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Our twen­ty-sixth fes­ti­val makes an allu­sive, infer­en­tial tapes­try of song — touch­ing punk and gospel, Krautrock and K‑pop, epic poet­ry and envelop­ing post-jazz. There’s noth­ing stan­dard here, how­ev­er, and the many pas­sages between these sound worlds fol­low close tex­tur­al cues and intu­itive associations. 

Tick­ets and pass­es are avail­able now, includ­ing options for dona­tion. No one will be turned away for lack of funds, so mark your cal­en­dar and come hear some­thing rare.

Thurs­day Octo­ber 17^th 2024

• Dawu­na
• Niecy Blues
• Mark Tem­ple­ton

West End Cul­tur­al Cen­tre (586 Ellice Avenue) — 7:00 PM | Music at 7:30 PM

Our open­ing con­cert tra­vers­es gen­res and traces of song, with per­for­mances from Dawu­na, Niecy Blues, and Mark Tem­ple­ton. Dawu­na is the moniker and mid­dle name of mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary artist Ian Muger­wa. Using music as his pri­ma­ry medi­um, Dawu­na’s works span many dif­fer­ent styles of exper­i­men­tal black music, with influ­ences span­ning from Prince and D’Angelo to Jim O’Rourke and George Gersh­win. South Car­oli­na singer and pro­duc­er Niecy Blues cap­tures a sense of deep-root­ed div­ina­tion, cycling between sim­mer­ing bal­lads, ghost­ed R&B, down­tem­po gospel, and looped vocal impro­vi­sa­tions – often with­in the same track. Mark Tem­ple­ton’s audio com­po­si­tions are con­struct­ed from reel-to-reel tape loops and sam­pled cas­settes that are con­trast­ed with con­tem­po­rary sound tech­niques, and his per­for­mances uti­lize dig­i­tal instru­ments along­side pro­ject­ed pho­tographs, VHS footage, Super 8 film, and sam­pled video.

Fri­day Octo­ber 18^th 2024

• Phew
• Cloud Circuit
• Daniel Majer

Sudanese Cana­di­an Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre (129 Dag­mar Street) — 7:00 PM | Music at 7:30 PM

Our sec­ond evening fea­tures leg­endary Japan­ese vocal­ist Phew, sound poet­ry duo Cloud Cir­cuit, and sound artist and com­pos­er Daniel Majer. Phew’s oeu­vre spans a vast array of exper­i­men­tal sounds: from no-wavey synth-hymns; to pop­py, shoegaz­ing, indus­tri­al under­tones; to eerie incan­des­cent drones. Since the 1970s, Phew’s dynam­ic, com­pelling voice and her com­mit­ment to unfet­tered exper­i­men­ta­tion has been crit­i­cal in shap­ing the sound of avant-garde music both in Japan and inter­na­tion­al­ly. Cloud Cir­cuit finds inspi­ra­tion in com­mu­ni­ca­tion gli//tc;hh()h, brok()n spee?()-eech, and con­tact lost. Poet Dean­na Rad­ford chan­nels her iter­a­tive text reams as decon­struct­ed words of mouth, and sound artist Jere­my Young plays sine waves in flux, ¹⁄₄″ mag­net­ic tape and cap­tured radio airs. Daniel Majer cre­ates and col­lab­o­rates in sound col­lage, film scores, sound design, mul­ti-media instal­la­tion and live musi­cal per­for­mances. His lat­est album of exper­i­men­tal sound designs, Time for No Mem­o­ry, is out on Vaag­n­er this October.

Sat­ur­day Octo­ber 19^th 2024

• Rafael Toral
• truth in the well
• Video work by Kather­ine Liberovskaya and Phill Niblock

Sudanese Cana­di­an Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre (129 Dag­mar Street) — 7:00 PM | Music at 7:30 PM

Our Sat­ur­day con­cert fea­tures a quadra­phon­ic set from Por­tuguese gui­tarist Rafael Toral; a wist­ful, decon­struct­ed mix­tape by truth in the well; and patient video work by Kather­ine Liberovskaya, Fran­cis­co Janes, and the dear­ly missed Phill Niblock. Rafael Toral has been deeply involved with rock, ambi­ent, elec­tron­ic, and free jazz music, think­ing and prac­tic­ing an under­stand­ing of silence as ​“space.” In recent work, Toral picks up the gui­tar again to devel­op a new syn­the­sis of past and future, cre­at­ing slow har­monies over what sounds like an elec­tron­ic rain­for­est on Jupiter. truth in the well is the shapeshift­ing ephemer­al ambi­ent project of Leigh Lugosi, often fea­tur­ing col­lab­o­ra­tor Tim Alexan­der. for send + receive v.26, truth in the well presents sub­lim­i­nal verse par­ty mix 2024, a live mixtape/​reimagining of pop­u­lar music found in youth cul­ture in winnipeg’s north end cir­ca late 1990s through ear­ly 2000s. Kather­ine Liberovskaya is a video and media artist based in Mon­tréal, Cana­da, and New York City, work­ing in exper­i­men­tal video since the late eight­ies. Phill Niblock (1933−2024) was an artist whose fifty-year career spanned min­i­mal­ist and exper­i­men­tal music, film and pho­tog­ra­phy. At this event, we’ll screen ​“Wind Waves / Rum­ble Mum­ble,” one of their last col­lab­o­ra­tions before Niblock­’s pass­ing ear­li­er this year. Pre­sent­ed with GroundSwell.

Sun­day Octo­ber 20^th 2024

• Lucy Liyou
• Yes, Sydo
• Med­ical Muse­um with Gaitrie Persaud

West End Cul­tur­al Cen­tre (586 Ellice Avenue) — 7:00 PM | Music at 7:30 PM

Our final con­cert of the fes­ti­val begins with a spe­cial cura­tion by artist AO Roberts, fea­tur­ing work by duo Med­ical Muse­um and inter­pre­ta­tion by Deaf per­former Gaitrie Per­saud. Fol­low­ing this pre­sen­ta­tion, we’ll hear sound poet­ry of crit­i­cal rage from Van­cou­ver duo Yes, Sydo; and the fes­ti­val will con­clude with an unmiss­able selec­tion of Lucy Liy­ou’s omniv­o­rous­ly avant-garde song­book. Med­ical Muse­um is a new project by long-term col­lab­o­ra­tors, Hang Lin­ton and Lau­ra Luli­ka, based in Leeds, UK, com­bin­ing the artists’ pas­sions for sto­ry­telling through words, sounds, videogames and objects. Their musi­cal influ­ences span gen­res from Dun­geon Synth, Jun­gle and Doom Met­al to more ambi­ent and spir­i­tu­al sound expe­ri­ences. Yes, Sydo explores how poet­ry and sound can meld into an alter­na­tive form using Homer’s epic Odyssey as its anchor, and stem­ming from over six years of sus­tain­ing a rela­tion­ship through tragedy and com­e­dy; mutu­al and dif­fer­ent expres­sions of grief and pain. Los Ange­les-based com­pos­er Lucy Liy­ou syn­the­sizes field record­ings, text-to-speech read­ings, poet­ry, and ele­ments from Kore­an folk opera into son­ic nar­ra­tives that explore the impli­ca­tions of Ori­en­tal­ism and West­ern­iza­tion. Arrest­ing bal­lads and con­tem­po­rary clas­si­cal pieces frag­ment into decay­ing shards, voic­es get warped beyond recog­ni­tion, and shim­mer­ing light makes way for bit-crushed noise.

FUTURE FES­TI­VALS LAB

On Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17^th from 12 – 5pm, join us for a transna­tion­al edi­tion of the Future Fes­ti­vals Lab, con­vened by MUTEK and oth­er part­ner fes­ti­vals includ­ing imag­i­ne­NA­TIVE, Mois Mul­ti, New Now, and send + receive. In the Man­i­to­ba Tech­nol­o­gy Accel­er­a­tor on Esplanade Riel, we’ll host a hybrid con­ver­sa­tion about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and biore­gion­al­ism, con­nect­ing our fes­ti­val on Treaty 1 ter­ri­to­ry with MUTEK MX in Mex­i­co City. Atten­dance is free, and the sum­mit will con­clude with a cock­tail and open­ing recep­tion for send + receive v26.

Check out the Future Fes­ti­vals field guide, designed by HOLO, and join us for this open­ing dis­cus­sion, includ­ing works by Inter­specifics and Casey Koyczan.

SHIM­MER­ING by SKYE CALLOW

Stephen Juba Park — Sep­tem­ber 28 — Octo­ber 28

Our fes­ti­val month launch­es this Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 28^th, on Nuit Blanche, with an audio work by Skye Cal­low. From Sep­tem­ber to Octo­ber 28^th, we’re pleased to present Shim­mer­ing. The work plays beneath the pedes­tri­an bridge com­mem­o­rat­ing the for­mer Ross Creek, at the junc­tion of Water­front Dri­ve and Ban­natyne Avenue.

Shim­mer­ing is an aur­al paint­ing that inter­prets the cycles of our lives, the phas­es of the moon, and the flow of water­ways that have been redi­rect­ed by human inter­ven­tion. It attempts to find pat­terns between these seem­ing­ly sep­a­rate enti­ties, and to iden­ti­fy the mon­u­ments that sig­ni­fy begin­nings and endings.

Shim­mer­ing is com­posed of orig­i­nal field record­ings from bod­ies of water that are con­nect­ed to the Red and Assini­boine riv­er sys­tems, audio sam­ples combed from the expanse of the inter­net, manip­u­lat­ed voice record­ings and per­for­mances, text to speech gen­er­at­ed vers­es, and the sounds of chains, skid steers, and wind chimes. Respond­ing specif­i­cal­ly to the site of the instal­la­tion, Shim­mer­ing acts as a sound­ing board for the ghost­ly echo of Ross Creek.

Skye Cal­low is an artist based on Treaty 1 Ter­ri­to­ry in Win­nipeg, Man­i­to­ba. Through image mak­ing, sound, and instal­la­tion prac­tices, her work explores the mag­ic of our eco­log­i­cal and meta­phys­i­cal worlds and engages in the somat­ic expe­ri­ence of being in rela­tion to the bios­phere; a motif of ecol­o­gy, self, and the land con­tin­u­ous­ly presents itself. Skye is cur­rent­ly inves­ti­gat­ing the sub­jects of eco­log­i­cal empa­thy and hyper­ob­jects, and the lim­its and pos­si­bil­i­ties of per­cep­tion. Skye holds a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts Hon­ours Degree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba’s School of Art.

THE BODY IS A SCORE by ZOË LEBRUN

Pool­side Gallery (100 Arthur Street) — Octo­ber 11 thru Novem­ber 22

Pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with Video Pool Media Arts Cen­tre, The body is a score is an audio instal­la­tion that attempts to metaphorize the false dichoto­my of objec­tiv­i­ty and sub­jec­tiv­i­ty of the human body through lan­guage and sound.

Bal­anc­ing algo­rith­mic com­po­si­tion with impro­vised rhythms, LeBrun trans­pos­es bod­ies of text from anatom­i­cal text­books, poet­ry, and per­son­al writ­ings into scores for flute and gui­tar. These com­po­si­tions are accom­pa­nied by the sounds of the inte­ri­or body, record­ed using a stetho­scope micro­phone, and Solfeg­gio tones – notes that are said to res­onate with the Earth’s frequency.

Con­nect­ed by breath, these vast­ly con­trast­ing bod­ies are brought togeth­er with the aim of blur­ring somat­ic, tex­tu­al, and metaphor­i­cal bound­aries. Togeth­er, they speak to the ways in which we con­struct an under­stand­ing of what a body can be through lan­guage, and how we might sub­vert these restric­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tions by trans­mut­ing and expand­ing upon their forms. What results is the cre­ation of an ever-evolv­ing audi­to­ry body that changes over time depend­ing on the pres­ence and posi­tion of the lis­ten­er with­in the installation.

Zoë LeBrun (she/​they) is an emerg­ing mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist prac­tic­ing on Treaty 1 Ter­ri­to­ry in Win­nipeg, Man­i­to­ba. Their process-based prac­tice rests at the inter­sec­tions of video, instal­la­tion, and sound art. Through these medi­ums, LeBrun seeks to bet­ter under­stand the human con­di­tion, uti­liz­ing mate­ri­als and process­es which embody metaphors of lived expe­ri­ence and bod­i­ly func­tion to do so. The works LeBrun cre­ates reveal them­selves over time, under­scor­ing themes such as tem­po­ral­i­ty and exis­ten­tial­ism and mak­ing the phys­i­cal process­es behind them indi­vis­i­ble from the con­cep­tu­al core of their practice.

LeBrun’s work has been exhib­it­ed at aceart­inc., Men­tor­ing Artists for Women’s Art, and The School of Art Stu­dent Gallery. Their films have been screened at the Dave Bar­ber Cin­e­math­eque, the Muriel Richard­son Audi­to­ri­um, the Win­nipeg Art Gallery Rooftop, and at Graf­fi­ti Art Pro­gram­ming, where she has also per­formed live in their ongo­ing space)doxa pro­gram­ming. LeBrun holds a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts (Hon­ours) from the School of Art at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­i­to­ba and her work is held in pri­vate col­lec­tions in Win­nipeg, Man­i­to­ba and Vien­na, Austria.