Centre

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Alain Lefebvre makes concrete noise with amplified objects and lo-fi devices which he pushes beyond their intended use and capabilities. He is interested in using typically unwanted sounds as a means of reconsidering prevailing distinctions between the intrinsically musical and the intrinsically non-musical.

In 2018, Lefebvre and Yannick Chayer formed the lo-fi glitch duo Chayer Lefebvre and together they founded Rara Avis - a digital label for mostly local artists and musicians whose projects deviate not only from past but also from current paradigms of experimental music.

Both members have been active for more than a decade in Montreal’s D.I.Y. milieu. Communal improvisation is central to their approach. Lefebvre, trained as a visual artist, has performed at festivals in Spain, Saskatoon, Québec, New York and Montréal (Mutek 2014 and 2015). His discography (occasionally under the moniker of “Total Music”, “Dead Squirrels”, or “Bon Ami”) spans releases with Kohlenstoff, Mikroclimat, Jeunesse Cosmique and Rara Avis.

Dominic Jasmin is a composer and improviser from Montreal, Qc. His music, somewhere between free jazz and acousmatic music, blends the accidental and unpredictable nature of the former with the techniques of the latter to create what has been described as structured noise. Primarily working with found sounds and electronics, he also incorporates guitar and voice to some of his live sets.

He graduated from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal in 2018 and has been active on the music scene there through his involvement in organizing concerts with Kohlenstoff collective and Mardi Spaghetti as well as being an active musician. Apart from his solo practice through which he has collaborated with many other artists, he is involved in different projects including Actors Artificial, SJF Trio and Larsen.

Emilie Roby is a multidisciplinary artist and holds a bachelor degree in visual arts from Université du Québec à Montréal. She pursued her research in electroacoustics at Université de Montréal, and her work has been featured in festivals. She is currently completing a master’s degree in Intermedia at Concordia University, where her work in performance unfolds from the genre of autofiction; bridging sound design, music, and voice.

Xavier Ménard is a sound artist graduated from Université de Montréal (UdeM) with a bachelor's degree in digital music. He starts to compose his own electroacoustic pieces in the sound design class by Nicolas Bernier and electroacoustic composition classes under the supervision of Robert Normandeau and Georges Forget. He creates his sounds with natural and instrument recordings as well as mixed electric components (switches, mixing boards, synthesizer, oscillators). He also collaborates on a variety of artistic projects, creating interactive sound installations with Camille St-Amand since 2016 (menard_st-amand) and art performances with visual artist Roxane Lussier since 2021 (Rox & Xav). His work reaches the public during various events and festivals across Canada.