Since 1999, ELEKTRA has presented a series of audio installations by international artists. Whether through original work, of diversion of everyday or industrial objects, these creators have succeeded each time in creating a new astonishing audio palette, new ways of making sounds.
Juke_Bots, Robot Lab (Matthias Gommel, Martina Haitz, Jan Zappe), 2002 ELEKTRA 2002 - Usine C : In the installation 'juke_bots' two industrial robots play. Each robot can make its own selection of records and play it back. The machines can delay, accelerate, fragment and distort the music in their characteristic way.
Full Spectrum – Thomas Bégin, 2008
A mechanic-analog sound device composed of industrial motors, an electromagnetic device and guitar amplifiers. Once turned on, sound waves and light pulses become perfectly synchronous or even hypnotic. The installation becomes a noise musical instrument
The Turbulence Sound Matrix (TSM) uses digital recordings of the wind created by Heimbecker's Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003) in the form of continuous cascading wave patterns to amplify and diffuse any sound source through the powerful 64 channels of the TSM's unique speaker array.
International Dance Party, Adad Hannah, Niklas Roy - 2008
The machine has a built in doppler radar: When it detects movements in the space where it is stored, it opens up its speaker front and plays a few inviting beats. If people then start to dance, it opens up more and more, reveals its light and laser effects and starts its internal smoke machine.
Alexis O'Hara – SQUEEEEQUE, 2009-2011 ELEKTRA 2009 - Centre des arts actuels Skol :Squeeeque is an immersive installation, an igloo made of speakerboxes. Working as a resonance chamber, the audience’s voices reverberate across walls and ceiling. The visitor is invited to enter and speak into one of the dangling microphones which are fed back into the speakers.
Wind Coil Sound Flow (2009) by Ken GregoryELEKTRA
Ken Gregory - Wind Coil Sound Flow, 2009
ELEKTRA 2009 – Galerie Articule
Wind Coil Sound Flow (2009) by Ken GregoryELEKTRA
An acoustic electromechanical system that aims to transform wind-generated vibrations on a kite's towline into harmonic frequencies. First a large one-stringed guitar is played by the wind outdoors. The sounds generated then activate long strings creating new and complex sounds
Sonic Bed_Quebec, Kaffe Matthews, 2010 ELEKTRA 2010 – Oboro : Spectators can experience music on a sensory level by lying on a catalogne-covered mattress and letting themselves be lulled by the vibrations and pulsations of sound. This new version provides an opportunity to explore multi-channel music created not only for the ears, but also the body.
216 prepared dc-motors, Zimoun, 2010 ELEKTRA 2010 – Galerie B312 216 prepared dc-motors is a sound and kinetic sculpture comprising of 216 small motors aligned against a white framed wooden canvas, activating a curtain of metallic wires. The installation functions as an instrument both artificial and organic in nature.
Urban Wind, Herman Kolgen, 2010 Festival INDAF 2010 – Incheon South Korea : For this installation, wind sensors are installed in strategic points of the city, the velocity and direction of the wind will be analyzed and then transmitted to a group of accordions that will emit a euphonic soundscape. Through it, the public can hear the pulmonary dynamics of the city.
Cycloïd-E (2011) by Cod.ActELEKTRA
Cycloïd-E – Cod.Act, 2011 Fonderie Darling
A pendulum. What if it was composed of segments articulated horizontally, if the effect of gravitation was replaced by a motor?
Cycloïd-E (2011) by Cod.ActELEKTRA
The segments of the pendulum become metal tubes equipped with sound sources and measuring instruments capable of making them resonate according to their rotation.
Instrumentation, Peter Flemming, 2012
ELEKTRA - BIAN 2012 - Centre des arts actuels Skol
Light, electromagnetism and resonance figure centrally in Instrumentation, a sprawling kinetic sound installation in which these immaterial phenomena are manipulated by expressly material means.
EOTONE, HERMAN KOLGEN et DAVID LETELLIER, BIAN 2014 – PLACE DES FESTIVALS, QUARTIER DES SPECTACLES - MONTREAL
Eotone reflects on distance and weather using the wind. Four sound and sculptural diffusers contain elements of both the weather vane and the foghorn, rendering in movement and sound the direction and force of the wind blowing simultaneously on two continents: Quebec and France. A collaboration between Mois-Multi (Quebec City), Scopitone Festival (Nantes France), Maintenant Festival (Rennes France).
Frequencies (A/ Frictions), Nicolas Bernier, ELEKTRA 2015
An old oscillator is connected to a speaker and a 480 Hz tuning fork. When the tuning fork is randomly struck by the solenoid, a beating pattern appears, where we hear the friction between the two oscillations, electronic and acoustic, and periods of the sonic research history.
205 Prepared DC-Motors, Cotton Balls, Cardboard Boxes, Zimoun, 2013 BIAN 2016 – Arsenal art contemporain An installation of cardboard boxes. Each box has one motor and an equal amount of power. In theory, each box should react the same, but in reality, it reacts differently because the motors and the used materials add behavior. Individuality is growing out of the mass.
Coincidence Engine One: Universal people's republic time. (2015) by The UserELEKTRA
Coincidence Engine One: Universal People's Republic Time
The User, ELEKTRA - BIAS -2015
Coincidence Engine One: Universal people's republic time. (2015) by The UserELEKTRA
Tribute installation to the Symphonic Poem for 100 Metronomes by György Ligeti. The piece is designed for a single spectator who gets the optimum experience by settling in its center, totally surrounded by 1200 clocks arranged in concentric arcs and enveloped by their sound.
Sound Settler/ Colonisateur sonore, JEAN-PIERRE GAUTHIER, 2019 ELEKTRA XX – Usine C: Utopian project to develop an interactive music system on Mars before settlers. The public can play with a robotic arm connected to a copy of the Martian device, generating interactive electronic music. A 3D interactive simulation simultaneously shows the future music performance.
Photos: Christian Pomerleau GRIDSPACE; Peter Dimakos; Conception Levy; Herman Kolgen
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
Oboro
Articule
Skol
Fonderie Darling
Mois-Multi - Quebec
Art Center Nabi - Seoul - South Korea
ZKM
Festival Scopitone - Nantes - France
Festival Maintenant - Rennes - France
Pro Helvetia
Swissnex Boston
Ville de Genève
Festival Mapping - Genève (Director: Ana Ascencio)
Goethe Institute
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Consulat de France à Montréal
Université de Montréal
ICRA
Kinova
https://www.elektramontreal.ca/
