V.ictor^CA/QC

Without succumbing to quietude, V.ictor's minimal techno draws on nature's calmer moments—and the sounds amplified and heard because of it. A fast-running creek becomes a modular synth created melody, footsteps on the forest floor transform into a groove, natural and artificial merge without judgement.

Since his teenage years as an underground rave DJ in Québec City, V.ictor has searched out electronic music's sweet spot, fusing inventive sound creation with feel-good experiences. He started producing electronic music under various pseudonyms and in collaboration, eschewing laptops in favour of samplers, synthesizers, drum machines and other hands-on equipment. Modular synthesizers became his instrument of choice around the time he embraced the V.ictor moniker. His Boréal EP joins the collective/label Forests and Rivers, co-organized by Montréal-based techno producer Pheek (Jean-Patrice Remillard, also known for labels Archipel and Kalimari). Boréal's rich sound textures evoke elements of nature on a rhythmic, pleasure-focused forest walk, melodic details growing organically and subtly as if fauna and flora in the green canopy's shadows. Ramping up his output as well as live shows in 2019, V.ictor launched a beat-driven and bleepy collaborative release with label Cosmic Relay and deep house track Pebbles on Unknown Artist Records. He's recently performed at Québec's Eclipse festival, Montréal event producers' Contakt Cruz-Control nights and Unlog label's Silicon Beats events.

The pieces of the praise of uncertainty were created during the first confinement. Locked in a chalet with his modular synthesizer, V.ictor worked on the sounds by letting himself be guided by random sound generation processes. The idea was to build the sound material from the unexpected, in a situation that was itself uncertain, due to the onset of the pandemic. By reworking the recordings to add rhythmic and sometimes melodic layers, V.ictor builds a style where dub, micro and minimal techno influences sail. The result: more introspective and meditative pieces that keep a good rhythmic groove.