Electronic evolution at Mutek 2013

ELECTRONIC EVOLUTION AT MUTEK 2013

Posted by Robyn Fadden on April 17, 2013

For 14 years, Mutek has been moving minds and bodies with the latest and greatest sounds to come out of the vast genre of electronic music. The electronic music and culture festival does everything right again this year, with deep-listening performances, incredible visuals, free shows by local artists, a Piknic Electronik afternoon, and the fest’s signature five nights of late-night dancing, May 29 to June 2…

One of the world’s best and most anticipated electronic music festivals, Mutek challenges and surprises festival goers while consistently entertaining with musicians, producers and multimedia artists from around the world, specializing in both big and upcoming names in edgier electronic music.

At Mutek this year, the A/Visions evening shows and Nocturnes late-night events herald close to a hundred artists. Multifaceted producer Matthew Herbert comes back to Montreal after an eight year absence to perform three projects – One Pig, a musical improv set centred on a war photojournalist’s audio, and a DJ set as Wishmountain – throughout the festival, the UK’s undefinable and deeply cool Jamie Lidell returns, as does Catalan house beatmaker John Talabot, Detroit techno minimalist Robert Hood, Germany pianist Nils Frahm, Japanese audiovisual artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, and Montrealer Ghislain Poirier unveils his new synthy, cinematic, minimalist project, Boundary. There’s even a special performance by Pantha du Prince and The Bell Laboratory at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the city’s recently built and acoustically impressive symphony hall in the heart of downtown at Place des Arts.

Those in the know never underestimate the greatness of Mutek’s opening event: this year, that night  celebrates the 20th anniversary of German label Kompakt, with performances from American producer Michael Mayer, Saschienne and Swedish producer Alex Willner, a.k.a. The Field. The festival program rambles on in the best way possible with the return of British producer John Hopkins, German trio Brandt Brauer Frick, Raster-Noton duo Emptyset’s minimal noise and beats, and after years away, the jazz-infused sound of Frivolous. Also hear Mutek first-timers like young American techno experimenter Laurel Halo, prolific American producer John Tejada, and deep house makers Berlin-based Efdemin and John Roberts.

The Redbull Music Academy puts on a series of shows at high-tech, long-time Mutek venue the Society for Art and Technology, with the likes of Andy Stott, Martyn and Onra, Montreal fave Deadbeat, Space Dimension Controller, L.A.’s Nosaj Thing, and new Ninja Tune players Emika and Letherette. And on the last night of the festival, get right into Borderland, a new dub-meets-loops project from Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, and a long, analogue-rich set by Juju Jordash. Unbelievably, there are even more artists on the roster, and more still to be announced, meaning that, as always, Mutek’s a guaranteed good time.

THE DETAILS

Mutek, May 29-June 2, 2013

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