Concrete beats and trigonometric tones at MUTEK

>>

by KRISTA

In the early part of the last century, some now-famous architect guy said, "Architecture is music, frozen." Exactly what he meant by that is open to a whole lot of interpretation. Terms like early modern, modern modern, postmodern, minimalism and deconstructionism start swelling in my brain and suddenly all I see is an image of black turtleneck sweaters gathered around a table sipping espressos and waxing poetic

about the relationship between space, structure and sound.

I know about as much about architecture as I do about algebra, and I failed that twice--so how will I ever understand the relationship between the two? Enter the MUTEK Festival, Montreal's first annual event mounted to explore the relationship between music and sound creation and new technologies, put on by Ex-Centris, F.I.L.M.S. and the Media Lounge guys.

To clarify, the kinds of music and sound being explored at MUTEK are electronic in nature and techno-oriented, but not your average club hits. Specifically, MUTEK ascribes to everything minimal and experimental, showcasing avant-garde artists from dynamic artistic backgrounds experimenting with new forms of electronic music. To break that down just a little more for you: "experimental minimal electronic music" as a genre consists of everything from Plastikman to the sound of plastic being melted with a curling iron.

White noise, Germans and you

The following is a quick synopsis of the festival and the artists involved, compiled to help you (and me) understand and appreciate the beauty of white noise. MUTEK kicks off on Wednesday, June 7 at Ex-Centris with Architettura, a mixed-media installation headed by NYC film house and music label Caipirinha. Featured on opening night is the Canadian premiere of four short films by Brazilian-born Korean director Iara Lee, the woman who wrote and produced both the Synthetic Pleasures and Modulations films. The films explore what harmony, if any, exists between electronic music and architecture. Artists Taylor Deupree (NYC), Sound Track (NYC) and Panacea (Germany), who all created soundtracks to accompany each of Lee's shorts, will perform live, as well as Montrealer Alexandre St-Onge, who will present a piece of "music" influenced by the "concrète" school of electroacoustic exploration.

Thursday, June 8, Germany's Raster-Noton play live at Ex-Centris. This collective of conceptual artists that includes Carsten Nicolai, Frank Bretschneider, Olaf Bender and Ivan Pavlov working under various monikers will essentially make noise using electricity as a catalyst. Wear rubber-soled shoes.

Friday, June 9, the festival moves to Café Campus, where artists and DJs from the Mille Plateaux label will perform. This will undoubtedly be one of the more mainstream nights, but by that I simply mean that the music will likely involve repetitive beats at some point. Artists on the night include Finlandian Vladislav Delay, who has also produced for Chain Reaction, Jake Mandell from Minneapolis and Sutekh and Safety Scissors from San Francisco.

Still more Germans

On Saturday, June 10, is MENSA puzzle night at the festival, as MUTEK explores minimalism through the geometry of sound and rhythm with two of Koeln, Germany's foremost talents in the vein of minimalist music: Thomas Brinkmann, who owns and runs the Max & Ernst imprint, and Triple R. Normally anything associated with mathematics terrifies me, but I luckily became a fan of Brinkmann's work before I knew he was all into "sonic architecture" and calculating rhythm. Joining the purist Deutschlanders on the night will be Toronto native Tomas Jirku, an up-and-comer creating sounds akin to Basic Channel and Chain Reaction.

Finally, on Sunday, June 11, MUTEK presents the final instalment of the series at Café Campus featuring an evening of eclectic dub-inspired noise with artists Pole, Kit Clayton, Dakca and DJ Algorithm. When I say dub I am of course referring to the process and not the sound associated with Jamaican reggae. Pole, aka Stefan Betke, favourite among architects and designers, makes music by mistake--that is, the mistakes of the machines he uses. San Francisco's Kit Clayton has been producing since 1996 on obscure left coast labels like Drop Beat, Cytrax, and his own The Mimic and The Model. Montreal's Dakca go for deconstruction, making ambient soundscapes, and DJ Algorithm ties it all together, playing a selection of sparse beats. :