Amselysen & Racine^CA/QC

Left picture : © Emiliano Moreno Quesada

As Amselysen, Hakeem Lapointe embarks on a boundless exploration of content and form from any and all genres, reinventing them through a leftfield approach to electronic music. Their bold creations embrace styles such as Experimental, Ambient, Conceptronica, Techno, Noise and IDM, constantly pushing their limits in order to shape sounds and experiences that defy conventions. Amselysen has shared the stage with like-minded trailblazers such as Caterina Barbieri, Lorenzo Senni, Dreamcrusher and Myriam Bleau, to name a few. In addition to their musical career, they have also composed and designed sounds for performance art projects, installations, short films and fashion events, including the Kent Monkman showcase at the McCord Museum and Montréal’s M.A.D fashion and design festival.

Montréal composer, sound engineer and producer Julien Racine, or simply Racine, has published four albums, the most recent of which, Amitiés, was released in January 2022 through Swiss label Danse noire. Quelque chose tombe, also released on Danse noire back in 2020, was widely praised by international media, giving him the opportunity to tour Europe in the spring of 2020, then later that year at MUTEK Montréal. Throughout his career, Racine also composed music and soundscapes for several films shown in numerous cinemas, festivals and galleries. He is also one-half of duo Corporation alongside Keru Not Ever, with whom he hosts the radio show Scene on the HKCR platform; the duo also released Graffito on Czech label Genot Centre.

For this first stint at MUTEK as a duo, the two artists, having previously collaborated in one way or another, will showcase a convergence of their respective practices: Amselysen on the one hand, known for their chaotic and iconoclastic interventions and a unique sense of subversion; Racine on the other, renowned for his mastery of spatial and temporal gesturality, often accompanied by a lush sonic vocabulary. Delving into a more rhythmic approach, the pair embarks on intense sonic adventures, never shying from challenging the audience’s comfort. Their work puts a strong emphasis on tension, playing on affects in order to create a truly visceral and exhilarating experience.