Montreal Cultural Calendar

Le MC Challenge End Of The Weak / La fin des faibles a été lancé en 2000 à New York. Il célèbre cette année ses 15 ans de présence au Québec. Présent dans plusieurs pays sur 5 continents, il s’impose comme une référence internationale.
À la différence des battles traditionnels, le MC Challenge se veut un anti-battle : ici, pas d’insultes ni d’attaques personnelles, mais une mise en valeur du talent, du respect et de la créativité des artistes.
Chaque année, une finale internationale couronne une championne ou un champion du monde. Le concept a également été adapté pour la télévision avec La fin des faibles, diffusée sur Télé-Québec.
La compétition se décline en 5 épreuves qui mettent en lumière toutes les facettes de l’art du rap :
• Le texte libre
• L’a cappella
• L’improvisation
• Le MC vs DJ
• Le cercle
Les performances sont évaluées selon 5 critères objectifs :
• Les paroles et la qualité du texte
• La créativité et l’originalité
• La présence scénique et le charisme
• Le flow et le débit
• L’interaction avec l’environnement
Qui saura se démarquer et décrocher sa place en finale nationale?

"Dans les airs" is CHOQ.ca's cultural magazine, offering a fresh perspective on culture. We take you all over the city to show a different side of Montreal. Episode hosted by Renaud Vaillancourt and Tomy Tanguay.

Grand Événement

Interactions Créatives

Forward Movements propose des ateliers de médiation de street dance axés sur la créativité et l’authenticité. Ces deux événements invitent le public à voyager dans l'univers de la compagnie en leur proposant des performances interactives ainsi qu'une initiation au street dance où danseurs·es de haut calibre mettent en avant tout leur talent ! 
DJ
:
Ridley Pierre
MC
:
Shem G
JUGE
:
Jaleesa "TeaLeaf" Coligny
Danseur.euses:
Gaëlle "99" Fabre
Christopher "C.Josey" Joseph
Anaïs "RISE" Gilles
Anthony "Palomecc" Palomeque
Professor WORD
Bradley " C.A.L.M." Auminio

Our "Courrier recommandé" series is stepping out of its usual format for a special edition featuring two artists we’re thrilled to bring together: Paul Piché and Étienne Coppée. On the agenda: a intergenerational encounter around words, music, and the French language.

CIBL 101.5 will broadcast a special cultural program live from Francos de Montréal to bring the excitement of the event to its listeners and to welcome the featured artists performing on the various stages. Interviews lasting 5 to 8 minutes will be conducted with them to discuss their show, their music, their artistic approach, and their creative universe.

Le MC Challenge End Of The Weak / La fin des faibles a été lancé en 2000 à New York. Il célèbre cette année ses 15 ans de présence au Québec. Présent dans plusieurs pays sur 5 continents, il s’impose comme une référence internationale.
À la différence des battles traditionnels, le MC Challenge se veut un anti-battle : ici, pas d’insultes ni d’attaques personnelles, mais une mise en valeur du talent, du respect et de la créativité des artistes.
Chaque année, une finale internationale couronne une championne ou un champion du monde. Le concept a également été adapté pour la télévision avec La fin des faibles, diffusée sur Télé-Québec.
La compétition se décline en 5 épreuves qui mettent en lumière toutes les facettes de l’art du rap :
• Le texte libre
• L’a cappella
• L’improvisation
• Le MC vs DJ
• Le cercle
Les performances sont évaluées selon 5 critères objectifs :
• Les paroles et la qualité du texte
• La créativité et l’originalité
• La présence scénique et le charisme
• Le flow et le débit
• L’interaction avec l’environnement
Qui saura se démarquer et décrocher sa place en finale nationale?

Présenté par






L’album « Le Dôme » de Jean Leloup a 30 ans cette année. Cette œuvre emblématique de la musique québécoise est truffée de classiques qui ont marqué toute une génération. Pour l'occasion, ICI Musique a réuni sur une même scène Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Les Louanges, Thierry Larose, Safia Nolin, Klô Pelgag, Rau_Ze, We Are Wolves et Zach Zoya pour revisiter ces titres.
En direct aussi sur les ondes nationales d’ICI Musique.

Gratuit. Places limitées.
Plongez dans 
La Trame sonore du Québec
 lors d’un bingo musical festif et rassembleur dans le hall de la Grande Bibliothèque. Animé avec complicité par Eugénie Lépine‑Blondeau et Félix B. Desfossés, l’événement sera l’occasion de tester votre mémoire musicale.
Au programme : extraits musicaux cultes, bingo, prix à gagner, entrevues et invités surprises. Une fête conviviale pour célébrer notre patrimoine sonore.

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.

Interactions Créatives

Forward Movements propose des ateliers de médiation de street dance axés sur la créativité et l’authenticité. Ces deux événements invitent le public à voyager dans l'univers de la compagnie en leur proposant des performances interactives ainsi qu'une initiation au street dance où danseurs·es de haut calibre mettent en avant tout leur talent ! intes.
DJ
: Mark The Magnanimous
MC
: Jonathan "J Style" Mukoma
JUGE
: Elie-Anne "Rawss" Ross
Danseur.euses:
Julian "Helios" Waxman
Kemuel "Shadow" Jean-Pierre
Ford "The Mov3r" Mckeown Larose
Nina "Willywonka" Chati
Raphaëlle "Hunter" Ann Seal
Martine "Eclipse" Castera

Le Canal Auditif, Sors-tu? et atuvu.ca unissent leurs forces et vous convient à des rencontres fortes en potassium! Dans une ambiance conviviale et fruitée, Camille Dehaene, Marc-André Mongrain et Louis-Philippe Labrèche discutent avec des artistes qui joueront en première partie de vedettes établies. Mais pas que... Plusieurs autres surprises seront au menu lors de ces sessions enregistrées devant public en vue de diffusion balado.

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

Pod’Casque is a talk show hosted by the ONZMTL team, diving into hip-hop, urban culture, sports, and the conversations shaping today’s French-speaking generation. Through in-depth interviews, raw discussions, and cultural analysis, Le Onze, Jay Seven, and their guests offer an authentic perspective on both the Montreal and international scenes. Blending humor, insight, and real-life experiences, Pod’Casque creates a platform where artists, creators, and personalities can share their stories openly and without filters.

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.

Le MC Challenge End Of The Weak / La fin des faibles a été lancé en 2000 à New York. Il célèbre cette année ses 15 ans de présence au Québec. Présent dans plusieurs pays sur 5 continents, il s’impose comme une référence internationale.
À la différence des battles traditionnels, le MC Challenge se veut un anti-battle : ici, pas d’insultes ni d’attaques personnelles, mais une mise en valeur du talent, du respect et de la créativité des artistes.
Chaque année, une finale internationale couronne une championne ou un champion du monde. Le concept a également été adapté pour la télévision avec La fin des faibles, diffusée sur Télé-Québec.
La compétition se décline en 5 épreuves qui mettent en lumière toutes les facettes de l’art du rap :
• Le texte libre
• L’a cappella
• L’improvisation
• Le MC vs DJ
• Le cercle
Les performances sont évaluées selon 5 critères objectifs :
• Les paroles et la qualité du texte
• La créativité et l’originalité
• La présence scénique et le charisme
• Le flow et le débit
• L’interaction avec l’environnement
Qui saura se démarquer et décrocher sa place en finale nationale?

CISM 89.3 FM, University of Montreal’s college radio station, is coming down from its mountain perch for one evening only! Host Léonie Cabrol (L’échooo des luttes) will be live from l’Esplanade tranquille for the occasion, welcoming some of her favorite feminine artists from the 2026 programming.

Jellicle Cats come one come all, Jellicles return to the Jellicle Ball! 2026 is the year Cats: The Jellicle Ball goes to Broadway, and all good things come in threes; we are excited and proud to present the the 3rd installment of the Jellicle Kiki Ball: Now & Forever! With newfound inspiration and new categories yet to be explored in Montreal, you're in for a cat-tastic time.
Will you be the Jellicle Choice this year, and be reborn in the Heaviside Layer?
(…fine. If we must address the 2019 movie, we're doing so with a twist!)
Walkers Registration:
https://forms.gle/oZZMxQwghjEzfhwt8
Lip Sync Registration:
https://forms.gle/EbmyBWqXUzRZfSw89
Trans community discount registration:
https://forms.gle/GLvsCkDQUdvcCQgu6
CATEGORIES
Beginners Performance
(🏆)
Bring it in a country Western look.
Beginners Runway
(🏆)
Bring it in a 1970s look.
500$ GP Designers Delight
(🏆)
Bring a design based on any Hanna-Barbara feline character (with a reference).
Face
(🏆🏆🏆)
Bring it as Luna (FF), Artemis (MF) or Diana (GNC) from
Sailor Moon
, with a crescent moon accessory.
Realness
(🏆🏆)
Bring it as a
Cats (2019)
cast member (with a non-
Cats
reference).
Runway
(🏆🏆🏆)
Bring it in a look inspired by
Josie & the Pussycats (2001)
with a reference.
Comm vs Comm
(🏆) For your 10s,
bring a chant incorporating a quote from
The Lion King
movie or stage musical.
Hands Performance vs. Arms Control
(🏆🏆) Inspired by the 90s cartoon
CatDog
,
Arms Control: Bring it as Cat; Hands Performance: Bring it as Dog.
Lip Sync
(🏆)
Bring it in a cat-themed lip sync performance (for your 10s, you may choose a song from any BROADWAY musical, or any cat-related song (be it by title or artist).
Performance
(🏆)
Bring it as a nekomimi.
Old Way vs. New Way
(🏆🏆)
OW: Cat in the Hat; NW: Thing 1 & Thing 2
Bazaar
(🏆)
Bring it as a feline sidekick, with a reference.
Body
(🏆🏆)
Choose a sports team whose mascot is feline, and bring it in the team’s colors, with a reference.
Sex Siren
(🏆🏆)
Bring it in a nude illusion with leather accessories, in honour of the Canadian Sphynx.
MC -
Silk
Pinklady
,
The GNC voice of the Canadian Ballroom scene since their 2022 debut, Silk Pinklady has commentated over 30 balls all across Canada, hosted workshops, and has mentored many commentators to their own grand prizes and OTY Awards
DJ Pleasure (Legendary Canadian Father Pleasure Juicy Couture)
DJ Pleasure is one of this generation’s phenomenal DJs. He is multi-talented and versatile with more than meets the eye. Pleasure grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. His love for the arts started at a very young age where Pleasure nurtured a sincere passion for music.
In the Ballroom scene, Legendary Canadian Father Pleasure Juicy Couture is recognized as the first Canadian Legend of European Runway in Canadian ballroom culture. As a respected leader and Father of the Canadian chapter of the Iconic Kiki House of Juicy Couture and integral member of the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance, he shaped the elegant, expressive runway style that defines the category today.

Présenté par

Sunken Cages
is the solo-project of Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin. Inspired by Mumbai’s Street drumming ensembles and global rhythms, he creates tracks using live-looped percussion arrangements and pre-composed melodies. Get your dancing shoes laced!
Bilingual, Montreal-based experimental synth duo,
Jardin botanique
(Kate Bundy and Jean-Guillaume Bastien) blends organic and synthetic sound worlds with an exploratory approach, playful improvisation, and intuitive collaboration. Treating music as a living ecosystem shaped by growth, decay and care, this project is a feast for your ears.
In Hajia Maa’s current artistic universe, what is tantamount is the exploration of music, wellness and fashion, a space where meditative chant, experimental soul, and ambient soundscapes offer a perspective on rituals of care for the body and spirit. Her project
Secondsight
invites deep listening, rest, and embodied spiritual intimacy. Expect aural-visual delight!
Cyclepunk Warrior Bard
Abdul Lateef aka The Distractor
is a versatile artist blurring the lines between beatboxing, progressive metal, hip hop, funk and drum n bass and beyond. His signature instrument is the Lethelium a 24-string 2-octave instrument played with sticks, fingers and violin bows. Other bike-based instruments include the coolerdrum and rim drum and Miscellaneum Studios’ Distraction Machine, a music-based cyclepunk video game and musical sequencer.

With
IFO Productions
True self-destruction.
Cicada
is dark, left-of-center hardcore howling from beneath the weight of the empire. Based in Richmond, VA.
THE NOT
are aural assault - fuzz washes over everything like a rainstorm, tying the songs together with the sounds of broken glass and sirens. The lyrics are blunt, political and vicious, and the rhythm section is locked to the churn. Their final showing. Noise not music.
Uzu
is a Montreal-based band that blends elements of post-punk with dark, melodic, mid-tempo punk, infused with an incisive energy reminiscent of Siekiera. Their lyrics, sung in Arabic, are poetic and personal, while also conveying political messages about exile, colonization, and self-management.
Muscle Memory
: FASTCORE.

Copresented with LOL (Lots of Love) Festival
June 20 (June 21 in case of rain) Mile End.
Meeting Point and time upcoming, keep your eyes peeled here!
Conjuring FM: Feminist Migrant Frequencies
This radio walk occupies an open frequency on the FM spectrum to create a collective listening experience that weaves together the voices, memories, and experiences of a migrant feminist collective in Montreal. Through sound, the project explores migration as a process of resilience, adaptation, and the search for new ways of coexisting within urban space.
Throughout the walk, participants will tune into an FM transmission featuring personal stories, reflections, and sonic conjurations from members of Colectiva Tribu and activist Tania Gómez. Their voices form the narrative thread of the experience, guiding the audience through stories of migration, care, resistance, and belonging.
The walk takes place within Les Champs des Possibles, a wild ecosystem that persists in the heart of Mile End and serves as a living symbol of ecological resilience within the city. This territory is not merely a setting, but an active interlocutor: its vegetation, sounds, and history enter into dialogue with the participants’ narratives. Throughout the journey, echoes of their voices and conjurations will resonate across the landscape, creating a relationship between migrant memory and territorial resistance.
Broadcast through FM waves, this walk proposes an intimate, collective, and political form of listening that connects migrant experiences with urban ecosystems that are also struggling to endure.
The walk will take place in Spanish, English, and French.
Conjuro FM: Frecuencias Feministas Migrantes
Esta caminata radial interviene en una frecuencia libre del espectro FM para crear una experiencia de escucha colectiva que entrelaza las voces, memorias y experiencias de una colectividad feminista migrante en la ciudad de Montreal. A través del sonido, el proyecto explora la migración como un proceso de resiliencia, adaptación y búsqueda de nuevas formas de coexistencia en el espacio urbano.
Durante el recorrido, las personas participantes sintonizarán una transmisión FM en la que se escucharán los relatos personales, reflexiones y conjuros sonoros de les integrantes de
Colectiva Tribu
y de la activista Tania Gómez. Sus voces construirán el eje narrativo de la caminata, guiando al público a través de experiencias de migración, cuidado, resistencia y pertenencia.
La caminata se desarrolla en Les Champs des Possibles, un ecosistema silvestre que persiste en medio de Mile End y funciona como un símbolo vivo de resiliencia ecológica en la ciudad. Este territorio no actúa únicamente como escenario, sino también como interlocutor activo: su vegetación, sus sonidos y su historia dialogan con las narrativas de las participantes. A lo largo del recorrido, los ecos de sus voces y conjuros resonarán en el paisaje, creando una relación entre la memoria migrante y la resistencia territorial.
Transmitida a través de ondas FM, esta caminata propone una escucha íntima, colectiva y política que conecta las experiencias de migración con los ecosistemas urbanos que también luchan por persistir.
Amanda Gutiérrez
examines the intersection of political listening and gender studies through the lens of soundwalking and radio practices. Gutiérrez holds a Ph.D. in the Arts and Humanities (HUMA) at Concordia University. Her artistic experience has been showcased internationally through art residencies at FACT in Liverpool, UK; ZKM in Germany; TAV in Taiwan; and the Bolit Art Center in Spain. Additionally, her sound artwork has been exhibited at various international venues, including The Liverpool Biennale in 2012, Harvestworks in NYC, SBC Gallery, Undefined Radio in Montreal, Errant Bodies Studio Press in Berlin, POP Montreal, the City of Women Festival, and the To)POT Festival in Ljubljana, as well as the ENSEMS Music Festival in Valencia, Sur Aural in Bolivia, and the Tsonami Sound Festival in Chile.

Free - All day - Multiple spots around Mile-End and the Plateau - Schedule is upcoming, keep your eyes posted here!
Performances in public spaces (on 21 June in case of rain)
Amanda Gutiérrez with Brujas Collective + ambre j. + Laura Jeffery + anana anonyme + Emma-Kate Guimond + Esteban Donoso and Peng Hsu + Florencia Sosa Rey + Kìzis + Lilia Mestre and Marcos Simões + Louise Michel Jackson with Lara Oundjian + Mithra “Myth” Rabel with Chanda T. Holmes + Santiago Lopez Alzate
The Lots of Love (LOL) Festival is an outdoor contemporary performance event rooted in a DIY, anti-institutional ethos. Created as a community-driven alternative to large festivals, it has been curated since 2021 by Sasha Kleinplatz, Liliane Moussa, Emile Pineault, and Sarah Williams. The festival features a series of performances in unconventional spaces such as backyards, garages, parks, or basketball courts. It brings together artists from diverse backgrounds and generations. Its curatorial approach emphasizes relinquishing control, fostering radical trust, and amplifying community voices, creating an inclusive and collaborative environment that prioritizes experimentation and accessibility. Suoni is excited to partner with LOL this year!
OFFICIAL SCHEDULE:

REAPER for Noise Artists
A workshop led by noise artist
Anju Singh
(The Nausea, Deliriant Fracture) to get artists working with noise, experimental music, and sound art sound sources to produce with REAPER to better record and document their sounds. REAPER is an affordable yet powerful software.
In this 90-minute workshop, participants will:
- set up your interface
- record 2-3 sounds
- mix to form a 60 second track
- export the track
- learn how to configure for multi-channel output
The workshop moves fast, so to get the most out of the workshop, please arrive on time and prepared with:
- laptop with REAPER already installed and ready to go (you can use the free 60-day trial for this session)
- interface for your computer (if you have one)
- headphones
Pre-registration is required.
If you don't have or can't bring a laptop to the session, no problem - you'll just pair with another participant with a laptop.
No filming, photos, or audio recording of the session please.

Students from the studio of
Dina Cindrić
present their end-of-year piano and voice recital, performing classical, jazz, and folk repertoire.

Interactions Créatives

Forward Movements propose des ateliers de médiation de street dance axés sur la créativité et l’authenticité. Ces deux événements invitent le public à voyager dans l'univers de la compagnie en leur proposant des performances interactives ainsi qu'une initiation au street dance où danseurs·es de haut calibre mettent en avant tout leur talent ! 
DJ
: Nina Fondop
MC
: Killian "Kiki" Eouani
JUGE
: Alliowe "Alli-Ola" Olanrewaju
Danseur.euses:
"Monica" Jane François
Tetuh Asi Richline "Badgyal Riri" Pascale
"Leah" Dangaa
"Byga" Fintsougaby
Serginho "Gknow" Maxius
James "Shvbba" Belony

Co-presented with
NOW society
and
Jahsun
BLK D'OR
, an exploration of free black expression that seeks new sounds, harmony, dissonance & authentic cultural exchanges. Curated by none other than Kalmunity initiator
Jahsun
, the evening will feature a series of spectacular combos that will have us travelling. This intimate session blends freeform cosmic soul, jazz, and wordsmiths with special Suoni guests rounding out the experience. Get a load of this:
Part of the Un Echange: Trading Places: Trueque tri-city residency
Soulsonic bath:
Sam I Am Montolla
(MTL)
Star Dust:
Fred Bazil
(sax) (MTL)
Jahsun
(drums) (MTL)
Constellation 1:
Adrian Avendaño
(drums) (VAN)
Markus Floats (
bass) (MTL)
Fahmid Nibesh
(guitar) (MTL)
Skin Tone
(saxophone / mbira) (MTL)
Aleida Perez
(violin) (CDMX)
Jason Selman
(cornet / poetry) (MTL)
The Opening:
D-na
(poetry) (MTL)
Christelle Saint Julien
(harp) (MTL)
Constellation 2:
Anju Singh
(violin) (VAN)
Julie Richard
(tuba) (MTL)
Aaron Leaney
(saxophone) (MTL)
Ravish Momin
(drums) (MTL)
Stella Adjokê
(poetry) (MTL)
Twilight:
Zibz Blackurrent
(dubpoetry) (MTL)
Zach Frampton
(piano) (MTL)
Constellation 3:
Engone Endong
(sound design) (MTL)
Zach Frampton
(piano/keys) (MTL)
Cabral Jacobs
(saxophone) (MTL)
Jahsun
(drums) (MTL)
Tanya Tawhida Evanson
(poetry) (MTL)

After last year’s megawatt showcase,
Watch That Ends The Night
records are back for round 2 with a lineup of artists with new releases. It promises to be a doozy. We’ve got post-classical/prog-metal composer
Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo
with his classical guitar & live electronics setup. We’ve got the choral pop/math punk frenzy of
pinksnail
, exuding expressions of fast-food/sex-sads, and a “greatfulness” to be alive. Then there’s experimental pop siren
aniqa dear
whose synth-infused textures and polyrhythms craft danceable music interlaced with stark vulnerability.
Cloud Circuit
is poet Deanna Radford & sound artist Jeremy Young. Live, they blend iterative text, sine waves, 1/4" magnetic tape, and radio transmission, composing, dissecting, and refracting all the while. Rounding out the night are longtime collaborators
Michael Cloud Duguay & Andrew Mackelvie
, both contemporary creative musicians and co-creative directors of the co-hosting label; their performance at Suoni will, somehow, be their first time performing as a duo.
Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo
is a post-classical guitarist and composer exploring what the guitar can become in the 21st century. His work blends classical guitar with live electronics, progressive metal, improvised music, and post-rock, creating immersive sound worlds that move fluidly across genres. Recognized as one of CBC’s 2023 “30 Under 30 Classical Musicians,” Lacopo often performs with multi-instrument setups and real-time electronic processing, approaching the guitar as a modular and expandable instrument. His 2023 album Eastman (People Places Records) reimagines the music of Julius Eastman for guitar and electronics and was named a CBC “must-hear” recording. His upcoming album, Dreamscapes and Our Modern Contradictions (Watch That Ends the Night Records), will be his first full release of original music.
pinksnail
is a funeral with birthday cake. An ode to birth death as choral punk frenzy. Perfectly accessible Singsongs ruined by downtuned acoustic guitar, bombastic math metal drumming and a choir in 3 part harmony; spewing hooks about grief, sex-sads, fast-food and a gratefulness to be alive. Between the syncopated riff raff and dissonant harmonic moves, the closest comparison is either Converge subbing as Fionna Apple's backing band, or Meshuggah cosplaying as Bare Naked Ladies for their Halloween bands as bands. A hodgepodge of Pop Song form, Heavy Drum breaks, Creamy Choral chords and Mathed out riffs you might as well toss out yr calculator to fully enjoy; pinksnail is the Chorale Pop/Math Punk mashup no one asked for, but if you chug yr triple triple from timmies fast enough, you might actually appreciate the effort.
aniqa dear
is a Toronto-based experimental art pop project rooted in queerness, diasporic identity, grief, and the eternal interplay between belonging and isolation. aniqa dear weaves her intricate melodic sensibilities with ever-shifting synth-infused textures and polyrhythms, resulting in danceable music interlaced with stark vulnerability. She is currently crafting her second, intimate, genre-bending full-length album, to be released in early 2027. She asks intently if you have ever danced into your own abyss, and she invites you in.
Poetry-sound project
Cloud Circuit
draws inspiration from communication glitches and lost connections. Poet Deanna Radford channels her iterative text reams into deconstructed “words of mouth,” while sound artist Jeremy Young employs sine waves in flux, 1/4" magnetic tape, and captured radio airs. In performance, Cloud Circuit’s approach is collaborative and improvisational, with their sound being composed, dissected, and refracted. The duo has shared the stage with artists including Phew, Sam Prekop, Lea Bertucci, David Grubbs, Vito Ricci, Ora Clementi (crys cole & James Rushford), Jessica Pavone, skintone, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Paul Dutton, Ron Whitehead, Sarah Pagé, Greg Davis, Khaleefa "Apollo the Child" Hamdan, Alessandra Eramo, Jessica Ackerley, and others.
Cloud Circuit’s début LP will be released in June 2026 with Watch That Ends The Night Records.
Michael Cloud Duguay + Andrew Mackelvie
are a multidisciplinary creative duo and central animators of contemporary creative music in Canada, based in Peterborough ON and Halifax NS respectively. Throughout five years of intense and prolific collaboration, the two have contributed to dozens of internationally recognized creative performance and projects, including MacKelvie’s widely celebrated debut album with his spiritual jazz ensemble, Many Worlds, and Duguay’s critically-acclaimed electroacoustic chamber-drone ensemble, Scions. The two are co-creative directors of Watch That Ends The Night Records, an independent label platforming innovative music produced across Canada. Their performance at Suoni will, somehow, be their first time performing as a duo.

A feminist, inclusive punk rock night in collaboration with
La Fédération des femmes du QC (FFQ)
,
Les Insoumises
,
La Libraire féministe L'Euguélionne
,
and
LowLife Mtl Skate Shop
Rough Spells
is a four‑piece witch ’n roll band from Tkaronto, often described as Heart meets Black Sabbath. As settlers, immigrants, Jews and queers, the band supports meaningful acts of reconciliation and decolonization, and endorses the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
Part of a queer, female‑fronted doom music movement, Rough Spells released their self‑produced EP Modern Kicks for the Solitary Witch, which debuted at #10 on the Doom Charts in 2018. Their releases include the Syster 7" and the full‑length album Ruins at Midday (Fuzzed and Buzzed / Dark Hedonistic Union).
Fueled by bluegrass and swing, the songs of
Margaret Tracteur
et les Faucheuses fauchées, a project by Gabrielle Noël Bégin, demonstrate a solid mastery of American folklore combined with great freedom. With keen observation skills, a healthy dose of humor, and surprising vocal techniques, the artist invites the audience on a personal and colorful journey between tradition and modernity that will delight troublemakers and yodel enthusiasts alike.
Presented as a female trio brought together for the cause, with Valéry St-Gelais (double bass) and Sandra Boulanger (violin), the group develops an organic, artisanal sound to convey lyrics that make you smile, bring people together, and set them free. The sun follows the trio on the roads of the countryside and cities, their contagious melodies, full of common sense and joyful rage, will follow you home. You have been warned!
Poolgirl
is a five‑piece alt‑rock band based in Montréal. Blending riot grrrl and punk influences with melodic indie rock, their sound has drawn comparisons to Bratmobile and Wednesday.
Since releasing their demo Is This It??? in January 2024, Poolgirl has been relentlessly active on the live circuit, performing across Canada at DIY basements, outdoor shows, festivals, and cultural events. Their latest single, Triple A (May 2025), highlights what they do best: fun, high‑energy rock that never takes itself too seriously. Poolgirl shows consistently bring together crowds ready to dance, mosh, sing/scream along.
Repurposing the anger, shock and alienation that stem from the ongoing disaster that is life in the 21st Century,
Bianca Supercell
aims to drown out the crap with their maximalist dreamy-noisy songs, in an attempt to get to the heart of the matter. Telling the stories as they see them unfold like some kind of overemotional reporter, they provide a musical response to the relentless affront on our basic humanity.

Yodel Workshop with Margaret Tracteur (Gabrielle N. Bégin)
A friendly introduction to yodeling with
Gabrielle N. Bégin
, the voice behind Margaret Tracteur.
Drawing from American folk traditions, Gabrielle learned to yodel by listening to and imitating artists like Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, the DeZurich Sisters, and Jean Shepard, as well as local yodelers such as Manon Bédard and Guylaine Tanguay.
She shares her surprising vocal techniques through a playful, accessible approach. A workshop to explore your voice, play with vocal registers, and experience a living tradition, whether you're curious, a singer, or already a yodel enthusiast.

The tree-lined backyard of Casa del Popolo serves as a bucolic alternative to CKUT's studios for two live broadcasts featuring festival artists, independent journalists from the Unrigged family and members of the CKUT news collective. Join us in person or at 90.3 FM on Sunday June 21rst & Saturday June 27th from 1-4pm.

Suoni per il Popolo &
UJPO
present:
Son et Solidarité: Sounds for Palestine
A night of Sound and Solidarity to benefit the
Edward Said Music Conservatory
and the
Elham Fund
Intro & Short Film:
The Memory
(al-Zakira)
- Mohamad Malas (13 mins)
I see my family, I meet people. I meet them in my sleep, see them in my dreams. I know they are dead, I see them in my dreams, says the elderly woman. She lives on her own in the small town of Quneitra. She talks to her many cats and chicken, to the film team and to herself. She listens to the stories in the radio. She walks through the rubble.
In World War I she was in Beirut, in World War II as well, also during the wars of 1948 and 1956 she was out of town, stuck elsewhere. In 1967, when the Israeli army occupied the Golan Heights she was in her hometown, Quneitra, the governorates capital. And so was she in the war 1973. When the occupation forces withdrew they destroyed the city to make it inhabitable. Only few individuals returned. The woman says she used to write down things, not about herself, about many things that happened. All is gone, what is left is only the memory.
short film, Mohamad Malas, Syria 1975, 13 min, 35 mm (available in digital format only), Arabic
Director and Author Mohamad Malas | Photography Mohammad al-Qaj | Editor Tala'at al-Maghrebi | Production Mohammad Abu Abdallah
Mohamad Malas
was born in 1945 in Quneitra on the Golan Heights. He is a prominent Syrian filmmaker whose films garnered him international recognition. Malas is among the first auteur filmmakers in Syrian cinema.
Emna Mâaref
is a Tunisian Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist primarily known as an Oud player, live performer, electronic music producer, and DJ. Her practice spans a wide range of experimental music projects and sound design for visual and cinematic works, with her cinema projects selected at major festivals such as TIFF (Canada) and the Carthage Film Festival (Tunisia)
Never Temple
spans the Atlantic: Jaclyn Blumas, and Jessica Deutsch based in Toronto, known for their work with projects E-Prime, Doomsquad, Hush, Ghosttown Studio. Alexandra Duvekot in Amsterdam, a member of Blue Crime and art collective Meduse MagiQ. Within this ever-evolving collaboration, the interconnections of sound, performance, and ritual are constantly explored. Debuting with a series of performances at Amsterdam’s Dok Zaal, Never Temple was then approached to join New York’s 24hr Drone Festival at Basilica Hudson in 2019. This performance showcased their signature midnight ritual—a fusion of ethereal cello and violin, otherworldly vocals, and haunting synths, all adorned in attire suited to the characters present in the world they create. This live performance was featured and recorded at the festival then released via Manchester's Golden Ratio Frequencies label. Incorporating the energy of oceans and rivers, Never Temple seeks to transport listeners into deep sonic landscapes that resonate within the body. With multiple EPs on the horizon, Never Temple’s latest work, Automatic Pilot, released worldwide in May 2025 through Canadian label Halocline Trance and the UK’s DUPE, a subsidiary label of Bella Union. As the project grows, it continues to redefine the limits of experimental music,creating a truly immersive, multidimensional sonic experience.
Jessica Moss
is a violinist, composer, and solo performer based in Montréal. With over two decades of work in experimental music, she first came to prominence as a member of
Thee Silver Mt. Zion
and co-founder of
Black Ox Orkestar
. Since 2015, she has focused primarily on solo composition and performance, creating music shaped by live improvisation, deep listening, and a belief in the concert as a space for reflection and shared experience.
Fifteen Months and Countless
is composed of a rapidly advancing sequence of film photos taken from protests on 8th October 2023 to 16th January 2025 in Montreal and London. Music by Anarchist Mountains, featuring a drone sample of an organ played by Stefan Christoff with sound processing by Jordan Christoff.
The photos mark events from Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to the very broken ceasefire declaration fifteen months and countless lives, and demonstrations of support and direct actions later.
Prints of some of the photos in the film will be available in the art market taking place downstairs during the event, all proceeds to the evening’s fundraisers.
Gambletron
(Tiohtià:ke mtl) is a non-binary sound artist/ musician known for their improvisational noise and work with radio transmission- e.g. Radio "field trips," experimental karaoke, "multi-tonal AM Radio Theremin" and noise performances through large piles of radios. They explore the use of reconfigured radios and live transmission as a sculptural platform for the purpose of performance and environmental exploration. Gambletron's music and artworks almost always function as pirate radio, evocative of subtle methods of resistance to corporate and state control of communications technology.
Performing with an old mic strapped over their mouth and an array of tiny synths and self-built electronics-The music is loud and aggressive. The result is a hyper-kinetic wall of saturated electronic noise among heavy beats… kind of jungle-y these days.
Gambletron is a multi-instrumentalist and founding member of Orkestar Kriminal, with past projects on Constellation Records including Carla Bozulich's Evangelista, Hrsta, Clues, and Matana Roberts' Coin Coin. They also work extensively in sound design for film, dance, and theatre.
Moose Terrific
is an experimental electronics and synth duo composed of Montreal based Sam Shalabi and Tamara Filyavich. The pair focuses on classic synth sounds but with a lot of polyrythmic, symphonic, post-punk, North African and Ukrainian influences and other mayhem. They have released a debut album called 'The Drinks' on the Irish label, FortEvilFruit . Their second album ' Nude Beginning ' was released in 2024 on the Beirut label Ruptured. They are currently mixing material for a 4 and 5(!) release. Tamara Filyavich has been a sound art producer living in Montreal since 2002, in the last seven years, she began performing as an experimental electronic musician focusing one lectroacoustic, sound art and noise music, both as a solo artist and in collaborative projects. Her practice features work that is both composed and improvised and over the years I've come to draw inspiration from early synthesizer music, easter european folklore, Post Punk and more to name just a few influences.

Before the Son et Solidarité: Sounds for Palestine show come support artists and activists at our Art and Action Solidarity Market. All funds raised will go to benefit the Edward Said Music Conservatory and the Elham Fund who directly support Palestinians in Palestine.
With Artists and Activists:
Seif Hajem · Asma Bari · Amine Masmoudi · Fermons le bureau de la honte · Lelelines · Stefan Christoff · Regards Palestiniens · Popolo Press · Rickie Leach · Sletate • Musicians for Palestine Montréal · UJPO · Levantina Shop · Kufiya Souk and more!

Co-presented with
NOW society
and codes d'access.
An Laurence
安媛
is a Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal-based musician and composer active in the contemporary/experimental music scene, and performance/multimedia artist.
Her eclectic debut album "Almost Touching" (2022), distributed by people | places | records, has been described as displaying "a graceful vulnerability that transforms [the] compositions into a powerful suite of emotive manifestations" (Foxy Digitalis), "a demanding listen ... never less than engaging" (The Whole Note), where An Laurence "displays her willingness to dive headfirst along each pathway she chooses to explore" (Musicworks magazine).
Her work has been presented by the Quartier des spectacles, Accès Asie, Théâtre La Chapelle, Groupe Le Vivier, the Music Gallery, Phenomena, No Hay Banda, Oh! my ears, Lucky Penny Opera/re:Naissance opera, Chinatown Biennial, Montreal’s maison de la culture, Athens Digital Arts, Tranås at the Fringe, Codes d'accès, among others.
Ianna Book
is a Montreal-based artist with an interdisciplinary background, whose work unfolds at the crossroads of visual arts, performance, and experimental music. Through a decidedly cross-disciplinary practice, she interrogates constructions of identity and processes of emancipation, offering a sensitive reflection on the ways in which one can reclaim one’s personal and collective narrative.
Camille Rosset-Balcer
is a sound artist and clarinettist based in Tiohtiá:ke/ Mooniyang/Montréal. Her practice questions the relation between the perceptible and the invisible, at the edge of imagination and sensitive experience. Inspired by nature, her compositions are influenced by myths, symbols and occult practices. Her work has been presented at numerous festivals and events such as POP Montréal, Nuit Blanche à l’ONF, Montréal Complètement Cirque, le ROSEQ, CAM en tournée and Mise-En Festival (USA).
Antoine Gaudin is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tiohtiá:ke/ Mooniyang/ Montreal. His work takes us on a spontaneous pictorial journey at the boundaries between the real and the unreal. Blending mystical icons, symbolic rituals, macabre solitude, and distorted photographic archives, his drawings and paintings sketch a dark and absurd world where a mind in search of meaning collides with belief systems, the devastating force of memory, and the incoherence of a world in delirium. Active on the cultural and community scene, his work has been presented in various venues such as Casa Obscura, Cheval Blanc, Espace Public, and Mai/son Montréal.
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.
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.

Blacks’ Myths
is a band founded by composer and bassist Luke Stewart with drummer Warren "Trae" Crudup, and has since developed into a sonic research and performance project concerned with the idea of History, of Memory, of the power of creating a tuned state of being. The journey through Sound lies the meditation on the history of blackness, the personal memory lens of an increasingly complex world full of alternate facts and rehashed stories. History thus becomes Mythology, in the ways in which we experience its weighty meanings in our lives. Through accessing the power of Sound, the story unfolds in physical frequencies that can re-tune the sub-conscious being otherwise known as the Spirit. The specific historical themes come from lived experience, stories told.
Toronto-based improviser
Karen Ng
has established herself as a unique musical force nationally and internationally, performing with some of Canada’s most prized artists such as The Weather Station, Andy Shauf, Do Make Say Think and many more. One of Canada’s leading improvisers “with a breathtakingly wide musical scope” (Musicworks) she also collaborates regularly with ad hoc ensembles in the wider improvising scene across Canada, in Europe and the US.
Years after the final chords of their old punk rock band, Vancouver guitarists and composers
Alvaro Rojas and Cole Schmidt
reunite and celebrate with a new LP and repertoire of guitar duets,
Nondual
.
Riffs, counterpoint, drones and improvisations twist and turn in the contemporary style. Songs, minimalism, collage and abstractions are all invited to the block party, and hang around in the park until the streetlights turn on.
Cole Schmidt
composes music for multi-genre improvising psychedelic chamber jazz ensemble SICK BOSS, drone improv unit LETTR OPENR, and the collaborative project with cellist and composer Peggy Lee, FOREVER STORIES OF: MOVING PARTIES.
As a guitarist, he performs regularly with Marin Patenaude, KneeJerk, and Peggy Lee’s Echo Painting. Cole has been curating DIY shows in Vancouver for over 15 years. He was part of the multidisciplinary outfit Sawdust Collector, and works as an Artistic Director for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and Barking Sphinx Performing Society.
Alvaro Rojas
creates adventurous and colourful music that combines and recontextualizes the world around him. His diverse projects include Afro Peruvian prog - jazz (GRAN KASA), drippy electronic tinged guitar+string quartet soundscapes (MUSIC FOR 22), and an upcoming release on Susie Ibarra’s Habitat sounds label based on translating the patterns of nature.
His concert pieces have been performed by many of Canada’s finest new music groups, including the Turning Point Ensemble, Aventa Ensemble, Microcosmos String Quartet and others, and has collaborated with artists such as Susana Baca and Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Presenting a mega-watt collab from local luminaries
James Goddard
(sax + more),
Jahsun
(percussion)
Markus Lake
(bass),
Cabral Jacobs
(saxophone) &
Engone Endong
(electronics). Hot!

Caro D - Hey Man
The Show Continues (in January) - Help Me to the Finish Line
Dirty Cheetah - Demon Possessed
Co-presented with
NOW Society
Dirty Cheetah
was formed in 2017 by Frank and Pat when he came back from Winnipeg . Both longtime friends were separated when Pat had to move to Manitoba. Frank committed to learn to play guitar so they could start a band if Pat ever came back to Montreal. Obviously, Frank kept his promise and Pat came back. This is how the two greasy hands mechanics started hammering their guitars. They soon got joined by the rhythm section of a roller derby jammer and a rock'n biker.
Pat Panic - Guitar - Lead Vocal
Dirty Frank - Guitar - Vocal
Don Lucas - Bass - Vocal
Lynda Kicks - Drums
Caro D. -
Making music with a strat with overdrive an amp, lots of heart and whoever else is there :)
The Show Continues (In January)
is an eccentric alternative rock band that specializes in theatrical performances and conceptual music, to create a universe of their own.

The 2nd edition of
GET FREE!
- a star-freakin-studded spectacle with musicians from across central & western so-called Canada, Philly, Mexico City and Amsterdam joining forces in spontaneous displays of sonic synchronicity. Here’s the whole lineup here so you can already visualize how these sounds will collide to feed your ears.
Now Society and Suoni Coproduction
DJ PARTY WITH THE EX IN CASA BAR
Combos:
Aleida Perez
(violin) (CDMX)
Pablo
Jiménez
(bass) (MTL)
Christelle Saint-Julien
(harp) (MTL)
Rosalie Chretien
(percussion, voice) (MTL)
Katherina Bornefeld
(drums) (NED)
ben grossman
(hurdy gurdy) (MTL)
Alex Motta
(bass) (CDMX)
Kahero:ton
(piano, guitare) (MTL)
Maya Kuroki
(voice, electronics) (MTL)
Hélios
(violin) (MTL)
Daniel Añez
(Ondéa with FX) (MTL)
Cole Schmidt
(guitar) (VAN)
Adriana Camacho
(bass) (CDMX)
Terrie Hessels
(guitar) (NED)
Karen Ng
(saxophone) (TOR)
Warren “Trae” Cudrup
(drums) (PHIL)
Marilou Craft
(voice, electronics) (MTL)
Alvaro Rojas
(guitar) (VAN)
Arnold de Boer
(guitar, voice) (NED)
Ben Brown
(drums) (MTL)
Meredith Bates
(violin) (VAN)
Sam Shalabi
(oud, electronics) (MTL)
Luke Stewart
(Bass) (PHIL)
Jairus Sharif
(saxophone, electronics) (EDMON)
Adrian Avendaño
(drums, percussion) (VAN)
Allison Burik
(bass clarinet, fx) (MTL)
Andy Moor
(guitar) (NED)

Since 1999,
Quatuor Bozzini
has been a unique voice championing new, experimental, and classical music. A driving force in Montreal's vibrant creative scene and beyond, the quartet cultivates an approach that embraces risk, experimentation, and collaboration, venturing off the beaten path. Through its rigorous standards of quality, it has contributed to the creation of a diverse repertoire that transcends trends and fads. Over the years, it has commissioned numerous works and premiered nearly 500. Its open, collaborative, and artist-led approach has resulted in many innovative and highly acclaimed productions, including interdisciplinary projects incorporating video, theatre, and dance.
1st part
Hypnokaséta
Composition: Yannis Kyriakides
On stage: Quatuor Bozzini, Andy Moor & Yannis Kyriakides
Hypnokaséta is a continuous set of 16 pieces for string quartet and electronics based on dreams that I had during the first few months of lockdown, April-June 2020. Accounts of these dreams are encoded in the music that is played by the quartet and also encrypted in the sound textures that surround this. The pieces alternate between quartet as the foreground and electronic interludes, where solos or duos underpin the soundscape. The name ’cassettes’ refers to a theory of dreams proposed by Daniel Dennett, that says that dreams are loaded into consciousness like a cassette tape, just before waking.
2nd part
Rebetika
Arrangements and Improvisations: Andy Moor & Yannis Kyrakides
Rebetika
Andy Moor (guitar) and Yannis Kyriakides (computer) lovingly deconstruct and reassemble their favorite rebetika music in a set of nine pieces that encompass a wide scope of musical vision. This is an unusual and original take on the so-called "blues" music of the Greek diaspora of the early 20th century. Composer Yannis Kyriakides and guitarist Andy Moor offer their own avant-garde take on this music over the course of the piece. The starting point for these songs is a series of scratchy old bouzouki recordings, which are then sampled and manipulated while real-time guitar is overlaid. This meeting of old musical styles, decrepit recordings and very modern string experiments results in an often very emotive blend, effectively re-writing the past with a combination of reverence and adventurous Tetuzi Akiyama-like musicianship, sounding like an angular, Eastern European Charley Patton on the especially haunting 'Minores’.

Co-Presented with NOW Society, Muff, La Lumière Collective
DahL
is the Montreal-based art rock trio of Nassir Liselle (Anthony McLachlan), Bryan Greenfield, and Edward Scrimger. With roots in post-punk, R&B, and ‘90s trip-hop, the band fuses socially charged songwriting with experimental sound design to craft music as fluid as it is fearless.
Formed in 2014 after the dissolution of their former project Oliverthegreat, DahL has grown into a force of immersive storytelling. Their 2024 debut LP
That’s It
earned critical acclaim from
CULT MTL
and
Exclaim!
, and their unpredictable live performances have shared stages with Suuns, FACS, and more.
Fresh off their international debut at New York’s New Colossus Festival, DahL continue to carve a path through art rock’s uncharted waters. “High Tide” is the latest proof of their uncompromising vision.
Collaborative performance with Guillaume Vallée
Experimental filmmaker and video artist
Guillaume Vallée
graduated from Concordia University with a degree in animation and holds an MFA in Studio Arts – Film Production. He works with film (Super 8, 16mm, 35mm), analog video (VHS, Hi8), and stereoscopic video (red/cyan anaglyph). His audiovisual performances have been presented at numerous festivals in Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Austria. His experimental films and videos, distributed by Vidéographe, Light Cone, La Distributrice de films, and Winnipeg Film Group, have been screened internationally at several festivals.
https://www.gvallee.com/
Jairus Sharif
is a Black-Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound artist based in Calgary, AB, Treaty 7 land. His work combines spontaneous composition, sound collage, and free improvisation to create a liberation technology used for self-understanding, freedom of expression, and collective healing. Sharing a truthful message though the free exploration of music is important to Sharif, and blurring his own understanding of immediate reflection, ecstatic improvisation and tranquil focus is at the centre of his current creative work.
Operating the studio as an instrument, his recordings apply improvisation to assist in forging connections between ecstatic jazz, folk traditions, ambient, drone, dub, and noise. Primarily composing, performing, and recording all of the elements found in his music, Sharif has generated 3 full-length albums, numerous self-released projects, EPs and collaborations, and his 2022 album Water & Tools was long-listed for the Polaris Prize.
Involving extended techniques in instrumental improvisation, live-looping and sampling, combined with an evolving collection of electronics, traditional, and non-traditional instrumentation, his live performances offer a glimpse into an ongoing hermetic journey. Sharif has toured his solo and small group projects internationally, and his work has been presented at Canadian establishments such as Western Front, The Music Gallery, and Massey Hall. In recent years he has shared stages with The Sun Ra Arkestra, Farida Amadou and Still House Plants, and performed at festivals across Canada including Suoni Per Il Popollo, send.recieve, Pique, Everyseeker, Calgary Folk Music Festival and Active/Passive.
Adrian Avendaño
is an improvising drummer/percussionist, sound artist, DJ and recordist born and based on the stolen Indigenous territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. As a diasporic Latine artist of Peruvian and Chilean heritage, Avendaño engages in work that centres tradition while seeking new horizons into the future through collaboration and experimentation. Recent projects include Vancouver New Music’s Parallel 03, led by Endlings (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich); Roxanne Nesbitt’s Sonic Symbiotic and Thunderous Wondering; Aki Onda’s
Spirits Known and Unknown (Rephrase);
a duo free improv outfit with guitarist Matthew Ariaratnam; Aquiles Navarro Quartet (of Irreversible Entanglements); and Lontananza Quartet (Benjamín Vergara). He currently plays in the experimental contemporary gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Bike Bike. Described by Coastal Jazz as “one of the city’s most intriguing and creatively omnivorous emerging musicians”, he’s performed annually at Vancouver International Jazz Festival since 2020. Furthermore, he plays a vital part in the Vancouver improvised music scene through NOW Society concerts and workshops. As a recordist, he contributed to the first sound archive of the city of Cusco and his soundscape composition work has been presented in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru.
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.
Adriana Camacho
, Mexico City
https://www.adrianacamacho.com/
Double bassist, documentary filmmaker, and improviser, she is an active promoter of free improvisation and free jazz in the Mexican and international scenes. Her drive as an improviser has led her to collaborate and record with musicians, poets, and visual artists such as Ana Ruíz, Chefa Alonso, Elliott Levin, Naima Karlsson, Guro Moe, Phillip Greenlief, Daniel Carter, Germán Bringas, Scott Amendola, Lisa Mezzacapa, Anne Waldman, Natalia Pérez Turner, Alex Otaola, and Todd Clouser, among others. In 2022, she participated in the Sounds of Freedom residency at the New York-based record label 577 Archivos. She has performed in improvisation ensembles conducted by Kahil El Zabar, William Parker, and Phillip Greenlief. He has performed at venues such as the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, Café Otto in London, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Knulp Bar in Trieste, Italy, the Ugo Cara Museum in Trieste, Italy, ¡Resiste! in Vienna, Austria, Monday Improvisation Sessions in Vienna, Austria, Pavilion 2.0 in Venice, Italy, Medicine for Nightmares in San Francisco, the Phillip it Gallery in Philadelphia, USA, the Malmö Museum in Sweden, and Kuhlspot in Berlin, among others. SHe has organized concert series and festivals such as Música Libre at the San Rafael Cultural Center, Jueves de Música Libre at the UNAM Center for Complexity Sciences, the 13th Radical Music Showcase at the Museum of Mexico City, and Radio Niagara. He currently plays double bass in several projects: Ana Ruiz and her orchestra Kóryma, No tan Cuerdas, Ronronoise, David Contreras Trio, Sesión Libre Trio and his solo project Loope.

Presented in collaboration with
Bozzini Quartet, Traquen'art, Tone Fest, and Coastal Jazz
The Ex
is a band resolutely focused on the future. After more than 45 years of existence and constant reinvention, they reject all nostalgia, preferring to explore new alliances and continually take on musical challenges far from any comfort zone. Emerging from the punk and squat movements of the late 1970s, The Ex has become an independent and unclassifiable force, performing in over 45 countries and paving the way for significant intercultural collaborations, notably with Ethiopian artists. Returning to the international stage with new compositions and a new album, If Your Mirror Breaks, the band continues to embody vibrant, collective, and inquisitive music—forward in every direction.
Zea
/ minimal, eclectic, strange-edge, poetic
Zea
is Arnold de Boer, born and raised in Friesland, based in Amsterdam. His music is at times intimate, heart felt, poetic, at other times highly energetic, urgent, obstinate and driven on syncopating trance-like guitar play. Arnold de Boer (Makkum, 1974) started Zea as a band in 1995. He plays guitar, trumpet, synths and beat machines and sings in English as well as in his mother tongue Fries (Frisian). In 2003 Zea became a duo and since 2009 Zea is De Boers solo project. He tours all over the planet where he meets a curious audience that might not literally understand but does comprehend the message, feeling and poetry of his -frisian- songs.
Zea
has played more than 2000 concerts in more than 40 different countries on six continents. De Boer releases his music on his own label called Makkum Records. He organises, books, plays, records, mixes, drives, sells, masters and listens completely independent from the main-stream music industry and will continue to do so since he believes the music business is like poison for the soul. Zea has been working with musicians from all over the world. De Boer joined Dutch underground band The Ex in 2009. His work with the Ghanaian kologo star King Ayisoba got world wide attention and they have toured around the world together since 2012.
Zea
is now touring with his latest album In lichem fol beloften (MR44) often accompanied by cello, drums and clarinet. A remix album of his catalogue has been released in 2024 on German Krachladen - Dub Records.
KY Band
makes freak-jazz noise punk about the brutalizing end-times of capitalism, disorganized bodies, lost loves and knowledge gained. Consisting of James Goddard (sax/electronics), Robyn Gray (guitar), Farley Miller (drums) and Ky Brooks (vocals/electronics), their music has been described as 'a genre-straddling outlier punk odyssey'.

FEMINAE NOX returns in partnership with
Foil Gallery
&
Montreal International Jazz Festival
to present the screening of Devotion & the Black Divine — a cinematic universe co-directed by French-Senegalese artist,
anaiis
. It is the expansion on the visual and sonic world from the 2025 album of the same name. 
Devotion & the Black Divine
is a cinematic meditation on new Black motherhood and the spiritual upheaval it carries. Blending soul, gospel, and chamber pop, the album was recorded live to tape, a deliberate act of surrender to imperfection and presence. Its themes move through unconditional love, self-acceptance, Black heritage, and the quiet power of nurturing. The accompanying art film — shot in Jamaica — extends these themes into moving image.
This event will kickoff anaiis + Grupo Cosmo performance
at the Montreal International Jazz Festival's Rogers Stage on June 26, 2026 @ 10:30 pm
followed by anaiis' solo
Montreal headline show on September 23, 2026 @ Le Ministere
.
Join FEMINAE NOX, Foil Gallery, and Montreal International Jazz Festival featuring programming curated by
Mira Silvers
(founder of FEMINAE NOX):
On June 25, 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3)
• 4:00 pm || Live Artist Talk between anaiis and artist
G L O W Z I
. 
• 5:00 pm || Networking and Artist ***Meet & Greet with anaiis. 
***anaiis will be signing vinyl records (available for purchase on-site)
RSVP via Waiting List here:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-film
On June 26 and June 27 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3) 
• 8:30 am - 5:40 pm || Screening of Devotion & the Black Divine 
RSVP Link:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-filmscreening-only

Filmé pour

et

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.

CJLO’s two best jazz shows are teaming up to take you live to Montreal’s International Jazz Festival! Chi, Ri, and Audrey will be running you through all of their must see shows and interviewing artists from the festival. They’ll be live from Jazzette and on CJLO 1690 AM on June 25th at 6pm! Don’t miss it!

Filmé pour

et

Ben Charest - Guitare
Fred Henke - Piano
Fred Alarie - Contrebasse
Bruno Lamarche - Saxophone

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.

Tia Lessin Et Carl Deal

Ce film suit l'intrépide journaliste indépendante Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) sur une période de 30 ans, alors qu'elle affronte les forces qui tentent de réduire au silence les voix exclues du courant dominant.

Soirée d'ouverture du Cinéma sous les étoiles de Funambules Médias avec Steal This Story, Please!

It’s been eight years since Montreal’s The Barr Brothers released a full-length album. In that time, life pulled them in new directions – personally and professionally – altering the way they make music together. Their fourth studio album, Let it Hiss, isn’t just a new collection of songs. It’s a document of transformation. The making of this record marked a pivotal shift: a pause for reflection, a reckoning with vulnerability, and a reconnection between the two brothers who’ve spent over three decades making music side by side.  
“In 2022, we found ourselves at a breaking point,” says Brad Barr, the band’s guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter. “It was clear something had to change. The real story of this record is the story of that change and everything that came after.”  
“Let it Hiss is what happened when we stopped pretending everything was fine and finally listened to what was actually going on”, says Andrew.

Lineup
Drums / Vocals: Louis Cole
Bass: Pera Krstajic 
Keyboard: Israel Strom
Baritone Sax: Samuel Blais
Trombone: Vikram Devasthali
Trumpet: Julien Knowles
Alto Sax: David Binney
Tenor Sax: Devin Daniels
Flute: Rob Sheppard
Backing Vocals: Genevieve Artadi
Backing Vocals: Isis Giraldo

JAM au BALCON

See the full After Jazz at PHONO schedule

FEMINAE NOX returns in partnership with
Foil Gallery
&
Montreal International Jazz Festival
to present the screening of Devotion & the Black Divine — a cinematic universe co-directed by French-Senegalese artist,
anaiis
. It is the expansion on the visual and sonic world from the 2025 album of the same name. 
Devotion & the Black Divine
is a cinematic meditation on new Black motherhood and the spiritual upheaval it carries. Blending soul, gospel, and chamber pop, the album was recorded live to tape, a deliberate act of surrender to imperfection and presence. Its themes move through unconditional love, self-acceptance, Black heritage, and the quiet power of nurturing. The accompanying art film — shot in Jamaica — extends these themes into moving image.
This event will kickoff anaiis + Grupo Cosmo performance
at the Montreal International Jazz Festival's Rogers Stage on June 26, 2026 @ 10:30 pm
followed by anaiis' solo
Montreal headline show on September 23, 2026 @ Le Ministere
.
Join FEMINAE NOX, Foil Gallery, and Montreal International Jazz Festival featuring programming curated by
Mira Silvers
(founder of FEMINAE NOX):
On June 25, 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3)
• 4:00 pm || Live Artist Talk between anaiis and artist
G L O W Z I
. 
• 5:00 pm || Networking and Artist ***Meet & Greet with anaiis. 
***anaiis will be signing vinyl records (available for purchase on-site)
RSVP via Waiting List here:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-film
On June 26 and June 27 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3) 
• 8:30 am - 5:40 pm || Screening of Devotion & the Black Divine 
RSVP Link:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-filmscreening-only

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.

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World 
Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana, 2017, 102 minutes
RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World
tells the story of a profound, essential, and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons like Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo, RUMBLE will show how these talented Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives. 
In English with French subtitles.
First part:
Oscar
Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, 2016, 12
minutes
Mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Oscar is a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson at the twilight of an exceptional career, as he wistfully meditates on the price of fame and the impacts of the artist’s life on family life.
From the young prodigy’s beginnings in Little Burgundy to his triumphs on the international scene, this animated documentary by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre explores the profound solitude of an artist constantly on tour. Set to the tunes of Peterson’s sometimes catchy, sometimes melancholy-tinged compositions, the film tells a heartfelt story about a life in jazz.

In this Arts Chat, Kid Koala gives us a glimpse into his artistic world, giving participants the opportunity to virtually visit his studio and learn about his process. A multi-faceted artist, DJ, graphic novelist, performer, composer and director, whose work has spanned from film and video game soundtracks to playing in bands and live theatrical productions, Kid Koala shares his insights on music’s inherent ability to connect the dots between different artistic disciplines to audiences around the world.
The discussion will be held in English. The festival will provide access to an AI-powered simultaneous translation application available on mobile devices, offering translation into all languages.

An arts and culture magazine show in French, on the CKUT airwaves since 1996. The current team covers local and alternative artistic scenes. With interviews, analysis and discussion, Cafe is a weekly rendez-vous, every friday (or almost every) at 6pm. Recent coverage has included The OFFTA festival, The Montreal Poetry Festival, Catalane poetry, experimental folk musician Everly Lux and so much more.

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)

Filmé pour

et

JAM au BALCON

See the full After Jazz at PHONO schedule

FEMINAE NOX returns in partnership with
Foil Gallery
&
Montreal International Jazz Festival
to present the screening of Devotion & the Black Divine — a cinematic universe co-directed by French-Senegalese artist,
anaiis
. It is the expansion on the visual and sonic world from the 2025 album of the same name. 
Devotion & the Black Divine
is a cinematic meditation on new Black motherhood and the spiritual upheaval it carries. Blending soul, gospel, and chamber pop, the album was recorded live to tape, a deliberate act of surrender to imperfection and presence. Its themes move through unconditional love, self-acceptance, Black heritage, and the quiet power of nurturing. The accompanying art film — shot in Jamaica — extends these themes into moving image.
This event will kickoff anaiis + Grupo Cosmo performance
at the Montreal International Jazz Festival's Rogers Stage on June 26, 2026 @ 10:30 pm
followed by anaiis' solo
Montreal headline show on September 23, 2026 @ Le Ministere
.
Join FEMINAE NOX, Foil Gallery, and Montreal International Jazz Festival featuring programming curated by
Mira Silvers
(founder of FEMINAE NOX):
On June 25, 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3)
• 4:00 pm || Live Artist Talk between anaiis and artist
G L O W Z I
. 
• 5:00 pm || Networking and Artist ***Meet & Greet with anaiis. 
***anaiis will be signing vinyl records (available for purchase on-site)
RSVP via Waiting List here:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-film
On June 26 and June 27 2026 at Foil Gallery (6560 Rue Waverly, Montréal, QC H2V 4M3) 
• 8:30 am - 5:40 pm || Screening of Devotion & the Black Divine 
RSVP Link:
https://www.universe.com/fn-anaiis-filmscreening-only

Maroon - On the Trail of
Creoles in North America

André
Gladu, 2005, 85 minutes
Louisiana's Creole culture helped shape the New World and contributed to the emergence of jazz. But what remains of this unique, mixed-race society, with roots in France, Africa, the Caribbean, Spain and America? Maroon searches for the origins of this little-understood and endangered culture and show how it is doing today. In this second part of his La piste Amérique series, documentary filmmaker André Gladu continues his exploration of the Francophone presence in North America. Maroon is a vibrant travelogue that goes back into history in order to shed light on the present.
In French with English subtitles.
First part:
Oscar
Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, 2016, 12 minutes
Mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Oscar is a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson at the twilight of an exceptional career, as he wistfully meditates on the price of fame and the impacts of the artist’s life on family life.
From the young prodigy’s beginnings in Little Burgundy to his triumphs on the international scene, this animated documentary by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre explores the profound solitude of an artist constantly on tour. Set to the tunes of Peterson’s sometimes catchy, sometimes melancholy-tinged compositions, the film tells a heartfelt story about a life in jazz.

Rythme 105.7 - Tobie Bureau-Huot en direct de 17h à 19h - Jusqu'à 21h : L'équipe Rythme sur place pour votre tatouage temporaire

Will Scott III is an instrumental collective that explores the pedal steel from a fresh perspective, far removed from its traditional country roots. The project draws on soul grooves, organic energy, and cinematic atmospheres to create music that is both immersive and fluid.
Driven by hypnotic bass lines, grounded percussion, and soaring pedal steel melodies, the compositions emphasize collective interplay and feel. Each piece unfolds with a laid-back groove, blending retro and modern aesthetics. Will Scott III’s music invites both reflection and movement, creating a distinctive and enveloping sonic experience.

Behind Klaus’s face, weathered by the harshness of the road he’s traveled, the minds and hearts of François Lafontaine (Karkwa, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Galaxie) and Joe Grass (Patrick Watson, Elisapie, The Barr Brothers, Lhasa) recognized the magnitude of the jolts that brought him to the edge of the ravine. All that time, were they the monster? Or had they simply been feeding it every morning?

In every small gesture, every decision easier than the last, with the album II they manage to silence the surrounding noise—the reverb and needless echo of the day’s headlines—to deliver the splendor of a sugar rush and the swell of a wave.

It’s Joe Grass and François Lafontaine—two mules ready to carry on their shoulders an entity greater than themselves. It’s Frankenstein on a Smarties buzz. It’s Klaus.