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On a whim last night I went into the city.

I had noticed earlier on in the summer that a 2" width red line had been painted on the sidewalks forming a circuit through the city and so I went into the city to walk that route.

I joined it at the corner of De La Montagne and Ste-Catherine and walked what I thought would be counter clock-wise until later on I realized that the loop turned and crossed on itself. So, I walked south on De La Montagne and followed the route which soon enough took me through Old Montreal and then eventually to the Quartier des Spectacles. Once I go to the QdS construction obfuscated the red line I was to follow and it wasn't clear where I was to go next.

In the mean time, in the QdS I noticed there was an event happening with live music. So I went to check that out.

I did not know who it was that was playing.

In this photo, (click on it to make it bigger) you can see the female artist on stage in the back of her mixing table. I did some digging today to try to figure out who this was and from this site I found this:

Anna Pavlova is a multidisciplinary artist, music producer, vocalist, and DJ working under the alias Softmatter. Originally from Moscow, Russia, she currently resides in Tiohtià:ke Tsi (Montréal, Canada). Softmatter’s sonic methodology explores mutant, discordant electronics, alongside bouncing, stony drums and pitch-shifted vocals that travel between steepled choral motifs.

Indeed, her music was discordant, occasionally had a measured rhythm while at other moments did not seem to have any rhythm at all. I recorded a 30sec video with my mobile device, it isn't great quality, but you can see the light show and more or less hear the music she was playing during those 30 seconds.

There are dozens of festivals that take place in Montreal throughout the year; many of them have been going on for years. This is Mutek's 22nd edition. While this electronic discordant music isn't exactly my cup of tea, so to speak, it was nice to sit down and witness a live show.