The 27th edition of MUTEK, Montréal’s festival devoted to electronic music, brings together more than 120 artists, including several SOCAN members. Here is an eclectic selection of a few of them.
Abulzooz
Abulzooz grew up playing guitar as he moved between the Gulf, the Levant, and North Africa. After studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he eventually settled in Montréal, where the Palestinian artist now creates music that blends experimentation with folk traditions. Politically and emotionally charged, his work is deeply shaped by the genocide currently affecting members of his family who remain trapped in Palestine.
Thursday, August 27, starting at 5 p.m., at Esplanade Tranquille
“End is real” by Abulzooz. Click the link to listen to the EP on Bandcamp.
Shn Shn
Toronto-based Shanika Lewis-Waddell (a.k.a. shn shn) moves comfortably across a wide range of musical worlds. Her work in screen music includes the score for the A24-produced horror film undertone, whose soundscape plays an integral role in the story itself. She also collaborates with theatre artists while pursuing her own work of atmospheric pop compositions that she’ll bring to the stage at MUTEK.
Saturday, August 29, starting at 5 p.m., at Esplanade Tranquille
“Serpent’s Skin” by shn shn. Click the link to listen to the album on Bandcamp.
Patche
Eliott Durocher Bundock, Étienne Dupré, Lévy Bourbonnais, Mandela Coupal-Dalgleish, and JB Pinard are all familiar names on Québec’s music scene, having built solid reputations through their work with the touring bands of Klô Pelgag, Lumière, Mon Doux Saigneur, Alex Burger, and others. Together as Patche, the five make hypnotic electronic music that can feel, even stone sober, like taking magic mushrooms in a Berlin techno club.
Saturday, August 29, at 11 p.m., at MTELUS.
“Document” by Patche. Click the link to listen to the album on Bandcamp.
Kara-Lis Coverdale
Kara-Lis Coverdale has a gift for making contrasts feel seamless. Based in Brant County, Ontario, she brings past and future, acoustic and electronic, into the same musical space with striking ease. A frequent collaborator with filmmakers, she has been hailed by British newspaper The Guardian as “one of North America’s most compelling composers.” At MUTEK, she’ll perform on the Pierre-Béique Grand Organ, the monumental instrument at the heart of the Maison symphonique.
Thursday, August 27, at 7 p.m., at the Maison symphonique.
“Changes in Air” by Kara-Lis Coverdale. Click the link to listen to the album on Bandcamp.
Jump Source
Montréal duo Patrick Holland and Francis Latreille make deep house and breakbeat tinged with melancholy, but built squarely for the dance floor. Their sleek tracks feel perfectly attuned to the current revival of early-2000s aesthetics, a wave that’s inspiring creators across every medium right now. All we can hope for is that Helena Deland joins for Shattered, a track from the album they released earlier this year.
Friday, August 28, at 2:10 a.m., at Espace SAT.
“Fold” by Jump Source. Click the link to listen to the album on Bandcamp.
chiquitamagic
Four years after the infectious Mexico Sexi Time, chiquitamagic is slowing things down. The Colombian artist, now based in Toronto, fills her new album with lush, sometimes dreamlike arrangements as she explores the experience of motherhood, from pregnancy through childbirth. Who says a subject so close to the hearts of so many women has no place in electronic music—or in the nightlife that surrounds it?
Saturday, August 29, starting at 7:20 p.m., at Esplanade Tranquille
“Matriarch” by chiquitamagic. Click the link to listen to the album on Bandcamp.