Robo/tek V.7 :: MixSessions :: FREE

Robo/tek V.7

Music: Jan Pienkowski (Live), Cyan, Meek
(Live), illparé
Visuals:
Fluid and beewoo

Date: Thursday, Jan 19 2006 :: 7pm :: FREE

The robots are back!!! After a 3-month break we are back with a fresh
line-up of artists. See you there!

Robo/tek

The Robo/tek series delves into the multicolour spectrum
of techno music. Over the years, techno has been stretching its boundaries
and successfully assimilating itself with various other styles of music
including house, breaks, electro, jazz, world music, classical and
contemporary music, opera. Robo/tek attempts to show techno music in
its many forms, varying from the subtle and romantic, through expressive
(and at times experimental) and engaging, to aggressive and emotionally
charged.

Robo/tek, hosted
by Jan Pienkowski and Cyan, is a meeting of artists who exchange their
musical perspective on techno music and share their journey with the
audience. Robo/tek is also dedicated to the visual exploration of technology
and how it relates to the world around us. Along with resident vj Fluid,
video artists take spectators on journeys of discovery and re-discovery.

BIOGRAPHIES

Jan Pienkowski (onorecords.com)

A composer, musician, sound designer,
DJ and physicist, Jan Pienkowski writes and performs music reflecting
his diverse background. From his Electroacoustic training and love
of World Music comes a mixture of mechanical bleeps, acoustic spaces
and ethnic themes. From his theatre (DIALOG) and dance (A.R.M. with choreographer
Nikolas Dixon) experience comes a flair for the dramatic and a feel
for intricate rhythms.

Jan’s performances span Canada, U.S., France and Hong Kong.
His latest 2005 Shiva project with VJ Nokami has been shown at festivals
in Thailand, Germany, UK, Sweden, Austria, Romania, Italy, Portugal,
Spain, Brazil, Argentina, USA and Canada, with India finally being
added to the list of countries for 2006.

Jan has been also very active on the Montreal scene with shows at
the Black & Blue Festival, Montreal High Lights Festival, Festival du
nouveau cinéma, Fantasia Festival, Fringe/ Pop Festival, Divers/Cité Festival,
Tangente, Agora Festif, Exit, and regular appearances at the SAT, U Lounge,
Saphir, Luba Lounge and Green Room. Jan’s Live and DJ mixes have
landed him spots as featured artist on New York’s Proton Radio,
Chicago’s Clubland Underground, Chicago’s 92.5 FM and Montreal’s
CKUT 90.3 FM.

Jan is constantly expanding on what it means to be an electronic musician
by collaborating with soloists (saxophone, violin, voice), visual artists,
painters and dancers. He organises evenings and performs often at the
SAT, with a range of shows including: the first Technopera (Turandot)
with the singers from the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de
Monréal; Incidents improvisés, blending Schubert and
Chopin with electronic structures; and regular [Mix_Sessions] combining
the talents of musicians, dj’s and vj’s.

Cyan (traktion.com)

Cyan’s sound was born with her fascination
towards the interaction between the human and the machine. She merges
elements from the Swedish techno and Detroit techno with house music
and the new electro-retro style. From the cacophony of the electronic
music, the soul of the machine is liberated.

DJ, radio host and producer Cyan aka Corina MacDonald has been an active
participant in Montreal’s electronic music scene since her arrival in
the city in 1996. From that time she has been involved in community radio,
hosting electronic music shows on CKUT 90.3 fm. Currently she hosts modular_systems,
an electronic music magazine show focusing on local artists, djs and
events. Cyan has been active in organizing events with the phoniq.net,
Robo/tek and Women on Wax crews.

Cyan is known for her techno and house sets – she has a broad knowledge
of music and is equally happy playing hard tech, minimal tec/house, Chicago
house or old Detroit electro. Her dj sets are layered, deep rhythmic
explorations into the intersections of techno, house and electro. They
can be heady and abstract, hard and slamming, or funky and soulful. She
djs regularly at events around Montreal, and has played at festivals
and events in Toronto and in France. She has appeared alongside such
diverse artists as naw, iznogood, b’ugo, sarcastic and andrew duke.
modular
systems is broadcast on tuesdays from 1500-1700 EST on CKUT 90.3 fm or
online at www.ckut.ca

Meek (meekmusic.org)

Meek is the 7 year old spawn of 24 year old Mike Baugh,
currently residing in Montréal, Canada. His hometown of Calgary
is not much to speak of as an inspiration, especially for a queer ass-pirate
aspiring to make innovative, unforgetable, and absorbing abstract beats.
But this Meek bug, though raised in the prairies leaves behind him
an impressive musical resume including 4 independent releases (CDR1,
2, 3, self-titled), spots on 6 compilations (FatCat, Worm Interface,
Six Records, Meson Octet, NFB/Cocosolidciti and Mutek_rec), and live
performances across the country with the likes of Unit, Stewart Walker,
Phoenecia, Richard Devine, Apparat, Bruno Pronsato and Pan sonic.

His musical career began unexpectedly when he picked
up a rack-mount synthesizer his dad bought to create drum beats to
accompany his guitar playing. Too young to be able to afford a more
user-friendly synthesizer, Meek learned the ins and outs of MIDI and
synthesis on a 1″ X 2″ LCD.
As the years progressed, so did his technical proficiency and taste
for electronic music that pushes through boundaries and genres. Now
trained in audio post-production, Meek has developed a penchant for
solid production and a more critical ear.

In the future expect simplified programming, making
use of more frequentlyrepeating but carefully crafted sounds. The past
year has seen him climbing the daunting learning curve presented by
more flexible tools such as NI Reaktor and the Nord Modular, and he
vows that in the coming months we can expect to hear some, if not inimitable,
at least obtuse dance music. “I
know it sounds really academic, but what’s really exciting me about music
is further abstracting the part I play in a song’s evolution.” We
will be listening.

illparé (attitudecity.com)

illparé (Christopher Paré) is a writer and DJ with the
Attitude City collective. In 2005 he co-produced the highly successful
Unidisco soirée, and made several guest appearances in Tokyo’s
sexified Blue Room. Forecast shows a chance of tech house with an electronic
disco front moving up the east coast. Expect intermittent classics
throughout the night.

Fluid (honeybyte.com)

Born in Genes, photographer, painter and video
artist, fluid nowadays calls Montreal home. After four years of globe-trotting
around the world to present his videos in international festivals,
he is currently experimenting with the role of VJ. He plays with raw
video images and likes to improvise with live musicians and other DJs

beewoo (batteryoperated.net)

VJ beewoo concentrates on the use of video
noise and feedback in combination with 3D/2D animations processed in
her own customized VJ interface. Her work explores the tention emerging
between tangible architecture and the fluxes of wired and wireless
media communication, a fuzzy intangible architecture that defies the
laws of physics. It is a playfull and graphical recomposition of space,
taking place on the screens that follows the rhythms of the performance.