MUTEK Forum 2024 : Electronic Music is BLACK Music

by Elsa Fortant

Last day for MUTEK Forum, last summary for PAN M 360. We close this series with a panel close to my heart: “Electronic Music is Black Music — Reclaiming and Tracing Electronic Music’s Roots, Present, and Future”. Fabienne Leys, G L O W Z I, Miquelle Skeete alias OmniDirectional Groove, and moderator Melissa Vincent explored the deep connections between electronic music, Black culture, and counterculture. The discussion opened thoughts about how electronic music, while often mainstreamed and commercialized, remains rooted in Afro-descendant and Black cultural expressions and innovations.

Anyone familiar with electronic dance music will recognize The Belleville Three and Underground Resistance as pivotal in bringing techno to the global stage. However, this panel delves deeper, exploring the broader cultural and historical contexts that have shaped the genre and its significance through time.

As Melissa Vincent’s stated right from the beginning, having this discussion during MUTEK’s 25th anniversary is highly symbolic, as electronic music provided the very foundation upon which MUTEK was built.

To start the conversation, each panelist recounted how they first connected with electronic music, highlighting the diverse paths that led them to the genre. For Fabienne Leys, pop radio served as her introduction, particularly with the influence of Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic. G L O W Z I’s journey began with exposure to Bran Van 3000 on MusiMax. Miquelle Skeete, with her classical music background, found her pivotal moment at a Kerri Chandler show in Toronto, which offered a premiere transformative spiritual experience outside a church.

During the discussion, Melissa Vincent asked about the social conditions and contexts that have shaped the legacy, past, and future of electronic music. G L O W Z I responded by describing electronic music as a creole art form, intricately woven around the world and differing from one region to another. She highlighted South Africa’s ongoing legacy, where the Gqom genre has created a unique listening experience, especially through the use of taxis as key venues for music. Miquelle added that electronic music allows Afro-descendant people to tap into ancestral rhythms, offering a full range of emotional expression. She emphasized that, unlike other forms, electronic music provides space for both positive and tense emotions, while Afro-descendant and Black people are relegated to express only positive emotions.

The panelists discussed the multifaceted nature of what is electronic music, emphasizing that it’s not just about sound, but also about embodiment and the ability to play with textures and rhythms that might not be considered musical in other contexts. Electronic music was described as a unifying force, a source of joy, and a global phenomenon. However, Fabienne Leys noted that exclusivity and accessibility remains a significant issue within communities of color. As she highlighted, social media has helped bring regional music movements, such as Amapiano, to the forefront and we witnessed the resurgence of house music in the pop landscape with Beyoncé’s Renaissance. Yet, challenges persist, at different levels: may it be the access to material resources (electronic music gear is expensive) or the critical issue of representation within the electronic music industry, particularly among decision-makers who have the power to position artists.

That said, and in a context where different narratives are being pushed by different forces (underground vs commercial): how do we ensure the right people get recognition?

To ensure the right people get recognition in the electronic music industry, the panel emphasized the importance of having the courage to say no to corporate influence. In other words: collective efforts matter. They stressed the need to maintain spaces that are inclusive and open to all, yet protected from corporate exploitation. Refusal, in this context, is a crucial political tool to preserve the integrity and authenticity of artistic communities.

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Electronic

MUTEK 2024 | Marie Davidson Puts All The Pieces Together

by Alain Brunet

Marie Davidson had disappeared from my radar during COVID, shortly after the release of her last studio recording and associated show, Renegade Breakdown, on the Ninja Tune label. At the time, the pop/rock/French chanson turn seemed a brave and welcome risk, but… I had the feeling that something was missing from this release.

All the elements of her pop culture were already present in her work, but much more tenuous. Then there was the Persona EP in 2021, a sort of dream pop mixed with French pop, Victoria Legrand meets France Gall, with the same impression of an unfinished exercise. Last April, her Bandcamp account provided clues to her current direction: Y.A.A.M. marks a return to her electronic inclinations. So there….

With the excellent show we were treated to on Thursday, we can already conclude that all facets of his art found their ideal place in this hellish set. From what we know of his vast palette, we can say that this integration is top-notch.

Marie Davidson’s edifice is topped by a new floor. The violence of noise, the violent drones, the extremely pronounced chords. The multi-referential dimension of electronics: heavy techno, house, UK garage, jungle, drum’n’bass, breakbeat, you name it. Direct references to French pop culture. The punk, almost gothic attitude, the bursts of distortion, the heavy 4/4. The movements on stage, the choreographed interventions on the machines, the infectious harangues. The sung voice, the spoken voice, the acquired authority.

Belted to her keyboards and machines, Marie heats up the pot with thick, saturated sounds, then takes the microphone for most of the rest of her show. Her songs are for the most part self-reflexive, cathartic in many cases, expressed in a straightforward way that doesn’t exclude poetry in the reflection on oneself, one’s profession as an artist and the world around us. It’s this unique blend that we love. It’s also the performer’s ease on stage and hellish presence, her power of attraction. Very solid!

Photo Credit: Vivien Gaumand

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Electronic / Techno

MUTEK 2024 – Piezo Dresses Up Sounds

by Sandra Gasana

For my first time covering a MUTEK event, I have to admit that I came away almost surprised at how much I enjoyed the evening. Let me explain: I don’t usually listen to electronic music, and I have even less opportunity to cover this kind of music. After the first few minutes, during which I thought the music was a little too loud and that my eardrums wouldn’t last the whole show, I gradually changed my mind as the evening progressed.

Piezo, real name Lucca Mucci, is a DJ, producer and sound artist, originally from Milan but trained in Bristol, England. He has set up his own label, Ansia, through which he also supports the work of like-minded artists. His debut album, Perdu, was released by Hundebiss Records. Last night, Piezo managed to get the crowd going, even if they didn’t show it at first, still a little embarrassed. He spent his time turning knobs on one, then two, then three consoles. The last one looked like a keyboard, with a laptop in the middle of it all, under a backdrop of light jets. I was also lucky to be there on a rainless day, having read my colleagues’ reports on the previous rainy days.

I’d describe Piezo’s style as a mix of techno, electro, garage, house at times, with synthetic sounds sprinkled throughout. You get the impression of having one main sound or rhythm, to which Piezo adds one layer at a time, and texture, as if we were dressing it up as we go along. And at certain moments, we would reach a paroxysm, during which the DJ would let loose completely, before coming back down quietly, and removing the layers one after the other. This paroxysm is often dramatic, and that’s the beauty of the exercise. Despite the absence of words, it still feels like we’re being told a story musically. And that’s when I stopped taking notes and started dancing, feeling the vibrations that Piezo was trying to convey.

With most of the audience dressed in black, all generations were represented. From the young, slightly drunk university student in the middle of initiation week, to the preppy 60-something with the colorful bag, the blue-haired girl or the young man with a shirt with Christ on it, everyone seemed to get their money’s worth.

The artist in me was trying to figure out which button was responsible for which sound, but from where I was, it wasn’t easy to see. The other interesting thing about this style of music is that you don’t always know when one song ends and the next begins. Maybe that’s the fun of it, because it changes all the codes of “music” by giving you carte blanche to do whatever the DJ wants.

It all felt like we were in a futuristic universe, with a mix of the artist’s signature fast percussive rhythms and unexpected melodic twists. All in all, it was a pretty good initiation into this new world for me. I’m almost looking forward to Sunday, when I’ll be covering Mutek’s Piknik Electronik special. More on that later.

Photo Credit: Vivien Gaumand

Electronic

MUTEK 2024 | Cinema immersion

by Salima Bouaraour

The PAN M 360 team is criss-crossing the entire MUTEK 2024 program, observing as many artists as possible during this 25th edition of its Montreal version. Keep up with our experts until Sunday evening, as no other MUTEK event promises such extensive media coverage!

Panorama: I’m feeling lucky could only be appreciated if all the intercultural keys were brought to the fore.

At first glance, this immersive film seemed simplistic and entertaining. Flying over a landscape of plains, forests and steppes on the ground, day and night, under a blue sky decorated with a few white cumulus clouds, you felt as if you were gliding like a bird. The immersive sound was coupled with clear, infinite layers, the chirping of birds in the middle of spring, and various sound effects. Characters appeared and disappeared at random.

And yet, nothing was obvious. The more the film unfolded, the more doubt was cast on the meaning of the work, the place, the identity of the individuals and the temporality. The initial simplistic approach gave way to complexity and multiple displays of content.

Indeed, the two artists, Timothy Thomasson & Tatum Wilson, have created a real-time computer-generated installation that questions relationships to image, geography, virtual space, historical media technology and massive data collection systems. Inspired by 19th-century panoramic painting and populated by thousands of figures taken from Google Street View, this film had the expected effect. It raises questions about our constantly evolving modern world, where confusion and the arsenal of images lead us into a collective daze.

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Funk / UK garage

MUTEK 2024 | Bored Lord, a Sudden Euphoria

by Salima Bouaraour

Memphis-born, California-based and regularly touring internationally, American Bored Lord distilled a euphoric performance on the Esplanade Tranquille. Equipped with her analog synths, drum machines and controller, Daria Lourd was majestic! Smooth and delicate, she etched track after track of round bass lines and smooth vocal samples against a breakbeat backdrop. Known for her UK garage club sets, there was a distinctly funk feel to this performance. Bored Lord turned Maara’s rave-trance page with virtuosity, and the Mutek audience went wild for a completely different reference. The American is a seasoned producer and a regular on raves, clubs and other stages. The T4T LUV NRG label has promoted many of her EPs. Founder-DJ-producer Octo Octa followed Bored Lord with a two-hour electro dj set on vinyl turntable.

Photo Credit: Bruno Destombes

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MUTEK 2024 | Colin Stetson Harder Than Ever

by Alain Brunet

Another hipster darling reinvented himself at MUTEK as part of L’Événement spéciale de MUTEK, and not the least. Colin Stetson has been wowing the crowds for the past fifteen years with his novel use of saxophones. The effect of admiration lasted a long time, but we were due for a conceptual relaunch as we were losing interest.

A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan’s famous university town, Stetson chose Montreal in the 2000s, and has been seen playing with Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre and Bon Iver, as well as in spectacular solo and duo performances with violinist Sarah Neufeld, with whom he was in love for several years, and even with a chamber orchestra devoted to Henryk Gorecki – Sorrow, in 3 movements. The power of his circular breathing to produce a continuous sound, the use of contact microphones on his instrument and his own body, and his penchant for loops of notes recorded and superimposed in real time – these are just some of the features that have made his playing famous.

That said, this free-jazz and electroacoustic approach has tended to run out of steam in recent years… until Wednesday, that is, with the audience at New City Gas!

On the saxophones, including the imposing bass sax, Colin Stetson stayed the course as blower and (sometimes) simultaneous vocalist, using the same techniques, but this time with a post-industrial, darkwave, noisy, in short, much more violent version of this already highly dynamic music.

Stetson usually expresses himself with an overlay of three or four separate tracks, usually created in real time. This time, however, it was very muscular, very hard, and no one will complain. For those interested, the material played at MUTEK was recorded in the studio, and the album The love it took to leave you is due out in September on the Envision label.

Photo credit: Frédérique Ménard-Aubin

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Mutek Forum 2024 – Storytelling For All

by Elsa Fortant

The panel Storytelling For All: Using Technology To Place Humans At The Core Of Experiences, presented by TAIT at Monument-National on August 22, explored how designers and engineers (mainly from TAIT) are transforming the way we experience physical and digital spaces, from theme parks to immersive installations to large-scale concerts.

To put people at the heart of the experience and “reach them where they are”, we first need to question our own biases and take the time to self-assess before we even start designing. While taking into account the diversity of the participants’ backgrounds, you need to be able to touch on what might unite them in the experience.

The discussion highlighted the importance of creating shared experiences where individuals can connect with each other, offering paths of engagement tailored to different audiences. The discussion also touched on corporate accountability in the implementation of large-scale experiences. A responsibility that must “come from the top”. Discussions surrounding this notion of accountability are often difficult to have, since the priorities and interests defended by operational teams often differ from those of executive teams and corporate leadership.

As a PhD candidate interested in music communities redeploying themselves on subscription-based sociofinancing platforms like Patreon, I was challenged by the idea that designing a Taylor Swift concert amounts to “building a community, a mini society”. This raises an ontological question: what is a community, and where and how does it exist? In my opinion, it’s not the design of the concert that builds a community, but as one element among many – it offers a framework within which an already existing community can be in a particular context. The community is neither born nor dies at these events: it exists independently and in other spaces, and the design helps to reinforce these ephemeral links. This synchronous experience shared by members of the community will then be integrated into the memory of part of the community, and in this way, perhaps, the design of the concert participates in its construction.

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House

MUTEK 2024 | Nosaj Thing & Jacques Green, Live Set in Tandem

by Alain Brunet

Californian Jason Chung, aka Nosaj Thing, is a respected artist whose career has been on the move since the 2000s. From punk and experimental hardcore, he has gradually developed a language meaningful enough to attract giants such as Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus. His art extends beyond the world of music, and is much in demand in film, television and multimedia production. In the SAT’s main hall, he kicked off Wednesday’s very first hour with his eminent Montreal colleague Jacques Greene, a regular at MUTEK, Piknic and Igloofest, known for his singular declensions of house, future soul and other sub-genres mixed with brilliant insertions, including female declamations in French please. Nosaj Thing and Jacques Greene presented their first live set, a creative extrapolation of a long B2B DJ set tour. The tandem offered a conclusive set, typical of the Nocturne series: sonic exploration, conceptual audacity wrapped in better-known referents and, needless to say, conducive to nocturnal libations.

Photo Credit: Bruno Destombes

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Ambient / Electronic

MUTEK 2024 | Nocturne 1, First Immersion at Sato

by Alain Brunet

The PAN M 360 team is criss-crossing the entire MUTEK 2024 program, picking up as many artists as possible during this 25th edition of its Montreal version. Keep up with our experts until Sunday evening, as no other MUTEK event promises such extensive media coverage!

On this Tuesday evening, the first of the Nocturne series in the context of MUTEK 2024, four short works are featured in a single program, courtesy of Lydia Yakonowsky (CA/QC), Allison Moore (CA/QC), Nora Gibson (US/QC) and the tandem Jules Roze & Pablo Geeraert (FR/QC+BE/QC).

To be worn on your back as you gaze up at the virtual sky. These productions are in the vein of generative art and photogrammetry. They transform banal signs into plastic forms, grouping them into subtle moving patterns, inventing organisms and bringing them to life, observing them as we do the seabed or the Milky Way, but with a little more LSD!

The sound design is immersive and diverse, ranging from ambient and electronic noise to American minimalism, neoclassicism, ethereal wave and krautrock. Generally in very good taste, each of these works has its own distinctive style, and each goes beyond the stylistic exercise to offer more sensory diversity than some of the disembodied displays of special effects that can also be seen here.

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Une publication partagée par Lydia Yakonowsky (@kaminska.visuals)

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Une publication partagée par JULES ROZE (@rezozero_)

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Experimental

MUTEK 2024 | Lamin Fofana (Live set) and JS Baillat (VJ) Launch the Nocturne Series

by Salima Bouaraour

Opening the Nocturne series presented at the SAT until the last night of MUTEK, West African-born New Yorker Lamin Fofana and Quebecer JS Baillat formed a more than enigmatic audiovisual pairing. The first set featured visual tryptics on the wall behind them, vaporous black-and-white images set against a backdrop of lunar craters and moving waves. This music was the fruit of a hybrid set: controller, drum machine, vinyl turntable, 45 minutes of experimental, highly mental ambient drone, on the fringes of contemporary concrete music. The prevailing noisiness exerted its hold with endless layers of sound.

We also felt the sizzle of the needle on the groove. The SAT was in suspension until the final techno explosion: hardcore drums and percussive kicks. Fofana likes to integrate original compositions, outdoor sound recordings and archival elements to create multi-sensory installations that challenge the audience and then bring them back to their vital impulses. His most recent exhibition –Dark Waters with William Turner – was at Tate Liverpool. And that’s just the beginning. The VJ – accustomed to working for C2MTL, Ariane Moffat, Place des Arts, Moment Factory, Cirque du Soleil – played on this correlation to transcend the whole and lift us into this hypnotic universe.

Photo credit: Bruno Destombes

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Electronic / House / Techno

MUTEK 2024 | Mathew Jonson, A Master’s Magic

by Salima Bouaraour

Berlin-based Canadian Mathew Jonson, a staple of the electronic music scene for the past two decades, closed the show with a bang! The sonic experience was at its peak. Rich in diversity. Warm and round sounds. Jazzy at times, with a touch of electronic samba, not to mention the interweaving of techno and house, the evocations of xylophones and marimbas, and the multiple effects. A regular on stage and in live performances, he worked his magic non-stop, making us completely forget the rainy ceiling and cool temperatures. Regularly touring internationally, including Sydney, Bali, Ibiza, Berlin, London, Naples and Tulum, this globe-trotting performer made Montreal shine during his twilight set. Indeed, this seasoned music producer, who has released albums such as Marionette, Decompression and Agents of Time, was applauded by the international electronic community. And now, by the MUTEK 2024 audience!

Photo credit: Frédérique Ménard-Aubin

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Electronic

MUTEK 2024 – Beyond Buzzwords

by Elsa Fortant

On August 20, 2024, during the MUTEK Forum, a panel entitled “Beyond Buzzwords: what does generative AI do to creative practices?” was held at the Monument-National, bringing together experts from diverse backgrounds to explore the impact of generative AI on artistic practices. Moderated by Mila’s Rose Landry, the panel included Sofian Andry (Hexagram), Pía Balthazar (SAT), Yves Jacquier (Ubisoft), and Éric Desmarais (Sporobole).

Yves Jacquier opened the discussion with a look at the integration of AI in the video game industry, pointing out that AI – a 70-year-old term – has gradually become an integral part of video game production. He highlighted the importance of an interdisciplinary approach involving designers, programmers and artists to exploit these technologies ethically and effectively.

Pía Balthazar shared his experience at SAT, where the development of arts and sciences is carried out in partnership with artistic and academic communities. SAT and Sporobole are working on a project that aims to understand how machine learning tools can serve artists rather than constrain them. By mobilizing the notion of the imaginary and taking artists’ practices as a starting point, the aim is also to deconstruct the techno-deterministic, fear-filled discourse that surrounds these technologies.

Sofian Andry brought a historical perspective from his book Art in the Age of Machine Learning, published by MIT Press. In it, he traces the origins of art and science in the age of machine learning, focusing on a material analysis of machine learning models. He explores what constitutes a machine learning model and examines how some artists have appropriated these mechanisms, bringing them closer to practices such as genetic algorithms and data-driven approaches, opening up new perspectives in artistic creation.

Éric Desmarais discussed the evolution of artistic practices within Sporobole, notably through creation and applied research cycles, during which artists experiment with different technologies. Pre-pandemic, the cycle focused on virtual universes. In 2021, as the cycle drew to a close, the ChatGPT wave broke, bringing to light a whole host of generative AI tools. The AI cycle enables artists to experiment, create works and, through this research process, develop a strong artistic voice for independent artists.

This brings us to the heart of what we’re interested in when we talk about generative AI and buzzwords: are these technologies really disruptive? Is it a paradigm shift, or rather the arrival of a new tool? Pía Balthazar noted that this tsunami-like “violent” change had been in the pipeline for some time, while Yves Jacquier confirmed that there is a real disruption underway, with the arrival of new players, the transformation of structures and the evolution of working methods.

The panel also raised the question – which must be central – of the value of works created by generative AI. Sofian Andry reminded us that while AI can produce novelty, the value of this novelty remains a complex issue. Culture is human, and a system disconnected from the world, disembodied, cannot understand or “be” in culture. Éric Desmarais, joined by other panel members, pointed out that, with AI, the value of the work/production shifts from the result to the concept, unlike the work of an illustrator, where it’s the result that takes precedence.

Nevertheless, optimism is the order of the day: we need to take advantage of the momentum to rebalance power and value throughout the artistic ecosystem. The best ways to achieve this are to encourage interdisciplinarity, as Ubisoft and SAT are doing, and not to underestimate the power and agentivity of local businesses, because not all important decisions are made in Silicon Valley.

Photo credit: Maryse Boyce

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