The symphonic magic of age-old tales

by Frédéric Cardin

While Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier next door shook to the metal-symphonic sound waves of Voivod and the OSM, the Maison symphonique, the usual refuge of Rafael Payare’s musicians, vibrated to the thousand and one colours of musical tales from China and Russia.

At the start of the programme, the Orchestre FILMharmonique, conducted by Francis Choinière, welcomed soloist Liu Fang, master of the Chinese pipa, an instrument in the lute family, in the creation of a new concerto for her instrument by Quebecer Christian Thomas. In 2023, Thomas gave us his Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été (Solemn Mass for a Full-Moon Night), an opera based on the work of Quebec author Michel Tremblay, which was well received by audiences and critics alike. Much more romantic in its idiom than the Mass, the Pipa Concerto, nicknamed Dragon, allowed Ms Liu to show the full extent of her technical talent, despite some occasional hiccups in the first movement. I wrote about this concerto in a review elsewhere on the site (read it HERE), so I won’t go into that again, but I will say that the four-movement piece struck me as even more accomplished than when I first listened to it on digital files. This is a sign that listening to it is enough to sustain prolonged and repeated attention. In any case, the largely East Asian audience that packed the hall seemed to appreciate and enjoy the performance. It is to be hoped that other Quebec orchestras will programme this concert, giving fellow Quebecer (Chinese born) Liu the chance to tour as much in Quebec as she does internationally, hopefully.

The second piece on the programme was the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto with soloist and Opus Prize 2023 Discovery of the Year Guillaume Villeneuve. Villeneuve’s twirling, scintillating performance gave a superb breath of life to this Chinese Romeo and Juliet, whose original title is the Romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The concerto, written in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, is one of the first works of its kind in Chinese musical literature. The style and language are hyper-romantic, as if Tchaikovsky had lived in Beijing rather than St Petersburg, but the soloist has to achieve several effects that are clearly inspired by the traditional techniques of the erhu, a Chinese instrument that is similar to the Western violin. It’s a musical bonanza, with endearing, memorable melodies and abundant colour, especially in the woodwinds.

Francis Choinière had chosen to conclude the evening with another evocative piece of music, Stravinsky’s The Firebird. A judicious choice, which allowed us to return to the more usual Western repertoire while remaining true to the enchanting spirit of the evening. The orchestra, made up of many young musicians, probably fresh out of Quebec schools, performed well, and the conductor’s direction was committed. A few technical imperfections in Kastchei’s dance did not detract from the energy that Choinière wished to infuse into the ensemble, which ended in a successful climax.

An evening that clearly delighted a very mixed and diverse audience. If that was one of the objectives, it was achieved.

Marlaena Moore soars during her Because You Love Everything release

by Stephan Boissonneault

Being from Edmonton, AB, I’ve known about the bedroom indie/maximalist rock artist, Marlaena Moore, for quite some time. You can say I’ve followed her trajectory from those intimate shows within the walls of the defunct Edmonton venue, Wunderbar, to her now almost sold-out album show in Montreal’s historic La Sala Rossa. She was starting to get somewhat “Edmonton famous” around the music scene circa 2016-17 with songs from her album GAZE, like the absolute grungy banger “24 Hour Drug Store.”

Yet, you can certainly hit a well-known ceiling in Edmonton and whether that, a global pandemic, love—or all three—influenced her decision, she decided to move to Montreal. During the thick of the pandemic, she released Pay Attention, Be Amazed!, the follow-up to GAZE, which had her playing less guitar and focusing on vocals, perhaps sowing the seeds for her role now as the powerhouse singer with a spectacular backing band.

So here we are at the album release of the newest album Because You Love Everything (via Bonsound’s, sublabel, Session) and Marlaena is looking like an heiress—donning a sparkling cocktail dress and long gloves, slaying with the pipes of a goddess, and her band is crushing their respective roles. Moore has the kind of voice that can stop you dead in your tracks and quickly command a room. Her soaring vocals consume the scenery, even over the crowd of chatter by the bar. I’m reminded of the last time I saw Angel Olsen live, who has the same mystical allure.

The band—made up of heavy hitter talent in the Montreal/CAD music scene—is Moore’s not-so-secret weapon. The guitarmonies from her musical partner in crime, Scott “Monty” Munro (Preoccupations, Land of Talk) and Mischa Dempsey (Knitting) are bright, halcyon, and magical. The bass from Chrissy Lawson (Dresser, girl with dream) is thick, funky, and tight, and the drumming from Andy Mulcair (also Knitting) is jazzy and at times, absolutely bonkers. The whole package is tight as sin and sends the live renditions of Because You Love Everything into the stratosphere.

At one point, Marlaena makes a heartfelt and beautiful dedication to her past friend, who sent her a message from the spirit realm in the form of a flamingo. It’s these moments that make Moore’s performance truly captivating; she’s completely genuine, tripping on her words and getting a bit emotional as she tells the story of her friend. Honestly, with a talent like hers, she could have a huge ego and no one would bat an eye, but she remains just as whimsical and real as she did when she was cutting her teeth in good ol’ Berta.

Near the end of the show, the curtains close and Marlaena begins to sing under a lo-fi backing track. Maybe it’s because David Lynch (RIP) has been on my mind, but the luminous glow from the golden curtains, mixed with the spotlight and Marlaena’s look and gravitas make me feel like I’m watching a show at The Slow Club in Blue Velvet.

The curtains open again and the band is back. We get the fiery single “I Miss You,” from Pay Attention, Be Amazed! The show is capped off with an intimate encore of a lo-fi unreleased song (let’s call it “I’ve Never Been Good At Guitar” for now) that has Marlaena picking up the axe and strumming a couple of chords.

Whether or not she was ever worried about ever “breaking through,” into Montreal, Marlaena Moore has arrived and she is still a force to be reckoned with who keeps getting better and better.

musique contemporaine

Le Vivier InterUniversitaire | Interpreting the Eclipse

by Judith Hamel

On Saturday, January 25, the Espace Orange in the Wilder Building hosted the 9th annual Vivier InterUniversitaire concert, showcasing emerging composers in the field of contemporary music creation. Eight original works came to life in the hands of talented university performers.

The concert opened with Leo Purich’s Shape Games for Saxophone Quartet (2022-2023). In this piece, visual elements projected onto a giant screen presented eight geometric designs. Four of these were used as musical inspiration to interpret these shapes and translate them into sonorities that pushed back their limits.

We continue with Edwin H. Ng’s Eclipse (2024), a work for solo viola inspired by the total solar eclipse of 2024. In it, the composer translates the darkness that imposes itself at the heart of the day, right down to the subtle rays of light filtering through the shadows. It is in understanding this process that the work takes on its full meaning. The viola’s timbre lends itself to this dichotomy between light and shadow, while the strings represent the movement of the darkening day and the rays that reach our well-protected pupils.

The third work on the program is Hélpide Dulce, Escampas (2023) by Pablo Jiménez. This piece for string quartet plunges us into a noisy world of sound. Clusters emerge, instruments overlap and create a background sound that is both organic and disquieting. A well-constructed, organic chaos that oscillates between refined language and raw, evocative expressiveness. A la Jacob Collier, Jiménez takes his salute, fangs in hand, to warm applause from the audience.

Then, Jonas Regnier’s Wistful Fragments (2024) for trumpet with live electronics invites us to explore our auditory memories, using recordings of everyday life. The selection of landscapes such as an urban ambience, birdsong, piano playing, and the sequence of fragments seemed to me to lack a little coherence, but despite this, the alliance between trumpet and electronic processing was skilfully constructed. The composer exploits to the full the expressive possibilities of the blend between these two sound sources.

The fifth work, Composition pour sextuor (2023) by Jules Bastin-Fontaine, features meticulous work on counterpoints and textures. The choice of instruments favors sonic superimpositions that generate new textures. Resonant bodies such as flutes and bass clarinet are used to create reverberant sound backgrounds. Although the expressiveness of this piece did not stand out for me, the care taken in the construction of the textures deserves to be highlighted.

The sixth work, Tracé, Fossile (2023) for violin and cello by Alexandre Amat, highlights the distortions produced by excessive bow pressure. This process generates noisy sonorities that permeate the entire piece. Rather than relying on pitch-based melodic motifs, the work explores a musicality centered on sound mass, which becomes denser or lighter according to musical intentions.

The penultimate piece is Anita Pari’s The Mockingbird (2024) for string quartet. The work favors an ensemble musicality where one feels a common breath throughout the performance. This cohesion amplifies the dramatic passages. As the title suggests, the work evokes a warbling atmosphere, combining a refined musical language with an organic, poetic dimension that resonates authentically.

The evening concluded with Alexander Bridger’s Shards of Bengaluru Bill (2023), a work for flute, clarinet, accordion, viola and double bass. Dressed in bright colors, two performers marked time in certain passages of the work, a gesture that seemed planned, but which seemed to us somewhat strange or with a floating doubt. That said, the instrumentation, in particular the use of accordion and double bass, provided an original sound dimension.

Among the works presented, those by Edwin H. Ng, Pablo Jiménez and Alexandre Amat were my favorites of the evening.

In short, it was an opportunity to discover the promising talents of the new generation of composers, the vast majority of whom are men, despite the values of accessibility and inclusion put forward in this context. Achieving parity remains a laborious and complex process, we have to conclude.

Photo Credit: Claire Martin

Rock

Yseult Kicks Off Her Mental Tour in Montreal

by Sandra Gasana

It was to a packed house that singer Yseult appeared at MTelus on Monday evening. No sooner had the lights gone down than the room began to go wild. In the distance, a voice could be heard counting down in English, promising an intriguing staging.

She is accompanied by her two American musicians, on guitar and drums, whom she teases and imitates the accent at times during the show. Dressed in military pants, white gloves with “Mental Tour” written on them, necklaces around her neck and belts around her waist.

The French singer from Cameroon opens the show with Noir, and seems to be having the time of her life on stage. She dances and strolls around, closely followed by a videographer who captures the moment.

“It’s a pleasure to be back in Montreal, I’m quite moved because it’s the first time I’ve produced a tour on my own,” she shares with us moved, to applause. “It’s thanks to you that I’m able to do all this,” she continues.

She juggles classics like Corps with songs from her latest Mental project, such as Garçon and the crowd-pleasing hit Gasolina. Rock is omnipresent during the show, with her screaming and even shouting between intense electric guitar solos.

“Let me get rid of my wig, I’m going to get comfortable,” she says, before reappearing wearing a hat. Her stage presence is undeniable. “Can I share a new song with you, one that’s not out yet?” she asks the crowd, delighted by the privilege. And so we discover Problematic, which pleases the audience, especially the acoustic section, as well as Hysteria, also an unreleased song. Applause rained down, but it was especially after Corps that the crowd didn’t want to stop applauding. She did it a capella because she had promised herself that she would never do it again in piano-vocals, since the death of her pianist Nino Vella in 2024. The audience accompanied her on the chorus, one of the highlights of the show.

She finished with the track Suicide, ideal for closing the show, before returning for an encore in techno mode. It may have been a Monday night, but that didn’t stop the MTelus from being packed. Next stop: New York on February 3.

Photo Credit: Léa

Voïvod Symphonique – Symphony aboard the Quebec Metal UFO

by Laurent Bellemare

A packed Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on January 29 was the setting for the world premiere of Voïvod Symphonique, a madcap collaboration uniting the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Quebec’s legendary metal band.

Even before the doors opened, you could feel the excitement of this peregrination of metalheads, many of whom were waiting patiently in line in front of the traditional merchandise table. Rumor had it that some had traveled from as far away as Chile to attend this multi-sensory epic.

Officially part of the OSM’s pop concert series, this hybrid metal/classical formula could have been dicey in many ways. Fortunately, the orchestral introduction and the first notes of Experiment soon put an end to any doubts: an orchestral Voïvod works!

Voïvod’s songs, even in their rawest thrash metal, are brimming with harmonic nutrients, here brilliantly augmented by arranger Hugo Bégin. In this maximalist form, the band were able to showcase their compositions in all their cinematic power. It was a fitting tribute to the film soundtracks that have inspired Voïvod’s creative gesture from the outset.

Acoustically, the combination was quite successful. At the mixing desk, it must be said, we could count on Larry O’Malley, seasoned in eclectic projects, notably at the Festival de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.

However, the orchestra sometimes got lost beneath the amplified quartet, becoming a background texture. That said, it wasn’t difficult to maintain attention on the ever-present string and brass arrangements. On the other hand, there was very little audible interaction between the drums and classical percussion, a slight disappointment. Was it a question of sound balance or arrangement? In any case, we’d have liked to see more exploration of the rhythmic potential of metal in the execution of classical percussion.

Nevertheless, it’s no mean feat to enjoy an orchestral metal concert without earplugs, and therefore without burning your hair cells.

The slower pieces, such as The End of Dormancy or the famous Pink Floyd cover Astronomy Domine, played at the close of the concert, gave the OSM all the space it needed to shine. During these breathless reprises, it was really possible to savor the detail of the arrangements, grandiose extrapolations that tastefully colored and filled the spectral space.

One of the most jubilant moments of the concert was undoubtedly the quotation from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the piece Pre-Ignition, quoted verbatim in its original orchestral arrangement… Shiver-inducing!

What’s more, the visual environment of this program was not to be outdone. In addition to the electrifying presence of a metal band at the top of its form and an orchestra led by the intense, dynamic playing of Dina Gilbert, the audience could enjoy the gigantic projections created by Marcella Grimaux, who reinterpreted the artistic concepts of drummer Michel Langevin. These psychedelic animations, often post-apocalyptic, magnified Voïvod’s mythological universe in an unprecedented way. Each track had its own concept, aesthetic and animation style, reflecting the cult band’s discographic evolution.

In conclusion, Voïvod Symphonique is a resounding success. There couldn’t have been a better choice of band to explore the hidden, orchestral side of metal! It was clear that the audience was charmed by the impact of these two Quebec institutions on the same stage.

So many other Voïvod pieces would lend themselves perfectly to the exercise, we have every right to hope that this encounter will be repeated and last. Ode to metal, ode to classical, ode to the longevity of the Jonquière band, ode to the imagination of Michel Away Langevin and ode to the boundless creativity of the late Denis “Piggy” D’Amour: Voïvod Symphonique is all these things and more!

Photo Credit: Gabriel Fournier

Electronic

Igloofest, Saturday, January 25 / Fight the Cold With Dance, featuring Skepta (Mas Tiempo), MNSA, Dennis Ferrer, Cheba Iman and Many Others.

by Léa Dieghi

Two stages, two atmospheres. And always more dancing. For this evening of January 25, 2025, the Igloofest team decided to offer us a particularly different program between the main Sapporo stage, and its little Vidéotron sister. While the former was an ode to house music, the latter was a blend of traditional North African and contemporary electronic music.

VIDEOTRON: Manalou, Mnsa, Nadim Maghzal, Cheba Iman.

Deconstruction, reconstruction, hybridization between different genres… The sets on the small Videotron stage shone through their sonic interweaving and interweaving. And even though the stage is four times smaller (we didn’t take the time to measure, but we can imagine!), the sets by these mostly Canadian artists melted the snow beneath our feet.

Imagine the setting. We flee behind the main stage and enter the Videotron stage through a tunnel of light. What awaits us there? An audience literally jumping to the beat of the percussion.

Afro-beat, drum and bass, drill, downtempo, hip-hop, but also tech-house, all mixed with traditional Arabian music.

Mnsa, proudly wearing his Palestine scarf, was like sunshine on a winter’s night. With his contagious good humor and his succession of sounds at different tempos, he didn’t let the audience down for a single minute. Between pop classics, heavy bass lines and traditional Arab music, all mixed against a techno backdrop, my fingers, previously chilled by the beer in my hands, quickly warmed up.

A perfect opening for Nadim Maghzal‘s set, who, in his own way, took up the torch and brought the crowd – literally – to the front of the stage. What’s on the bill? The kind of percussive electronic music we love, always associated with North African sounds and UK Bass.

These four artists, from Manalou to Cheba Iman – who also offered us some particularly singular performances – proved the beauty of the synergy between North American and African music. They also showed us how being a DJ is above all about community, and sharing a certain joie de vivre, together.

SAPORO: Lia Plutonic, Syreeta, Dennis Ferrer, Skepta (under his house label Mas tiempo) “HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE

A word that resonates as I dance in front of the main stage.

From Lia Plutonic (Residente Montréalaise) to Dennis Ferrer, house music classics follow one another, all remixed in their own style!

Sapporo

Behind the four DJ-producers of the Sapporo scene, four different visions of house music and its variations. A genre that crosses time and space, and that brings together an audience from diverse backgrounds.

If Syreeta offered us sounds a little more rooted in the British house music culture (where she comes from), her mix between techno, melodic voices and UK house rhythms proved to be a particularly fertile ground to welcome her colleague from overseas: Denis Ferrer, an influential artist of the electronic scene for more than fifteen years.

While Syreeta and Lia Plutonic surfed a little more on the hybridization of house and techno, Dennis Ferrer clearly returned to the roots of New York house, to offer us a very disco-funk-tech-house set. Very melodic, very progressive, very 90s, with classics like Ain’t Nobody (Loves me better). At the front of the stage, a crowd of all ages danced. Proof, once again, of the unifying capacity of house!

Their very vibrant sets were able to welcome with undisguised joy the main artist of the evening, Skepta, performing under her project Mas tiempo, which quickly increased the BPM a notch. Although he is better known for his performance-productions as an MC-rapper, the London-based artist has been able to stand out in recent years with his very rhythmic mixes, sometimes deconstructed, but nevertheless particularly progressive and always very house.

On the agenda: UK Drill and Grim, drum and bass, house, to finish on techno prog. The crowd was already unleashed, while more than a dozen couples saw, from the top of my terrace, climbing on each other’s shoulders. There are balloons flying in the air, bodies colliding while dancing, voices screaming and snowflakes falling on the tops of our heads.

A very nice end to the winter evening, for a very nice program of this Saturday evening of Igloofest.

Africa

Alain Oyono: The New Saxophonist in Town!

by Sandra Gasana

Initially, I wasn’t planning to cover last Saturday’s show at La Brassée, I was going as a spectator, to discover the man everyone’s talking about at the moment, Alain Oyono. Originally from Cameroon, but living in Senegal for over a decade, the saxophonist, who is a member of Youssou N’Dour’s “Super Étoile de Dakar” orchestra, gave us an amazing show. So much so that it was hard to keep it to myself, so here it goes.

By way of introduction, he opts for gentleness with The Beginning, which also marks the start of the artist’s solo career, before showing us his singing talents on Loba, which means God in Douala, the language spoken in the coastal region of Cameroon. These tunes immediately remind me of Kenny G, whom I used to listen to over and over again in my youth.

Against a backdrop of carefully arranged instrumentals, and equipped with a laptop, pedals and mini-console, Alain, who is also an author, composer and performer, manages not only to play his instrument but also to engineer it. On some tracks, notes from piano, afrobeat or afro jazz are used as a basis for him to improvise on as he pleases. On other tracks, he introduces pre-recorded ambient noises, backing vocals and other sounds to complement his instrument.

In his latest EP released in 2023, entitled Transcendance, he pays tribute to nature, notably in the track “Ma nature”. “This album is dedicated to the ecosystem, especially in these difficult times. Fortunately, you’re bringing the warmth back here tonight,” he says, addressing the crowd.

Several instruments are added one after the other in the second half of the concert.

Alain returns to the stage first accompanied by Dauphin Mbuyi on bass, then a few songs later, Deo Munyakazi joins the duo with his inanga, a traditional Rwandan string instrument similar to the zither. Together, they create magic before our astonished eyes. They are joined by Dicko Fils, from Burkina Faso, with a bewitching voice reminiscent of the Sahel, and the charming Sylvie Picard, who enchant us each in their own way.

And just as we thought the concert was drawing to a close, Raphaël Ojo arrived with his djembe to add the finishing touch. The concert turned into a jam session, much to the delight of the audience, who gradually realized that they were in for a unique experience. The owner of La Brassée told me that this was one of his favorite concerts. “Are you enjoying it as much as I am right now?” he asked me between songs. “I’m floating,” I replied.

The concert couldn’t end without a tribute to the giant Manu Dibango, with a cover of the classic Soul Makossa, which pleased the couple sitting next to me. All in all, La Brassée audiences can count themselves lucky to have discovered an artist who will surely be making a name for himself on the Montreal art scene in 2025 and beyond!

Photo Credit: Peter Graham

Classical / période romantique

OSM | Between Icelandic Basses and Bruch’s “Unforgettable” Concerto

by Judith Hamel

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM), under the direction of conductor Dalia Stasevska and violin virtuoso Randall Goosby, presented a program on Wednesday evening featuring composers Thorvaldsdottir and Price, as well as Bruch and Dvořák.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Archora, commissioned by several major orchestras and premiered in 2022, opened the concert with a spellbinding 20-minute soundscape. Designed to evoke a textured universe, the work transports the audience into an exploration of the ensemble’s sonic and energetic potential.

From the very first notes, the hypergraves invade the space, creating an imposing, palpable sound mass. The screeching cymbals add an organic dimension, while the winds click their keys and use their breath to amplify the work’s mystical atmosphere. All this adds up to an almost living narrative. Then the organ, with its imposing presence, amplifies the impression of immensity, of a room larger than ourselves. The twenty minutes passed with great fluidity, like a single wave that sweeps over us. The apparent stability of the sounds, achieved by the interweaving of the musicians’ breaths, gave a superhuman impression.

American soloist Randall Goosby then took to the stage to deliver a straightforward performance, carried with finesse by his great mastery of the instrument. Max Bruch’s “unforgettable” Violin Concerto No. 1, though somewhat frustrating for the composer in its eclipsing power over his other concertos, remains a landmark work in the German Romantic repertoire. Tonight, in the “Adagio”, Goosby was able to express the full intensity of this inner romance. It was in the third movement, however, that the soloist really came into his own. He unfurled himself in the passionate, dancing themes that hint at Bruch’s Hungarian origins, as well as in the final, technical passages. These playful accents resonated particularly well with his light, easy-going playing. A young virtuoso who didn’t overwhelm us with his musicality, but whose technique and ease are impressive.

Florence Price’s Adoration opened the second half in an orchestrated version for violin and orchestra by J. Gray, putting a second female composer in the spotlight. This short piece was particularly well suited to Randall Goosby, who effectively conveyed the emotional charge through his straight but honest playing. However, an OSM concert is no exception: just as he was about to raise his bow, Goosby was interrupted by the telephone of an audience member who was listening to the recording of his performance of the first part at full volume. With humor and patience, he lowered his bow and said: “You can play it again if you want”. But no sooner had he started to play than a cricket buzzer sounded in the hall. Fortunately, the crickets were out of place, but they gave the audience a good laugh.

Although the concertante gave the evening its title, it was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, fiercely conducted by Dalia Stasevska, that stood out as the highlight. Dalia Stasevska’s conducting was particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on drastic contrasts of nuance and the exaggeration of certain rhythmic passages. This symphony, with its bucolic atmosphere, was thus deployed through moments of lightness, straight trumpet lines and the exaggerated popular character of certain dancing themes. The fourth movement, which opens with a flamboyant trumpet call and ends with groovy chromatic passages, ended the concert on a welcome note of youthfulness.

Photo credit: Randall Goosby – Kaupo Kicks ; Dalia Stasevska – Antoine Saito

Electronic

Igloofest 2nd Night: Wild Card with Apashe, Marie Davidson, Dileta

by Loic Minty

Marked with wild musical contrasts and daring approaches, this second night of Igloofest is another reminder of Montreal’s vibrant local scene. We once again witnessed the power of breaks and bass in full effect as big name dj’s turned the dial up, and saw the rising starpower of local homegrown harvest legends in a perfect exhibition of dance music.

Headlining the Videotron stage was none other than Marie Davidson. In this dj set, her emblematic synthwave sound revealed its origins in a steady stream of late night analog techno crowned with some of her own tracks like “Work it” which had the crowd losing its mind. Marie Davidson showed us a guideline into her musical genius and as in her live shows, the wide-eyed presence and honest spoken word effortlessly enticed the crowd into her unapologetically bold aura.

Matching this energy, Honeydripp proved once again to be the queen of kinetic sounds as she liquefied genres into her own spaced out mix of breaks, bass and a groovy remix of Fergalicious. Playing with silence and space, her rhythms teased the line of recognisable patterns, occasionally broken by bassy dub influenced sections which shook the stage.

Ending on a high note with chopped breaks going in and out of time, homegrown harvest’s reputation for long nights dancing was not let down. As Dileta put us in a time warp of progressively rich drum patterns and acid bass sequences to tear the roof off, the crowd quickly understood this was an experience like no other. Dileta’s vast selection of dark leftfield tracks, seamless transitions and sharp accents of retro samples had people young and old grooving from side to side in unisson.

Meanwhile on the Sapporo stage we witnessed an ascent into craze as Jeska displayed a virtuoso performance of drum and bass, accelerating from a wide sound with minutely precise breaks into head banging, hard style territory. Imanu had no problem keeping this energy up with his feel good, synthpop textures and kept the crowd bouncing to classic pop samples mixed between densely energetic house.

It seemed the night would go on in this boundary breaking succession of increasingly ecstatic sounds until in a sudden turn of events, classical music from Apashe’s repertoire transformed the entire festival into a scene from Dante’s inferno.

As the haze from the river gradually blanketed the fluorescent lights, people started slowing down, almost expecting a ballerina to come out in “pas chassé”. But this was all part of Apashe’s master plan. After a solid 20 minutes, a manifesto appeared on the screen and in an instant the scene was flooded with strobes. The rest of the night belonged to Apashe’s, and with his artistic conception of EDM combined with the stadium scale scenography and sound, it will be one to remember. Notable to his “majestic” style was the display of cinematic visuals paired in synchronicity with transitions and instruments that created a mesmerizing audiovisual experience. After an emotionally evoking set, Apashe leaves us once again with the soft sounds of an orchestra walking us out into the streets. The buzz of the crowd turns into screams and we all know what we just witnessed. Igloofest is living up to the hype.

First Igloofest Evening: DJ Minx on the Techno Side

by Loic Minty

With smoke blowing over the turntables, DJ Minx appeals to the spirit of electronic music with his infectious presence.

As a pioneer of Detroit techno, it’s more than appropriate that she’s playing on this first night of Igloo Fest, and it’s easy to see why. She performs with ease and joy, but it’s her approach that makes her shine. People arriving from Sapporo, approach in disbelief to this intimate space where the crowd dances in trance in front of the 4 subwoofers. Classic Detroit-style soul and disco samples fill the imagination with lyrical excerpts, and the bass thrills the whole body. She ends her performance on a fiery track that Felix Patry masters and relaunches with a breakbeat to kick off her eclectic set at high speed. Navigating with ease between a panoply of styles such as Baltimore club and Euro-dance, her carefree presence doesn’t do justice to the people who jump up and down in delirium until the very end, losing their clothes in the process. This slim glimpse of the Homeby6 collective and the Igloo Fest festival gives a thirst for nightlife that will have to be continued another time. Fortunately, this is just the beginning.

First Night of Igloofest 2025: Tali Rose and Michael Bibi’s Party

by Félicité Couëlle-Brunet

It’s 8:30 p.m. and everyone is eagerly awaiting the London producer and DJ at the Sapporo Stage. Joy and good humor reign over a rhythmic beat brought to us by our entourage dressed in matching winter suits for an evening of festivities.

We’ve been bopping along to Tali Rose’s melodious indie-house beats for a while now. The rhythm is good, the dance is organic and the house is progressive. Little by little, people start to go into a trance as the Montreal DJ gradually increases the frequencies of her melodies, until we’re dancing to an almost tribal tune to set the scene for her colleague’s entrance.

Michael Bibi is quick to introduce an assertive house dimension to the evening, bringing the crowd to its feet. It’s from this point on that you feel like you’ve travelled back to the 2010s dance-pop style, thanks to a crowd of upbeat dancers on up-beat melodies. Bibi regularly emphasizes his lifelong love of the blues and jazz scene, and this is evident in his samples of songs remixed with tech-house. At the end of three hours of excitement in the snow, the evening comes to a close with the electro deep-house classic “Pump Up The Jam”, which breathes new energy into the very end of the evening. The good energy stays with us – the first night of Igloofest 2025 has been one of celebration.

Classical / Classical Singing / orchestre / période moderne / période romantique

OSM | Mahler, Payare and The OSM: Between Inner Turmoil, Light and Fatality, a Powerful Evening.

by Hélène Archambault

The OSM has made an enlightened choice to present the works of Alma Mahler and those of her husband, Gustav, in the same concert to inaugurate 2025. The performance of Alma’s works alongside those of her illustrious husband is a contemporary nod to a time when many female musicians are giving up their careers to support those of their husbands.

At the age of twenty-three, Alma, née Schindler, frequented the Viennese artistic scene, composing lieder and insisting on her artistic and intellectual independence. She met Gustav Mahler in November 1901. Twenty years her senior, he made a deal with her: to become his wife, she had to give up her aspirations as a composer. Passionately in love, she accepted, and the marriage was celebrated on March 9, 1902.

Despite this “ban” on composing, Gustav suggested that Alma rework the lieder and have them published (in the program notes, Catherine Harrison-Boisvert notes that “Gustav seems to have wanted to make amends”). It is fortunate that Alma’s Lieder have been rescued from anonymity in this way. Their performance is a first for the OSM. With these 5 lieder, the orchestra offers a sensitive listening experience, and, in my case, one of discovery. In meins Vaters Garten (In my father’s garden) is particularly touching. Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor’s deep, radiant voice is enhanced by the composer’s expressive writing. My only downside? The orchestration by Colin and David Matthews. A slight mismatch between the two scores is unfortunately to the detriment of the voice.

Of the Sixth Symphony, called “Tragic”, Alma writes that it is her husband’s most personal work, the one that sprang most directly from his heart. She also reports that in writing the Sixth Symphony, Gustav anticipated his own life in music. Three blows of fate, symbolized by as many hammer blows in the finale – only two of which are retained – also befell him: the loss of their daughter Maria to scarlet fever, a diagnosis of incurable heart disease, and the loss of his position at the Vienna Opera. As Mahler’s Sixth was written before these events, this interpretation is debatable. But the story is worth telling, if only to stir the imagination! And perhaps also a little to allow ordinary people to become a little more attached to the composer?

Speaking of attachment, the OSM and Payare, in their interpretation, go the right way. From the very first bar, the tempo is energetic without being frantic. The tone is set. The first movement unfolds between the military and the evocation of Alma, embodied by the strings. The orchestra alternates between rumble and light. Payare seems to play with rhythm. Though regulated like a metronome, time with him seems more supple, more alive. The beautiful pages of the second movement feature a dialogue between woodwinds and brass, in which the orchestra’s playing is limpid. The third movement, almost dreamlike, and the finale follow one another without a break. This sequence seems to allow the orchestra to bewitch us, before plunging us into an emotional stampede in the style of “being Gustav Mahler” right to the end. Just writing it makes me breathless – the energy deployed by the conductor must be the envy of the greatest sportsmen and women. Tragic” symphony, you say? Between enchantment, sweetness and tragedy, one does not leave the symphonic house completely unscathed.

Photo Credit: Gabriel Fournier