Montreal Cultural Calendar

The Ultimate Tri-City Musical Meet-Up
Forget what you know about stiff residencies.
Un Échange: Trading Places: Trueque
is an electrified, cross-border musical adventure that has been shaking up the scenes of Montreal and Vancouver since 2016. Imagine the most badass improv and experimental music communities from Montréal, Vancouver,
and now for the first time this year, the sonic wonderland of Mexico City
deciding to pack their bags, swap cities, and make some beautiful noise together.
The minds behind the magic, the NOW Society, Suoni Per Il Popolo, and a crew of visionary curators in CDMX, are teaming up to create the ultimate playground for adventurous musicians.
It's all about forming deep, new connections, trading ideas through sound, and proving that the language of experimental music is the most fun and present dialect you’ll ever learn.
Un Échange: Trading Places: Trueque
is where communities collide and the future of sonic exchange gets made.
Join us at Suoni to experience this totally radical connection with our wonderful group of residents this year:
From Vancouver:
Anju Singh
(violin, electronics)uses amplified, dense, and/or harsh textures to contrast with tonal minimalist gestures and overlapping layers. Tension created through the use of microtones, extracting textures, and atonal elements provide a space to deconstruct musical gestures and movements into abstracted elements and then are reanimated back into compositions that cannibalize versions of themselves.
Adrian Avendaño
(drums, percussion) is an improvising drummer and percussionist, sound artist, DJ and recordist. His work explores the connection between sound, space, and territory. His approach to drums and percussion is informed by elements of acoustic ecology, deep listening, and the connection to his diasporic Latine heritage.
From Mexico City:
Alejandro Motta
(bass, electronics) is a classically trained double bassist with a focus on contemporary music, sound experimentation, and stage performance. He is the co-founder of the free improvisation ensemble Algo Cruje and has collaborated with various national orchestras, including the OFUNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra). He recently participated in the performance of Memor I.A. as part of the UNAM Composition Workshop and is currently a member of the CEPROMUSIC Ensemble. His work ranges from traditional repertoire to more free-flowing creation, integrating sound and presence.
Aleida Pérez
(violin, electronics) is a violinist and improviser interested in new music and experimental forms such as free improvisation. She currently collaborates with the Liminar ensemble. Her most recent performances include a residency with the Norwegian collective Verdensteatret, the Epiciclos concert as part of the Diferencial series, and La escucha infinita.
From Montreal:
James Nicholas Dumile Goddard
(saxophone, mbira, electronics) is a Ndebele-Canadian sound artist, curator, arts administrator and experimental saxophonist. He currently lives and works in Montréal, QC. His work explores themes related to race, the speculative and power dynamics. He performs solo as skin tone, in the duos NYON & Platitudes and as part of KY band, the Egyptian Cotton Arkestra, and Quinton Barnes Black Noise Ensemble. He's worked in community radio, concert promotion and non-profit administration – all these experiences inform an interest in non-hierarchy within his creative and administrative practices. skin tone was/is always a reactive project – relying heavily as it does on improvisation skin tone is always changing; unable to remain inert in the face of a changed situation. For a long time, it was an outlet to reflect on anti-black police violence – to respond to anti-black police violence. As time went on skin tone became an outlet to explore a wide-range of themes.
Jahsun
(drums, percussion) is a Montreal, Canadian/Caribbean based drummer, futurist & arts event curator. His music brings voice to ancestral memories manifested in imagined futures. Exploring free black expression, the abandon of traditional ‘drummer’ timekeeping roles, continuously seeking new sounds, contrasts, harmony, dissonance, storytelling, deep grooves, free time & authentic cultural exchanges.
Here is the list of Events you can check them all out at during Suoni:
June 16th, Église du Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus
Copresented with Les Vespérales, No Hay Banda, Now Society, Codes d'accès and CIOC
Fujilllllta
Anju Singh
Florence Delphine-Roux
June 18th
Afrorack
Adrian Avendano/Roxanne Nesbit/Engone Endong
invité.e.s
Casa del Popolo
JAMbient (Lisa E. Harris & Maria Chavez)
Anju Singh, Aleida Perez (2 more local strings tbc)
invité.e.s
La Sala Rossa
June 20th
Ableton for Noise artists workshop with Anju Singh
Resto Sala Rossa 11h-13h
June 20th
BLK D’OR
Constellation 1:
Adrian Avendano-drums
Markus Floats-bass
Fahmid Nibesh-gtr
SkinTone-sax, mbira
Jason Selman- cornet, poetry
Constellation 2:
Anju Singh-violin
Julie Richard-tuba
Aaron Leaney-sax
Ravish Momin-drums
Stella Adjokê-poetry
Constellation 3:
Engone Endong-sound design
Zach Frampton-piano/keys
Cabral Jacobs-sax
Jahsun-drums
Tanya Tawhida Evanson-poetry
Duos: Christelle St-Julien/
Dna
Zibz BlacKurrent/
Zach Frampton
Fred Bazil/
Jahsun
Soulsonic bath:
Sam I Am Montolla
Casa del Popolo
June 21
Anju Singh, Alex Motta, Nausiate, Quivering
An Laurence
Camille R.B.
Ianna Book
Casa del Popolo
June 22 sala
Blacks’ Myths
Karen Ng
Cole Shmidt + Alvaro Rojas
Cabral Jacobs, Engone Endong, Markus Lake,
James Goddard & Jahsun
June 23 Get Free! (our mini marathon/trading places partay!)
All trading places artists!
plus The Ex, Blacks’ Myths, Karen Ng, Cole Schmidt, Alvaro Rojas & Jairus Sharif and locals tbc
The Ex will dj the Casa bar for a full take over of Casa, whoop whoop!!
Casa del Popolo
June 24
Dahl
Jairus Sharif
Adrian Avendaño, Alex Motta, Adriana Camacho & Eli Piña
Casa del Popolo
June 25th
Lucas “Granpa” Abela
Alex Motta & Aleida Perez
invité.e.s
P’tit Ours
June 26th
Zine Launch - On DIY CDMX Venues
Malcolm Goldstein, Nicolas Caloia & Rainer Weins
Alex Motta, Eli Piña, Stefan Christoff & Dario Bernal Villegas
Meredith Bates/Aleida Pérez/Adriana Camacho
Casa del Popolo
June 28th
The Ratchet Orchestra
Bellbird
Dario Bernal Villegas/Alex Motta

Co-presented by
Les Vespérales, codes d'accès,
NOW Society, & The
Canadian International Organ Competition
FUJI||||||||||TA
is a Japan‑based sound artist whose practice explores natural phenomena and experimental instruments to reveal unheard and unknown sounds, with a strong focus on attentive listening and observation.
They are known for a hand‑built pipe organ without a keyboard, played using a manual air pump. Their work has been presented internationally at Rewire Festival (NL), Big Ears Festival (US), Variations Festival (FR), Pioneer Works (US), Bourse de Commerce (FR), Send+Receive (CA) and Tectonics Glasgow (UK). Their albums include
iki
(Hallow Ground),
KŌMORI
(Boomkat Editions) and
NOISEEM
(33‑33).
Anju Singh
is a composer, sound artist, and multiinstrumentalist who experiments with dynamics, texture, and pure sound in her composed and improvised work. As a musician, she is interested in extended and experimental techniques as well as re-application of traditional instruments in new contexts, sometimes leading to the development and build of new self-made instruments based on loose concepts of existing instruments. Her source materials include musical instruments, synthesizers, voice, electronics, custom-made/found objects, samples, and field recordings. Anju has presented her work across Canada and internationally including in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Japan. In addition to her sound and music practice in areas of improv, experimental music and sound art, Anju also performs under the moniker The Nausea, and is also a metal drummer and guitarist in various projects. Anju is the Curator and Director of Vancouver Noise Fest, a self-funded and independently-run festival committed to noise music that has run for 11 editions.
Florence-Delphine Roux
is a digital and sound artist originally from Quebec City and based in Montreal. She holds a master's degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Villa Arson in Nice, France. Her work explores the intersection of art, science, and technology, with a focus on radio. Her creations take the form of listening experiences, immersive sound installations, performances, video art, and radio pieces.
Driven by a sound-based practice, particularly rooted in material gathered from recordings made largely outdoors, Florence-Delphine Roux's work stems from a reflection on the possibility of playing with textures imperceptible to the retina, notably electromagnetic fields, thus contributing to a disruption of reality. With the aim of developing a practice of fiction, the artist also explores the field of radio production, with the ambition of creating a "cinema for the ear." -Frédèric Bonnet
Gradually tinged with radio frequencies, this performance illuminates our surrounding soundscape while making audible the omnipresent but imperceptible frequencies of our environment. Sculptural antennas capture these sometimes distant frequencies, revealing a third space shaped by hidden sounds and communications.

Co-presented with
Criminal Trap.
A confrontational, camp and seductive dramaturge.
Slash Need
have earned a reputation for putting on high-energy theatrical live performances. Heralded as the most talked about touring act in Canada, their commanding style of propulsive techno and metallic EBM serve as the backdrop to an unpredictable, ever-changing, and communal performance piece. Their debut album, SIt & Grin, is a blistering industrial debut, as unapologetic and brash as it is groundbreaking.
Following a viral bout of unplanned, and gratifying, attention from right wing media in 2023 after their lore-making performance at Toronto Pride, the group has developed a cult following. (A widely-circulated video earned 2.3 million views with one comment calling the group ”nasty, filthy perverts”.) Conjuring the essence of cherry red lipstick smudged on the rim of a spilled energy drink, baby powder masquerading as Chanel perfume; pheromones, smoke machines, and crossed wires, Toronto’s Slash Need is an invitation to demand more.
We have released three EPs, two singles and one video album. Our first full length album, “Sit and Grin” came out October 21, 2025. We’re starting off the new year with a three week tour through the EU/UK.
Durex
is a hardcore punk band based in Montreal. They’ve been playing together since 2023. Angry, funny, noisy, high energy, and a little yucky. No smoke break or you’ll miss being yelled at by some freak.
Post-punk rockers
Ancient Greece
hail from the underworld of the Toronto music scene. This is the odyssey of a band stitched together not just by music but by camaraderie and a penchant for the anarchic. Raspy echoes, beating drums, guttural chords, and sharp melodic riffs weave tales of urban decay and what it means to be chewed up, swallowed alive, and come out the other end kicking and screaming.

Co-presented by
Les Vespérales, codes d'accès, NO HAY BANDA & The Canadian International Organ Competition
Ellen Arkbro
(b. 1990) is a composer, musician and sound artist working with precisely tuned intervallic harmony. Her practice includes compositions for acoustic instruments, synthetic sound, and hybrid forms, as well as installation work.
Across her work, she focuses on the qualities of harmonic sound that frame listening as an active process of creative participation, inviting the listener to gradually merge with the sound itself.
NO HAY BANDA
performs Alvin Lucier's
Swing Bridge
, a stunning 35-minute work for pipe organ, ensemble, and 'pipe wavers', who microtonally shift the tuning of the organ pipes.
Adrian Foster, organ
Sarah Albu, voice
Adrianne Munden-Dixon, violin
Meggie Lacombe, violin
Audréanne Filion, cello
Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière, double bass
Felix Del Tredici, trombone
Kalun Leung, trombone
Daniel Áñez, Lori Freedman, Noam Bierstone, organ pipe wavers

Co-presented with NOW Society
JAMbient
is Maria Chavez and Lisa E Harris
Maria Chavez and LISA E’s duo, JAMbient, is a durational, experimental collaboration that results in improvised forms of ambient soundscapes.
In JAMbient, Lisa E and Maria provide a bed of sonic elements that weave turntables, laptops, vocals, digital media and electronics creating an audio and visual installation.
Born in Lima, Peru and based in NYC,
Maria Chávez
is best known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ.
Lisa E. Harris
also known as Li, is a prominent interdisciplinary artist, composer, and creative soprano based in Houston, Texas. Both artists grew up in Houston Texas, and attribute their mentor Pauline Oliveros as a key influence to their sound art practices.
Anju Singh
is a composer, sound artist, and multiinstrumentalist who experiments with dynamics, texture, and pure sound in her composed and improvised work. As a musician, she is interested in extended and experimental techniques as well as re-application of traditional instruments in new contexts, sometimes leading to the development and build of new self-made instruments based on loose concepts of existing instruments. Her source materials include musical instruments, synthesizers, voice, electronics, custom-made/found objects, samples, and field recordings. Anju has presented her work across Canada and internationally including in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Japan. In addition to her sound and music practice in areas of improv, experimental music and sound art, Anju also performs under the moniker The Nausea, and is also a metal drummer and guitarist in various projects. Anju is the Curator and Director of Vancouver Noise Fest, a self-funded and independently-run festival committed to noise music that has run for 11 editions.
Aleida Perez
is a violinist and improviser interested in new music and experimental forms such as free improvisation. She currently collaborates with the Liminar ensemble. Her most recent performances include a residency with the Norwegian collective Verdensteatret, the Epiciclos concert as part of the Diferencial series, and La escucha infinita.
Aleida holds a degree in classical violin from the Escuela Superior de Música (INBA). She began her musical studies in the basic program at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center and continued her training at the ESM (Educational School of Music), where she completed her degree under the guidance of maestro Cuauhtémoc Rivera. She has participated in various festivals such as the National Violin Encounter at the University of Zacatecas, the Contemporary Expressions Festival, Aires Nacionales (FAM-UNAM), and the International Chamber Music Festival at the University of Querétaro. She has performed at venues such as the Blas Galindo Auditorium, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Teatro de la Ciudad, the CCU-BUAP (Center for Fine Arts), the Casa del Lago, the Ex-Teresa, and the Sala Silvestre Revueltas-CCOY. She has taken master classes with Jorge Rici, Renata Knific, David Colwell, the University of Kansas Trio, Erika Dobociewicz, Ron Francois, and Ryu Gotto, among others.
Aleida is active in Mexico City's experimental music scene, participating in various independent forums and festivals specializing in contemporary practices such as Material Art Fair, Index, Arte Book Fair, Museo Anahuacalli, Arte Alameda, Galería Kurimanzutto, El Nicho Experimental, and the Vernacular Institute.
Mat Ball
is an experimental guitar player from Montreal, Canada. A founding member of the group BIG|BRAVE in existence since 2012, over the last few years he has been quietly developing and working on solo guitar music. Very much like his work with BB, relying heavily on amplitude and feedback with a strong emphasis on minimalism and the drone, deconstruction is a key element in his compositions.
Mothrspace
(Bruna Wanderley Gonçalves) is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and experimental artist from Brazil, based in Montréal. Working across experimental music, metal, and contemporary classical practices, her work draws from improvisation, physical intensity, and musical memory shaped by her upbringing.
As the voice and cello force behind Kapitur, she uses processed cello and voice to create emotionally and physically charged performances exploring tension, texture, transformation, and embodiment through sound. She has collaborated within Montréal’s experimental scene, including with Thisquietarmy, with whom she toured across Europe and performed at MUTEK Montréal’s Satosphere.
Her practice moves fluidly between structured composition, improvisation, and textural sound work. With a background in classical performance, including studies with cellist Isabelle Bozzini, she approaches the cello as an extension of the body, using sound as material for visceral and immersive performances.
CHXMERAS
are an experimental electronic duo based in Vancouver, BC and a transatlantic collaboration between UK/Canadian musician Paul Finlay from the North East of England and nêhiyaw/Denesuline musician Jarrett Martineau from Treaty 6 territory in Canada. They weave immersive, cinematic sounds and angular dub, deep ambient, experimental techno, mutating noise, and hip-hop rhythms, into a genre-bending, otherworldly experience. CHXMERAS’ haunting 2024 debut album,
Terminal City
, was released on Virtua94 Records and hailed by RANGE Magazine as “a multilayered cinematic masterpiece". It charts a sonic passage through the echoes and ruins of late-stage capitalism, environmental degradation, and urban decay. Their 2025 follow up,
Second Sight
, was reckons with the wild, furious, anything goes, free-for-all, freefall present and offers a crackling, anticipatory call toward distorted, broken futures. CHXMERAS have performed at a wide range of festivals and events including MUTEK, Sled Island, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Shambhala, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and New Forms Festival. Using modular synths, drum machines, live efx, field recordings, film samples, and hypnotic live improvisation, CHXMERAS take listeners into a hallucinatory landscape where fractal paths, lost futures, and the disorienting present collide.
Adrian Avendaño
, artist-in-residence at Suoni 2026 and a talented percussionist from Vancouver, is collaborating with interdisciplinary artist and double bassist
Roxanne Nesbitt
, as well as Montreal-based
Engone Endong
, who blends the rich traditions of Gabon with cutting-edge electronic sound design.
Adrian Avendaño
is an improvising drummer and percussionist, sound artist, DJ and recordist. His work explores the connection between sound, space, and territory. His approach to drums and percussion is informed by elements of acoustic ecology, deep listening, and the connection to his diasporic Latine heritage.
Roxanne Nesbitt
is a designer, musician, composer, and sound artist. Following formal studies in classical double bass and architecture, Roxanne works between the fields of music and design. Her research explores radical instrument design, the meeting place of composition and improvisation, sculptural ceramics and participatory sound installation. Roxanne collaborates with instrument designers, musicians, composers, and choreographers to create work.
Her compositions and instruments have been played across Europe and North America including performances at Gadeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht, November Music in Den Bosch, Bauchhund in Berlin, Array Space in Toronto, and the Center for New Music in San Francisco. She celebrates process making work that is intimate, inquisitive, and exploratory. Roxanne is currently based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
Based in Montreal,
Engone Endong
is a visionary producer and composer blending rich Gabonese tradition with cutting-edge electronic sound design.
Recently performed with Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland),
Engone Endong
co-composed for
Symphonie de Coeurs
(Rhodnie Desir), captivating the audience with his immersive soundscapes and unique textures; pushing creative boundaries.
Engone Endong also crafted innovative tracks with artists such as Pindi, Elom 20ce & Blitz the Ambassador, Tali Taliwa, Slam Action, Orchestra Maestro and conductor Liberté Anne Lymberiou, and JUNO nominated artists Waahli and Eccodek.