Since 1999, ELEKTRA has presented a series of musical and audio performances by international artists who have created their own instruments. Whether through original work of new "lutherie", of diversion of everyday or industrial objects, these creators and performers have succeeded each time in creating new astonishing sound palette, new ways of playing.
L’Assemblée, Louis-Philippe Demers, 2001 ELEKTRA 2001 - Usine C L'Assemblée is a robotic performance created by Louis-Philippe Demers presenting 48 robots, mechanical arms each equipped with a loudspeaker and a projector, fixed to a circular structure inside which the audience can enter.
Clicks’n’Cars (2003) by Ultraphonist/RM/Objetct/Urawa, Hugo Girard/SzkieveELEKTRA
Clicks’n’Cars
Clicks’n’Cars is an audio tour de force, conceived and produced by Foton founders Peter Van Hoesen and Hans De Man. Building upon the duo’s fascination with experimental sound they conceived a surround sound installation using four car frames as resonating bodies, i.e. speakers.
New and Used Furniture Music, Gordon Monahan, 2003 ELEKTRA 2003 - SAT : A multi-media sound performance in which the performer plays a midi-interactive theremin, causing a progressive series of Max programs to play various mechanized sound sculptures. A collection of amplified household objects is played, and several suspended thunder sheets are resonated by variable speed motors.
Speaker Swinging, Gordon Monahan, 1982 - ELEKTRA 2002 - Usine C: Speaker Swinging is an experiment for three or more swinging loudspeakers and nine audio oscillators in an enclosed space. The idea comes from hearing such things as Leslie speakers, moving vehicles with broadcasting sound systems, airplanes, and other moving sound sources, both industrial and organic.
Reactable, Marcos Alonso, ELEKTRA_Lab 2008 - Usine C
Performance using a multi-user tangible electronic music synthesizer. Based on a tabletop interface, several simultaneous users or performers can share its control by moving, rotating and touching objects on the luminous surface to create complex and dynamic sonic topologies.
Sewing Machine Orchestra, Martin Messier, 2011 ELEKTRA 2011 – Usine C : In this performance, with a computer and microcontrollers, Messier reactivates old Singers sewing machines to release the luminous and resounding presence of the past. By controlling and amplifying the machines’ noises and micro-movements, he creates a dreamlike universe where the old Singers are magnified.
frequencies (a), Nicolas Bernier ELEKTRA 2013 – Usine C : Sound performance combining the sound of mechanically triggered tuning forks with pure digital soundwaves. The performer is triggering sequences from the computer, activating solenoides that hit the tuning forks with high precision. Streams of light burst in synchronicity with the forks.
MACHINE_VARIATION (2014) by Nicolas Bernier & Martin MessierELEKTRA
Machine_Variations - Martin Messier and Nicolas Bernier 2014
ELEKTRA 2014 - EM15 - Théâtre Impérial
The human body as an aspect of digital creation: on stage the two performers’ bodies operate and control the creative process by forging direct connections with what we see and hear.
MACHINE_VARIATION (2014) by Nicolas Bernier & Martin MessierELEKTRA
The central piece to the performance is a gigantic physical structure built with the artist Jonathan Villeneuve.
Nyloïd, Cod.Act, 2013 Robotic performance ELEKTRA 2015 – BIAS - Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
An impressive animated sound sculpture, a giant tripod composed of 3 nylon rods of 6 meters in length. Both sensual and threatening, this mobile with a bestial allure draws its dramatic power from the reactivity of its plastic and sound material to various mechanical solicitations.
Soft Revolvers, Myriam Bleau, 2014 ELEKTRA 2015 – BIAS – Usine C : 4 spinning tops built with clear acrylic are each associated with an ‘instrument’ in an electronic music composition. Motion data collected by sensors informs musical algorithms. LEDs illuminate the objects in a precise counterpoint to the music, creating stunning spinning halos.
CI (2015) by Diamond Version, Atsushiro ItoELEKTRA
CI - Diamond Version, Atsushiro Ito 2015
A collaborative performance by the duo of Alva Noto and Byetone (Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender, of the Raster-Noton imprint) accompanied by the Japanese artist Atsuhiro Ito, creator of the Optron (a musical instrument using modified fluorescent tubes as a sound source).
The idea of the radio hall is being inverted. Natural radio signals and transmitted long wave signals up to about 150 kHz that traverse the performance space are being received and translated into a tangible space of acoustically audible signals.
VERTEX - JEAN PICHÉ & PATRICK SAINT-DENIS, 2016
ELEKTRA 2016 – AUTOMATA – Arsenal art contemporain
16 vertical rods: a pod of two speakers and LED lamp whose movements are controlled by algorithms simulating the propagation of energy in a virtual medium.
The sounds are subject to a spatial distribution that depends on the distance separating each of the rods and their movement
πTON (2018) by Cod.ActELEKTRA
πTon, Cod.Act , 2018
ELEKTRA 2018 – Arsenal art contemporain
πTON (2018) by Cod.ActELEKTRA
A long rubber tube closed in a loop animated by contortions and undulations like an invertebrate body.
πTON (2018) by Cod.ActELEKTRA
It seems to try to release itself in vain and becomes the subject of primary and sophisticated polyphonic rituals only constituted by synthesized voices from four humans with loudspeakers.
Tattoo Hacking - NSDOS, 2018, BIAN 2018 – Arsenal art contemporain : It questions the relationship between the tattooist's gesture, the technology and its relationship with the body. By connecting the needle to his machines and software, using an old tattoo technique called Stick and Poke, a dialogue begins, a musical story, between his body and the tools.
SPIEL | performance for prepared mouth (2019) by PETER VAN HAAFTEN & MICHAEL MONTANAROELEKTRA
SPIEL | Performance for prepared mouth, 2019
PETER VAN HAAFTEN & MICHAEL MONTANARO - ELEKTRA XX – SOCIÉTÉ DES ARTS TECHNOLOGIQUES
SPIEL | performance for prepared mouth (2019) by PETER VAN HAAFTEN & MICHAEL MONTANAROELEKTRA
An etude on hearing lips and seeing voices, the performer’s mechanically augmented vocal tract reshapes and filters conversational spectra into new modes of miscommunication.
Spiel physically unravels the tenuous synesthetic relationship between what is seen, heard and understood.
A robotic and immersive performance whose title refers to motion sickness. Clinging to a mobile grid above, large metal plates perform a vast series of movements while descending on the audience. A unique somatic experience where robotic choreography gradually leads to the loss
Photos and video: Christian Pomerleau GRIDSPACE; Peter Dimakos; Conception Levy; Caroline Hayeur
Artistic Director - ELEKTRA: Alain Thibault
Partners:
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Ministère de la culture et des communications du Québec
Ministère des relations internationales et de la francophonie du Québec
Canada Council for the Arts
Canadian Heritage
Conseil des arts de Montréal
Ville de Montréal
Filaction - Fonds de développement
Usine C
Arsenal Contemporary Art
SAT - Society for Art and Technology
Pro Helvetia
Mondriaan Foundation
Consulat de France à Montréal
Concordia University - Fine Arts Faculty
https://www.elektramontreal.ca/
