Articles by Mathieu Belanger

Suoni Per Il Popolo 2009

by Mathieu Belanger
August 9, 2009

Suoni Per Il Popolo FestivalMontreal, CanadaJune 2009For the ninth time since 2001, the whole month of June in Montreal was the affair of the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival. In past years, it would take place at Casa del Popolo and La Sala Rossa, a logical choice since the festival is the brainchild of the folks running those venues. For administrative reasons, concerts cannot be held at Casa del Popolo at the moment so some occurred elsewhere, ...

Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival 2008

by Mathieu Belanger
August 9, 2008

Suoni Per Il Popolo 2008 Festival of Avant-Garde and Experimental Liberation Music Montreal, Quebec June 1-30, 2008

The 2007 edition of the Suoni Per Il Popolo had marked a transition in its development in that it showed consistency and maturity. It therefore created great expectations for this year's edition of the month-long festival. Now that the last notes have been played, there is no doubt that the Suoni Per Il Popolo met those ...

Suoni per il Popolo Festival 2007, Montreal

by Mathieu Belanger
August 11, 2007

Suoni per il Popolo Festival Montreal, Canada June 1-27, 2007

The Suoni per il Popolo is an annual festival organized by the people running Casa del Popolo and La Sala Rossa, two of Montreal's most important venues for new music. Since its beginning in 2001, the festival has established itself as a key event in the city's musical life. The seventh edition proved that Suoni per il Popolo has not only reached an undeniable maturity but ...

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2007

by Mathieu Belanger
July 8, 2007

A variety of styles has been a central preoccupation of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) since its early days. This has not prevented the FIMAV from making conscious efforts in recent years to renew and diversify its public by targeting a younger generation of adventurous listeners. In this respect, the 24th edition of the FIMAV confirmed that, as cliché as it might be, interesting musical exploration knows no stylistic boundaries. On the jazzier side of ...

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2006

by Mathieu Belanger
July 16, 2006

On paper, the line-up of the 23rd edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) looked audacious: a predominance of voice-oriented projects, some questionable meetings, three concerts with Mike Patton, etc. This suggested an unpredictable outcome. Yet, a recurring complaint was the lack of jazz and related forms of improvised music. Considering that more than a third of the 24 concerts could be filed under such a description and that recent editions of the FIMAV featured musicians ...

Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival 2006

by Mathieu Belanger
July 16, 2006

The annual Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival took place in Montréal from Jun. 1st-25th. The philosophy behind this key event of the city's musical life is to present liberated music, that which questions the status quo and pushes the boundaries. This stance sends any hierarchy among genres to the background in so far as liberated music would be the result of genuine acts of creation and freedom. Consequently, even though free jazz and improvised music constitute the focus point, audiences ...

Day 3 - Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, June 30, 2006

by Mathieu Belanger
July 2, 2006

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12

One of the greatest successes of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) is to have become a mainstream event. While jazz in itself remains quite marginal in today's musical landscape, the festival is a popular event. On the third day of the festival, Friday June ...