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