<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2016, this La Lumi\u00e8re Collective has been a breeding ground for creativity\u2014by day, a shared artist studio and residency space with diverse production resources, and by night, a microcinema that presents local and international artists’ films and other video work. N\u00e9ant hosted an audiovisual event here with their label\/ time capsule platform, Everyday Ago, back in May 2018. During the set, they collaborated with Sonya Stefan, one of the founders of La Lumi\u00e8re Collective, by using a projector with refracted glass to create abstract, psychedelic shapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We didn’t even know each other, but she played like live film loops of 16 mm, while I was working the projector, and it kind of started a longer collaboration. We did the second album, Mise En Abyme<\/em>, and all of the visual stuff was her.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, N\u00e9ant became a collective member and moved their music gear into the space. At one point, they even lived in the space for a month. “The new album is sort of a time capsule document of my years 2022 to 2023 and really tied to the events I was able to do here post-lockdown in 2022. Even the title is somewhat of a reference.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Common area at La Lumi\u00e8re Collective<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of their artistic process, N\u00e9ant is also a huge film buff (they moved to Montreal from France to study film around 10 years ago), always tying some visual, filmic element to their music through song titles or accompanying videos. The record before this one, Everyday Is A Song<\/em>, has tracks titled “Present Day Montage” and “Post-Credits Scene,” and the beginning of this latest starts with “Everyday \u2013 A Sequel,” essentially continuing this cinematic Joni Void universe. This kind of self-referential cinema style has been with N\u00e9ant ever since they released their first album, soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist<\/em>, back in 2011, under the then alias, johnny_ripper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n N\u00e9ant is also a documentarian, field recording various sounds that are often turned into samples and used to drive the songs that dabble in downtempo, trip-hop, ambient, drone, and much more. And because this is Joni Void’s most calm and tranquil record to date, with songs never reaching past 100 bpm, the samples: the Montreal metro, cars driving by, sirens, the wind, and indecipherable babblings from people are really prevalent\u2014all in the track “Du Parc (with N NAO).” N\u00e9ant lists the DIY documentary show How To With John Wilson<\/em> as a “crucial recent influence.” That show is about Wilson’s self-discovery and his cultural observations, almost mirroring Joni Void’s sample field recording work and musical identity, so the influence makes a ton of sense. They also list Tsai Ming-Liang, who is a Malaysian pioneer of “situational cinema,” as an influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n “I create music like I would make a documentary. It’s to document, but also in this imperfect way, because I’m using music as a medium,” N\u00e9ant says. “I’m releasing a record, it’s 45 minutes, and there’s no way I can use all the Walkman recordings I’ve had. The quality is usually awful. Even with the Polaroid camera, it’s this idea of the imperfect picture. It’s very light-sensitive, and there’s a flash that makes everybody aware that I’m taking the picture. So these little slices of life, the documentation that I can integrate into a piece of work give those little moments meaning.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/panm360.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Lumiere-7-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n