v. 25 – 2023
October 2023 marked our twenty-fifth year of programming. As always, but especially, our annual festival was both a landmark and a celebration—regional and internationalist at once, placing local experimentation in conversation with the most varied global expressions of sound as an emancipatory means.
The opening night of our twenty-fifth year featured a touring showcase of music and video works from Indonesia represented by the Yes No Wave Music label, run by interdisciplinary artist and producer Wok the Rock, with live performances by Gabber Modus Operandi and Rani Jambak, and video works by Natasha Tontey and Riar Rizaldi. Our second evening was given over to the fascination of rhythm and the bleeding edges of electronic music; featuring London-based digital musician Lolina; extended media artist Speaker Music; and kinetic sound sculptor Sunk Heaven.
On Saturday afternoon, writer and rhythmanalyst DeForrest Brown, Jr. presented his “Techno-Vernacular Omniverse of Techxodus” program; giving a detailed presentation on the major themes of his book Assembling a Black Counter Culture and the sonic fiction that connects and flows throughout Detroit techno and Black music.
Our evening concert featured the Canadian debut of Senile Felines, a trio composed of Carl Stone, Ned Rothenberg, and Soo Yeon Lyuh, formed on the occasion of Stone’s 70th birthday; as well as Australian percussionist and composer Maria Moles and Winnipeg-based sound artist Yoyu. And as part of his year-long 70th birthday tour, Carl Stone concluded our festival with an incredible solo performance, alongside a multi-part performance and architectural intervention by Savant Flaneur and architect Joseph K. Kalturnyk, and a bustling live collage of the ghosts of radio by Dasha FM.
Finally, in a satellite event concluding our year’s programming, percussionist and composer Tatsuya Nakatani led a local iteration of his renowned Nakatani Gong Orchestra, with players from Winnipeg’s eXperimental Improv Ensemble (XIE) and the University of Manitoba Percussion Ensemble, after a solo performance on a bridge above the Red River.
