Interviews

On Saturday, May 27, 2023, ”The Way of the Heart” will resonate in Montreal with all the breadth of its joyful mysticism. With its real name Qawwali, this 700 year old musical style, mainly present in Pakistan and India, and mainly known in the West through the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997, though a controversial one), will be heard in all its splendor on the stage of Concordia University’s Oscar Peterson Hall on Sherbrooke Street West. For the occasion, one of the most eminent ensembles will be heard : Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwali Ensemble. The two musicians named are, in addition, direct descendants of a very long line of virtuosos associated with the greatest school of Qawwali in India.

If you know anything about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, you know that there is nothing dry or boring about this genre, which is rooted in Muslim religious practice of the Sufi branch. On the contrary, it is a true devotional feast, marked by rigor but expressed in a good mood and an open-mindedness that makes all the extreme rigorists of the world tremble! For us Westerners, and in order to better understand the kind of atmosphere that emanates from a Qawwali music concert, the comparison could easily be made with American Gospel music, in which elements of call and response songs would have been inserted and which would have been built with the structural richness of Bach’s Cantatas! 

This kind of concert is not as common in Quebec as it is in Ontario, for example, where South Asian communities have a larger footprint (things are changing, though : this community is growing fast in Montreal). So, if you are curious about non-Western art music, you should take full advantage of this opportunity! 

Perhaps for the first time in a francophone media in Quebec (this interview was first published in French), a serious interview has been conducted with undisputed Qawwali virtuosos, what Wynton Marsalis can be for jazz, William Christie for baroque music or Joyce DiDonato for opera. Here are excerpts of a meeting with Abu Muhammad, long time partner of Fareed Ayaz, together two ”graduates” of the prestigious Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana school of Delhi, incidentally the institution where Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also studied!

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

Pan M 360: Qawwali remains unknown in the West. How can you summarize the style and meaning for people who have never heard it?

Abu Muhammad: Qawwali is a musical genre that expresses devotion to God. The name comes from ‘Qaul’, which means word (of the prophet). Qawwali is popular mostly in India and Pakistan and some parts of Bangladesh. It was created over 700 years ago by Amir Khusrau, himself a disciple of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The aim was to simplify ‘Samah’ (religious and philosophical poetry sessions), which existed before, and make it more popular for the general public.

Pan M 360: So this is a musical genre that was intended from the beginning to be accessible! Is it a uniform genre, or are there several sub-genres?

Abu Muhammad: In our tradition and our gharana (school), there are several sub-genres borrowed from other traditions such as thumri, ghazal, bhajan etc. But regardless of the genre or sub-genre, for us the ultimate goal is to reach God via the path of love.

Pan M 360: A love magnificently carried by music… What place does Qawwali have in the Muslim society in general? Does its Sufi origins allow it to be equally appreciated in the Shiite and Sunni communities?

Abu Muhammad: Qawwali is found mostly in India, Pakistan and some parts of Bangladesh. There is no barrier between Shiites and Sunnis in the appreciation of Qawwali. Its music is universal. For example, there is a song that says that after the Prophet ‘Whoever accepts me as his master, for him, Ali is also the master‘. So both Shiites and Sunnis accept this notion.

Some tickets still available for the concert on sale HERE

Pan M 360: Is the practice of this musical art widespread or is it rather the work of a motivated minority (a bit like classical music in the West)?

Abu Muhammad: The practice is more widespread than classical music (from the West or the East) because the message contained in Qawwali goes beyond music. It is about devotions and prayers filled with love for God.

Pan M 360: How long does one have to study on average to be properly trained in this art?

Abu Muhammad: In the family tradition, the children of the family are taught the songs when they are very young, so they grow up in this atmosphere. For people who come from outside, it takes at least six or seven years to get the basics right.

Pan M 360: An artist should know at least how many pieces to be recognized as adequate and respected?

Abu Muhammad: In general, if an artist masters a hundred pieces, he is capable of giving concerts. He should be able to sing poems of about twenty Sufi saints to be recognized.

Pan M 360: You studied in the Qawwal Bachon ka gharana in Delhi, a famous and prestigious school. The most famous of its nationals in the West is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Why is this gharana so prolific in great musicians?

Abu Muhammad: The founder of Qawwali, Amir Khusrao, gathered a dozen children seven hundred years ago to sing Qawwali, a simplified form of Samah. The leader of this group of children was Samat Bin Ibrahim, the ancestor of my family. In this gharana, there is a lot of emphasis on Indian classical music. Anyone who wants to sing Qawwali must first study classical music well, learn several ragas and only then can he learn the texts of Qawwali songs. It is this foundation that contributes to the quality of the musicians.

Pan M 360: Is the influence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan noticeable in the teaching of this gharana today? In what way?

Abu Muhammad: I don’t think Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan really represented the traditions of our gharana. He was certainly a great singer, but he gained popularity by employing fusion techniques that were not of our gharana.

Pan M 360: How is the Qawwali of today different from that of the past? Is there a noticeable evolution in the way it is played, or is the tradition still much the same as it was 2, 5, or 7 centuries ago?

Abu Muhammad: In the time of Amir Khusrau, the accompanying instruments were the sitar and the tabla. Later, the harmonium and the dholak (a percussion instrument) were introduced. These days (for example in the sessions of Coke Studio, a very popular music program in Pakistan) instruments like the guitar, piano, drums, etc. are used. For the past hundred years, there has also been the influence of Bollywood which has caused distortions in Qawwali. We believe that Qawwali should lead us to peace and spirituality. It is not for the mundane entertainment of people devoid of love and devotion to God.

Pan M 360: What do you like to bring to Qawwali that is not brought by your colleagues?

Abu Muhammad: When we sing, we take a lot of time to explain the meaning of our songs. Even children can understand the content. I don’t think our colleagues do that. We also value the classical music part as roots of Qawwali music.

The Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Ensemble concert will take place on May 27, 2023 at Concordia University’s Oscar Peterson Hall.

At the occasion of MTL Night Summit 2023, we are interviewing Will Straw, professor of Media Studies at McGill University, a renowned expert in the academic field of we call night studies. As a dedicated scholar and board member of MTL 24/24, Straw sheds light on the evolution of the organization, the significance of night studies as a burgeoning field, and the historical context of Montreal’s vibrant nightlife. Join PAN M 360 as we explore the interplay between music, scenes, policies, and the vision for the future of Montreal’s night culture.

PAN M 360: You have been involved with MTL 24/24 since the beginning. How did you take part in this project?

Will Straw: I met Mathieu Grondin, the director of MTL 24/24, a couple of years before the pandemic. He knew that I had written about the night, so I was excited to join and now I’m a board member. It has been an incredible experience to witness the organization’s growth from producing events like MTL au Sommet de la nuit to gaining international recognition.

PAN M 360: You work in the field of night studies. What does that entail?

Will Straw: People have always been interested in the night since it exists, and there have been books and studies about it. However, in the last decade or so, there has been a significant increase in research about the night in various languages like English, French, Italian or Spanish and we begin to refer to each other. Anthropologists refer to historians, who refer to economists, who refer to sociologists and so on, and a community has developed. This year, we will have the third international conference on night studies. It’s an exciting and relatively new field.

PAN M 360: Is the field of night studies well-developed in Canada?

Will Straw: There are people in Canada working in this field, especially on the West Coast. Montreal has become a hub, not just because I live here, but also because of the presence of scholars at McGill University, Concordia University and UQAM. We collaborate, host events together, and have formed a strong night studies community in Canada.

PAN M 360: You also have an interest in the historical aspect of Montreal nightlife. Can we identify a “golden age” of nightlife in the city?

Will Straw: People tend to consider the time just before they arrived as the golden age. Some may regard the 1940s as a golden age, despite the issues of racism, police repression, and corruption. The 1960s, with the EXPO 67 World’s Fair, saw an expansion of go-go clubs and discotheques, particularly around Crescent Street and Stanley Street. In the 1970s, Montreal was considered the second biggest disco city in the world. There have been many golden ages, and I hope we are currently in a period where nightlife is more open, accessible, equitable, recognized, and tolerated by the government.

PAN M 360: How is music linked to the night?

Will Straw: : It is interesting, and I realized when I tell the story of nightlife, I’m referring to music and nightclubs because those are the institutions we typically associate it with. There are other people who will talk about a golden age of Montreal theater, for example, I don’t know what years those would be, and that would be nightlife. Others will talk about the golden age of the restaurants where you danced, and so on. But you know, so many of us, we tend to tell the history as scenes and that may be just our biases, but I think it is true as well that music is perhaps the most recognized form of nightlife.

PAN M 360: You have extensively studied scenes as a researcher. How would you define a scene?

Will Straw: The concept of a scene has been used by journalists and others, I didn’t come up with it. A scene refers to informal social organizations. It’s not like a formal club with membership cards but it’s a space where there’s a free fluid association of people who are both producing things like music, food, etc. but also engaged in a kind of sociability, they hang out, they gossip… then you have a scene. Those of us who use the term of the scene prefer it to something like subculture or something like community, which is maybe a bit old fashioned. There are all kinds of scenes. I remember going to bars and you see all these high school teachers hanging out after work, well, that’s a scene. Whenever a kind of supplement of sociability here attaches itself to an activity, then you have a scene.

PAN M 360: The existence and development of scenes are highly influenced by the legal framework and policies. How can we make progress in this area?

Will Straw: Some say that Montreal lacks a nightlife policy, but in reality, there has been a policy for the past 100 years. However, it has often involved police shutting down places or accepting bribes. Nightlife has historically been seen as something to control and repress. LGBTQ+ communities have fought for the right to be out at night, and there have been struggles for fans of certain music genres. To make progress we need to first convince the city that the night has economic value in terms of tourism and consumption. We must advocate for the right to occupy the night as citizens. This includes addressing issues like noise and ensuring the safety of people who go out at night, as well as improving access to transportation. The city should see its responsibility in supporting and nurturing the night as part of its duty to its citizens. It’s not just about party-goers; it’s about the people who work in hospitals, bakeries, and factories that operate at night.

PAN M 360: How does MTL 24/24 contribute to creating momentum around Montreal nightlife?

Will Straw: Groups like MTL 24/24 play a crucial role in creating momentum for several reasons. Firstly, they bring together people who work in the night industry, who often don’t have the opportunity to connect with each other. By recognizing their contributions and status, they create a political presence. Secondly, cities worldwide are recognizing the importance of nightlife and implementing policies accordingly. Montreal doesn’t want to be left behind, so there is external pressure for change. The local scene also pushes for progress, driving the momentum further.

PAN M 360: If you could make a wish for the future of Montreal nightlife, what would it be?

Will Straw: As an older person, I may not want to dance until 7 in the morning, but I would like to see improvements. My wish would be to have affordable late-night dining options available for those working during those hours. Additionally, convenient and frequent transportation to get home safely in the middle of the night would be beneficial.

On the American avant-garde music scene involving free improvisation, tenor saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Zoh Amba is clearly on her rise. She really is! After growing up in a Tennessee that could have  confined her to more conventional areas, the 23 year old sensation lived briefly in San Francisco and Boston before moving to New York where she was immediately adopted by the best musicians of the avant-garde scene, starting with John Zorn who produced her album O,Sun, with drummer Joey Baron and bassist Thomas Morgan, on Tzadik Records.
Needless to say, her career was launched!  Today, she’s expanding her sonic world until Victoriavile where she plays this Thursday  with Thomas Morgan, pianist Micah Thomas and drummer Miguel Marcel Russell. 


How can a musician of this age blossom so quickly? Neither PAN M 360 nor Zoh Amba can answer this question… The following conversation with her nevertheless provides us with some convincing clues.

PAN M 360 : Where are you based now ?

ZOH AMBA : In New York.

PAN M 360 : You’re from Tennessee, aren’t you? 

ZOH AMBA : Yes, from Kingsport.

PAN M 360 : So you must know Big Ears Festival.

ZOH AMBA :  Oh, yeah ! I played my first Big Ears concert this year. It’s beautiful. I mean, it was a dream as a kid to play there and experience it.

PAN M 360 : Also. So you’ve been trained in Tennessee as an early saxophone player?

ZOH AMBA : Yeah in a way, but I also trained myself.

PAN M 360 : So what did you study?

ZOH AMBA : My heart! (laughs). This kind of goes on. I played a lot. I still play a lot. I always play a lot. And I’m just  trying to find melodies out of what I feel inside my heart. But I was working on it and I didn’t know there was any other thing but that until I left Tennessee, really. But I didn’t know there was this thing. I couldn’t even read music when I entered school for the first time. So it’s been a long journey.

PAN M 360 :  So you did build all your language by yourself in a way.

ZOH AMBA : Yeah! In a way I feel like that. But I also believe that each one of us has a little sacred tender soul heart song going on. I think we all got it.  

PAN M 360 : You mean your own vocabulary ? Your way?

ZOH AMBA : Yeah, yeah. But in a more abstract sense. I think we all got that little thing inside of us. I did go to the conservatory but that’s not so important. 

PAN M 360 : There you learned some useful things, didn’t you ?

ZOH AMBA :  Yeah. I learned some things, but I was very stubborn and I dropped out twice. So I didn’t make it through. But I tried, I really tried (laughs)

PAN M 360 : Well, the clue is your own language, your own thing. But also you know, there are so many super virtuosos for any instrument.  And also there are creative people like you who build their own very personal language.

ZOH AMBA : Well, my goal is not to be a great saxophone player. I’m just trying to be a great person in my life. I’m trying to just be a vessel to something that you know, is greater than all of us and love that and nurture it and just try to get this tender song inside out all the time is my goal at the most honest place. And of course, I work on my horns as you got to facilitate that, you know, but I’m not trying to be this great saxophone player, just a great person in my own life. And live a beautiful, simple life of joy and try to stay in  the sun.  I would describe my music as devotional, trying to reach joy and sunshine. I don’t know how else to describe it.

PAN M 360 : Well do you mean that, for example, your live playing and your recording sessions are basically a reflection of a human being  rather than a music player ?

ZOH AMBA : Yeah, I’d say so. But I feel like other people who create that type of thing also feel like that also, you know?  I play that way, I feel like sunshine is in my body and I feel very happy. The happiest times in my life  are in those moments. Then I feel  I’m supposed to be where I’m supposed to be.

PAN M 360 : And do you play other instruments? Do you use other tools?

ZOH AMBA : Yeah,  I’ve been working on piano. I just played on another record that I finished recording a couple of weeks ago. I  also play guitar and I sing some songs.  I was playing guitar when I was a child and I had a notebook  of all these songs. I even thought I was going to move to Nashville, but the saxophone came into my life. Overall, it’s all the same song, you know.  

PAN M 360 :  So the bottom line is not necessarily playing saxophone, but making music.

ZOH AMBA : It’s  true. So yeah, saxophone, piano, guitar, voice. That’s, that’s the world of my expression.

PAN M 360 : But mainly tenor saxophone.

ZOH AMBA : Yeah. I have started on alto, but I didn’t pursue it. I know, before I touched the alto, I wanted to play tenor. So it took some months before I got the tenor.  Yeah, it resonates with me most, it feels beautiful. I don’t love everything about tenor, but it is still my favorite.

PAN M 360 : Of course, you are already a great improviser but how do you compose?

ZOH AMBA : Well. I sit, I play some things , some melodic patterns to the musicians. And then it becomes some of our repertoire. But I can also write some things down. I mean, I’m working on something, then I’m writing down some elements and I show them to  my bandmates. I can do some graphic scoring for them if I don’t know how to notate what I’m hearing. I draw these things, and I explain it after. And I have different cues for the ensemble, like meaning, how we end, how we begin, etc. But those cues can be broken at any time. I’m always trying to surprise myself and make my musicans feel surprised too. 

So yes it is mostly based on improv, but it’s not just that, and I feel like each one of us in the unit together, have been working on that our entire lives. So it’s much more than just getting together and playing. Also we love each other, we love the sun, and we’re just trying to go there together. Plunge deep baby, here we go. 

PAN M 360 : What are you going to play at FIMAV ? 

ZOH AMBA : We’re playing my compositions. And just playing our hearts out, plunging deep and pouring our souls together. Loving living together, loving the sun together, playing our hearts out. That’s what this band is.

PAN M 360 : About your colleagues about to come playing with you at FIMAV.

ZOH AMBA : Thomas Morgan means a world to me. I’m so grateful to play with him. Micah is my best friend, he is my brother, sacred and beautiful. Miguel I met him in New York recently, about a year ago. I’m so happy playing music with them. They’re just great. The best musicians !So the relationships have been growing. But you know, I’m a little young, you know, we have a whole life of getting to know each other, you know, so…

PAN M 360 : Yeah, everything’s quite recent. 

ZOH AMBA : Yeah. I’m 23 years old. Yeah, I’m grateful. I really understand that, you know, and, but at the end of the day, I’m just grateful to play music every night with people I love and to reach this goal together. You know,  I just wanted to play music all the time. And I’m grateful that this is fulfilling that dream of playing great music together all the time. I love touring. I love meeting people. And I’m happy that the music resonates with them deeply.  And I’ve just tried to be as open and vulnerable as I can.

ZOH AMA ENSEMBLE IS PLAYONG AT FIMAV ON THRSDAY, MIDINGHT, AT CARRÉ 150, VICTORIAVILLE. INFOS & TICKETS HERE

Guitarist, improviser and composer, the British Fred Frith is an emblematic figure of the FIMAV, since he regularly performs there since the very beginning. Among the aesthetic leaders of the rock in opposition movement before changing continent, he was a member of mythical formations of the 70s, starting with Henry Cow. His career as an improviser then led him down several stylistic paths, as dozens of albums attest. 

Fred Frith is back in a trio + 1 format, surrounded by Jason Hoopes, electric bass and Jordan Glenn, drums, who met in California a decade earlier while teaching at Mills College in Oakland, renowned for its propensity for contemporary and experimental music.

On the Intakt label, two albums testify to this complicity, cohesion and linguistic coherence. The opus entitled Road features saxophonist Lotte Anker and trumpeter Susane Santos Silva. Heike Liss, an internationally renowned visual artist and Fred Frith’s partner, gives this music a visual dimension that makes it a total work.

Fred Frith has lost none of his radicality and promptness, as evidenced by his answers to PAN M 360’s questions.

PAN M 360 : How would you describe the progression of this unit : yourself, Jordan Glenn and Jason  Hoopes. Since a few years, you’ve recorded with them and others on Intakt Records. 

FRED FRITH : We started playing together about ten years ago. At that time Jason was still playing upright bass, and we were exploring a quieter kind of trio improvisation. At a certain point he switched to the electric bass and it immediately propelled us in quite a different direction. I hear in Jason’s  playing a similar relationship to the instrument as Scott LaFaro had with the double bass back in  the day, an absolute fearlessness and especially a willingness to use the whole range of the  instrument including the upper register. It takes us out of the traditional rock trio territory, and  when you add a drummer of Jordan’s unique gifts I feel very excited every time we play, even in  rehearsal! 

PAN M 360: Since your retirement from Mills College, where are you based? Obviously you are still active  and still creating new music. 

FRED FRITH: I live in Santa Rosa, California, an hour North of San Francisco. 

PAN M 360 : About your artistic link with the excellent Portuguese trumpet player Susanna Santos Silva? How did you meet her, and what have you accomplished together? 

FRED FRITH: She participated in a workshop I co-directed with Mark Dresser in Lisbon back in 2011. It was  obvious she was a huge talent and we stayed in touch. Since then she has been a part of several  different projects of mine—as a soloist in a piece I wrote for the Hessisches Rundfunk Big Band, 

in different trios with Chris Cutler and Lotte Anker and Sten Sandell, and more recently as a guest  with the trio – our project with Susana and Heike has already toured on the East Coast of the US  and in Brazil. Our duo performance at the Mé téo Festival in Mulhouse is now released as a CD on  the Rogu’Art label in Paris. 

PAN M 360: How has this music evolved since the 2021 recording? Was Lotte Anker supposed to be on that  tour or it’s now a different project? 

FRED FRITH: We have invited several different guests over the years, not only Susana and Lotte but also Jessica  Lurie, Evelyn Davis and Ikue Mori for example. There is no « supposed »—it’s about challenging  ourselves continuously. After the pandemic we experimented with notated music, and we may go  back to that again, but right now we like working with ideas that don’t have to be written down!

PAN M 360 : What is the core of this ensemble’s quest? 

FRED FRITH: Have fun and don’t waste your time… 

PAN M 360 : Age doesn’t matter when we listen to your craft. How do you deal with your own playing and style  after all those years? 

FRED FRITH: Happy to hear that! Not sure what you mean. I don’t « deal with » my playing—I play! I try to stay  in the present and be in the moment.. 

PAN M 360: Also your partner Heike Liss is involved as a visual artist in this tour. Can you give us some  hints of her work in that context? And how do you see the blend with this ensemble’s music? 

FRED FRITH: We have been collaborating on Drawing Sound for many years. There are two versions. For one  Heike is projecting her video material and drawing over it on the computer while we play. For the  other, she actually physically draws on, say,  a window where we are performing. We’ll do this  latter version, for example, in the San Francisco Exploratorium in September. It is not about  making a « blend » —it’s about examining the relationship between what we see and what we  hear. Since the visual has primacy for humans, it’s usually the case that sound is heard as an  accompaniment to what we are experiencing visually. What happens if the opposite is true? Or is  it possible to subvert that relationship, to question it spontaneously? 

PAN M 360 : After 4 decades of music, you remain loyal with FIMAV.  Now, where do you situate this  festival on the world map of avant-garde and adventurous music?   

FRED FRITH: FIMAV always had a soft spot in my heart because I was there at the very beginning, before the  beginning actually. And I regard it as extraordinary that Michel has been able to sustain a festival  of this degree of radicality and quality in such a relatively remote location. It requires a very  special combination of passion for the music, dogged obstinacy in the face of administrative  barriers, and the curiosity to seek out what he doesn’t know. And the ability to assemble and  sustain a team to help realize his vision. There are precious few festivals like it. And loyalty is a  two-way street! 

PAN M 360 : Obviously, this approach was attracting young left field music lovers in the 80’s and the 90’s.  And now? What is its audience around the world? Multi generational?  Older? 

FRED FRITH: That’s an odd question because it implies that there is one approach, or one kind of music, and the  whole thing about FIMAV is how it has embraced such a diverse array of sonic approaches, far  more than practically any other festival I could name. What makes it attractive is that you will  hear things you don’t know and be introduced to fields of action you want to explore further. This  is just as true now as it was then, and the audience for all of these kinds of music is absolutely  multi-generational, even if a rather small demographic actually makes it to Victoriaville. In fact its  influence reaches far beyond the location itself…

PAN M 360 : What will you say about Michel Levasseur, before his retirement?  Among other artistic  directors around the world, how do you see his own contribution? 

FRED FRITH: Like so many others, Michel wanted to hear interesting new music and didn’t want to have to  travel in order to do so. So he started the festival to allow that to happen. The fact that it’s still  going is testament enough, no? Chapeau! 

PAN M 360: In Tennessee, Big Ears festival artistic director once told me that FIMAV has been an early  inspiration. How do you see the development of those festivals and recording labels during your  career? Where are we now? FRED FRITH: FIMAV | Music Unlimited in Wels, Austria |Banlieues Bleues and Sons d’Hiver in Paris |Musique  Action in Nancy |Other Minds in San Francisco | Taktlos and Unerhört in Zü rich. These and a few  others are beacons of light and hope in my world. Without their support I would not be where I am.

FRED FRITH TRIO + SUSANA SANTOS SILVA PLAY AT CARRÉ 150, FRIDAY, 10 PM. INFOS & TICKETS HERE

On May 24, the Philip Glass Ensemble (without Philip Glass) will present Explorations in Theater and Film, a panorama of music for stage and screen by the famous “minimalist” composer, aged 86, at Bourgie Hall within the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. For the occasion, music lovers will be treated to a first: the Canadian premiere of a work lost for nearly 50 years and rediscovered in 2017, Music in Eight Parts. 

A FEW TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE. DETAILS HERE

We took the opportunity to speak with Michael Riesman, a loyal friend and unwavering advocate of Glass’ music. All sorts of topics were on the table: the resurrected piece, of course, but also minimalism, contemporary music and Philip’s latest news. Here are some excerpts.

Pan M 360: Hello Mr. Riesman. What is this story about a score that was lost for almost 50 years and then recently found? How is that possible in this day and age?

Michael Riesman: I don’t know all the details, but I think that at some point Philip must have sold that score to make a few bucks (at the time, we’re talking about the 1960s, he had to survive as best he could), but hadn’t made a copy. Then time passed and its trace was lost. It resurfaced in 2017 in an auction at Christie’s! We asked permission to make photocopies, and now it is available. We are playing it on this Explorations in Theater and Film tour, and Montreal will have the privilege of being the first city in Canada where it will be performed. 

Pan M 360: Tell me about the piece itself…

Michael Riesman: It’s really in the style of Philip’s early days. At that time, he didn’t compose for a specific list of instruments. He was willing to arrange his scores for whomever would play them! So, one of the only times it was performed, there was, I think, a viola, a cello, a saxophone, some portable organs, and even a clavinet, as in Stevie Wonder’s Superstition! But really, it can be orchestrated in many ways. That’s what I did, and I wanted to modernize it a bit, with Philip’s agreement. 

Pan M 360: So how did you “modernize” it?

Michael Riesman: Since this piece was written before the ensemble was formed, I immediately adapted it for our specific formation. So I added voice and winds, of course. That’s the first thing. I also adapted the music itself in two ways: first, by speeding up the tempo a little bit after the first half. Over the years, our ensemble has become accustomed to pushing the tempos. We were slower in the beginning. A sign of the times, perhaps, always more energy. Then, the second strictly musical feature was the addition of more bass towards the ⅔ of the piece and the arrival of jazzy tones. This is how I envisioned the update of Music in Eight Parts, a piece that was never intended to be played in one way, meaning the first.

Pan M 360: So you took a lot of liberty?

Michael Riesman: Yes, indeed. I feel quite free to do that, because a few years ago I did the same thing for a concert with Music with Changing Parts, at the request of Philip himself. We added brass, a girls’ choir, and a lot of other things. Philip is in complete agreement. He never wanted his music to become fixed. For Music in Eight Parts, he heard the version we’re going to play in Montreal, and he likes it.

Pan M 360: You are in regular contact with him?

Michael Riesman: I just saw him last night! We went to a concert of William Bolcom’s music, played by Dennis Russel Davies.

Pan M 360: You’re in a good position to tell us what changed the most in his music then…

Michael Riesman: He started by stripping the music down as much as possible. Those early pieces are radically minimalist, and rarely played. One of them is just a sound line, a drone without any ornamentation, no rhythm, nothing. Today, his works have nothing to do with minimalism! It was a process you know. After the initial radicalism, where could he go? So he started to reintroduce rhythm, then harmony, then melody, counterpoint. But still keeping his signature fetish, the arpeggios, the rhythmic figures like ta-taa ta-ta-taa, etc. It is as if he had brought the music back to its sonic starting point, then went back the other way by reintroducing “classical” and “romantic” elements.

Pan M 360: You’ve been with him all this time. Why did he take this path?

Michael Riesman: Initially, the minimalist movement (and I can also talk about Steve Reich, or Terry Riley) was a reaction against what they called the dead-end of the European modern school, Twelve-tone, serialism, etc. We were losing the audience! Music must be inviting. All this dissonance, this sonic ruggedness, where could we go from there? Philip said, “OK, let’s go back to the base. But further than the base, it’s not necessarily the basement, it’s also going upwards, with new concepts.

Pan M 360: After 50 years, you still enjoy playing his music?

Michael Riesman: Of course! But you know, it’s not a full time job. I do a lot of other things. And we rarely tour for more than two or three weeks. So when I come back to it, I’m always like, “Wow, this is still fun!’’

Pan M 360: Is he still writing?

Michael Riesman: He’s working on a Symphony No. 15, but it’s getting harder for him to concentrate on that kind of exercise. Otherwise, he writes a few small piano pieces from time to time. He still goes out though, to see things (like yesterday with me). But of course, time is moving on for him too…

Pan M 360: Are you an observer of the contemporary scene? What do you think about it?

Michael Riesman: I think it’s good now that the wall of rigid academicism has been broken down. Composers are much freer to write what they want. But, maybe it’s because I’m getting old (lol), I don’t hear a lot of stuff I really like… You’re more likely to meet me at an avant-garde jazz or indie pop concert.

Pan M 360: Thank you and I look forward to seeing and hearing you on May 24th!

Michael Riesman: It will be a great pleasure to come back to Montreal, a great audience, and especially to play for the first time in Bourgie Hall.

This week Montreal will be vibrating to the rhythm of two major events for the artistic and cultural nightlife scene: MTL Night Summit on May 17th and 18th at the PHI Center and NON STOP 24/24 from May 19th to 21th at the Pavillon du Grand Quai of the Port of Montreal.

The former will be of interest to the curious who wish to learn more about nightlife cultures and the international initiatives that support their development. Guests will include Burning Man co-founder $teven Ra$pa, former Amsterdam night mayor Mirik Milan and renowned night studies researchers Luc Gwiazdzinski and Will Straw. Several activities are free, including two documentary screenings, on Detroit techno and on Montreal by night. The Summit is also marked by the presentation of the Creative Footprint Montreal study, produced by VibeLab and Penn Praxis.

The NON STOP event will delight fans of electronic music, with 36 hours of non-stop music. Headlining: the “First Lady of Wax” DJ Minx, the ambassador of high energy techno VTSS, and the excellent Jacques Greene. They will be accompanied by a well-stocked local set with dileta, Lis Dalton, GLOWZI, Lia Plutonic, or Ramzilla. A free outdoor scene will be accessible Saturday during the day, Place des commencements.

A few hours before the kick-off of the 2023 edition of MTL Night Summit, PAN M 360 met with Diana Raiselis, lead researcher of Montreal’s Creative Footprint study, to discuss the results of this year-long fieldwork.

PAN M 360 : What brings you into nighttime research?

Diana Raiselis: I spent the first few years of my professional life in Chicago, working in the theatre scene. I heard about the work of night mayors and nighttime policy around the same time that I saw spaces in Chicago and elsewhere in the US threatened by policy pressures, gentrification, displacement, and other issues—topics that I now work on. From there, I began to realize how urban factors control how much theater, performance, and music club cultures exist in a city. I have a double background in theater as well as public policy, and urban affairs, which brought me to Berlin to look at what the Berlin Clubcommission was doing, as part of a research fellowship. I thought it would last maybe a year and a half. Four years later, I’m still there. 

PAN M 360: What do you do today in Berlin?

Diana Raiselis: I wear several different hats. I freelance with various organizations, but as one of those hats I’m the research lead for VibeLab, a purpose-driven consultancy focused on nighttime, nightlife, and the cultural industries; based in Berlin, Amsterdam and Sydney. So VibeLab produces the Creative Footprint research project in collaboration with cities and civic nighttime advocacy organisations. I’m happy this fifth edition, Creative Footprint Montréal, is out today! 

PAN M 360: Can you tell us more about the methodology you are using to produce the Creative Footprint? 

Diana Raiselis: This data-driven study maps nightlife spaces and communities to understand the cultural strength and impact of a city’s music and nightlife ecosystem. This report works qualitatively, quantitatively, and with geographic and spatial data to bring all those things together and hopefully get a holistic picture of where nightlife is in the city, and how it interacts with all these various urban factors—cost, transit, policy. Since I also came up as a theater director, for me, alongside data, there is always a need to tell the story. So talking to folks, understanding the challenges that they face, the things that they value the most about their city… that brings the numbers to life, for me.

PAN M 360: How can Creative Footprint help the nightlife advocates?

Diana Raiselis: One of the most significant issues is that nightlife advocates often understand things to be true in their practice and experience, but don’t have data to advocate for what they see. Policymakers often want to see evidence-based data, pilots, and so on. Creative Footprint provides the beginning of a baseline. We use scores here, but it’s not necessarily about comparing cities to say that this one is better or worse than that one. It’s more about, OK in 2023, this is the score. Montreal did very strongly on aspects of Community and Content and Space, and didn’t do nearly as strongly on what we call Framework Conditions, which are policies, transit, access to information, governance, and so on. As Montreal puts this nightlife strategy into place for the next years, that section is where the “score” can be increased. 

PAN M 360: You were giving some information about the score for Montreal, can you elaborate on the parameters and indicators you are mobilizing ?

Diana Raiselis: We work with these three different areas: Framework Conditions, which are the “hardware” and “software” that affect how easy or difficult it is to put on nightlife events, create venues, and so on. Community and Content are all the aspects of what’s created in these spaces, how interdisciplinary or multi-use spaces are, how they support community, and their emphasis on creative output. And then Space, we look at more tangible factors of how large venues are, how long they’ve operated, their multiple functions, and how they reach their audiences via social media and other channels. 

PAN M 360: What kind of data are you collecting and what are your collecting strategies? 

Diana Raiselis: We work closely with an organization called PennPraxis, which an applied research and practice nonprofit attached to the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. They lead the project’s urban data analytics, for which they’re pulling in census, geographic and other data, then superimposing that data on the information we gather. We create a list of venues as comprehensively as possible. Then we use focus groups and interviews with community members to gather more of their input on these indicators and dive deeper into the dynamics that come up in the city.

PAN M 360: You already talked about the results and were saying Montreal was pretty strong on everything that was connected to the community. What does it mean? 

Diana Raiselis: One of the things that stood out to me was that more than half of Montreal’s venues have multiple uses, so in addition to presenting live music, perhaps they’re also functioning as a studio or for visual art or cinema uses. That’s higher than many other cities we’ve looked at. On average, these spaces have more uses too. Those multi-use venues also tended to rate higher on those community and content variables that we spoke about—things like community focus, creative output, and experimentation—suggesting that these spaces can be more resilient, they can reach a broader audience in many ways. Especially when we think about the pandemic, these last years where many venues had to be resourceful or pivot or try out new business models to survive, spaces that can do that well are maybe more robust.

One of the other things that I also found interesting was that folks were telling us that despite these many multi-use venues, people didn’t necessarily feel that there were many clubs. Suppose they want to create an event that runs after 3:00 AM. In that case, they often have to look to rental venues, which require organizers to start from scratch every time, to bring in equipment, and do a lot of setup that wouldn’t necessarily be done in a dedicated space… You know, we often think of those multi-use venues as making for a stronger venue ecosystem. Still, there’s also a real need for dedicated club-type spaces that are big enough with the appropriate set-up, for folks not necessarily to have to start over every time. 

GRAPHIC SHOWING OVERALL CREATIVE FOOTPRINT SCORE FOR MONTREAL. EACH SCORE IS OUT OF 10 (Creative Footprint Montreal, VibeLab, 2023, p.29)

PAN M 360: Is there any recommendations or ideas that this study wants to pass to decision-makers? 

Diana Raiselis: This is also good timing that this is happening right now because the city is preparing its nightlife strategy for the following years. Our recommendation section in this report is grouped broadly into three big themes: 1) to protect what’s already here. Strengthening policies that allow venues to stay where they are, whether that’s financial support, whether that’s policy support, mediation in neighborhoods, and so on; 2) to build trust. To build stronger relationships between the folks in the scene, folks making decisions, and public safety; 3) to grow. To think about how we can expand not just the space for nightlife, like city-owned areas that could be activated, but also expand the time for nightlife. In the last year, several pilot events have begun to lay that groundwork [for later events], and I think MTL 24/24 did amazing work in making it possible to show that late-night can happen, that there aren’t dire consequences associated with it.

For one example, we suggested reevaluating how soundproofing is approached. A soundproofing fund already exists, but is limited to places holding performance hall licenses. Yet we saw that many important spaces for music might be differently licensed, like bars with a dancefloor. So we need to ensure those spaces are eligible for soundproofing support because they are often near residential buildings, and they experience the same conflicts that a licensed performance hall might have.

So that’s one. Creating a dedicated city liaison is also essential, which takes many different forms in cities worldwide. That person in government must can work closely with folks creating nightlife. And finally, the report recommends looking at the possibility of 24-hour licensing in terms of event permitting and moving towards 24-hour venue concepts. I think what’s also interesting to note is that we saw that Montreal’s nightlife is very concentrated in 4 boroughs. 4 boroughs have 89% of the venues [Le-Plateau Mont-Royal, Ville-Marie, Le Sud-Ouest, Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie], two of those have 75%, and so working closely with the borough level government can have a lot of impact. 

PAN M 360: Yeah, you said you were from the theater, but nightlife is often associated with music, do you have any interest in music ? 

Diana Raiselis: Oh, absolutely! Thinking as a director and event producer, I’m fascinated by the immersive worlds inside the electronic music and club culture scene. Fiona Buckland describes “club time” as a time-space without clocks, where you’re able to sort of disappear into this alternate reality. I think this is what so many theatremakers want to be able to create. So when I go out, I’m paying attention to that. The gestures of world-making that happen inside a particular club, from its built environment—is it sort of like a maze, or do you come in and see the whole space—the music… Those aspects all influence the journey throughout the night, as a conversation between the DJ and the crowd.

PAN M 360: And during the fieldwork, did you discover a venue or a place you really liked in Montreal?

Diana Raiselis : We happened to walk into Coup de cœur francophone at Quai des Brumes and l’Escogriffe during a research visit in November 2022—both the acts, and the contrast between these two very different sounds in spaces right next to each other, was something unique. It felt like an absolute joy to discover that. 

The author of this interview is also a member of MTL 24/24 Night Council. She wrote this interview as a journalist.

PROGRAM – MTL Night Summit

PROGRAM – NON STOP 24/24

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On Saturday, May 20, 2023, at Bain Mathieu in Montreal, Collectif9 will pay tribute to Montreal composer Nicole Lizée with a concert that will allow the curious of all kinds to immerse themselves in some of the most contemporary music of our time. 

In an overview of Lizée’s career (work from 2001, Jupiter Moon Menace, will be performed alongside an exclusive new creation, Ultraviolet Blues), it will be possible to understand why the music of this composer, who is also fascinated by rock, turntablism and science fiction, is one of the most interesting and even fundamental to have emerged at the beginning of the 21st century.

The syncretism that Lizée manages to create is unparalleled in the musical world and acts like a nuclear fusion reactor in which High and Low cultures are invited.  Classical instruments and new lutherie (from the turntable to the old Moog, from non-instruments to the most complex of the European tradition) lose their usual hierarchy, while references to the retro-futurism of vintage science-fiction gain letters of nobility that the guardians of the current temple of so-called serious literature stubbornly refuse to grant it.

I met with Nicole Lizée and discussed her music and many other topics that highlight her fascinating vision of what modernity is in music.

PAN M 360: The concert is called Folk Noir. Why is it called Folk Noir?

Nicole Lizée: It’s the title of a piece I wrote in 2017 for the same ensemble (Collectif9) and Architek, a percussion ensemble. It is emblematic of my interest in associations of unusual terms. Combinations that draw strange landscapes and atmospheres. 

PAN M 360: It’s a program that has the air of a retrospective, with a piece from your early days and a very recent creation…

Nicole Lizée: Yes, but with an emphasis on the trippy (psychedelic?) aspect of my work. These are pieces in which the origin of the sounds is not assured. Acoustic instruments, electro, tapes, everything mixes together and disturbs the listener’s sense of sound orientation.

PAN M 360: About this new piece, called Ultraviolet Blues, what can you tell us about it?

Nicole Lizée: It’s a tribute to the Blacklight Poster, a psychedelic art form that emerged in the 1960s in the United States. Posters were printed with ink that fluoresced under black light (an ultraviolet reaction). Sonically, the piece does not reference stereotypical or preexisting elements of the sound of psychedelia. There are no quotes of existing music. It is my sonic interpretation of blacklight art as it exists in the 21st century: ‘post-blacklight.’ The sound world is highly rhythmic, but the grooves stretch and splinter, sometimes disintegrating. The fluorescence, vibrations, and textural fuzziness in the artwork is depicted through a number of sonic techniques. As is the energy, euphoria, and the notions of darkness.

Melodies (including a main theme) move to the forefront and begin to melt. The is a melancholic component to it all, referencing the notion that this artistic movement experienced a number of deaths: the first was its commodification in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The mainstream saw it as a way to make money but only after tampering with (i.e. censoring) and ultimately, softening, the subject matter considerably, rendering it meaningless (simply functioning as eye candy). There was a period when artists and poster collectors saw it as a means of expression: politically, etc.

After a resurgence in the 1980s – which began again as a way to express the counterculture of the period, with its highly evocative design – the blacklight poster phenomenon largely fizzled out. Now it joins other art forms that don’t exist anymore due to the death of print and other factors.

The blacklight poster was actually a medium capable of mimicking the effects of (a) new wonder drug. With the ability to glow and vibrate under ultraviolet light, the posters could simulate the sensations and visual distortions one experienced during an acid trip.

  • Daniel Donahue, counterculture historian
Eyeball Psychedelic Black Light Poster Company: Vagabond Creations Dayton, Ohio – 1970
Beatles All You Need Is Love Black Light Poster – 1969
Vintage Jimi Hendrix Music Blacklight Poster by Joe Roberts Jr, 1968

PAN M 360: How has your almost 25-year musical career evolved?

Nicole Lizée: I realize that while my subjective foundations remain the same, the desire to go beyond traditional notation has become more pronounced. I want to evoke all sorts of unusual panoramas and impressions in my music, but I find that traditional notation (clefs, barlines, staves, etc.) does not allow me to explain to musicians what I really want to create. In my most recent scores, the system totally falls apart! And it works fine.

PAN M 360: But it still involves a lot of communication with the performers, if you want to be well understood since your system is not standard and its references may not be known by the instrumentalists.

Nicole Lizée: Yes, of course. That’s the beauty of working in contemporary music. 

PAN M 360: How tight are you with your colleagues? Does their initial understanding of your scores ever take you elsewhere, and transform the nature of the piece? Do you let it happen? And when, in the future, new people appropriate your music and try to decode your inscriptions, is it possible that they will make conclusions that are totally alien to your aspirations, absurd even? 

Nicole Lizée: Yes, there is that. But as far as my work with musicians is concerned, it’s a give and take. Of course, I have a precise conception of what I want to project into the sound space, but the musicians have to absorb the music too. That’s a great thing! There are so many things I can’t put on paper, so if the musicians allow me to express it with their understanding of what I’m writing, that’s great! Anyway, the page is just the beginning of the process. 

PAN M 360: You grew up surrounded by popular culture. How did you come to dive into the very serious world of contemporary music?

Nicole Lizée: First of all, in all these years, I never knew what “contemporary music” was. I was always interested in sounds, in originality, and in non-conformism. I had several phases that I would describe as obsessive. I would dive totally into one musical universe, before moving on to another, and so on. I started with New Wave, but then I needed something else and that was Metal, which I explored further and further by going deeper and deeper into “hardness”, lol. Then, again, I craved something else, and that was Kate Bush, Sonic Youth, and the Manchester sound. I had my hip-hop phase and one day I wanted to learn, to know more, and most of all to be officially a composer. I came to McGill and was shocked to hear that “classical” music also had its avant-garde. But there was never any clear notion in my mind of a difference between different types of avant-garde.

PAN M 360: Was there any resistance to your musical fusion in the community?

Nicole Lizée: I can’t say that there wasn’t. For example, when I wanted to write my Turntable Concerto, of course, people asked me where I was going with it. But on the other hand, there was also a lot of enthusiasm! I remember one day I had just finished writing it, exhausted after weeks of hard work, and I was talking to some friends. I said “I’ve finished, but I don’t know how I’m going to find someone to play it” and at that moment, like in a slow-motion scene in a movie, a colleague turns to another, points and slowly says “Why not Paolo?’’ He was a trumpet player but also a DJ. I asked Paolo “Do you want to play my concerto?” and he just said, “Yeah, sure.” Then the conductor doubted whether a DJ could survive such a precise performance as a contemporary creation. We went to rehearsal once at his place, and Paolo nailed it perfectly! The conductor was convinced, and it worked. So yes, a little resistance, but not bad faith. Given the facts and the quality of the product, everyone got on board. And it’s been going on ever since. I love integrating obsolete machines with unique sounds in a context of rigorous interpretation. To me, these are legitimate instruments, like an oboe or a clarinet.

PAN M 360: Is there a dream project that you haven’t realized yet?

Nicole Lizée: Recently, I wrote an opera, a medium I didn’t even consider just a few years ago (RUR: A Torrent of Light, based on a 1920 play by Karel Čapek, a science fiction pioneer. It was in this text that the word robot was first used. The premiere took place at the Tapestry Opera in Toronto – NDLR). But in the future, I must admit that I would like to direct a feature film and compose the music for it. A fully integrated work, where the image is intrinsically dependent on the music and sound, not the other way around.  

PAN M 360: A bit like John Carpenter or Godfrey Reggio’s films set to Philip Glass’ music…

Nicole Lizée: Yes. I like Carpenter a lot, even if his music is relatively uncomplicated, the fact that a single head has thought about the link between image and sound/music is a fascinating aspect of creative perspectives.

PAN M 360: Are you a fan of science fiction?

Nicole Lizée: Yes, but specifically from the 1960s or so. I love retro-futurism, the kind that is no longer relevant because it is beyond its intended time frame. Nevertheless, it was in those years that the future was written! It goes hand in hand with my fascination for obsolete machines, old synths, modulators, outdated electronics, etc.

PAN M 360: Has the time for science fiction as a subject of inspiration finally come to the world of contemporary music-making?

Nicole Lizée: Yes, I think so. The opera on Čapek’s play that I wrote is an example. There are so many beautiful stories, magnificent subjects, characters, places, and situations from which a whole universe of meaning is invited, and through which we can commune in a reflection on our own world!

PAN M 360: Just like the myths of ancient Greece and Rome that have nourished us for more than two millennia!

Nicole Lizée: Yes, absolutely.

PAN M 360: You might be curious to hear an opera based in the Star Trek universe, and sung in Klingon (a language invented and associated with one of the main alien races of the Trek world)!

Nicole Lizée: Wow! I’m definitely going to look that up.

PAN M 360: Finally, five quick questions, quick answers, as many as possible. Challenges with hard choices. Shall we go?

Nicole Lizée: Sure!

PAN M 360: AI (Artificial Intelligence): threat or opportunity?

Nicole Lizée: Strong both. I have strong feelings, but divergent ones. Yes, a threat in the short term, for sure. But in the long run? Will we find a way to deal with it, and do something new? Possibly.

PAN M 360: Dodecaphonism/serialism: dead or still alive?

Nicole Lizée: Mmmm, dead is too strong a term. I would say: History

PAN M 360: Women in contemporary composition (musically speaking, only. I’m not talking about the social and societal aspect of it, of course): revolution or “business as usual”?

Nicole Lizée :… (Long silence)… I would say revolution because the subjects and the stories can only be personal, and thus dictate the color of the music itself. As the subjects and stories, from a non-male perspective (I avoid binarity), will be unique to being female or queer or non-binary, etc., this will inevitably give a unique narrative, with its musical corollary. That said, I hesitated to choose revolution because it is not over! It is underway, but far from having reached its optimal and final bloom.

PAN M 360: Turntables in contemporary music: flavor of the day or new sustainable lutherie?

Nicole Lizée: I love this instrument and I’ve been convinced of its legitimacy for a long time, so I would say it’s sustainable. But I see that it can become the flavor of the day when you start putting it everywhere just to check a box, or sell tickets without thinking about the real depth of the offer.

PAN M 360: If you had to choose with whom to spend your time on a desert island talking about music: Pierre Boulez or Philip Glass?

Nicole Lizée: Oh, that’s the hardest one! What a crazy question, I love it! Ok, you know what, I would choose… Mmmm, no…. Aaaaarrrrgh! I can’t say I’ve listened to much Boulez, but as much as I love the early Glass, the psychedelic Glass, I don’t like everything either. I don’t know. I think I’d like to invite them both to my table at the same time. What an exchange that would be!

PAN M 360: They are symbols of the fundamental opposition of our time in contemporary music. A bit like the Brahms vs Wagner camps in the 19th century…

Nicole Lizée: Exactly. Yes, a meal with both at the same time would be very entertaining!

GoGo Penguin has been captivating audiences with their innovative and eclectic sound since they first formed in 2009. Citing a diverse range of influences, the trio’s music defies easy categorization but consistently makes for an enthralling experience. 

Everything is Going To Be OK, the group’s sixth album, sees the band coming to terms with the departure of longtime drummer, Rob Turner, and personal losses in the families of bassist Nick Blacka and pianist Chris Illingworth. However, the band find a worthy replacement in drummer Jon Scott and Everything is Going to be OK serves as an optimistic gesture and a reassurance to fans that the band remain inspired, and are here to stay. 

Chris took the time from his hotel room in Portland to discuss the latest record, their current tour, and more than 10 years of GoGo Penguin. 

PAN M 360: First of all congratulations on the album Chris. You’re touring it now. How are you finding it so far? How do you feel the new material is being received?

Chris: Oh fantastic. I think we’ve done five shows so far and a little radio spot in Seattle as well the other day. It’s been great, really fun playing the new stuff, I feel like it’s been a while since we went out on tour and played a lot of brand new material like this. But we’ve obviously got a lot of the differences with the setup now. We’ve got synths and we’ve got more effects and there’s still that core acoustic thing there, but there are a lot of things that we’ve had to incorporate to be able to play the music live. So it’s been really exciting, if a bit nerve wracking, going on stage when there’s a lot more that could go wrong than just having a piano, bass and drums on stage. But it’s been great. The crowds have been good, really nice venues. It’s nice to be feeling like we’ve still got energy. Wish we didn’t have to fly though. 

PAN M 360: Is it fair to say then that this is GoGo Penguin’s ‘electronica’ album?

Chris: Yeah, it’s an interesting question, it is technically, but the approach we’ve used and the style of composition don’t actually feel too electronic. Those elements are there and we’ve got things like the Strega, which is just an incredible sounding instrument, but it’s used more on the processing side of things. The acoustic instruments are still there and you can still hear in “Last Breath” as an example, it’s the double bass that’s going through it, but it’s what the Strega adds to the bass that takes a new shape. On the modular side of things, the main one that I’m using is called Rings, and it’s beautiful. It sounds like some kind of percussion plucked instrument, and when I do the kind of muting thing on the piano, it’s already not miles away from those kinds of sounds. 

I was listening to electronic music before I was listening to most other kinds of music, other than probably classical and some rock music that my mom listened to. There’s always been that thing of wanting to play with synths and electronics and effects just because I was blown away by what bands like Underworld, Prodigy and Massive Attack were able to do with them. 

With GoGo Penguin it never felt like that opportunity was there in a kind of perfect ‘this is going to work’ way. This time, Nick and I, we just got back in the studio and we were like, ‘You know what?., Let’s just get everything out and just play. Let’s just have some fun and just see what happens.’ And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. There wasn’t any fear there.

We tried a lot of things that didn’t work. We cut out a lot of different synths because we just thought, these don’t feel right. We had some sequencers that we were playing around with and it just didn’t feel like the right approach for the compositions. But the things that we kept, it felt like they found their places within the instruments. 

PAN M 360: Now that the band has been playing for well over a decade, you must be finding yourselves playing to a new generation of fans. Would you say much has changed with regards to the concert experience, or perhaps in the way people relate to music, especially instrumental music these days?

Chris: Well we’ve been chatting with quite a few people on this tour already about it, it’s still that very diverse, mixed audience we attract. There’s a lot of people, young and old, from different kinds of tastes of music and backgrounds and everything, and it just feels like that’s continuing. I think there’s probably the fans that are sticking with us, that like us, got a bit older, and then there’s this younger crowd coming in as well. 

It feels very much like a lot of the younger listeners don’t seem to be concerned with genres and boundaries. It’s not so much a thing of is it jazz? Isn’t it jazz? Is it this, is it that?  Check it out on Spotify or YouTube or whatever and make your mind up if you like it and come and see the show. 

We really love that the music seems to speak to a lot of different people. It means a lot to us. We never want the music to be just for a particular kind of person, we want it to be that anybody can listen to it and then decide if they like it or not.

PAN M 360:  Part of the charm of GoGo Penguin is that the band can play at a rock, jazz, or electronic festival, and fit the bill. How do you explain GoGo Penguin?

Chris: It’s such a tough one. Yeah, I honestly don’t know. I want to just say it’s just a band playing instrumental music, but that’s so vague and doesn’t really describe anything. The thing that we’re wanting to do with all of it, that we’ve always wanted to do is try and connect with people just by telling them stories. But you keep them abstract enough that everyone can listen to it and read something into it and it’s what we want. And I think then that means that we have to draw from everywhere.

PAN M 360: I remember living in the UK and seeing that first wave of jazz-inspired rock/electronica/instrumental outfits emerge sometime in the early 2010’s. A lot of what came out on Gondwana helped establish that ‘post-jazz’ sound, I called it ‘Radiohead Jazz’ back then, ha. Would you say that sound has become somewhat saturated now?

Chris: I don’t know. I mean, I think there are people who are taking those elements because it’s the way things always tend to go. Some people will do it because they see that it’s worked and they’ll have a go. But I think there are some people, Mammal Hands and Floating Points are great examples, where it’s still very individual. It’s not like a copy of a copy. And it’s the same with us. I think there are a lot of people kind of doing that, but I think the great ones do it with their own individuality, and that’s what really makes it stand out.

PAN M 360:  What do you think makes Everything is Going to be OK feel like such a singular release in your discography.

Chris: I think really it’s the first time where we’ve been far more open. Right from the beginning with the press release, with everything really, the artwork even, had that feeling of let’s be as open as possible. Not trying to be too cryptic, not trying to use minimalist illustrations on the front that don’t really make you think of something immediate. We were like, let’s just be honest. Let’s just tell people. Let’s say what we’ve been through and say what this is all about, because obviously it’s got to be a personal thing because we made the record, but we made it for everybody who wants to listen to it. And all of these things that we’ve experienced, they’re not exclusive to us. These are things that everybody goes through, and it’s just that we’ve gone through that point in our lives where it’s like the spotlight has been put on that experience of you’re going to start losing people because we all get older and that’s what happens. 

Of course it was our first album after Rob left, but he was just one part of the band. The bond ended up strengthening between Nick and myself. We’ve been friends for a long time and we worked together for a long time, but it was great to see things like the way he opened up and was able to contribute so much more than I think he’s ever done in the past. I don’t think he’d mind me saying that. Of course he’s always contributed, he’s always been a part of it, he’s always had ideas, but it felt like some sort of weight had been lifted where he was suddenly able to bring so much more to the table. And in turn, that’s a really exciting thing for me to have to react to and it was nice to be on the back foot listening to these ideas that Nick’s bringing and going, okay, how do I react to that? Where do I fit in with that?

With the recording process we were able to say in a way that felt natural that we’re still us, we’re not trying to change who we are, but we’ve changed as people. We’ve grown like everybody does. 

PAN M 360: What was your approach to incorporating Jon as part of the trio?

Chris: He’s really fitting the touring well. He’s a great character to have with us. Like we said right from the beginning, we didn’t want a copy. We wanted somebody individual. We didn’t want to just try and replace Rob. It was important that drums are an essential part of the sound of GoGo Penguin, but we wanted it to be somebody with their own personality joining us. John’s done that and fair play to the guy. I mean, it’s not going to be easy to step into something that’s got all that history and all of that kind of foundations that we’ve built. It must have been a challenge, but he’s really stepped up and done a fantastic job.

PAN M 360:  What might we expect from GoGo Penguin in the time to come?

Chris: Well, I think as soon as we can we definitely want to get back in the studio. There are ideas bubbling away. We keep sketching things and we were having beers in the hotel bar just last night chatting ideas. There’s definitely going to be some stuff along the way but at the minute, I think we’re just enjoying touring. It feels nice to have this album. It still feels kind of fresh because it was a while ago that we recorded it. We’ve got Japan coming up again, and we haven’t been there for a while, so that’s going to be fun. Some talk about Australia and New Zealand, where we’ve never been. Hopefully a lot of good things will come.

GoGo Penguin plays Theatre Corona on May 11. TICKETS HERE

This Thursday, Indie Rootz Records will present an entire and unique, all-female sung rendition of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon. The project is titled The Dark Side of Venus, a modern rock, and at times, RnB, remake of the classic Floyd album, featuring the Montreal-based trio of Bella Forte, NeeNee Knightly, & SLM, as well as Prestige from Woodstock, Ontario.

The project was inspired by Brian Kotler, who recently lost his sister, Donna, to Ovarian Cancer. Brian has fond memories of playing Pink Floyd around the house, somewhat forcing his sister to experience the band with him. The two even went to the Pink Floyd’s mythic show together back in 1994 in Montreal at the Big O.

The Dark Side of Venus was created in memory of Brian’s sister, but the launch event will raise funds for the Ovarian Cancer Society of Canada in the week of International Ovarian Cancer Day. We spoke with Brian a few days before the launch event about what Pink Floyd meant to his sister and him.

PAN M 360: So you were kind of the older brother who showed Donna Pink Floyd?

Brian Kotler: Yeah, I was the older big brother and I was a little bit of a terrorist. I used to play Pink Floyd and I used to have a locking stereo cabinet. You don’t want your younger sister to be messing around with your records, y’know. So I used to play Pink Floyd and lock the cabinet and just let it play. I guess I was the tormentor. And, now, ever since she passed away, it’s like, she’s the one that’s tormenting me. The purpose of this show is a tribute to her, and to get a little bit of closure. I mean I must have played the album a million times in her years.

PAN M 360: When did you come up with the idea to do a tribute album and show? Around her passing?

Brian Kotler: Literally ever since I got into music, doing the cover of Dark Side of the Moon was always on my bucket list. I never really explored it too hard. I started putting the wheels in motion to get to do the album a couple of months before she died. She was already with cancer already. But the tribute just came, that whole idea came afterward. I mean, I just figured that everything would be kind of perfect, like a complete circle.

PAN M 360: How did you go about finding the singers on the album?

Brian Kotler: One I knew very well. I worked with her before, and her name is Prestige. And she lives in Woodstock, Ontario. I’ve worked with her in the past. I’ve had recommendations from some of the others where I asked around because normally, we normally did a lot of reggae. And generally, reggae artists don’t really vibe to Pink Floyd. It’s, it’s like acid and water. Even my partner, I came up with a lot of the ideas. But my partner Bobby, he actually is the musician that played every single instrument on every single track.

PAN M 360: That must have taken forever.

Brian Kotler: Yeah. And so, for example, like maybe on the song “Money,” there might be like seven or eight guitar tracks on there, the drums, the keyboard, the bass—he played them all everywhere. And he hates Pink Floyd. I mean, the thing is, I wouldn’t say he hated Pink Floyd, but he didn’t care for Pink Floyd, he kind of just didn’t like them. But then having to hear the songs over and over and over and over again, and then play back what they did. I mean, it just made him hate it. And he’ll be quite blunt and say, the main reason he did it was for my sister too, because he knows how the whole loss affected me. It kind of carried him on to doing it and finishing it.

PAN M 360: What was it about Dark Side of the Moon, that specific Pink Floyd album, or just that band, that made you play them constantly?

Brian Kotler: To tell you the truth, I really don’t know. I just seemed to gravitate towards that. I could listen to Pink Floyd today, especially Dark Side of the Moon, and get and get taken away. It’s almost as if I’m getting high without taking the drugs. It really carries me away. It was something that I could just relate to in many different ways. I’d say it’s almost a spiritual connection that I had for that type of music.

Brian & Donna Kotler in their ’80s goth phase / photo coutesy of Brian Kotler

PAN M 360: And on this new covers, tribute record, some of the lyrics are more updated to reflect these times?

Brian Kotler: Yes. I wanted to update it because you know, it’s no longer ’73. We’re in 2023, and for lack of a better word, a lot of shit is going on in this world that really needs to be addressed. Like for “The Great Gig in the Sky,” which is like an opera song—which I have an opera singer singing, and she happens to have a doctor’s degree—it’s about the right to death. And if you listen to the ad-libs on it, or the news bites, actually, it’s dealing with people that have cancer, and they’re coming to the end of their life; they’re in pain and they want to die. They want to die with dignity, they want to die on their terms.

And even for my sister, she actually wanted to go through that too. But unfortunately, by the time they wanted to give her the paperwork. She was already too drugged out on morphine and she wasn’t able to sign the papers. And I could tell you, you’d walk into the little on the floor on the hospital wing and you could hear a bawling, “I want to die I want to die, I can take the pain no more now.” That’s … It’s almost surreal. I mean, it’s your it’s your own sister. And she’s almost begging to die. And then once she passes through, it’s almost like a relief. I mean, knowing that, she wanted to die. It’s a really, really, really wicked roller coaster ride that you go through during those times. So I just felt that those ad-libs there are so relatable.

PAN M 360: Bringing up “Money” again, SLM really adds a kind of RnB, hip-hop flair to the track.

Brian Kotler: She’s an amazing young rap artist and I love what she did on that too. She really really made it her own and she did a great job with that. Giving it a very distinct I mean, she did it in her own timing. It sounds like a very bluesy type of laidback feel.

PAN M 360: So the event will be the performance of The Dark Side of Venus and then a kind of after party.

Brian Kotler: Exactly. I want to give people more for their money. The album is around 45 minutes so we actually filmed a music video with NeeNee Knightly, the opera singer. She’s in a theatre alone, well actually I’m there for a bit, but she performs “The Great Gig in the Sky,” and we have a drone that ends it going into the sky with a picture of my sister. So we have that we will show and then some more music from Drew Edghill, DJ Lady Savage. and more surprises.

The Dark Side of Venus Fundraiser is Thursday, May 11: TICKETS HERE

Le band montréalais Vendôme présente ce vendredi 5 mai son premier album, La fable de la grenouille dorée, une véritable aventure musicale débordante d’énergie et de refrains accrocheurs. PAN M 360 s’est entretenu avec le quatuor composé de Cédrik St-Onge, Marc-Antoine Beaudoin (Marco Ema), Tom Chicoine et Bruno St-Laurent au Café Chat L’Heureux à Montréal afin d’en savoir plus sur leur cheminement depuis leur parcours jusqu’en demi-finales aux Francouvertes en 2021 et la création de leur long jeu.

En 2017, les quatre protagonistes se sont rencontrés au Festival international de la chanson de Granby et c’est à ce moment que Vendôme est né. Dans leur nouvel opus, ils racontent l’histoire de la grenouille dorée, un amphibien singulier dont ils ont fait la connaissance lors d’une sortie en chalet et qui les a suivis depuis. Tout au long du projet, les membres du groupe tentent de la protéger face au monde extérieur. Composé de onze pièces, ce nouvel album se dévoile comme une métaphore des membres de la formation qui font de leur mieux pour préserver leur cœur d’enfant tout en grandissant dans l’industrie musicale québécoise.

Pour la création de La fable de la grenouille dorée, tous les membres du groupe ont mis la main à la pâte, ce qui a donné vie à un mélange de titres qui explorent des sentiers pop, rock classique, folk et même psychédélique. La variété des avenues explorées par le band et le fait que chacun des membres apparaît vocalement sur le projet leur permet d’exceller autant dans des morceaux plus denses musicalement comme le Pays des grands que dans ceux plus personnels tels que 03.04.2019. Aussi, les pièces instrumentales qui se faufilent dans l’album ajoutent davantage à la richesse créative de la fable et rendent cet excellent projet encore plus cohérent.

Le lancement de La fable de la grenouille dorée aura lieu à l’Hémisphère Gauche le 11 mai prochain à 20h. Vendôme sera aussi présent lors de plusieurs festivals cet été comme au FRIMAT à Val D’Or le 20 juillet prochain. 

PAN M 360 : Comment se sont déroulées vos deux dernières années depuis votre participation aux Francouvertes en 2021?

VENDÔME : Depuis les Francouvertes, on a beaucoup travaillé sur cet album. C’est pas mal ce qu’on a fait depuis la fin de notre parcours à cette compétition. On a aussi fait quelques concerts et travaillé sur nos visuels. On s’est beaucoup demandé « c’est quoi Vendôme? ». Au cours des derniers mois, on a vraiment bâti notre identité en tant que groupe.

PAN M 360 : Justement, quelle est l’identité de Vendôme?

VENDÔME : Notre groupe, c’est un vrai laisser-aller. En comparaison à nos carrières solos, Vendôme nous permet d’être libres et d’aller à fond dans nos pulsions et nos idées. Il n’y a quasiment pas de ligne directrice, c’est ça qui est bien. On se fait parfois dire qu’on est des enfants quand on est en groupe, et on croit que c’est un peu ça Vendôme. Ça nous permet de garder une certaine naïveté. Vendôme, c’est comme un groupe d’amis du secondaire, mais en plus vieux et moins niaiseux.

PAN M 360 : Vous n’hésitez pas à explorer différentes avenues dans La fable de la grenouille dorée. Pensez-vous que cela provient du fait que vous êtes quatre personnes qui chantent et qui sont impliquées dans la création musicale?

VENDÔME : On pense que oui, mais on croit que c’est quelque chose de positif. On frappe un peu partout, mais ça fait partie de notre identité. On réussit à trouver un certain équilibre là-dedans.

Tout le monde est impliqué et chacun de nous propose des idées de chansons. Si un matin Bruno écrit une chanson, on va tous vouloir en écrire une aussi, on se lance un peu des petits défis. Parfois, il y a des morceaux qu’on a écrits à trois, d’autres à quatre. C’est vraiment aléatoire notre façon de fonctionner. Bruno et Cédric se sont occupés de la réalisation de l’album et ils ont réussi à bâtir un genre de gruau. Un résultat qui ne se tient pas nécessairement ensemble, mais quand tu y ajoutes un peu de lait, ça fonctionne et ça devient vraiment bien.

PAN M 360 : Est-ce que ce « lait », ce sont les pièces instrumentales présentes dans l’album? 

VENDÔME : Définitivement. Les pièces instrumentales rendent le projet plus cohérent. Cependant, ça s’est fait assez naturellement, on n’y a pas vraiment pensé d’avance. Ça provient directement de nos pulsions créatives. Comme on disait plus haut, on se sent libre quand on crée en tant que band et on suit nos intuitions.

PAN M 360 : Parlez-moi de La fable de la grenouille dorée, quelle est l’idée derrière ça?

BRUNO ST-LAURENT : Quand nous étions à mon chalet dans les Laurentides, nous avons fait la rencontre d’une grenouille qui nous a vraiment marqués. Elle était très différente des autres et avait une personnalité assez forte. Cet évènement est devenu tellement ancré dans nos mémoires qu’on a décidé d’en faire la ligne directrice de notre album. Ce qui est drôle, c’est que lorsque nous sommes arrivés chez la grand-mère de Cédric en Gaspésie pour enregistrer notre projet, il y avait un bibelot d’une grenouille dorée. À ce moment-là, notre concept a pris encore plus de sens. La fable de la grenouille dorée, c’est un peu une histoire qui ne peut être racontée et qu’on va enterrer avec nous lors de notre mort. Ensuite, si on parle de l’album, ça parle d’amitié, de trucs super banals et de choses qui sont plus grandes que nous.

CÉDRIK ST-ONGE :  Je vois la grenouille comme étant quelque chose qu’on essaie de protéger tout au long du projet. Ça représente un peu notre enfance et ce côté de nous qui veut rester jeune. Sinon il y a le titre Vampire, qui représente la partie de l’industrie musicale qui veut nous rendre plus sérieux et limiter notre liberté créative. Ça parle aussi de notre recherche de la gloire en tant qu’auteurs-compositeurs-interprètes. On voudrait tous rejoindre le « Pays des grands », soit de faire partie des artistes importants du Québec et d’être reconnus. Tout au long, on essaie de protéger la grenouille du vampire, car il ne faut jamais qu’on perde notre plaisir de créer. 

PAN M 360 : Comment allez-vous faire pour tenter de rejoindre le « Pays des grands » tout en restant des « enfants »? Est-ce que vous sentez que ce sera difficile de le faire?

VENDÔME : Au fil du temps, on accorde de moins en moins d’importance au « Pays des grands ». On se concentre plus à rester nous-mêmes. Plus on vieillit et on avance dans le milieu de la musique, plus on se rend compte que ce n’est pas nécessairement ça qui va nous rendre heureux. On met l’importance sur le plaisir de créer et d’éprouver du plaisir entre amis. On a tous nos carrières respectives et Vendôme c’est un complément qui est amusant et différent.

PAN M 360 : Votre avez créé le morceau 03.04.19 en avril 2019. Par le passé, vous avez mentionné que vous n’aviez toujours pas trouvé de sens à ce morceau, mais qu’il était tout de même extrêmement important pour vous. Est-ce toujours le cas? Qu’est-ce qui vous y rattache autant?

VENDÔME : Encore à ce jour, nous n’avons pas trouvé la signification de cette chanson. Elle nous procure beaucoup d’émotions et chaque fois que nous la chantons, ça nous procure un apaisement. C’est vraiment un mystère pour nous et c’est un peu pour ça qu’on l’a gardée sur l’album. Ça fait du bien parfois d’avoir un titre qui ne veut pas nécessairement dire de quoi et que tu peux te laisser aller dans l’émotion. Ce genre de chanson acoustique permet à tes auditeurs d’avoir un moment seul avec l’artiste, c’est superbe.

PAN M 360 : Le reste de l’album est-il autant « vieux »?

VENDÔME : 03.04.19, c’est la chanson la plus vieille. Il y a aussi Brian Jones et Pays des grands qui datent un peu. Sinon, il y a une grosse partie de l’album qui s’est fait récemment en 2021 et 2022.

PAN M 360 : Comment est né votre morceau Brian Jones?

TOM CHICOINE : Une fois lorsqu’on revenait d’un show à Thetford Mines, on s’est baigné dans la piscine de la mère à Marco. Disons qu’on avait fêté pas mal et qu’on n’était peut-être pas dans le meilleur état pour aller dans une piscine. Plus tard, j’ai repensé à ce moment-là et je me suis dit à moi-même « on n’était vraiment pas en état de se baigner, est-ce que l’un de nous aurait pu se noyer? ». C’est à ce moment-là que j’ai pensé à la triste histoire du musicien des Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, qui est mort noyé. Je me suis dit qu’il y avait quelque chose à faire avec ça, je l’ai montré aux gars et ils m’ont aidé à finir l’écriture. La création de la musique a été très spontanée et on a trippé sur la chanson dès les premiers instants.

PAN M 360 : En terminant, que signifie l’avant-dernier titre de votre album, Mon band Vendôme?

MARC-ANTOINE BEAUDOIN : Ce morceau découle d’une blague lorsque nous étions ensemble autour du feu. Bruno jouait de la guitare près du feu et on s’est mis à chanter « Mon band Vendôme ». Un autre jour, je me suis réveillé et j’avais rêvé qu’on arrivait devant une clôture dorée avec un chemin en or, un peu comme la pochette de notre troisième single avec la grenouille dorée. La seule différence c’est que dans mon rêve, ce n’était pas une grenouille qui nous accueillait, mais bel et bien Jean-Pierre Ferland. Je suis un grand fan de sa musique et de son album Jaune. C’est pour ça que j’y fait référence dans la chanson. Pour moi, ce titre représente notre dernier effort pour atteindre la gloire avant de réaliser que ce n’est peut-être pas ça le mieux. Mon band Vendôme, c’est vraiment une chanson d’amour pour mes trois camarades. Vendôme, c’est un peu une deuxième tentative pour moi, la première étant mon projet solo. C’est un renouveau.

BRUNO ST-LAURENT : J’aime ça que tu dises que c’est en quelque sorte la dernière « toune » qui parle du rêve de la gloire, parce que juste après il y a la chanson Au final qui dit que c’est le chemin qui compte et non le but. Le rêve de devenir des « grands » est beau et il faut le garder, n’est ce n’est pas nécessairement important de s’y rendre. Ce qui est important c’est de vivre notre vie pleinement.

We continue our interviews with the last three finalists of the CMIM. Here’s what South Korean SongHa Choi and SooBeen Lee, performing respectively Prokoviev’s Concerto No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1, and Kazakh Ruslan Talas, who will perform Paganini’s Concerto No. 1, had to share after their dress rehearsal with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Payare. 

PAN M 360 : What is your state of mind right now, a few hours before your final event?

SongHa Choi : I have to say, I think more than before the rehearsal, my excitement level just went extremely high. I didn’t know they could get even higher! But I have complete trust in the conductor and the orchestra, and I think there can be a lot of fun and spontaneous moments that we can create. I should be nervous, but then it’s more of an adrenaline thing. I keep treating it like a concert because it’s such a beautiful hall and audiences. I felt like that in the earlier rounds also. It was just about just being in the moment and just reacting to what’s happening at the moment, rather than thinking, oh, juries are sitting there. No, they’re just part of the audience.

SooBeen Lee : Well, the interesting part is that in this competition, of course, I feel nervous, but for some reason, it’s more like excitement rather than nervousness. This hall is very nice to play in and very beautiful, and especially the orchestra and Rafael is very great and very easy to work with. So I’m just very excited to play tonight.

 Ruslan Talas : I am looking forward to play. It’s an amazing orchestra, one of the best orchestras I’ve ever played with. Maestro Rafael Payare is very delicate. He helps a lot. I’ve never played the whole piece with the orchestra. Tonight will be my first time! I’m very excited to play. I’m feeling good.

PAN M 360 : Of all the available concertos in the repertoire, why did you choose this one and why? What are the challenges of the piece? 

SongHa Choi : Actually, I don’t think even though it’s a very popular concerto, it’s not really used for the favorite concerto final of a competition. But I just personally really like Prokofiev as a composer because of his absolutely mad imaginations and creativity for his character stories, and fairy tales. I get to write my own story each time I perform. I like the amount of colors and the enchanting stories of it.

SooBeen Lee : Well, the challenge is obvious that everyone knows this piece. So I want to make this as satisfying as it should be for everyone. But also, it’s just so much fun to play. The reason I chose this concerto is because it was actually the first concerto that I learned when I was eleven years old. Since then, whenever I got to play this with an orchestra, I just loved the moment so much. Since this final round is such a big stage for me, I just wanted to choose something that I can have the most fun with.

Ruslan Talas : You know, I fell in love with this piece when I was a little boy. I love this music for its lyrical phrases, for its passion, love and operatic sense. It’s very near to my heart. I just love this music.

PAN M 360 : What does it mean to you to be at CMIM and how is this competition different from others you have participated in?

SongHa Choi : To be honest, I really had no idea that I would be in the finals. So it’s a very pleasant surprise. It really means a lot because I’ve been following this competition for probably over ten years. And my friends have been prize winners and laureates, and I’ve seen them competing. It is such an honor to be also competing against five other really great friends and young musicians that I’ve met. This competition is really special because of the atmosphere that the team creates. It’s so friendly and extremely well organized. Also the fact that we can stay with host families, I think we’re able to experience it differently, especially with my host mom. She’s telling me all about the Montreal culture. I get to experience all the little things and it’s really nice.

SooBeen Lee : Well, the special thing I felt from this competition was that the audience was very warm. Even from my first and second round, I already could feel a lot of support from the audience. For some reason I just didn’t feel like playing a competition, I just felt like I’m just performing for people. And those people are so nice here. I met the best host family here too. I’m having such a great time in Montreal so far..

Ruslan Talas : For me, it’s a great honor because I’ve heard about this competition many times when I was nine. Violinists like Gidon Kremer and Spivakov won this competition. It’s such a prestigious and very famous competition and one of the best in the world. Just that I played in the competition is already a big victory for me. I’m just happy to play with these amazing musicians and amazing violinists. 

The grand prize winner and the special prize winners will be announced tonight at the closing ceremony at the Maison symphonique.

You can view the final live here.

What happens when a painter, two musicians and a motion designer meet? Isotone, a collective of multimedia artists, and this is not the beginning of a bad joke, but rather the beginning of a beautiful adventure. A journey that has led them to collaborate with institutions such as Québec Cinéma, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), Moment Factory, Mutek and MAPP.

The collective will be celebrating its fifth anniversary on Saturday, May 6th, and to mark the occasion, they’re taking over the SAT with an event that’s nothing short of multidisciplinary. On the programme: until 9pm, an exhibition entitled Impermanences which revolves around the notion of transformation and which will become the scenography for the musical evening hosted by local DJs Ramzilla, Gene Tellem, Kris Guilty and Mok T. A few days before this great celebration, PAN M 360 spoke with the four members of the studio to review their achievements and especially to whet our appetite for Saturday.

PAN M 360 : Introduce yourselves and Isotone in a few words

Isotone : Isotone was born as a collective of artists including Hugo Fournier, Félix Bonjour, Bar Rubinstein and Lilian Guiran. In terms of creative background we are quite heterogeneous, Hugo comes from painting and mural creation, Félix and Lilian from instrumental and electronic music and Bar from design and animation. We found ourselves at the crossroads of these worlds in search of new horizons and digital arts were the trigger for all this. For five years now, we have been exploring this creative path together, questioning and inspiring each other’s intentions in our joint and personal projects, Isotone is a project that makes us deeply happy every day.

PAN M 360 : How was Isotone born? 

Isotone : The whole story is a bit long to tell, but if we had to sum it up in a few words, Isotone was born of such an improbable combination of circumstances that we still marvel every time we think about it. It’s crazy that such a chain of happy coincidences gave life to what, today, animates ours. We didn’t even know each other before we started the project, an opportunity to perform Vjing came out of the blue when we were meeting, by chance, through friends of friends. None of the four of us had any experience of it but we quickly realised that we all wanted to try it and that was enough to get us started. We tried to understand together the basics of the practice and, 3 weeks later, we performed for more than 6 hours in front of 800 people in a techno party (laughs). We also came up with the name of the project in an hour, between two tutorials, because the communication people needed to validate the design of the posters. It was maybe the fifth time in our lives that we saw each other at that moment and, as this initiative was one of the most beautiful choices of our lives, we haven’t doubted it since.

PAN M 360 : How do you work together as individuals ?

Isotone : We are often asked this question but, to be honest, it is not an exact science. Since we have learned everything together and we know each other by heart, we are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but what is most important is mutual help and curiosity. We dare to say things to each other, what makes us want to and what makes us afraid and, depending on the availability of each member during the project, we talk to each other to find the right formula. Of course, our creative backgrounds make it easier or harder to do certain tasks, but over the last five years we have motivated each other to diversify our practices and never stop learning. Nowadays, any of us could take on a whole multimedia project on our own if we had to, although that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid as we know how much further projects are pushed when we have the joy of developing them together.

PAN M 360 : You are celebrating your 5th anniversary, an opportunity to look in the rear-view mirror. What were the encounters and important moments that allowed Isotone to become what it is?

Isotone : It’s going to be hard to name all the people who have been important to us over the last few years, Isotone is above all a story of encounters, people who have reached out to us and with whom trust and esteem have been built up over the course of the projects. Of course, we can’t help but think of our first Vj performances and other digital scenographies with most of the electronic music collectives in Montreal. It’s a world that forged us, that we loved to explore and that continues to stimulate us. There were also the first official recognitions by people in the field such as the Moment Factor jury prize we received for our creation Prémices at the MINUTES_MAPPING 2019 festival by MAPP MTL. Of course, how can we not mention our first performances at the SAT dome, which was under the aegis of Mutek during their Dômesicle event and at the closing of their festival last year, that was deeply significant for us all. Finally, there is someone who has a special place in our hearts and whose encounter continues to have a huge influence on our studio, and that is Shandor Chury, the founder of OVVO studio who has become a close friend to all of us at Isotone.

This is a difficult question for us because we know we can’t name everyone, but we sincerely hope that all the people with whom we have shared screenings, set-ups / tear-downs, nice discussions or even a few dance steps will recognise themselves and know how grateful we are for all these moments spent together.

PAN M 360 : Which of the completed projects perhaps holds a special place in your heart?

Isotone : Again, it’s hard to choose just one, but with a few years of hindsight, the Ingénu.e project is surely one of the studio’s strongest memories. It was at the very beginning of Isotone’s history in 2018, through our friend and DJ Djima we heard about a festival organizing a residency in Val-de-Reuil, a small town near Rouen in France. We decided to join forces to create a live performance linking Vjing, music and dance. Isotone was responsible for the visual part, our friends from 3.6 Studio for the music and Ilan Gratini for the dance part with the help of Ariane Servagent. After a year of scattered work, trying to find slots wherever we could to bring together the ten or so actors present on this project and to move forward little by little, we actually found ourselves at the Les Effusions festival residency to finalise the show. After a month of continuous work on site, we performed Ingénu.e, a contemporary rewriting of Voltaire’s book of (almost) the same name, in front of the festival audience. What a magical moment, even today we don’t know how we managed to build such a big project (1 hour of live show!) with the experience we had at the time. It was really magical and founding for the future.

PAN M 360 : Digital art creation often calls for interactivity and immersion. How do you conceptualise these two approaches and what place do they have in your work?

Isotone : We are aware of the novelty of digital art, having access to such a plurality of forms and tools for an artist is an incredible opportunity, but we also know that this can influence creators to sometimes tend towards intentions motivated more by the technical than the artistic… We always focus on the notion of accuracy, in a reality where the tools allow us to do literally what we want without real limits, it is essential for us to differentiate what we want to do from what we can do. We are lucky enough to have a fair amount of technical experience through the combination of our know-how and experience, but we constantly try to make sure that all our decisions are made for poetic reasons. If the work calls for interactivity, we will use it, as well as immersive, monumental, etc., but this is by no means a sine qua non, and it will not be up to the budget or the material to decide on their presence in the project. We have made a promise to ourselves to always put intentionality and sensitivity first, no matter what the conditions, the whole of our approach is based on this and we never stop questioning ourselves in order to maintain this will.

PAN M 360 : Part of the collective is in France, what projects are you developing across the Atlantic?

Isotone : Despite the fact that three quarters of the studio’s members have been living in Quebec for years, we are aware of the link that connects us to our country of origin, where our families live and where we grew up. Our member Félix Bonjour has even been based in Paris for a few years now and we are constantly refining our workflow to make working remotely as smooth as possible. We are taking advantage of this to do more and more projects across the Atlantic, and this should continue to increase as time goes on. We were talking earlier about Shandor Chury and his studio OVVO, and there are some great things in the pipeline for us in that area. We can’t reveal everything yet, but it’s clear to us that the direction the studio is taking at the moment is rather international and that France has been and will be the starting point for many things. After that, it’s extremely important for us to assume our love for Quebec, it’s here that everything started and it’s here that everything will continue no matter what, Isotone is above all a Quebec project, no matter what the international vocations are. Of course, we wonder a lot about the method, it’s too thorny a question to be able to cover in a few words, but all the members of the studio have a fairly developed ecological conscience and we are constantly trying to build a process that allows the distribution of our creations internationally while paying close attention to the carbon footprint of the studio. Artists like Joanie Lemercier are a great inspiration for us in this respect and motivate us every day to be a little better than the day before.

PAN M 360 : What can we expect from this celebration at the SAT and what does it mean to you?

Isotone : This celebration is an achievement. We all agree that this is our biggest and best project to date. Making original creations has always been our favourite thing to do, so to put together an entire custom-made exhibition, with no other constraints than those we set ourselves, and all in a place like the SAT, is a dream in itself. For the Impermanences exhibition, we gave everything. We did everything we wanted to do without any concession. The fact that we are all together, that we are completely free to explore the materiality in addition to the digital, to compose the music and the visuals for the four works together, to prepare performances and even to be able to invite our friends for DJ sets all night long is such a chance that we decided to throw ourselves body and soul into this project and that makes us deeply happy. We can’t wait to share this with everyone, to share moments of exchange and to party with all the people there; there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t feel like we’re living a daydream.

PAN M 360: What are the upcoming projects?

Isotone : The first project that comes to mind without any hesitation is to take a rest (laughs). The last few months have been very busy for us, but the last few weeks have been very intense. We need to take some time out together, with friends, to recharge our batteries and start again! Obviously, the other project that comes to mind is to look for other contexts for the four installations we created for the Impermanences exhibition, in order to let them live and make their own way now that they exist in our world and not only in our heads. Also, another project that is very close to our hearts and that we have been working on slowly but surely for a year is our first full live performance as Isotone. A live performance where the four of us are on stage playing in real time with all the media we have in our inventory. We hope to tell you more about it soon, but one thing is for sure, even if we rest, we will never stop experimenting and creating together and individually, all kinds of great things are on the way!

PAN M 360: What will you wish for when you blow out your candles on Saturday?

Isotone : We wish each other many things, but what stands out in particular is simply to continue on this path of esteem and tenderness to push the Isotone project as far as possible. We are deeply grateful for the life we have and we believe that the most beautiful thing that could happen to us is to perpetuate together, again and again, this quest for poetry with the same ardour that has animated us for five years now.

ISOTONE CELEBRATES ITS 5th ANNIERSARY AT SAT , MAY 6th 2023 FROM 18h30

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