Cluster Festival • June 2–11, 2023

Taking inspiration from the musical term "drone," Allard invites audiences to explore their relationships to the drones we find in nature, our working culture and state-sanctioned surveillance, including worker bees, pilotless aircraft, and mindless office workers. This interactive audio visual installation allows users to engage in sonic worldbuilding.

Described as “a retro-Afrofuturist vision sending listeners on a journey through 40 years of electronic music,” (Nuvo) Zaki Ibrahim’s music brings elements of spoken word, hip hop, soul, house and 70s pop together, filtered through the prismatic and often contradictory lenses of personal, historical and scientific relativities. Even the concept of diaspora seems to fall short of capturing the vivid vibrational multitudes of Ibrahim’s scope, more than the sum of static geographic parts.

Along with performances from local lovelies, this is an evening that serves up a gorgeous offering of world-class queer artistry.

This event is made possible with the support of The Forks Renewal Corporation, Pride Winnipeg and the Downtown Winnipeg Biz.

A genre-defying double-feature with musician and interdisciplinary artist Christine Fellows premiering a new body of work, a song cycle titled Stuff We All Get. This work for chamber quartet combines poetic lyricism, textural soundscapes and collage stop-motion animation. Christine will be joined by bassist Ashley Au, percussionist Jason Tait and cellist Leanne Zacharias.

Never quite what you’d expect, Matt Foster is truly unplaceable. Each song is a snapshot, a short scene in a novel. A glimpse in on a moment, or a feeling, a character. Each song is a spell ready to draw magic out, around, and up close. Accompanied by visuals by multidisciplinary artist Carla Hernandez, Matt Foster brings us a 8-pc chamber ensemble featuring newly minted extended arrangements by composer Julian Beutel for woodwinds (Suzu Enns + Sean Irvine), harp (Janelle Nadeau) and vibraphone (Jason Tait), joining the usual suspects, Eric Robert on drums, Natalie Borhn on bass, and Quintin Bart on hurdy gurdy.

This concert is presented in partnership with the West End Cultural Centre.

AMBIENCES is a showcase of local electroacoustic composers and experimental sound artists who utilize the language, forms, processes and sound palettes of late 1960s, early 1970s ambient music movement in their contemporary practices.

Zone out, focus in, let your mind wander, tell yourself stories, face the truth, give it a little kiss on the forehead.

Featuring local sound artists meanspath, Mutable Body, Brady Allard, and memorypond.

respectfulchild (Saskatoon, SK) premieres a new work for violin and electronics, guiding a blindfolded audience into an otherworldly sonic landscape. Lush textures, suspended ambiences, whispers from another dimension.

Composer and musician Roxanne Nesbitt (Vancouver, BC) brings us Symbiotic Instruments, a collection of improvisatory compositions for ceramic instruments and prepared piano with drummer Ben Brown. Symbiotic Instruments is an on-going project exploring interactions between traditional and experimental instruments.

This concert is presented in partnership with the West End Cultural Centre

Artist Talk

respectfulchild
Thursday, June 8, 2022, 7:00pm
VideoPool Media Arts Centre
100 Arthur Street

PLAY: Sound Artist Skill Share

Saturday, June 10, 2023, 1:00pm
VideoPool Media Arts Centre
100 Arthur Street