Montreal Cultural Calendar

Lucas ‘Granpa’ Abela
’s (fka Justice Yeldham) performances on their signature instrument; shards of amplified glass are the stuff of legend. Their singular practice spawned from the noise music underground, where over twenty years the glass evolved from a means to create ecstatic free-noise cacophonies into an outsider instrument that produces some kind of organic electronica. Abela vibrates the pane vocally to control a modular patch that uses no traditional syntheses techniques, instead the glass acts as both sound and modulation source. The patch extracting control voltages from the glass’s dynamics and frequency in order to modulate itself in synchronicity with the performance, shaping six parallel stereo effects chains that merge into dense layers of anomalous music.
Alejandro Motta
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 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.
DEATH KNEEL
is the primary recording outlet of Toronto based musician Max Klebanoff. His output is characterized by unyielding binaural manipulation and unapologetic octatrack abuse. Incidental sound and electroacoustic automatic drawings dismantled and deconstructed to be recycled, again and again. Since 2014, Klebanoff has been featured on notable labels Chondritic Sound, Total Black, White Centipede Noise and his own imprint Life Of Sensation, with new releases forthcoming on Students of Decay.

Local heartthrob
Guizo LaNuit
has graciously given up his birthday party to us all with
The
Stay Alivers’ Birthday Party
- a celebration for all of us still alive (and dead people too). Guizo and his band of handsomes (
Stef Schneider
&
Kizis
) will accompany a bevy of Montreal’s most terrifyingly talented weirdos including interdisciplinary artists
Nate Yaffe
&
Winnie Ho
, queer performance goddess
Phoenix Inana
, experimental theatre maven
Jacqueline Van de Geer, Adriana Camacho
and other surprises. Expect cake, gifts & rituals to transcend grief.

Co-presented with Celluloid Lunch and Negative Capabilities.
A co‑founder of the cult noise‑rock group Harry Pussy, Orcutt has since built a widely acclaimed solo career. His work has been recognized by
WIRE
,
NPR
,
The Guardian
, and
Rolling Stone
. Maintaining an active international touring schedule and frequent collaborations with leading improvisers and experimental musicians, Bill Orcutt continues to push the expressive limits of the guitar with uncompromising intensity.
Wendy Eisenberg
is a key figure in contemporary independent music, renowned for the multiplicity and fluidity of her practice. A singer, improviser, and virtuoso guitarist, she navigates freely between art-rock, jazz, folk, and radical improvisation, constantly blurring the lines between forms.
Significant albums such as Auto (2020) and Viewfinder (2024) attest to an approach deeply committed to risk and experimentation. Rejecting any specialization, Wendy Eisenberg champions a simultaneous practice of punk, improvised, and composed music, making eclecticism not an aesthetic choice, but an artistic necessity.
Setting
is a North Carolina Piedmont–based trio featuring Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund, musicians known for their work with projects including Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Sylvan Esso and Jake Xerxes Fussell. Grounded in a deeply collaborative approach, the group creates inventive, richly textured improvisations shaped by shared intuition and flow.
Combining synthesizers, cassette loops, banjo, keyboards, zithers, electronics and percussion, Setting builds tactile sound worlds where earthy rhythms meet moments of celestial lift. Their self‑titled album on
Thrill Jockey
stands as a defining statement of improvisational fluency paired with compositional focus, harnessing the euphoria of communal creation.
Perhaps best known for his guitar playing in the Montreal noise-rock band AIDS Wolf, Alex Moskos has been producing records under the name
Drainolith
since 1999. He has released countless cassettes, CDRs & 7" records on various labels culminating in two full length albums: '
Fighting
' (2012) on Spectrum Spools and '
Hysteria
' (2015) on NNA Tapes.
More recently Moskos has performed and recorded alongside Max Eilbacher (Horse Lords) and Duncan Moore as SEF III, and with Nate Young, John Olson and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Raven Chacon as The Difficult Messages Band. He has also played alongside Neil Hagerty (Royal Trux), Charles Balas and Nate Young in Dan’l Boon (Drag City). Moskos is an amateur historian and works in community radio at CKUT 90.3FM - Montreal’s oldest freeform radio station. He lives in Hochelaga, an east end neighbourhood of Montreal with artist Jessica Mensch and Boots The Cat. 2026 Drainolith also features the amazing talents of drummer Destiny and guitar goddess Rián Adamian.
Negative Capabilities
will be launching their first zine—a new print venture dedicated to outsider guitar and left-field acoustic sounds. Copies will be available at the venue. An interview with Wendy Eisenberg in conversation with Alex Pelchat is in this premier issue.

Join us at Suoni per il Popolo for a special artist talk bringing together visionary guitarists Bill Orcutt and the ever-shifting, genre-defying Wendy Eisenberg, in conversation with Montreal-based programmer, organizer, and musician Alex Pelchat.
Taking place on the 26th at 11 AM on the Casa terrace
, this intimate discussion offers a rare glimpse into their creative processes, influences, and evolving practices at the edges of experimental music. The session will be recorded by CKUT for later broadcast—come be part of it live.
Bill Orcutt
, one of experimental music’s most influential guitarists, crafts a singular sound that fuses American primitivism, outsider jazz, and fractured improvisation through stripped-down instruments, often missing two strings. Emerging from the explosive noise-rock band Harry Pussy, he helped redefine the genre before reemerging as a solo artist whose work bridges free improvisation and the deep roots of American song. Acclaimed by the
New York Times
,
WIRE
, NPR, and
Rolling Stone
, Orcutt continues to tour internationally, delivering raw, jagged performances that push the limits of the guitar with relentless intensity and inventive sonic language.
Wendy Eisenberg
has spent the past decade as a fixture of independent music and an artist of inspired multiplicity. As a singer-songwriter, improviser, and virtuoso guitarist, the coordinates of their artistry are ever-shifting, from art-rock to jazz to blistering free improv and eloquent folk. On catalog highlights including 2020’s 'Auto' and the 2024 free-jazz sprawler 'Viewfinder', they’ve made a signature of ambition.
As Eisenberg told fellow guitarist Nick Millevoi in an interview for Premier Guitar in 2021, “I need to be in a punk band at the same time as I need to be playing free improv at the same time as I need to be playing songs. All at the same time—otherwise none of the practices will work for me.” Their musical range isn’t a glib manifestation of eclecticism, but a genuine artistic essence.
Alex Pelchat
is a concert programmer, union organizer and part-time noisemaker from Montreal who is a part of the Mardi Spaghetti organization dedicated to improvised music.

In the groove of mystical improv sorcery, we present a cosy Casa show of top-notch Canadian & Mexican musicians in cross-cultural exchange. This event celebrates the launch of Stefan Christoff/Suoni collab zine,
TRANSBORDAR:
Voices of Cultural Workers in Mexico City
, featuring interviews with cultural workers from CDMX, painting an informal guide to the city’s cultural scene. The night features three combos:
Meredith Bates
(violin) (VAN)
Aleida Perez
(violin) (CDMX)
Adriana Camacho
(bass) (CDMX)
Malcolm Goldstein
(violin) (MTL)
Nicolas Caloia
(bass) (MTL)
Rainer Wiens
(guitar) (MTL)
Alex Motta
(bass) (CDMX)
Eli Piña
(saxophone) (CDMX)
Dario Bernal Villegas
(drums) (CDMX)
Stefan Christoff
(piano) (MTL)