Lucas Paris^CA/QC

Lucas Paris' ability to create digital instruments and software is only surpassed by his ability to use them in the service of volatile techno interpolations that scorch the terrain of everything they touch. Pushing digital performance to new realms of multi-sensory exploration, he summons emotional and perceptual hallucinations, crafting barrelling, abrasive techno, while distinctively linked visual projections zigzag and shudder in synchronicity.

Originally interested in hip hop influenced turntablism growing up in the US, Paris eventually shifted his focus to production, idolizing techno innovators like Monolake for their ability to create their own equipment to make sounds untethered to existing genres. That influence brought Paris to the digital music program at Université de Montréal where the collective QUADr flourished— an electroacoustic audiovisual group that employed foley techniques, bicycle wheels, and modular synthesizers to create a performative and unique electronic squelch. A passion for coding and software design combined with Paris' enthusiasm for corroded low-end techno frequencies led to the always-morphing AntiVolume project, where unstable sculptures of sound and light recreate the sensory effects of the rave settings Paris grew up immersed in. Whether in music or visual design, a deep, reverential knowledge of texture is at work: a synthesis of visual algorithms with musical frequencies, creating an ever-growing feedback loop in Paris' process between audio and visual creation.

With multiple MUTEK appearances and worldwide performance residencies already under his belt, Paris unveils Emotional Synthesis, centred around the sensory manipulation at the core of marketing. Jacking into our cerebral cortexes with the omnipresent power of commercial styling, Paris' latest audiovisual performance creates an abrasive futuristic vision, an immersive commentary that is as seductive as it is sonically corrosive.