Apr. 15th / 9:00PM
21+ / $10 adv

Decibel Presents:

Akufen: Live - Montreal

STEPHEN BEAUPRE : Live - Montreal

• Special Guests

BIO

AKUFEN: During the first half of this decade, Akufen was one of the biggest names in contemporary house music. A native Montrealer who had spent the 80s and 90s engaged in the fervent experimental music community of this city, Marc Leclair began to gain notoriety during the first edition of MUTEK in 2000 when one of this singles found its way into the hands of Germany’s Thomas Brinkmann. Brinkmann noticed correctly that Leclair’s style had evolved into something utterly distinct, a cut-up, micro-sampled approach to house music that recalled the work of Matthew Herbert as it did the abstraction of Leclair’s homegrown influence, the painter Jean-Paul Riopelle.

After a successful run of singles on labels such as Background , Trapez , and Perlon , in 2002 Leclair released My Way , the Akufen debut album, which became one of the most critically acclaimed records of that year. After two years of non-stop touring and promotion, Leclair stepped out of the limelight, issuing only the experimental album Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes (MUTEK_REC ) in 2005. Since then, he has released only a few remixes.

For this Mutek Tour, Akufen returns to Seattle to present his first new material in five years. Based on his crowd pleasing performance at the 2009 Mutek Festival in Montreal, this promises to be one hell of a comeback for one of Montreal's most respected and critically acclaimed underground dance producers.

STEPHEN BEAUPRE: After more than 10 years on the Montreal scene, Stephen Beaupré has become a respected figure in the world of Canadian electronic music. Attracting early attention as part of Crackhaus, his duo with Deadbeat, Steve managed to gain further recognition as a solo artist with his EP Dirty Lipreading on the upstart Montreal label Musique Risquée, launched by Akufen and Vincent Lemieux.

2006 brought the release of his first solo album, the masterful Foe Destroyer, released on both Musique Risquée and MUTEK_REC. His particular approach to music centres around lurching rhythms that build through micro-samples, a technique he shares with fellow Montrealers Guillaume Coutu-Dumont and Akufen.

These days, Beaupré is getting ready for his debut on Mathew Jonson’s Wagon Repair imprint, which should reintroduce him to a whole new audience.

LINKS

• Akufen's Website
• Stephen's Website

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