Back for the second year in a row inside of Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle, the Play series—the Festival’s experiential component—offers two double programs per evening from Tuesday, August 24 to Friday, August 27. These 16 performances, all world premieres, will highlight Montreal’s expertise and cutting-edge talent in digital art, audiovisual creation and electronic music. A total of 36 local contemporary artists will join the public in this space for experimentation that will provide a remarkable audiovisual experience. They will have the opportunity to share the culmination of a year of introspection and creative exploration, which will surely result in performances full of renewed imagination and striking offerings.
All programs are on sale today for $25 (taxes and fees included). A limited number of tickets are available due to capacity restrictions.
A discovery offer that allows you to enjoy three Play series programs, either alone or with someone, is also available at $60 per person (taxes and fees included), which includes a 20% discount.
Box office
Take a look, we detailed some performances to guide you in the programming:
Play 1
Myriam Boucher & Kathy Hinde CA/QC+UK — LITTORAL
World Premiere
LITTORAL is a performance by Myriam Boucher and Kathy Hinde combining sculptural objects, sound and light. This audiovisual piece explores concepts concerned with rising sea levels by incorporating scientific data around coastal erosion, thermal expansion, sediment compaction and climate change. The result of residencies in Montréal (at MUTEK 2018) and in the UK (at the Cryptic Cove Park residency), LITTORAL seeks to explore boundaries and edges by inhabiting the spaces in between.
LITTORAL (definition): The shore zone between high tide and low tide points.
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Play 2
Priori & Jason Voltaire CA/QC
World Premiere
Armed with a deep respect for ever-shifting permutations of techno and IDM, Priori's productions morph and shift with every release, channelling murky acid lines, trance-influenced euphoria, and spacey, organic breakbeats. Propulsive, unique dance music pierces the veil of musical reality to open up new spaces. For this 22nd edition, Priori will be premiering for the first time a unique live ambient set, specially created for the festival and accompanied by visuals from Jason Voltaire.
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Play 3
Montreal Life Support & Woulg UK/QC+CA/QC — Empty Vessels
World Premiere
Uniquely complex AV performance, Empty Vessels merges robotics, AI neural networks, classical instrumentation and experimental metaphysics. Custom-built by Montreal Life Support in order to play each string at the same time, three sophisticated robotic structures cradles as many cellos placed at the center of the installation; linked together by Woulg’s intricate web of algorithms, these automatons will independently compose evolving yet synthetic harmonies, transcending the very artists who gave them life.
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Play 4
Lucas Paris & Alexis Langevin-Tétrault FR/QC+CA/QC — square one
World Premiere
Born from a desire to reunite, both musically and in person after a year of lockdowns, Lucas Paris and Alexis Langevin-Tétrault return to the core of their collaboration with square one, a streamlined audiovisual performance. With modular synthesizers, the duo simultaneously projects audio and light on a simple square, immersing spectators in a sensory experience assembled from sound and light abstractions. The approach aims to reconnect with the origins of electronic music, recontextualized through a contemporary approach and tools.
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Play 5
France Jobin & Markus Heckmann CA/QC + DE - Entanglement
World premiere
Entanglement is basically an artistic project at the crossroads of scientific research inspired by the concept and properties of entanglement in quantum physics and quantum fields theory. The sources of inspiration of France Jobin and Markus Heckmann are based on the two current dominant theories explaining quantum entanglement: the Copenhagen interpretation and the multiverse (quantum decoherence). In addition to these two theories, there is the fluidity of time and the principle of quantum entanglement. The Entanglement performance is inspired by the same theories; an ambitious immersive experience that will be presented as a world premiere at the 22nd edition of MUTEK.
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Play 6
Thisquietarmy x Philippe Léonard CA/QC - MSC ZOE 01.01.2019
World premiere
With MSCZOE-01.01.2019, Thisquietarmy x Philippe Léonard A/V duo pushes the concept of an enlarged cinema even further to recreate the scale of the maritime disaster of the MSC Zoe, which resulted in the loss of 290 containers at sea, swapping analog hardware for modern, minimal digital technology. For this work as immersive as it is post-apocalyptic, Leonard works with digital controllers and software from VJ-ing, while Thisquietarmy trades his guitars and amplifiers for more synthetic kosmische electronic drones and off-techno industrial rhythms pulsed from 'recorded samples.
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Play 7
Ida Toninato & Pierre-Luc Lecours FR/QC+CA/QC
World Premiere
Product of a summer residency at Québec’s artist-run Avatar centre, this first collaboration between Ida Toninato and Pierre-Luc Lecours explores the various dynamics underlying matter, energy and frequencies. To that end, the duo will combine baritone saxophone, electric guitar and modular synthesizer, filtered through digital tools, into a unique audio stream; the resulting audio performance is then staged across two screens as a means to visually represent the music’s velocities and energetic content.
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Play 8
Charbonneau/Amato CA/QC — Synth Works Vol.2
World Premiere
Charbonneau/Amato are formed of a modular synth, a Farfisa, drum machines and mono synths. In their synthetic dialogues and rich electronic sketches, Charbonneau/Amato invoke spacious soundscapes and complex textures with ambient contours, bathed in elegant harmonic layers and wavering rhythms. The pair are world premiering a new live show with material from their first and upcoming effort. The concert is accompanied by live screenings by Montréal artist and filmmaker Joël Vaudreuil, also a member of Avec Pas d'Casque.
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