Montréal

Brazilian / Brazilian jazz / Jazz

Brazilian Days | Manoel Vieira : A Tribute to João Donato Better Than The Original?

by Michel Labrecque

On Saturday, September 7, Duluth Street was transformed into a mini-Brazil. Churrascos (Brazilian barbecues), food stalls of all kinds, hundreds of people speaking mostly Brazilian Portuguese, and music. It was on this note that the Brazilian Days kicked off, before rain spoiled the party in the afternoon.

Pianist and composer Manoel Vieira and his musician friends were the first to take to the stage. Just hearing them warm up, it was clear to my ears that we were in for an above-average concert of Brazilian music.

Manoel gave us a tribute concert to the great Brazilian jazzman and composer João Donato, who died last year. It started with Vento do Carnaval and ended with Bananeira. And we were floating for just over an hour.

Manoel Vieira studied classical piano while being an adept of improvised music. In 2020, he released Rhizome, a blend of bebop and Brazilian forro. He teaches at the Université de Montréal and occasionally performs with Brazilian symphony orchestras. Listen to my interview with him on PANM360 to learn more.(Manoel Vieira to Launch Brazilian Days – PAN M 360)

On stage, he was supported by a group of super-solid musicians. Erivan Duarte on bass, Laurent Cauchy on trombone, Thiago Ferté on saxophone, Aquiles Melo on drums and percussion, and João Lenhari on trumpet and flugelhorn. The latter also teaches at the Université de Montréal and leads his big band. I joked with him that Brazil was invading the university’s music faculty. What do you expect,” he replied, ”we’re the best.

Indeed, the musicians in this group are excellent. While following João Donato’s skilful melodies, they gave their all in improvisations and solos. A mixture of virtuosity and emotion. Unfortunately, as it was the beginning of the day, there weren’t enough of us. But those who were there were all smiles.

Let’s hope this concert is repeated soon in a venue more conducive to listening. A magical musical moment. Knowledgeable and festive!

Publicité panam
Punk

POP Montréal: The Spirit of the Beehive + Winter

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Au cours de la dernière décennie, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE a affiné une esthétique sans pareille. Iels découpent des échantillons, les mâchent et les recrachent pour nous nourrir à la cuillère. En quatre albums et quelques EP, Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin et Rivka Ravede se sont affirmé·es comme les déconstructeur·ices les plus étranges et habiles du rock. Hypnic Jerk, sorti en 2018, était une étude d’échantillonnage noise punk. C’était une percée pour le groupe. Frank Ocean est devenu fan, faisant jouer « fell asleep with a vision » à Blonded Radio. ENTERTAINMENT DEATH, sorti en 2021, était de la dream pop sale mixant le réalisme d’un vieux dépanneur avec le charme aléatoire d’un iPod shuffle.

Over the past decade, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE has honed an unparalleled aesthetic. They cut up samples, chew them up and spit them out, spoon-feeding us. In four albums and a handful of EPs, Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin and Rivka Ravede have established themselves as rock’s strangest and most deft deconstructors. Hypnic Jerk, released in 2018, was a study in noise punk sampling. It was a breakthrough for the band. Frank Ocean became a fan, playing “fell asleep with a vision” on Blonded Radio. ENTERTAINMENT DEATH, released in 2021, was dirty dream pop mixing the realism of an old convenience store with the random charm of an iPod shuffle.

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Ce contenu provient de POP Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360.

EDM / Electronic / Techno

Palomosa | Gesaffelstein at the top of the festival

by Sami Rixhon

Palomosa’s big hit: French electronic artist Gesaffelstein performed late Friday evening, bringing the first day of this new festival to a close. The performance was convincing, and confirmed the organizers’ choice of Gesaffelstein as headliner.

On the remnants of an already nostalgic summer, in memory of the defunct Montréal Électronique Groove, Palomosa presented a fine line-up of urban artists to get the most curious Montreal fans of the genre on their feet.

At 9.50pm, Gesaffelstein kicks off the final performance of the day at the Videotron stage with The Urge, from his third and most recent album, Gamma. The piercing yellow eyes of Gesaffelstein’s headphones, known as “the black prince of French techno”, pierce the darkness of the venue. The artist stands at the top of the stage podium, his mixers resembling long black crystals. Laser beams and space-like projections accompany the oppressive music orchestrated by Gesaffelstein. The dark, bass-heavy musical style recalls the compositions of Justice, who performed just a few hundred meters away at Osheaga 2024 a month ago.

The atmosphere never lets up throughout the set, and the audience seems more than satisfied with what they see on stage. The festival-goers’ outfits aren’t all suited to the September evening temperatures, but give a jolt of reminder of Palomosa’s primary mandate: here, you’re free, here, you’ll always feel welcome.

Hip Hop / rap

Palomosa | Destroy Lonely and its playslist…

by Sami Rixhon

Playboi Carti’s young protégé, Destroy Lonely, played to an enthusiastic crowd in Palomosa on Friday. The atmosphere was great, but the quality of the performance was less than impressive. As is often the case with rap concerts…

It’s a few minutes before 8 pm, the sun has already set and reminds us that the leaves in the trees will soon be colored. The crowd at the front of the stage is 90% young men, wearing branded hoodies or balaclavas.

From the very first notes of LUV 4 YA, the mosh pit was formed and didn’t stop for the whole performance, which lasted just under an hour. Destroy Lonely, sporting white-rimmed sunglasses, performed tracks from his album LOVE LASTS FOREVER, released just a week ago.

And yet… The Opium rapper relies for the most part on the pre-recorded tape of his songs, so he doesn’t go out of his way to make his performance more appealing than a Spotify playlist. Imagine a classical music orchestra simulating a Beethoven symphony, using their instruments as mere decorative props. Wouldn’t that cause a scandal? Who knows why it’s become such a rap standard?

classique / Contemporary / période romantique

OSM : L’impressionnante Symphonie no 2 de Rachmaninov

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Des couleurs automnales contrastées, des mélodies gorgées d’un lyrisme débordant et la continuelle alternance entre intimité et exubérance caractérisent la somptueuse Symphonie no 2 de Rachmaninov. De son côté, la Sinfonia concertante pour orgue et orchestre de Salonen évolue dans une ambiance onirique soutenue par une fabuleuse orchestration. Il mettra à l’honneur Olivier Latry, organiste émérite de l’OSM et titulaire du grand orgue de Notre-Dame de Paris.

Rachmaninov’s sumptuous Symphony No. 2 is characterized by contrasting autumnal colors, melodies bursting with lyricism and a continuous alternation between intimacy and exuberance. Salonen’s Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra, meanwhile, evolves in a dreamlike atmosphere underpinned by fabulous orchestration. It will feature Olivier Latry, OSM organist emeritus and titular of the great organ of Notre-Dame de Paris.

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Ce contenu provient de l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360

Africa / Afro Funk / Afrobeat / Saharan Blues

Sahad, The New King of Afrobeat

by Sandra Gasana

A gentle introduction. A guitar, a voice. That’s how Sahad welcomed us to his very first concert at Club Balattou last Thursday. He is joined by Joon Ho Wantete on piano, Christian Obam, the bassist everyone’s raving about at the moment, Raphaël Ojo, with his contagious smile, on drums and backing vocals, and Frédéric Bourgeault on trumpet.

Mixing Wolof, French and English, he took us from blues to afrobeat, funk and reggae, sometimes with no transition between tracks. At times, we thought we were at a Fela Kuti concert, so perfect was his mastery of this style of Nigerian music. He repeatedly addressed the crowd with the question: “Are you alive tonight?”, before moving on to another track.

The complicity with his musicians was palpable, particularly with Joon Ho, who seems to have worked with the artist for a long time. “Some of the musicians I used to play with in Senegal are now based in Montreal,” he told me during our interview a few days earlier (Sahad, Taxi-Brousse in Song – PAN M 360), while others had flown in from London and Abidjan for the occasion.

In addition to playing guitar, he incorporated percussion into his show, sometimes engaging in percussive dialogues with his drummer or interacting with the trumpet, which heightened the musical intensity in the room.

The audience also had an important role to play in following Sahad’s instructions, particularly on the track Ayeye. While the first part of the show was performed in front of a seated audience, the second part was quite different. The artist invited the audience to move closer to the stage, and that was all it took for them to start dancing. The song Kadio Blues was a particular crowd-pleaser, with its breathtaking trumpet and keyboard solos.

To top it all off, Malian diva and griot Djely Tapa blessed the stage with her powerful, haunting voice, while Sahad’s compatriot Seydina charmed us with his unique vocals.

My favorite song was the tribute to Dakar, which took me back to my memories of the city I’d just visited a few weeks earlier. “The next song, we’re going to Senegal. It’s important to sing a song from home,” he announced by way of introduction, with a passage he had the crowd repeat: Dakar ndiaye nekhna, which means Dakar, the wonderful capital. Sahad showcases his musicians, giving them the space they need for their respective solos, sometimes playing the role of conductor. One thing’s for sure: Montreal’s Senegalese community missed quite a show last Thursday. Let’s hope that word-of-mouth will do its job so that on his next visit to our metropolis, the Balattou will be packed to the rafters with his compatriots, who have everything to discover in this multi-talented artist.

Photo credit: Peter Graham

Publicité panam
Garage Punk / Punk Rock

POP Montréal: Crachat + SO TIRED + Puberty Well + Debbie Christ

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Crachat est un trio punk rock à paillettes de la basse-ville de Québec. Formé en 2022, sa musique fait résonner une colère adolescente de façon explosive et extravagante. Leur son garage et gorgé de distorsion n’empêche pas les musiciennes de rayonner en toute féminité sur scène: Rock ‘n’ roll, tutus et vivacité sont toujours au rendez-vous chez ces princesses à gros bras.

Crachat is a glittery punk rock trio from Quebec City’s Lower Town. Formed in 2022, their music resonates with explosive, extravagant teenage anger. Their distortion-laden garage sound doesn’t stop the musicians from radiating femininity on stage: rock ‘n’ roll, tutus and vivacity are always on the agenda for these big-armed princesses.

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Ce contenu provient de POP Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360.

Afro-Colombian / latino

Bumaranga au Balattou

by Rédaction PAN M 360

La musique de Bumaranga est une fête tourbillonnante ; une invitation à s’abandonner suavement à des mélodies afro-colombiennes tantôt veloutées, tantôt exaltées, toujours sublimes de sincérité. À la croisée des rythmes indigènes et des sons importés par les esclaves venus d’Afrique, les Cumbia, Puya, Tambora et Mapalé du groupe révélé par les Syli d’or 2013 mettent en avant plan les instruments traditionnels que sont les tambora, tambour alegre, gaïta et flûte de Millo, que le groupe, attelé à la voix puissante et pétillante de la chanteuse, magnifie à coup de batterie et d’instruments électriques. Un séduisant petit côté indiscipliné, dansant et très très égayant.  

Bumaranga’s music is like a festive party, an invitation to gently surrender yourself to their Afro-Columbian melodies, at times mellow, other times thrilling but always sublimely heartfelt. A blending of Indigenous rhythms and those carried over from Africa by people who were enslaved—cumbia, puya, tambora and malapé were all brought to the fore when the group won the 2013 Syli d’or de la musique du monde. Their music puts the spotlight on traditional instruments such as the tambora and alegre drums, the gaita and Millo flutes, which, along with the singer’s powerful and lively voice, are amplified with the use of drums and electronic instruments. The group has a kind of seductively undisciplined side to them, very danceable and very, very, exciting.

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Ce contenu provient des Productions Nuits d’Afrique et est adapté par PAN M 360.

festival / party

Party d’ouverture POP Montréal présenté par HELIOS

by Rédaction PAN M 360

C’est bientôt le party d’ouverture de POP Montréal, présenté par HELIOS! Rejoignez-nous pour célébrer le début de cette 23e édition du festival.

POP Montreal’s opening party, presented by HELIOS, is just around the corner! Join us to celebrate the start of the 23rd edition of the festival.

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Ce contenu provient de POP Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360.

Electronic / Experimental / Contemporary

Festival Akousma : Soirée 1 – Bloc_2

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Pierce Warnecke (us/fr)

Pierce Warnecke travaille à la fois dans les domaines sonores et visuels. Ses projets, à la frontière entre la musique expérimentale, les arts numériques et la vidéo, sont influencés par les effets du temps sur la matière et les limites de l’expérience sensorielle.  Il présente son travail sous forme de performances, de concerts et d’installations à Rewire, CTM, Elektra, Mutek, ZKM, etc. Il est co-commissaire du label et du festival Emitter Micro (Berlin) et du Signal Festival (Drome). Sa musique a été publiée sur Raster (DE), Room40 (AU) et Contour Editions (US), et il est représenté par l’agence DISK à Berlin.

Pierce Warnecke is a multidisciplinary digital artist at the intersection of experimental music, digital arts and video art. He has presented his work in the form of performances, concerts and installations at Rewire, GRM, ZKM, ManiFeste (IRCAM), Mutek, CTM, Elektra, KW Institut, Nemo, Sonic Acts, Martin Gropius Bau, MAC Montreal, Gray Area, LEV Festival, Semibreve, SXSW, etc.
Pierce collaborates often and has worked with Frank Bretschneider, Matthew Biederman, Myriam Bleau, Keith Fullerton Whitman and more. His music has been published on raster (DE), Room40 (AU) and Contour Editions (US). He is represented by Disk Agency in Berlin.

Programme

Sonopeutic Smooth Sailing (2024) 12’20”
Sonopeutic Smooth Sailing, sorti sur Raster, est une refléxion semi-sérieuse sur le développement personnel à travers des paysages sonores concrets, chaotiques et imprévisibles. Pour Akousma, une version multicanal condensée de l’album est proposée.
La musique ici est hautement traitée. Elle démarre avec une palette de sons électroniques simples et reconnaissables (808/909, synthétiseur modulaire simple et patchs max génératifs), mais qui est ensuite improvisée, éditée et découpée autant que possible, pour proposer une musique qui, avec un peu de chance, fausserait toute base de données sonore IA dans laquelle elle pourrait avoir le malheur de tomber.
Cet album devrait être écouté comme une sorte de programme de ‘self-help’ sonore raté qui aurait pu permettre à l’auditeur de s’entraîner à approfondir sa patience et son attention grâce au pouvoir du son extrême.

Program

Sonopeutic Smooth Sailing (2024) 12’20”
Sonopeutic Smooth Sailing, released on raster, is a meditation on semi-serious self-help through concrète dream/mare-scapes of chaotic and unpredictable sound experiments. For Akousma, a condensed multichannel reworking of the album is proposed here.
The music here is highly processed, with the intent of starting from simple well known electronic sounds (808/909 drums, simple modular synth and basic generative max patches), but performed, edited, cut-up and processed as much as possible to propose a music that would hopefully throw a wrench in any AI audio dataset that it might have the misfortune of falling into.
This album should be listened to as though it were part of a failed self-help program that could have allowed you, the listener, to train yourself on developing patience and attention through the power of extreme sound.

Ana Dall’Ara-Majek (fr/ca)

Ana Dall’Ara-Majek est une compositrice et artiste sonore vivant à Montréal. Elle s’intéresse à l’interaction des pensées instrumentale, électroacoustique et informatique dans la composition musicale. Ses thématiques préférées sont les micro-organismes et les paysages abstraits-concrets. Elle est active dans les domaines de la composition électroacoustique/mixte et la performance de musique électronique en temps réel. Elle joue régulièrement comme Théréministe dans l’ensemble ILÉA et le duo blablaTrains. Ses disques ont été publiés chez Kohlenstoff Records et Empreintes DIGITALes, et ses partitions chez Babel Scores et aux éditions Henri Lemoine.

Ana Dall’Ara-Majek is a composer and sound artist living in Montreal. She is interested to the study of how instrumental, electroacoustic and computational-thinking approaches interact in music. Her favourite themes are micro-organisms and abstract-concrete landscapes. She’s been active for composing electroacoustic/mixte pieces and performing live electronic music. She performs regularly with Ensemble ILÉA and the duo blablaTrains as a Theremin player.
Her recordings have been released by Kohlenstoff Records and Empreintes DIGITALes, and her scores by Babel Scores and Editions Henri Lemoine.

Programme

Mare Buchlae (2023) 11’53”
Entrée en matière du cycle ‘Radiolaria’, cette pièce propose une plongée où nous passons du monde des humains à celui des organismes sous-marins. Il s’agit d’une exposition qui fait entendre toutes les familles de sons représentant les espèces peuplant le plancton, et qui seront explorées tout au long du cycle. Le défi était de recréer un environnement sous-marin uniquement avec des sons de synthèse, en passant progressivement de prises de son de l’océan vers un paysage entièrement composé avec les sons du synthétiseur modulaire Buchla 200.

Program

Mare Buchlae (2023) 11’53”
The opening piece in the ‘Radiolaria’ cycle takes us from the human world to the world of underwater organisms. The piece features all the sound families that represent the plankton-inhabiting species that will be explored individually later on in the cycle. My objective was to recreate an underwater world using only sound synthesis, moving from ocean field recordings to a waterscape consisting entirely of sounds from the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.

Estelle Schorpp (fr/ca)

Estelle Schorpp est une artiste sonore, compositrice et chercheuse française basée à Montréal, active dans le domaine de la musique expérimentale et de l’écologie sonore.
Elle utilise les outils et les méthodes de la recherche-création pour mettre en place des projets qui posent un regard critique et créatif sur notre relation avec l’environnement sonore. Intégrant des concepts issus de disciplines telles que l’écologie sonore, les sound studies, la théorie des médias, l’histoire des sciences, l’acoustique et la psychoacoustique, son approche polymorphe combine la performance, l’installation sonore et la composition algorithmique, ainsi que la communication académique et la rédaction d’articles scientifiques.
Ses paysages sonores immersifs et en constante évolution, caractérisés par leurs sonorités brillantes et l’utilisation d’enregistrements de terrain, offrent une expérience à la fois physique et intellectuelle où l’écoute est centrale.
Depuis 2022, elle enseigne à la Faculté de musique de l’Université de Montréal (CA).

Estelle Schorpp is a French-born and Montreal-based sound artist, composer and researcher active in the field of experimental music and sound ecology.
She uses the tools and methods of research-creation to set up projects that take a critical and creative look at our relationship with the sonic environment. Integrating concepts from disciplines such as sound ecology, sound studies, media theory, history of science, acoustics and psychoacoustics, her polymorphous approach combines performance, sound installation and algorithmic composition, as well as academic communication and the writing of articles.
Her ever-changing and immersive sonic landscapes, characterized by their ambiguous shimmering sounds and the use of field recordings, seek both a physical and intellectual experience where listening is central.
Since 2022, she teaches at the Music Faculty of Université de Montréal (CA).

Programme

A Conversation Between a Partially Educated Parrot and a Machine (2023) 20’00
Grâce à l’utilisation d’archives d’enregistrements d’oiseaux datant des années 1930, cette performance explore les relations historiques et sonores entre les oiseaux, les humains et les technologies de reproduction sonore. À la fin du XIXe siècle, Eldridge Johnson, directeur de Victor Records, disait du phonographe qu’il « sonnait comme un perroquet partiellement éduqué avec un mal de gorge et un rhume de tête » (Johnson, cité dans Recorded Music in American Life, de William Kenney). C’est ce même phonographe que Ludwig Koch a utilisé en 1889 pour réaliser le premier enregistrement d’un shama à croupion blanc dans un zoo de Francfort. De cette comparaison est née l’idée d’établir un dialogue créatif entre les technologies de reproduction du son (anciennes et nouvelles) et les chants d’oiseaux.
La performance recontextualise l’histoire des enregistrements de chants d’oiseaux en mêlant archives documentaires, disques shellac, gramophone et technologies algorithmiques interactives contemporaines. Le projet met l’accent sur un va-et-vient dynamique entre plusieurs types de discours (documentaires et fictifs), de technologies (ordinateur et gramophone), de gestes et de sons (chants d’oiseaux et artefacts technologiques). Ce faisant, A Conversation Between a Partially Educated Parrot and a Machine propose une expérience sonore immersive dans laquelle les oiseaux, les machines et les humains font de la musique ensemble.

Program

A Conversation Between a Partially Educated Parrot and a Machine (2023) 20’00
Through the use of both original and digitalized birds recordings archives from the 1930’s, this performance explores the historical and sonic relationships between birds, humans and sound reproduction technologies.
In the late 19th century, Eldridge Johnson, head of Victor Records, said about the phonograph that it « sounded much like a partially educated parrot with a sore throat and a cold in the head” (Johnson, quoted in William Kenney’s Recorded Music in American Life). This is the same phonograph that Ludwig Koch used in 1889 to make the first recording of a bird in a zoo in Frankfurt. My aim was to unfold this comparison between an ill behaved bird and a sound reproduction technology to tell a story where music is made together by historical and recent audio technologies, birds, and the humans that listen to them.
In A conversation between a partially educated parrot and a machine, I take turns interacting with iPads and a gramophone equipped with sensors. On the one hand, this emblematic historical audio technology reads the original shellac disks by Ludwig Koch in the 1930’s, on the other hand it becomes a physical interface sending data to live algorithmic processes. The performance emphasizes on a dynamic back and forth between several kind of discourses (documentary, fictional, musical), technologies (computer and gramophone), and sounds (sounds of birds’ songs and sound reproduction artefacts).

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Ce contenu provient du festival Akousma et est adapté par PAN M 360

Jazz

OFF JAZZ: Florian Hoefner + Quinsin Nachoff Elements Chambert Orchestra – Way Of Water

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Quinsin Nachoff et Florian Hoefner Elements Chamber Orchestra – La voie de l’eau
Nouvelles compositions originales de Hoefner et Nachoff pour quatuor de jazz et orchestre de chambre de 22 musiciens !

Rejoignez le pianiste Florian Hoefner, lauréat d’un Juno, et le saxophoniste Quinsin Nachoff, nommé aux Junos, pour un spectacle électrisant de 60 minutes, où les mondes de la musique de chambre classique et du jazz s’entrechoquent pour explorer la beauté, la puissance et l’urgence de l’impact de l’eau sur la vie, la nature et la société.

Quinsin Nachoff and Florian Hoefner Elements Chamber Orchestra – The Way of Water
New original compositions by Hoefner and Nachoff for jazz quartet and 22-piece chamber orchestra!

Join Juno award-winning pianist Florian Hoefner and Juno-nominated saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff for an electrifying, genre-bending 60-minute performance, where the worlds of classical chamber music and jazz collide to explore the beauty, power, and urgency of water’s impact on life, nature, and society.

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Ce contenu provient de OFF JAZZ et est adapté par PAN M 360.

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