Frictions is an evening organised by the Montréal collective Minute devoted to analogue and digital modes of expression in sound art, music and media art.
 
Frictions explores this encounter in sounds, images and performance, with a special interest in the performative aspect of the public concert. In this sense, the artists’ performances are exemplary: they are unique in the way the artists physically engage with their instrument, be it a turntable, a mixing board, a table full of unusual objects used to create sounds or a drum kit.
 
This program is a cooperation between CTM and the Embassy of Canada.
 
In sympathetic vibration with the multidisciplinary work of Martin Tétreault, whose roots are in this tension between analogue and digital, Frictions pays tribute to this pioneer of sound improvisation. Known world-wide, Martin Tétreault is a leading figure in improvisation with turntables and other sound objects that come into his hands. He has played on every continent: alone and with other turntablists or musical improvisers with an international following. Each of his performances is electrifying and leaves no one indifferent. Structural principles underly every Martin Tétreault performance. His work obeys very precise rules that he incorporates seamlessly. This rigorous approach is also at work in the whole evening program reuniting key figures in music like Artificiel, Stefan Németh, Steven Hess, Mika Vainio, Michel Langevin, an amazing drummer band and, a newcomer, Minibloc.
 
Minibloc, a stunning duo from Québec made up of Nicolas Dion and Anne-Françoise Jacques, is known for its low-tech and theatrical performances and its explorations of sound objects and mechanisms. This is Minibloc’s first appearance in Europe!
 
artificiel.process (Martin Tétreault)
Martin Tétreault: turntables; Julien Roy: electronics and visuals
artificiel.process is a baffling performance at the very heart of the electric and digital signal which takes concrete shape in a highly textured and graphic sound composition and a frantic mosaic of images. Capturing and processing Martin Tétreault’s manipulations of various surfaces (sandpaper, plastic, commercial-grade vinyl), Julien Roy creates a digital mix and audiovisual broadcast with a software developed by Artificiel.
 
Film
Stefan Németh: electronics, EMS synthi, sampler;  Steven Hess: drums, electronics
Stefan Németh, composer and member of the Viennese group Radian, joins forces with Steven Hess, percussionist in bands like Pan American, Haptic, Fessenden, to create Film, a blend of electronic sounds and acoustic instruments. Film is a project based on music for films and experimental videos, where the original versions have been re-edited to exist as autonomous pieces, but still with the cinematic spirit.
 
Berlin 100% Batterie!
100% Batterie! began as "R _ _ G O", a visual-musical fiction designed by Martin Tétreault which resulted in a few exhibitions and several concerts given by Martin Tétreault with a live drummer who performs a solo from a score based on different drum passages by a mythical Liverpool drummer. The live drum solos began in 2003. Performances have been given in Albi, Fresne-en-Woevre and Montreuil in France, Montréal and Barcelona. For CTM.09, 10 drummers from different musical backgrounds are invited to perform the same solo in succession from the score written by Martin Tétreault. The event closes on a work that brings the drummers together with Martin Tétreault accompanied by 4 turntables, creating an unforgettable and powerful wall of sounds! The Berlin drummer band is made up of Michel Langevin (Montréal), Steven Hess (Chicago), Marcello Silvio Busato, Hanno Leichtmann, Peter Schlewinski, Rut Waldeyer, Beat Freisen, Hannes Lingens, Rudi Fischerlehner and Aaron Snyder (Berlin); other drummers to be confirmed.
 
Burning Monkey, Christ's Mass and a Bestial Wail, Mika Vainio
Known for his compositions created out of synthesisers, oscillators and other analogue "machines" whose unpredictable sounds have a destabilising and captivating effect on the listener, Mika Vainio of the Finnish group Pan sonic will perform a new work indicative of the new directions this composer has embarked upon.
 
Martin Tétreault & Michel Langevin "Duo"
A dialogue between Michel Langevin, the charismatic drummer of the legendary metal group Voivod, and the electrical improviser Martin Tétreault. This performance, a friendly confrontation between two free thinkers, closes the program of this atypical evening with intensity and a touch of humour.
 
Minute
Minute is a structure which promotes collaboration between artists for the creation and dissemination of media art involving sound and image. The Minute collective was founded in 2002 by Nicole Gingras and Eric Mattson, two independent Montréal curators known for their commitment to innovative work which explore our observation and listening habits, and by the cultural worker Suzanne Saint-Denis, currently administrative director of the Montreal theatre company Ubu. Minute’s activities focus on assisting the creation of work in media art, sound art and music and on disseminating this work at home and abroad. Minute’s activities are ad hoc and have been noted by audiences for their unique qualities.
 
Nicole Gingras, author and exhibition curator, is interested in experimental cinema, video, web art and sound art. She has edited the anthology Sound in Contemporary Canadian Art (Artextes, 2003) and published a series of interviews with the Montréal artist Raymond Gervais (2007). Her projects for 2009 include an exhibition of the work of Rolf Julius in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Montréal.
 
Eric Mattson is an independent curator in the fields of electronic music and new media. He has organised performances of electronic music in Québec and abroad at venues such as the Ideal Festival in Nantes; Garage, club transmediale and Tesla in Berlin; Koneisto in Helsinki; Isea 2004 in Tallinn, Estonia; and in Oslo and Bergen, Norway. Director of ORAL_records, which produces records that explore sound in all its aspects, he is also the North American antenna for the German record label Raster-Noton.
> www.oral.qc.ca
 
 
Frictions is co-produced by Minute and DISK/CTM with the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts.