by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

MUTEK's got the finest in IDM DJs and artists, and FCMM links up indie digital film and music, so the folks at Montreal's Elektra have found their own niche. Their bag is installation art, specifically as it connects to ultra-modern video art and electronic music, and to that end they consistently round up fascinating acts and ideas from around the world (where their rep is starting to precede them). 2003, their fifth year, is no exception.

The festival kicks off with the return of Elektra favourites Granular Synthesis. The Austrian duo of Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich intend to outdo themselves this time, too. Their aim is to create utterly abstract audio-visual art that hammers the audience with the intensity of an extreme grindcore show. Fluctuations of digitized colour and light splash across gigantic screens, accompanying a rumbling morass of bass-heavy

noisescaping, lulling/bullying the crowd into an uneasy trance state. This time they've gone 360° - attendees will find themselves inside a circular structure of screens, literally immersed in the duo's seething bath of sound and light. That's at Usine C tonight, Nov. 13, at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., with a $16 tax, and the show repeats on Friday, Nov. 14, at 1:30, 4, 9, 10 and 11 p.m. as well. Keep in mind that the Granular guys are also presiding over a free multimedia conference late this afternoon at SAT.

Twins get cranked

Another figure familiar to the Elektra-fied is Christian Vogel, who you may remember as half of Super_Collider, the highlight of last year's programming. The Chilean émigré has been a major figure in the German techno scene for a decade now, challenging the parameters of the form without sacrificing dancefloor accessibility. He's the star of the showcase at Aria on Friday, Nov. 14, at 4 a.m., but he's not alone on the bill. Also on hand is the local duo Purform, which is digital visuals man Yan Breuleux and sound artist Alain Thibault (also an Elektra founder), as well as VJ Many-2.

Saturday night, Nov. 15, is a full plate, that's for sure. The night at Usine C starts at 9 p.m. with Cantique, a pomo pas-a-deux created by internationally celebrated dancer Marie Chouinard. That's followed by a screening of In Absentia, a film that mixes live action and stop-motion animation, care of the strange, grim and highly original identical twins, the Brothers Quay. The pair have worked with Peter Gabriel (remember the "Sledgehammer" clip?) and Julie Taymor (the creepy Mexican skeletons in Frida), and In Absentia sees them teaming up with that legend of avant-garde composition Karlheinz Stockhausen for a harrowing exploration of mental illness.

That's not it! There's also Intr_version label head Mitchell Akiyama's A/V exploration of urban planning, a best-of package from American video manipulator GMunk, a rethinking of the myth of Orpheus by locals Ned Bouhalassa and VJ Pillow and the Spamspasmes jam by locals Automates surlaplage, where machines come alive as people become machines. Not bad for $24.

Autophonics 101

That's just the first week, mind you. Week two begins with Canada's Gordon Monahan at SAT on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 9 p.m., $16. His show is called New and Used Furniture Music, and don't be surprised if the proverbial kitchen sink is in fact part of the instrumentation - Monahan's MIDI-fied theremin triggers sound sculptures made from household stuff. A former student of John Cage, he's also one of the founders of Berlin's brilliantly kitschy nightclub Schmalzwald, so he knows that "art" can be part of "party."

Thursday, Nov. 20, sees a show at Usine C that might appeal to some of the Saturday-night yahoos on Ste-Catherine, the ones with earthshaking bass bins in their crappy li'l Hondas. In Clicks'n'cars, automobiles themselves are suspended and used as giant, complex speakers, through which various music makers work their sonic magic. The event repeats on Friday, Nov. 21 - both shows 9 p.m., $22.

Friday also sees Like Spinning Plates at SAT at 5 p.m., free. Curated by Daniella Casella, it's a program of dope videos by the likes of Radiohead, Autechre, Squarepusher and more. Same time, same place, same free entry the next day, wavelength O3 gathers videos by Amon Tobin, Björk, Cassius and then some. Saturday night, Nov. 22, is the climactic soirée at Usine C, where $25 gets you German neo-electro heavyweight Anthony Rother alongside Vromb, Headscan, and local VJs Les Passagers and Euterke.

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