Montréal

Bossa Nova / Brazilian / Jazz / Pop

Summer Salt • Okey Dokey • Breakup Shoes

by Patrick Baillargeon

Nestled somewhere between Mac DeMarco and ’70s California rock is Summer Salt. While references to bossa nova abound, the Austin band’s penchant for flowing pop-rock songs and the sweetness of a sunny, slightly outdated psychedelia are particularly noteworthy. The Beach Boys, Dope Lemon, The Lovin’ Spoonful and Donovan also come to mind when listening to this band that seems to live in a permanent summer. Farewell, winter! (For a few hours).

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Classical / Contemporary / Minimalist / Neoclassical

Trio Fibonacci: « The Giants of Minimalism »

by Michel Rondeau

The Fibonacci trio – named after the Italian mathematician who created a series of numbers closely related to the golden ratio, symbol of harmony, balance and beauty, whose perfect proportions are found in nature as well as in artistic creations – is one of the rare chamber-music trios combining piano and strings. After the success of its concert Les Géants du minimalisme last year, the ensemble is back with a program featuring more or less the same composers, namely: Arvo Pärt, Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Keiko Delvaux, Michael Nyman and Brian Eno. As long as one is open to it, their music acts as a true balm for the soul.

Trio Fibonacci
Julie-Anne Derome, violon
Gabriel Pym, violoncelle
Steven Massicotte, piano

PROGRAMME
Arvo Pärt : Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)
Ludovico Einaudi : Primavera, I Giorni, Petricor
Max Richter : On the Nature of Daylight, Dona Nobis Pacem 2
Keiko Devaux : Efflorescence (2020; création)
Michael Nyman : Time Lapse
Brian Eno : By This River
Philip Glass : Metamorphosis Two, The Hours

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Punk / Rock

(POSTPONED) Anti-Flag • Grade 2

by Patrick Baillargeon

Since their debut album in 1996, Anti-Flag have been arming themselves with gritty and uncompromising punk, as evidenced by their 20 or so studio albums. The indomitable Pittsburgh-based combo remain ardent defenders of the DIY ethic so dear to the punk movement and have never really let up in almost 30 years of existence. Vindictive, committed, militant, the American band has more reason than ever to shout its rage and charge the stage. For Anti-Flag, there will always be something to revolt against, and 20/20 Vision, released a few weeks ago, is proof of this over 11 abrasive titles. Punk is far from being dead.

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Electronic / Industrial / Techno

DROP [04] : Codex Empire • D.Blavatsky • The Marquis • Creature

by Louis Paulhus

Attention, dark and industrial techno lovers, Codex Empire is coming to Montreal for the next show organized by AMP Industrial Events! The SAT will welcome British producer Mahk Rumbae for his first concert on Canadian soil as he uses his machines to create abyssal sonorities that only he knows the recipe for. The veteran of the Berlin label [aufnahme + wiedergabe] will be joined by D.Blavatsky who, as usual, offers a dazzling performance of hardcore techno with forceful rhythms and a wild, unbridled energy. Get ready to dance!

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Post-Punk / Rock

The Underground Youth • Lorelle Meets The Obsolete

by Geneviève Gendreau

Berliners by adoption The Underground Youth showcase their latest album, Montage Images of Lust & Fear, released in March 2019, during their very first visit to Montreal. Buttressed by the charismatic presence of Craig Dyer, the project’s founder, The Underground Youth unfold an atmospheric post-punk laced with the troubled moods of disillusioned crooner Dyer. The result: ballads bitter rather than sweet, evoking Nick Cave. They will be accompanied by the Mexican band Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, just as worthy of mention for their hushed, irresistibly lunar psychedelia. They’ll also release a new EP the following day, RE – FACTO, on Sonic Cathedral, featuring two original tracks and two remixes. It is, for them too, a first passage through town.

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New Wave / Pop / Post-Punk / Rock

The Foreign Resort • La Mécanique • Morte Psíquica

by Geneviève Gendreau

The Danish trio will once again hit the road for a short North American tour, which they will begin at home, between two European tours. This time, they are performing at the Velouria Festival II, organized by the Montreal label Velouria Recordz. While they claim a clear affiliation with The Cure, especially in the rich, dark voice of Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen, the band has a clean, refined sound with an energetic melancholy. They’ll present his latest album, Outnumbered, released in April 2019 on Artoffact Records.

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Garage Rock / Rock

Double Date With Death • Debate Club

by Louise Jaunet

Photo credit: Rowan Fraser-Taylor

L’Au-Delà, released at the beginning of January, is the second album from Double Date With Death, with a cover designed by none other than Elzo Durt, one of the masters of psychedelic visuals in recent years. The band doesn’t even hide it, it’s clearly influenced by Californian psychedelic garage rock (think Thee Oh Sees or Ty Segall, to name only the most famous). In this case, however, the Montreal band has chosen to express itself in French. The album, recorded, produced and mixed by Guillaume Chiasson (Ponctuation, Jesuslesfilles), is divided into eight short tracks just psychedelic enough to take us on a journey to the beyond.

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Africa / Psych-Rock / Rock / Saharan Blues

(CANCELLED) Mdou Moctar • Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche

by Rupert Bottenberg

*Photo credit: Jerome Fino

Niger’s Mdou Moctar isn’t the kind of person who waits for things to happen. Growing up in a village where music was prohibited, he built himself his first guitar from scrap wood. He travelled to Nigeria to record his 2008 debut album, which mashed up Tuareg blues-rock and Afro-electro, and spread like wildfire on the West African cellphone circuit. He produced and starred in the first Tuareg-language film, a remake of Purple Rain. And with each successive, blistering guitar lick, he’s placed himself at the forefront of the North African desert-psych sound that Tinariwen made the world aware of back in 2001. His latest album (and first with a proper band and producer), 2019’s Ilana: The Creator, is an amazing piece of work, bursting with energy and a harsh, shiny tone, Moctar’s rhythm section chugging steadily along behind him as he takes his outrageous riff-work to transcendental highs.

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Qawwali / Sacred Music

Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad

by Rupert Bottenberg

Acolytes of the venerable Qawwal Bacchon ka Gharana, the same centuries-old musical school that gave the world Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani brothers Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad are, both at home and abroad, among the absolute top names in qawwali, the exhilarating Sufi tradition of escalating, ecstatic song. Just the kind of uplift to drive away the last of winter’s grey mood.

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Electro-Punk / Indie Rock / Rock

We Are Wolves

by Patrick Baillargeon

Photo credit: Richard Lam

Straddling between electro-punk and electro-pop, sometimes one more than the other and vice versa, We Are Wolves have always shown a certain melodic sensibility. Their latest effort, the five-track digital EP La main de Dieu, with its songs in French and Spanish, is (further) excellent proof of this. The Montreal trio, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, unpack at Foufs, a concert hall where they’ve rarely (never?) been seen. A symbolic return to their punk roots?

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Classical / Rock

Trio RCM: « L’orgue de Pink Floyd à Zappa »

by Réjean Beaucage

Frank Zappa’s body of work is considerable, and well known, but you won’t find much pipe organ therein, except on the album Uncle Meat, when Don Preston plays “Louie Louie”’s introductory notes on the “Mighty & Majestic Albert Hall Pipe Organ” (dixit FZ). So it’s a nice surprise to discover the Trio RCM, hailing from France, in which percussionist Henri-Charles Caget and guitarist Frédéric Maurin support the work of organist Yves Rechsteiner. The latter is responsible for the basic arrangements of this program, which includes almost a dozen pieces by Zappa, but also interpretations of works by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Pat Metheny. This time, the organ in question is the MSO’s mighty-in-its-own-right Grand Orgue Pierre-Béïque. The earth is gonna shake! 

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Electronic / House

Tchami

by Patrick Baillargeon

Pioneer of the future house movement, known notably for his work with Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, and the DJs Snake, Mercer, and Malaa – with whom he forms the collective Pardon My French – the founder of the label Confession heats up the MTelus with his panoply of warm and sensual sounds. The Miami-based Parisian DJ and producer, whose real name is Martin Bresso, has made house his domain, flirting with practically every variation of the genre. Always dressed in his emblematic priest’s vestment during his sets, this apostle of the bass invites you to a groovy, not very Catholic mass.

Ben Böhmer

However, if Tchami is too much this or not enough that for you, you can always opt for Ben Böhmer’s ethereal house at Théâtre Fairmount on the same evening – one wonders why the two weren’t programmed in the same place… Recently active on the world house scene, Ben Böhmer has in just a few years become an unavoidable reference point for deep and progressive house with about ten EPs already to his credit. The prolific German DJ and producer, endorsed by Anjunadeep and Keller Records, is also the boss of the Ton Topferei label. If you can’t choose between Böhmer and Tchami, you still have some time to develop the gift of ubiquity.

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