We’ve only got a couple of days left in our annual funding drive here at CKUT, and we still need some help reaching our goal. “Why donate to CKUT?” you may ask yourself. Well, here are ten solid reasons why you should consider supporting the station if you can:

1. We loooove local music, and we do a ton to support artists here in Montreal including organizing festival showcases, in-studio sessions, helping with album mailouts, and much more.

2. We’re proud to offer a non-hierarchical, accessible environment where McGill students and community members can learn how to make radio from the ground up — no experience required.

3. We provide in-depth grassroots news coverage from Montreal and beyond.

4. We broadcast live, freeform, corporate-free programming 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is always another human from our community on the other end of the microphone.

5. All of our programming is done by volunteers; nobody pays or is paid to be on CKUT. We’re driven by passion, not by dollars.

6. We are Montreal’s oldest and largest Anglophone campus/community station. We’ve been broadcasting strong on the FM dial since 1987, and in an environment of increasing media conglomeration this kind of independent legacy is worth celebrating.

7. We have a strong history of promoting Montreal’s burgeoning music scene in all its genres. We’re proud to help local artists gain momentum and reach new ears, and we’re always looking for ways to share the amazing music coming out of our community. We’ve even got a couple of shows dedicated specifically to local music, including the Montreal Sessions and Underground Sounds.

8. We partner with Suoni Per Il Popolo, Mutek, Pop Montreal, L’off Jazz, Reggae Fest, Jazz Fest, Howl!, and many other terrific festivals throughout the year. This lets us plug local artists and initiatives through our broadcast, as well as providing kickass content for listeners hungry for new sounds.

9. We operate on a shoestring budget with plenty of DIY ideas to help stretch our limited funds as far as possible. Every donation helps, no matter how big or small!

10. PRIZES. Duh.

What are you waiting for? Make a pledge online and help us stay on the air for another year. We can’t do it without you!

Last Wednesday and Thursday, La Vitrola hosted two collaborative audio-visual performances from Montréal artists: electronic sound artist Roger Tellier-Craig aka “Le Révélateur” and visual artist Sabrina Ratté. The two performances were part of the third edition of Festival Phénomena. The festival showcases a variety of art forms, spanning experimental music, theatre, and dance. On each night, Ratté and Tellier-Craig took audience members through two unique audio-visual experiences. The first was visually driven, while the second evening was more music-oriented.

Wednesday’s show introduced audience members to the psychedelic, yet post-human sensibilities of Ratté’s work. She was accompanied by the hypnotic sounds of Tellier-Craig. Ratté’s processes are fascinating – they evoke association with early cathode-ray tube screens, VHS tapes, and 1970s sci-fi films, such as George Lucas’, “THX 1138″. As the performance progressed, Ratté’s bizarre three-dimensional images blurred and melted into one another, interrupted by intentional screen malfunction effects and strange pixelation behaviours.

On Thursday evening, Tellier-Craig presented less restraint, taking the audience beyond the previous night’s state of suspension, propelling the venue into the sounds of his strange electronic machines. Similar to Ratté, Tellier-Craig’s sonic vocabulary pulls from 1970s analog equipment, but is presented with the depth of today’s exaggerated digitalism. The music of this performance breathed more deeply, with Tellier-Craig carrying listeners through higher highs and lower lows, all while Ratté’s work twisted and contorted on the large screen up front.

The collaborative work of Ratté and Tellier-Craig is exceptionally well coordinated and cooperative, sometimes seemingly essential that they occur together. An aesthetic is prominently shared between their art forms, resulting in a fantastic unity between two distinct mediums.

Check out Festival Phénomena online at: http://www.festivalphenomena.com

– Review by Mike Dean