“It’s the OG soundsystem, really” a friend whispered to me as we tiptoed to our balcony seats at Montreál’s Maison Symphonique on the second night of MUTEK Festival. He was referring to the silver behemoth of a pipe organ suspended above the concert hall, where moments later Kali Malone would perform for a spellbound, if somewhat sleepy, crowd. The insight pretty much nailed the ethos of the five-day festival, which celebrated its 27th edition this year. Through a rich program anchored around a free stage in the heart of downtown, MUTEK maps experimental music across genre and discipline, a bucket-list destination for the most esoteric raver that still functions as an entry point for curious passersby. It’s a festival that carefully unspools the thread connecting an artist like Malone, whose preferred instrument was invented in the 3rd century, to a duo like the UK-based Super Galaxy Meow Meow, who use laser-generated beams of light to trigger compositions at the hardest end of trance.
Founded in 2000 by scholar Alain Mongeau and inspired by European festivals like Barcelona’s Sonar and Berlin’s Interference Festival at Love Parade, MUTEK has expanded over the years to host editions in Mexico City, Barcelona, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and more. But Montreal is the main event, where government funding and a close-knit DIY scene merge to turn avant-garde art from around the world into a block party. MUTEK mirrors its host city’s dedication to nurturing hometown talent—see local hubs like parkside day party Parquette and up-and-coming underground club La Recré for examples—by splitting the lineup evenly between international delegates and local performers. That means that formidable foreign bookings like Jeff Mills or Ben UFO (both of whom brought pure electricity to so-late-it’s-early sessions at the historic concert hall TELUS) rub elbows with scene veterans like Poirer, who got his start in the ’90s in Canadian community radio, or a rising modular techno talent like Cleo Leigh, who repped rural Newfoundland’s burgeoning music scene in a Friday live hardware set.
Frédérique Ménard-Aubin
