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WHAT IS MUTEK?
“Music, Sound, and New
Technologies.”
Mutek
is all about the cross between minimal techno artists, electro-acoustic,
ambient music and academic computer musicians. One night, it’s
experimental blips, glitches, beeps, and clicks n’ cuts; the next
night, it’s slamming minimal tech-house. Mutek pushes artists that are
picking up on the fertile musical no-person’s land between the
post-rave music lover and the armchair academic, the dancefloor and the
bong. Mutek is about exploring the relation between music, technology
and visual composition, with many artists featuring video-visual work as
a part of their performance. Mutek is also distinctly Canadian as the
North American answer to Spain’s Sonar festival in Barcelona. Held in
Montreal for the second year running and spearheaded by Alain Mongeau of
the Ex-Centris Cinema and New Media Complex, Mutek featured over 35
artists from 8 different countries for an exhaustive 5 nights. Each
night featured a free “cinq a sept” (happy hour, 5-7) at the SAT (Societe
des Arts Technologiques), which is one massive gallery-warehouse in
downtown Montreal. The later shows were first held at the postmodern
ultra-cool Ex-Centris film building (built by Daniel Langlois), and then
the weekend shows were at the SAT, featuring 6-speaker surround sound.
Most shows featured at least several hundred people, and the final
Sunday performance sold out the SAT with 800 plus. More info and audio
archives: http://www.mutek.ca
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