Photo credit: Eva Blue

MUTEK Festival is expanding its horizons this summer, with a series of immersive live performances marrying the classical to the avant-garde at Montreal’s Maison symphonique.

Dedicated entirely to experimental ways of shaping and perceiving sound, the newly formed X/Visions series unites composers, electronic artists, and unconventional sound designers over three nights at the renowned symphony hall, known for its unparalleled acoustics.

On the bill are organists digging deep into resonance, anticipated returns from ambient pioneers, and improvised performances using analog synthesizers and resurrected machinery.

Over three evenings, X/Visions opens a window to a world where tones and textures collide with world-class musical architecture and atmospheres transform slowly.

The Maison Symphonique: Architecture designed for amplified listening

The only time MUTEK took over Montréal’s Maison symphonique was back in 2013 during an evening featuring Nils Frahm and Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory, an event that left a lasting impression on festivalgoers. Returning to the venue marks a continuation on the path to diversifying and expanding the listening experience.

“The Maison symphonique opens up a new dimension for MUTEK: a monumental listening space where works take on an almost cinematic scale."

— Alain Mongeau, Executive Co-director and Artistic Director, MUTEK

This year’s MUTEK programming places amplified sound front and centre, and X/Visions is the heart of that concept. From experiments on the Grand Orgue Pierre-Beique, a 6500 pipe organ and the only one of its kind, to hypnotic flows of ambient electronica, the performances harness the full magnitude of the Maison symphonique’s state-of-the-art acoustic abilities.

Against its backdrop, cutting-edge artists are exploring what happens when frequency interacts with bodies, technology, and surrounding space.

Kali Malone & Kara-Lis Coverdale: Minimalist traditions and treatises on timbre

Night one unites two experimental composers around the vast possibilities of traditional instruments.

Investigating sonic afterlife, Kara-Lis Coverdale opens the night with a suite of piano nocturnes from her 2025 album A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever. Over sparse, twinkling piano plucks, she foregrounds the lingering note, highlighting the interplay of frequencies in vast space, inviting close attention to nuances in timbre and the noise of interfering overtones. She later moves to the pipe organ, the foundation of her musical language, and will perform further compositions for strings.

American organist Kali Malone follows with selections from two acclaimed albums. A master at evoking mood, Malone is known for her somber, meditative arrangements that leverage the pipe organ’s limitless sustain abilities to explore resonance over time. Her works sometimes rest in place for up to a minute or more, evolving slowly and deliberately, building on arcane tuning systems to conjure dark and emotionally complex chord tones.

The pair will also come together to perform a number of four-handed organ pieces.

Kali Malone and Kara-Lis Coverdale perform at X/Visions 1 on August 27.

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Photo: Kali Malone | Credit: Devon Corman

The Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique was generously donated to the OSM by Mrs. Jacqueline Desmarais.

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Tristan Perich & James McVinnie: A symphony of 1-bit synthesis and organ drones

Classical and electronic sensibilities merge on night two, as Tristan Perich and James McVinnie perform Infinity Gradient. Born from Perich’s ongoing studies of the binary waveform, the piece pairs McVinnie’s subtonal organ playing with the shimmering melodies of 100 custom-built loudspeakers, each programmed by Perich to play its own discrete line of 1-bit synthesis. As the speakers’ micro flickers layer and build, an intricate framework takes form, mirroring and dialoguing with the organ’s equally vast tonal spectrum.

Performed at room-filling scale, it’s Perich’s most ambitious work to date, and a close-up look at the potential of elementary waveforms.

Tristan Perich and James McVinnie perform Infinity Gradient at X/Visions 2 on August 28.

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Voices From the Lake: Ambient currents in techno-informed waters

Following their long-awaited return, Voices From the Lake reshape their idiosyncratic ambient techno against the walls of the Maison symphonique.

The duo of Italian producers Donato Dozzy and Neel first gained cult status back in 2012 with their self-titled debut, revered for its breaks from conventional techno structures and humid atmospheres likened to forest bathing. Last year they followed up with, II, returning to their familiar pool of submerged, thrumming basslines, snaking percussive rattles, and mysteriously shifting patterns.

On night two, they improvise the album live, delving into the hypnotic rhythms and organic textures that first marked them as some of techno’s most imaginative minds.

Voices From the Lake perform at X/Visions 2 on August 28. Presented with the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Montreal.

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Ah! Kosmos & Hainbach: Machine excavations and granular frequencies

Berlin-based duo Ah! Kosmos and Hainbach are known for their patient, scientific excavations of tone and texture using “non-musical” instruments.

Earlier this year, the pair released their second album, Gentle Hum, a melancholic crawl through micro noises from obsolete machinery, haunting processed vocals, sparse piano accompaniment, and buzzes of test equipment reverberating with near-human warmth.

Night three of X/Visions will see them recreate their grainy, multilayered soundworld with a live analog set, where even the smallest noises shift from the incidental into living entities capable of deep expression.

Ah! Kosmos and Hainbach perform Gentle Hum at X/Visions 3 on August 29.

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Photo credit: Camille Blake

Ba ak G nak and Hainbach Camille Blake 1

Fennesz & Lillevan: 25 years of Endless Summer (Live)

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Fennesz’s landmark album Endless Summer. At the time of its release, the album’s glitching melodies and innovative use of processed guitars opened the door to the creative worlds of ambient productions to come.

Layers of decaying distortions, bright synth washes and wistful acoustic strums fed through a laptop convey an intrinsic fragility, born of memories of Beach Boys songs and California surf sides.

Joined by visual artist Lillevan, Fennesz closes out the X/Visions series with reflections on an album whose fractured beauty remains a touchstone of electroacoustic music, as distinctive as it was at the dawn of the digital age.

Fennesz and Lillevan perform Endless Summer at X/Visions 3 on August 29. Project supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.

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Photo credit: Vera Marmelo

MUTEK would like to thank its partners, who play a key role in the maintenance and development of its activities and have provided particular support towards the production of the Festival.

The Government of Québec, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the ministère du Tourisme du Québec, the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine du ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation du Québec, the ministère de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et de l'Énergie du Québec, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, FACTOR and Canada's private radio broadcasters, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Musicaction, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Ville de Montréal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Italian Institute of Culture in Montreal, the Consulat général de France à Québec, Tourisme Montréal, the Society for Arts and Technology, and Hôtel Monville.