a sort of perpetual movement. Regarding the challenge of composing a chamber music piece for the octobass, we can say that Thierry Côté makes an interesting contribution to the instrument’s catalogue.

Photo : Gabriel Fournier

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Classical

Virée classique | In chorus, with heart

by Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud

To conclude this 2025 Classical Spree, the OSM organized a large choral gathering for two free performances. This performance, featuring 135 singers from 84 choirs, was led by renowned conductor Simon Rivard. The concert began with a world premiere, “Par-dessus le vacarme,” composed especially for the 50th anniversary of the Alliance chorale du Québec by Jeanne Laforest. It’s a magnificent piece, with a beautiful text that encapsulates our values, with harmonies dissonant enough to make it accessible to all. I believe it will spread like wildfire through the repertoire of the province’s choirs.

Next came the only non-Quebec piece on the program, Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine. It was one of the most beautiful performances of the Cantique I have ever heard, for the simple reason that every detail of the score was faithfully observed, making all the difference between a masterpiece and a sing-along. The most challenging work on the program was undoubtedly Lionel Daunais’ playful Figures de danse. This choral classic elicited a few laughs from the audience with its humorous lyrics. Aside from a few hiccups in the final movement, the challenge was met with flying colors. At several points during the concert, the audience was invited to sing along with the choir to the popular songs from the concert. Although he was rather discreet about traditional songs, he gave himself over to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Yvon Deschamps’ Aimons-nous, before falling silent for the only a cappella piece of the concert, a touching arrangement of Quand les hommes vivront d’amour by the late Raymond Lévesque.

The concert ended with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Choral Alliance, and of the 50th anniversary of the song Gens du pays, by Gilles Vigneault.

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