The 2025 MUTEK Montréal Festival was marked by audiovisual performances imbued with curiosity, discovery, and playful ambition. Among them were vivid imaginings from an Afrofuturist world, an intrepid DJ set through dub and techno, an emotionally resonant ambient odyssey, and a sonic inquiry into the relationship between humanity and artificiality.
Explore the performances selected by Crack Magazine below.
Grand River & Abul Mogard
Drawing from their album In uno spazio immenso, Grand River and Abul Mogard perform a live ambient set of cinematic proportions.
Vast, sweeping synths ebb and flow throughout, reaching emotional swells before breaking into moments of calm introspection and reflection.
NikNak
Blending razor-sharp cuts and jungle breaks, UK-based turntablist NikNak delivers a lush performance teeming with narrative depth.
Afrofuturist visions arrive through processed environmental sounds, abstract beats, and haunting vocals, an extension of the world crafted on her acclaimed album Ireti.
Gadi Sassoon & Portrait XO
In the world premiere of Hypercast, Gadi Sassoon and Portrait XO merge experimental vocals, live violin, and AI-driven sonification into a rich, real-time exchange.
Accompanied by the synthetic agent 555n, the duo explores the evolving relationship between creativity, identity, and artificial systems.
Yu Su
In a sprawling DJ set, London-based sound artist Yu Su drifts fluidly through dub, techno, and left-field sounds.
Experimental pulses and shifting ambient currents flow over playful dance rhythms, adventuring through a sonic space where time stretches and reality dissolves into a dream-like state.
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