Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo music festival aims to liberate your ears

Montreal’s great anti-festival, Suoni Per Il Popolo, returns for their landmark 25th edition this week.

Most of the festival takes place at Casa del Popolo, La Sotterenea and La Sala Rossa, with other events erupting in galleries, churches and parks from June 19 to 30. The festival officially launched last Saturday with a free show at Parc La Fontaine’s Théâtre de Verdure, co-presented by Suoni’s longtime curatorial partners Constellation Records and No Hay Banda.

Suoni describes itself as dedicated not to any genre but instead to “liberation music,” a term borrowed from Charlie Haden’s revolutionary 1970 jazz project. The form that expression takes changes, but the sentiment is shared. As the slogan goes, Liberez vos oreilles! An English translation of Eric Fillion’s book Soundtrack to the Revolution: Free Jazz and Leftist Nationalism in Quebec 1967–1975 was recently published (and will have a launch as part of the festival), a timely reminder of the historical connections between music and social movements in Montreal. This year’s programming arrives amid renewed urgency, with events speaking to gentrification, Indigenous and queer resistance, and Palestinian solidarity.

We spoke with Kiva Stimac, Suoni’s co-founder and artistic director, shortly after she printed up some “Free Palestine” benefit prints. Stimac recalls her family’s legacy of dissent. “My dad was a draft resister. And my mom at 16 went to Israel and realized that it was a colonial state and an apartheid state. So I’ve been an anti-Zionist Jew all my life. I was coming out of that tradition.” Stimac’s great-grandfather was a poet and binder of Yiddish books; her parents printed protest posters. That spirit fuels Suoni, and its visual arm, Popolo Press.

“Ink is in my blood”

Popolo Press began humbly, printing flyers to promote shows and engage the people of the neighborhood, il popolo. Stimac opened Casa del Popolo as a vegetarian restaurant and music venue in 2000 with her then-husband, Mauro Pezzente (of Godspeed You! Black Emperor), launching Suoni the next year. Back then, many touring artists skipped Montreal “because they didn’t see it as a viable place to stop,” aside from big commercial events like the Jazz Fest. So Suoni carved out space for niche artists, while Stimac carved wood and linoleum to get the word out. “When I first started printing stuff for Casa, it was out of necessity, for sure.” In true DIY spirit, Stimac remembers, “I just did it with the back of a spoon.”

Over 25 years, Suoni’s visual identity has evolved alongside its music, with Stimac’s hybrid printing style mirroring the festival’s experimental edge. “I like all the different kinds of printing,” Stimac admits, often combining letterpress, silkscreen and risograph. Boasting one of Canada’s largest type collections, she emphasizes the importance of getting your hands dirty as a designer, since with computers “you lose the tactile sensation if you’re not putting your hands in ink and paper.” That hands-on ethos extends to curation. “I just love experimenting and trying new things, and that’s kind of the music that I’m drawn to.” Innovation can come out of experimentation and struggle, as can joy, so the festival provides opportunities for the community to come together and celebrate. “I don’t want to be in a revolution where you can’t dance or sweat and have a good time together.” 

Suoni’s community is its backbone. Some artists who performed in the earliest editions, including Matana Roberts and Jessica Moss, will also be performing this year. In addition to being a performer, former Sala sound engineer and co-founder of Hotel2Tango, Radwan Moumneh (of Jerusalem in my Heart) is serving as this year’s technical director. Stimac again emphasizes the importance of the festival’s community, who have continued to rally around the festival. She sees her role as beautifying the neighbourhood, and fostering space for in-person connection: “I think that’s part of why live music, or any kind of arts presentation, is exciting, because you’re sharing space and connecting in a way that you don’t get by listening to a record.”

Highlights

While jazz and improvisation are well represented at Suoni, many artists draw on punk, metal, hip hop and more experimental genres to express themselves. The program is Canadian-heavy this year, with quite a few guests from Mexico City and Beirut further cementing links with our city. One last off-season show features NYC’s HxH, the duo of Chris Ryan Williams (trumpet & electronics) and Lester St. Louis (cello & electronics), touring in support of their enveloping debut album, STARK PHENOMENA, with opening electroacoustic deconstructions from locals skin tone and Emmanuel Lacopo (La Sotterenea, June 8).

The festival-proper begins on June 19 with a full slate of four shows, including Cabaret Noir: The Musical, an interdisciplinary musical cabaret celebrating contemporary Afro-descendant voices alongside canonical inspirations (La Sala Rossa), and WATCH THAT ENDS THE NIGHT’s label showcase, including genre-bending headliner Quinton Barnes (Casa del Popolo).

Suoni provides many opportunities to experience solo artists with a singular relationship to their instrument. Jessica Ackerley explores the far boundaries of the guitar, while chik white coaxes wild improvisations from his collection of handmade jaw harps. (Casa, June 20) Other events celebrate collectivity. A night of raw protest music will cap off with the return of Lesbians on Ecstasy — this promises to be a queer dance party the city won’t soon forget (La Sotterenea, June 21). In a similar spirit, Metonymy Press celebrates 10 years of publishing queer, trans, and feminist literature with an evening of evocative readings (Casa, June 22).

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s experimental soundscapes will set the stage for Beirut septet SANAM’s dynamic and hard-edged improvisations (Sala, June 21). Members of the septet will also appear with Moumneh and Jessica Moss in various configurations over two special nights (Hotel2Tango, June 23–24). Voice and percussion duo MESTIZX’s draw on their ancestral Latin American rhythms, with opening soundscapes from Nicaraguan-Canadian Mas Aya, and Daniela Solís & Stefan Christoff further exploring the Mexico City-Montreal connection (La Sotterenea, June 22).

Of course it wouldn’t be Suoni without a hearty serving of free jazz and improvised music. Resonant Impact finds two visionary composers — percussionist John Hollenbeck and pianist Eve Risser — unite for the premiere of their new improvised duo. (Casa, June 22). The world premiere of Canadian clarinetist François Houle’s “The Secret Lives of Color” will be realized by the composer’s impressive live band — Gordon Grdina (oud/guitars), Myra Melford (piano), Joëlle Léandre (bass) and Gerry Hemingway (drums). Not to be missed (Sala, June 22). And for those looking for the really wild improvisations there’s GET FREE! Soirée d’impro. Several ensembles push traditional acoustic instruments past their limit, but I’m particularly excited for the unconventional electronics of Anne-F Jacques, Jarrett Martineau and Joël Lavoie (Casa, June 26).

One of the enduring appeals of Suoni is the way the festival moves outside the concert hall, activating unconventional and often public spaces. The IWant2BeOnTV crew will be presenting The Pony Show, a punk rock pantomime pony race that’s sure to be one of the most fun and ridiculous events of the year — volunteers wanted! (Parc Lahaie, June 20). On a more somber note, militant sound investigators Réverbérations d’une crise will lead a funeral march for Montreal’s “dead” venues, culminating at the gallery Produit Rien, in Mile Ex, where GAMBLETRON and Johnny Forever Nawracaj will present Screaming Against the Wall, a new work about Israel (June 22, procession starts at noon, departing from Parc Jeanne-Mance, corner of Mont-Royal and Esplanade). 

Quatuor Bozzini presents the Canadian premiere of “Borrowed Light” by Sarah Hennies, with the composer herself joining bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause for a performance that delves into the hypnotic interplay of timbre and time, as documented on their acclaimed debut duo album, The Quiet Sun (Sala, June 23). Meanwhile, shifting from sun to stars, Montreal’s beloved Kalmunity Collective takes the stage across the street with STARS SHINE DARKLY, a speakeasy-style evening of experimental solos, duos and trios (Casa, June 23).

Joni Void’s Everyday Ago returns for their third co-presentation with Suoni, once again showcasing artists from Japan. Having previously performed together in Tokyo and Matsumoto, Void joins the illustrious Takako Minekawa for a rare Montreal appearance, what will surely be a deeply meditative audio-visual experience (La Sotterenea, June 25). The visceral beats of NYC’s Hiro Kone cap off an intense and eclectic night of GAMBLETRON’s radio transmissions, Engone Endong’s contemporary electronic take on Gabonese tradition and SlowPitchSound’s sci-fi-turntablism (Casa, June 27).

Finally, Suoni goes out on a high note with two hotly anticipated concerts. Pulitzer Prize-winner Raven Chacon returns to Montreal with Michigan’s pioneering noise rock outfit Wolf Eyes, but only after Tension Nurse and EarthBall shake up the room with some sub-bass sonics. (La Sotterenea, June 28). Hot on the heels of her first new album in eight years, the much lauded From Where You Came, Kara-Lis Coverdale will grace us with a solo organ concert in a 19th century church in collaboration with Les Vespérales. Local duo Beast set the tone of this comedown event with their hypnotic hurdy-gurdy and historical klaviers (Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus, June 30).

Suoni va! ■

For the complete festival schedule and to buy tickets, please visit the Suoni Per Il Popolo website.

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