This year’s first wave of MUTEK Festival artists brings together contrasting approaches to live performance and electronic experimentation. From ambient constructions to rhythm-forward sets, each artist offers a different entry point into the evolving landscape of contemporary sound. Here’s a closer look at five of the names joining the 26th edition in Montréal.

Back with a new live performance, Ecuadorian artist Nicola Cruz leads audiences into a hypnotic space where minimalism meets ritual rhythm. Long associated with the wave of South American electronic artists integrating indigenous sounds with global club aesthetics, Cruz’s recent sets reveal a deeper, more abstract direction. Expect field recordings, modular synthesis, and a sonic palette that balances ancestral memory with modern intensity, a musical experience as immersive as it is introspective.

Yu Su also returns to MUTEK with her distinct blend of ambient textures, left-field dance music, and jazz-inflected pop. Her DJ sets, which she treats as an open-ended cartography, often unfold like nonlinear journeys, flowing across tempo and tone. Shifting between softness and propulsion, her selections resist fixed categorization and preserve a subtle emotional arc.

Making her MUTEK debut, Moroccan-born, New York-based composer and sound artist Selwa Abd, aka Bergsonist, presents 3alam-building: Intuitional Psychoanalytic Reveries. The performance fuses live vocals, textured electronics, and beat-driven momentum, all rooted in an intuitive form of sonic world-building. Drawing from ethno-futurism and speculative fiction, Bergsonist’s work proposes new realities — where tradition, identity, and digital culture collapse into expansive, unpredictable forms.

A prodigy of Detroit’s underground scene, Kyle Hall appears for the first time at the festival with a live DJ set infused with deep groove, funk-laced rhythm, and unmistakable soul. Through his genre-stretching productions on labels like Wild Oats and Forget the Clock, Hall continues to shape a sound that is as rooted as it is forward-facing.

Abul Mogard and Grand River join forces to perform selections from their 2024 collaborative album In Uno Spazio Immenso. Their music unfolds gradually, combining ambient, drone, and electroacoustic elements into spacious compositions that prioritize tone and atmosphere over tempo. The performance leans into quiet intensity — an invitation to pause and listen closely.

Whether you're drawn to the dancefloor, the dreamspace, or the quiet in-between, these five acts promise unforgettable journeys into the outer edges of sound. With much more to come, this first wave is only a glimpse of what MUTEK 2025 has in store.

Hurry and secure your spot now! Passports and weekend passes on sale.

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