RED BULL MUSIC FESTIVAL MONTRÉAL PRÉSENTE: TRIPTYQUE

To kick off Red Bull Music Festival Montreal, we present three world premieres from boundary-pushing Canadian experimental artists: Kara-Lis Coverdale, Alex Zhang Hungtai and Sarah Davachi. For Triptyque, the 153-year-old Église Du Gesù will be transformed into a lush sanctuary for an evening of one-of-a-kind compositions, drawing on the full spectrum of human-made and digital instruments. Whether it be her solo albums (including last year’s 22-minute opus Grafts) or collaborations with artists like Tim Hecker and How To Dress Well, Kara-Lis Coverdale’s work blurs the lines between sacred and non-sacred music, human and machine voices. The classically-trained organist will debut a new organ piece specifically composed for this evening. Pulling inspiration from his latest solo record, Divine Weight, Alex Zhang Hungtai will be debuting “Before Nothing”, an intricate piece featuring a host of strings, voices and a contemporary dance performance by Josh Anderson, choreographed by Kandis William. Rounding out the bill is prolific ambient composer Sarah Davachi, currently working on a PHD in musicology at UCLA, whose two 2018 albums Let Night Come On Bells End the Day and Gave In Rest explore unventured electroacoustic frontiers. Her debut will feature a finely tuned organ piece, accompanied by a chamber ensemble consisting of bagpipes, strings and horns, performed by a troupe of local musicians.