Mutek day two highlights (Dasha Rush, ATOM and Robin Fox)

Mutek
2015-05-28

Where Mutek’s Wednesday night at the Musée d’art contemporain seemed to focus its attention on the serene and psychedelic possibilities within digital dreamscapes, Thursday night shifted toward the darker side of existence. Paranoia and the omnipresent eye were overarching themes, and the artists and musicians onstage explored them in a variety of haunting ways.

Though still recovering, here are the highlights from Thursday night’s NOCTURNE 2 at MAC. Wednesday’s reviews are available here.

Dasha Rush

It was close to silent upon arrival, the room half-full and hot with baited breath. Dasha Rush was onstage, quiet and fiddling with gear. A soft red bulb lit her face as she bent down to examine the setup; she glowed. The videographer Stanislav Glazov positioned his iPhone perfectly in line with the screen in order to capture the visuals he’d be creating live. The hum of the bass began to fill the venue, reaching deep inside the chests of the audience, pulsing. Rush started mixing—she layered vivid, clean textures that stung like ice on the tongue. Her sharp and precise rhythms felt as if they could pierce holes through the room’s walls, causing the crowd to take a few steps backward. Her techno was gritty, like sand between the toes.

Glazov’s visuals started out as cerulean veins, spreading and growing. Eventually, they formed constellations that were crafted in neon blues, reminiscent of imagery from the original Tron. Soon, a silky white sheet covered the screen; a vision of ice caps melting brought the performance full circle by invoking the title: ANTARCTIC TARK. There were a few minor glitches, the visuals disappearing suddenly; the audience awkwardly clapping, wondering if the show was finished. But both performers kept composure.

Thank you for not being here shone on screen, and Rush repeated it into the microphone that stood beside her the entire performance, but had yet to be touched: “Thank you for not being here.”

ATOM and Robin Fox

The stage was completely bare, except for a screen that stretched its width. There was no visible equipment, or human being present, so fittingly, Robin Fox and Uwe Schmidt’s performance was otherworldly. DOUBLE VISION fused together their separate approaches to audio creation, combining visual projections with a variety of lasers and sound phenomena. The installation/performance piece transmitted multiple layers of information to the audience in these various forms, creating an extra sensorial kaleidoscope of sound and vision that was stunning to the viewer. Frequencies fluctuated at alarming rates, bass pounded through the floor. Lasers of red, blue, and green shot in sporadic intervals while primary colours flashed on screen: block letters and various shapes formed patterns of colour and light. At one point, a boxing match played in slow motion, invoking ideas about contemporary culture, capitalism and violent performances of masculinity. At another, a glitching oil spill shone all the colours of the rainbow: it was both beautiful and devastating. Potential symbolism aside, the show was a somatic experience, felt from head to toe. The space was packed full. Intersecting moments of energy moved fluidly through the room, uniting all sensorial output. Fox and Schmidt’s collaboration was audacious and surreal, but well worth enduring the intense corporeal feel.