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PRESS RELEASE (en francais plus loin) MUTEK welcomes the international avant-garde of sound creation to Montreal Montreal, May 23, 2000 - Ex-Centris and F.I.L.M.S. proudly present the first edition of MUTEK, a five-day event combining music and sound creation with new technology. The event, which takes place from June 7 to 11, 2000 is brought to you by the same team which has, for the last three years, organized the Media Lounge and the "New Media" section of the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media (FCMM). In the era of digital tools and new media, MUTEK's goal is to be an annual gathering showcasing emerging forms of electronic music and the latest trends in sound creation. Its mission is to be on the cutting edge of innovation and to provide an environment for discovery. With the international profile of its content, MUTEK promises to become a unique North American event not to be missed. This first edition programme centres around five evenings of intense musical and sound experimentation presented by a series of avant-garde artists from Europe, the United States, and Canada. Confirmed artists include: Thomas Brinkmann, Pole, Byetone, CoH, Vladislav Delay, Taylor Deupree, Carsten Nicolai (the most recent recipient of the Golden Nica, in the Digital Music section, Ars Electronica), Panacea, Sutekh, and [The User] (Best Canadian New Media Work, FCMM 1998). The first two evenings, June 7 and 8, will be held in the Fellini theatre at Ex-Centris (complex of cinema and new media). The last three, from June 9 to 11, will be held at Café Campus. These events will be webcast live on the Internet. Taking advantage of the fact that Saint-Laurent Boulevard will be alive with the rhythm of its summer sidewalk sales, MUTEK will also present a set of urban happy hours, in complement of its programme. MUTEK is a project conceived by the Foundation Image Light Motion & Sound (F.I.L.M.S.), a non-profit organization whose principal mandate is to develop special projects related to film and digital culture within the context of Ex-Centris. Ex-Centris is a dynamic environment dedicated to independant film and new media. Its objective is the development of cinema as well as of different means of artistic and cultural expression related to digital technology in Montreal. Advanced ticket sales: Ex-Centris, 3536 boul. St.-Laurent, Tel : (514) 847-2206 Prices: 1 show : 20$, 3 shows : 50$, 5 shows : 75$ Student price : 15$ Web site: www.mutek.ca [log in to unmask] Contact: Elana Wright (514) 847-9272, ext. 3432 [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- MUTEK PROGRAMME -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 Ex-Centris - Fellini Theatre 9:00 p.m. ARCHITETTURA Taylor Deupree / live (USA) Panacea / live (Germany) Sound Track / live (Savvas Ysatis - Greece) Films: Iara Lee Exploring the intersection of the worlds of electronic music, contemporary architecture and film, ARCHITETTURA is a mixed media installation event developed by Caipirinha, the New York producers of the films "Synthetic Pleasures" and "Modulations." Inspired by the work initiated within the framework of the musical series ARCHITETTURA and supervised by Caipirinha's music division, established artists explore what harmony and synergy exist between electronic music and architecture. At first glance, these two art forms might appear incongruous, yet, in its own way, each offers an environment shaped by the human imagination. The ARCHITETTURA night presented by MUTEK will also include the Canadian premiere of four short films directed by Iara Lee within the framework of the ARCHITETTURA series. TAYLOR DEUPREE has scoured the different scenes and factions of electronic music for the last ten years. Best known for his work in ambient music, he has also demonstrated an interest in microscopic sounds and bringing together a number of other artists who share this interest, he has created the compilation "Microscopic Sound" for Caipirinha. PANACEA, a distinguished figure in hardcore-drum 'n bass, proves that he is a disciplined musician who yields comfortably to conceptual demands. For the ARCHITETTURA series, he has a created a work dedicated to the city of Brasilia and the architect Oscar Niemeyer. The exotic ambiance of this metropolis of aseptic and futuristic appeal is transposed into a rich and complex work, in which the marks of his generally strong-arm musical style remain present, if not slightly scaled down by the concern for its evocation. SOUND TRACK - Savvas Ysatis lives in Greece, where his reputation as a versatile musician is well established. His temporary residence in New York led to his encounter with Taylor Deupree, from which numerous projects arose since, such as "Tower of Winds," inspired by the architectural work of the same name in Yokohama by architect Toyo Ito. The result is a profound, ambient and experimental work, which keeps us thrilled with anticipation during its performance. Part one: A specialist of low-scale improvisation who enjoys working with the seduction and art of sound, ALEXANDRE ST-ONGE presents a finished high-scale performance at MUTEK. Influenced by both "concrete" and electroacoustic music, his pieces are based on the degradation of sound by actions operated on various objects of representation; the stratification of glitches, disturbances and parasite sounds where surprises abound. THURSDAY, JUNE 8 Ex-Centris - Fellini Theatre 9:00 p.m. RASTER-NOTON (Germany) Komet / live Noto / live Byetone / live COH / live Signal / live (Komet + Byetone + Noto) Part one: S8P ANTENNAS, TRANSMISSION (40 min.) By AE (Canada) This event headlines various conceptual artists from Berlin who, under the guise of RASTER-NOTON, explore the space that lies between electricity, electronic music, and the art and physiology of sound. Their work, strongly influenced by the visual arts, exploits the sculptural aspects of sound and often uses electricity as a primary material, drawing upon the elementary particles of sound - electric impulses and waves - in order to create complex musical structures. NOTO - Carsten Nicolai is a visual artist and German musician. His work takes on multiple forms - paintings, installations, performances and recordings - and has brought him to numerous exhibits around the world. His recent shows at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and at the Watari-Um Museum in Tokyo, as well as his recent acquisition of the acclaimed Golden Nica (prize Ars Electronica for the recording series 20' to 2000) make his appearance at MUTEK an event not to be missed. His musical work, minimal and meticulous, lingers on the microscopic errors generated by machines. The purity of his recordings, comparable to the works of Ryoji Ikeda (Dumb Type) or Richard Chartier, and their lyrical and humanist characteristics, announce a new era of contemporary minimalist music falling between post-techno and conceptual sound art. KOMET - Frank Bretschneider creates music, that relies on the experimentation and management of accidental sound instances. His perception of contemporary music is represented in the unorthodox coupling of synthetic modules, which emerge into expressive, thought minimalist, miniatures. BYETONE - Along with Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Bender is the co-founder of the label RASTER-NOTON and he is also its graphic artist. He has participated in a number of collective projects on this label, and is currently in the midst of a new record. COH - Ivan Pavlov lives in Sweden and works as a sound engineer. His musical work captures the active sounds that lie at the heart of seemingly static bodies. His latest project, "Vox Tinnitus," was completed in collaboration with the members of the British musical group Coil. Part one: S8P ANTENNAS, TRANSMISSION is an audiovisual performative essay about the life of visionnary inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): electronics, electricity, electromagnetics, telecommunications. Æ is a research and communication unit based on an artistic and philosophical exchange between Montreal artists Gisèle Trudel and Stéphane Claude (who have worked creatively together for the past 9 years), with the regular participation of other collaborators. FRIDAY, JUNE 9 Café Campus 9:00 p.m. MILLE PLATEAUX - FORCE INC. Vladislav Delay / live (Finland) Sutekh / live (USA) Jake Mandell / live (USA) Safety Scissors / DJ (USA) This event is a presentation of various artists who subscribe to the tradition of sonic and musical exploration initiated by the German label MILLE PLATEAUX. Remaining within the confines of electronic and techno music, MILLE PLATEAUX have, for the last five years, been preoccupied with creating a research environment where new technologies are used to generate new musical configurations, with previously unheard tones, which rely on structures built or induced by new digital tools. MILLE PLATEAUX's influence has spread quickly, sprouting satellite labels such as FORCE INC and, more recently, Force Tracks and Ritornell. Their roster of artists, at first restricted and almost necessarily confined to Germany, has opened progressively to include musicians from more distant horizons who also subscribe to MILLE PLATEAUX's approach. The program presented by MUTEK will emphasize this diversity. VLADISLAV DELAY seems to navigate between two distinct geographical sound spaces: the coldness of the great wintry spaces of his native Finland and the encompassing warmth of Jamaica, land of Dub - a dub revisited by Germany's Chain Reaction, a label on which Vladislav Delay has already produced a record and a few 12". Vladislav Delay's music has been known to go above and beyond that of his influences. Though fragmented and based on a search for unused and thus anachronistic and ethereal, tones, his compositions, often long and intemporal seduce with their fluidity. Their placid organization brings the listener towards a certain goal, which is barely discernible at the beginning of the performance. JAKE MANDELL has composed more than 250 pieces in the last few years. Driven by his typically American, unremitting surroundings of Minneapolis, his work is very experimental, and relies on the duality between minimalist rhythmic structures and up-to-date computer programming. Despite the apparent formality of such a combination, it allows for music nevertheless enriched by diverse influences, particularly film music. SUTEKH is part of a new generation of prolific artists from California whose renown promises to grow ever larger. His compositions are based on the foundations of minimalist music and are true festive jewels in which purified Californian influences blend together with sound research and the mix of influences. SAFETY SCISSORS is a member of the new San Francisco scene. He has previously recorded on the Context label and has other works in progress, Force Tracks in particular. SATURDAY, JUNE 10 Café Campus 9:00 p.m. MINIMALISM / E (S) Thomas Brinkmann / live (Germany) Triple R / DJ (Germany) Tomas Jirku / live (Canada) Based on minimalist music and other experimentations this event is an exploration of the geometry of sound and rhythm. BRINKMANN and TRIPLE R (Riley) are two resident artists from Cologne. The temptation was strong to label tonight's evening "The Sound of Cologne," which would be the stereotype. It is true that for a few years, a certain number of Cologne's artists have carried out one another's exploration of the minimalist geometry of the sound and rhythm of electronic music - names like Mike Ink or labels like Profan and Kompakt spring immediately to mind. Although Brinkmann and Riley definitely contribute to the creative ecology of Cologne, but to relate their individual progress uniquely to a purely geographic phenomenon would not do justice to either of them. On his labels Max + Ernst (which translate into maximum + serious), Brinkmann explores the expressive realm of sonic architecture by way of the repetitive and calculated use of elementary particles of sound. At times conceptual (he comes from the field of visual arts) and pragmatic, he performs an in-depth explorations of the space that lies between the grooves of his records. Searching for an unsuspected dimension which could reclaim the interstitial spaces between the sounds; he has become known as a voluntary "remixer" of the minimal series Studio by Mike Ink and Concept by Richie Hawtin. He does not conceal his interest for the spiritual dimension of music and derives an abstract, yet expressive, affective quality from his mathematically rhythmic constructions. TRIPLE R belongs to a small group of DJ's responsible for the launch of the house and techno culture in Cologne in the late 80's. He has several records to his credit (among others, on the labels Disko B and Elektro Music Department), founded DEBUG magazine and, most recently, became heavily involved in the Cologne experimental music scene with the birth of his own label TRAUM, German for 'dream.' His collaboration with Brinkmann promises a rich and exalting evening. TOMAS JIRKU is a young programmer on the Toronto scene. If his music seems similar to the sounds emanating from the Berlin scene (Basic Channel and Chain Reaction), he possesses, nevertheless, his own version of dub's roots, a bewitching framework of atmospheric and search for sound. To his credit, he has a flourishing production: a CD, numerous pieces released on the Toronto site No Type, as well as a new CD on the Montreal label Alien8. There is no doubt that Tomas Jirku is a creator to watch. SUNDAY, JUNE 11 Petit Campus 9:00 p.m. DUB ~SCAPE (S) Pole / live (Germany) Kit Clayton / live (USA) Dakca / live (Canada) Algorithm / DJ (Canada) For its closing event, MUTEK celebrates the return of POLE to Montreal by presenting an evening of soundscapes in the colours of electronic dub. STEFAN BETKE enjoys an international career making remarkable use of the errors generated by imperfect machines. Using the pseudonym Pole, this sound engineer and producer of the ~Scape label, which represents renowned artists of contemporary dub, offers exhilarating compositions against an atmospheric background. Even if the creation depends on computer programming, the emphasis is placed on the errors nevertheless perpetrated by these machines. The resulting music is sensual, humanistic yet cerebral, containing accents of an archaic past (the basis of dub as well) while remaining profoundly contemporary. KIT CLAYTON is a sorcerer of the studio: the multiple facets of his work derives from the search of rhythm and hybridization in digital and analog sounds. Following Pole's influence, Kit Clayton is inspired by dub's recording methods and uses the past, better to influence the future. Likewise, he combines conventional modern recording techniques of acousmatic production with the possibilities generated by information technology. With several vinyls on various labels to his credit, he produces his peers' sound research for the labels Cytrax and Ornthorg. DAKCA, the duo of Mitchell Akiyama and Jean-Patrice Remillard, offers music within the confines of ambient minimalism and the search for rupture and deconstruction. Its substantially drawn-out performances are an invitation to immerse oneself in the gentle mixture of the worlds of analog and digital machinery. JEFF MILLIGAN hails from Toronto. To the quality of his work as a DJ, he brings a profound knowledge of sound engineering and a marked aversion to mercantilism and stagnation. The quality and style of his DJing and his enlightened choices of music have attracted the attention of talented German minimalists Monolake and Thomas Brinkmann, and have Milligan traveling more and more often in order to spread the magic, which emanates from his performances. HAPPY HOURS AT CAFE LAÏKA: JUNE 7 ORAL COLLECTIVE (Montreal) Akufen / live Herri Kopter / live HERRI KOPTER member of the Montreal Oral collective, is the alter ego of prolific musician Jérome Minière who is currently working on his third record of songs dubbed "apartment" songs. Listening only to his inner inspiration, Jérome produces small electronic wonders worthy of various contemporary German labels such as A-Muzik or Sonig (the experimental label of Mouse on Mars.) AFUKEN is the latest pseudonym of Montreal musician Marc Leclair (Reno Disco on the Haute-Couture label, Noiz Slack-R on Hybrid), who appears here in his most purified form. He explores the stimulating and surprising possibilities of a minimalism whose roots lie in the most evolved forms of techno. JUNE 8 LABEL: 12K (New York) Taylor Deupree + Richard Chartier / live Led by TAYLOR DEUPREE, the New York label 12K specializes in musical compositions characterized by their microscopic tones and hyper-synthetic textures. Deupree will present his work with RICHARD CHARTIER, artist, painter and ultra-minimalist composer who works with frequencies situated at both extremities of the sound spectrum, as well as in silence. JUNE 9 LABEL: HAUTEC (Montreal) Mateo + Pheek / live Deadbeat / live Martin / DJ Parent label of Haute Couture, Hautec is hoping to implicate itself in all facets of electronic music, from the simplicity of minimalism to the flamboyance of house. With the strength of their explorative artists behind them, Hautec is sure to meet its goal. DEADBEAT might only be 22, but his thirst for producing and his confidence in his own abilities make him a choice candidate for the Montreal label Hautec. His successes combine computer programming with the search for the physical and organic sources of sound. MATEO + PHEEK are two musicians who, since their first encounter in 1996, have worked together to define what lies behind the construction of spellbinding music. Their performances in numerous events (including Media Lounge) led them to sign with the Hautec label. JUNE 10 LABEL: CONTEXT (San Francisco) Safety Scissors / live Sutekh / DJ A California based record label, Context is a platform for music which presents the listener more musical questions than answers. While Context has strong roots in dance music, most notably techno, it explores uncomfortable areas where this definition makes no sense. With disregard to the name itself, Context is more interested in sonic expressionism and the structures that it might lead to rather than conceptualism superimposed on sound. JUNE 11 WIRE SOUND SYSTEM (UK) >From the world's most adventurous music magazine comes a DJ (ANNE HILDE NESET) spinning a mixed up selection of the leftfield musics that are regularly championned in The Wire. A typical Wire Sound System set flows through an eclectic selection of styles, from abstract electronic drift to minimal techno pulse, taking in free jazz, lock-groove turntablism, messy HipHop and queasy post-rock.