korea town acid marie davidson colin stetson mutek montreal festival 2024
Music

MUTEK has put together an incredible lineup for their 25th anniversary edition, Aug. 20 to 25

by Dave MacIntyre

Korea Town Acid, Marie Davidson and Colin Stetson are among the nearly 120 acts playing Montreal’s cutting-edge electronic music and digital art festival, coming to indoor and outdoor stages in the Quartier des Spectacles.

For the past quarter-century, MUTEK has proudly built a reputation as Montreal’s most cutting-edge electronic music festival. 

This month, the festival will celebrate 25 years of dazzling fans through music and visual art — 46,000 fans at the 2023 edition alone. A self-described “immersive journey through the digital arts,” this year’s milestone MUTEK edition will go down from Aug. 20 to 25.

Shows will be held across venues like MTELUS, SAT (where MUTEK’s offices are based) and Place des Arts’s Théâtre Maisonneuve. MUTEK’s outdoor space, Esplanade Tranquille, will host free shows throughout the week. 

Events will take place under five series of programming: Expérience, Nocturne, A/Visions, Métropolis and a special event at New City Gas. The Métropolis series at MTELUS — recalling the venue’s former name — will be hosting shows that will run well after hours, ending as late as 6 a.m. On Aug. 25, MUTEK pass holders will be able to use their pass to get into Piknic Électronik.

As a bonus for digital-art lovers, the Village Numérique offers a free circuit of installations to experience for free from 6 to 11 p.m. in the Quartier des Spectacles throughout the festival. Among the installations are Age of Union’s immersive Black Hole Experience by Kelly Nunes and Dax Dasilva, which made its debut at C2 in Montreal in May.

80 performances by artists from Quebec, the rest of Canada and around the world will take place this year — 24 countries represented by close to 120 acts. In other words, there are definitely worse ways to spend some of the final days of summer if you’re spending them in Montreal.

Here are some of the big-ticket events highlighting this year’s anniversary edition, and where to catch them.

Colin Stetson, Patrick Watson’s Film Scores for No One, Kara-Lis Coverdale

This isn’t the kind of show one would expect from a festival known for more left-field, uptempo beats, but those attending this special event at New City Gas — the second year in a row they’ve held one — will be in for an immersive spectacle. Colin Stetson, Kara-Lis Coverdale and Patrick Watson’s modular synth-based project titled Film Scores for No One make for a stellar homegrown bill. 950 Ottawa, Aug. 21, 9 p.m., $45

Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones

Hailing from New Jersey but with a dad from Edmonton, Sinjin Hawke has continued to challenge both himself and sonic boundaries in the years since he remixed for Ludacris and produced for Kanye. He and Montreal’s Zora Jones have been the duo behind the project Fractal Fantasy for more than a decade, and their show in the Satosphere (feat. seven other acts, some of them playing inside Espace SAT) will blend influences from hip hop, electronic and baile funk together with a motion capture and AI-assisted audiovisual spectacle. 1201 St-Laurent, 10 p.m., Aug. 22, $45

Fred Everything

A local electronic scene mainstay, the house producer/DJ born Frédéric Blais brings his over a quarter-century worth of experience to MUTEK this year. Fredheads will be treated to an exclusive live set at Éspace SAT, featuring tracks from his latest album Love, Care, Kindness & Hope. 1201 St-Laurent, Aug. 23, 10:30 p.m., $45

Korea Town Acid

Based in Toronto but born in Seoul (as Jessica Cho), Korea Town Acid’s surreal, jittery brand of electronic music borrows from jungle and footwork among other more experimental subgenres — as heard most recently on her album In Motion. Korea Town Acid will be playing the same Nocturne bill as Fred Everything, but in the adjacent immersive Satosphere dome. 1201 St-Laurent, Aug. 23, 10:30 p.m., $45

Evian Christ

Born Joshua Leary, this native of the Liverpool-adjacent Ellesmere Port in England puts a bold twist on the trance genre, taking it to some glitchy, garish and gorgeous places at once. The producer’s latest album Revanchist captures this dynamic brilliantly. He’ll be playing alongside a slew of other European techno mavens at MTELUS. 59 Ste-Catherine E., Aug. 23, 11 p.m., $50

Marie Davidson

Musically high-powered with a fierce onstage demeanour, Davidson’s live shows are not to be missed. The veteran Montreal dancefloor commander — who recently released “Y.A.A.M.,” her first single on Soulwax’s label DEEWEE — criss-crosses between genres while maintaining an icy cool presence on all fronts. At this edition of MUTEK, Davidson will play a rare free outdoor show, alongside three other acts, at Esplanade Tranquille. 1442 Clark, Aug. 25, 5 p.m., free

For tickets and more on MUTEK 2024, please visit the festival’s website. This article was originally published in the Aug. 2024 issue of Cult MTL.

For more Montreal music coverage, please visit the Music section.

Posted in Music

by Dave MacIntyre

Contributing editor for Music
Dave MacIntyre is a Montreal-based freelance journalist. His primary topic of interest is music, but is equally comfortable writing about sports, current events, and Montreal-related initiatives. Outside of Cult MTL, his bylines can be found in publications like BeatRoute and Northern Transmissions. And no, he is not related to Reba, nor to the WWE wrestler Drew, nor to Joey from New Kids on the Block.