Founded in 2000, MUTEK is an international festival organization dedicated to the promotion of electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 and the digital arts. Its central platform is an annual five-day event in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 that takes place in late May and early June. Each year, more than 100 artists, panelists, and industry professionals participate in what has become a leading event of its kind in North America.

The MUTEK festival has presented many of electronic music’s most established figures, while providing a platform for numerous new talents who have gone on to build sustainable careers, often as a result of their appearances at the festival. One of the organization’s main priorities is to provide avenues of exposure for Canadian artists alongside their international counterparts.

Alongside the Montreal edition, MUTEK also hosts numerous international versions of its festival in locations often under-represented by the electronic-music industries of Europe and North America. A Mexican edition of MUTEK has taken place in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 since 2003. Annual South American single and/or multi-day events have taken place in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 since 2002 and 2004 respectively. Other showcases have also occurred in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 as well.

Apart from Central and South America, in 2005 MUTEK was among the first Western cultural organizations to send a delegation of electronic artists to China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. MUTEK’s activities have also taken place in many European and American cities, with showcases and tours bringing the organization and its artists to wider audiences with every passing year. MUTEK also owns and operates a record label, Musique Risquée.

All in all, over 200,000 people have attended MUTEK events worldwide in the last decade, and over 400 artists have performed on MUTEK stages.

International acts include Ricardo Villalobos

Ricardo Villalobos

Ricardo Villalobos is a Chilean-German electronic music producer and DJ. He is well-known for his work in the minimal techno and microhouse genres, and is one of the most significant figures in today's minimal techno scene....

, Thomas Brinkmann

Thomas Brinkmann

Thomas Brinkmann is a highly regarded German producer of experimental minimal techno music. Although experimenting with records since the early eighties, he gained wide reputation with his re-workings of material by fellow artists Mike Ink and Richie Hawtin released in the second half of the 90s...

, Luomo, Vladislav Delay

Vladislav Delay

Vladislav Delay is one of the pseudonyms of Sasu Ripatti , a Finnish electronic musician. He has also recorded as Luomo, Sistol, Uusitalo and Conoco.-Background:...

, Pole

Pole (musician)

Pole is the artistic name of Stefan Betke, a German electronic music artist commonly associated with the glitch genre as well as dubtronica.-History:Pole took his name from a Waldorf 4-Pole filter which he accidentally dropped and broke in 1996...

, Alva Noto

Alva Noto

Alva Noto is a stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes. Another alias he uses is Noto...

, Francisco López

Francisco López (musician)

Francisco López is an avant-garde experimental musician and sound artist.He has released a large amount of sound pieces with record labels from more than fifty countries and realized hundreds of concerts and sound installations worldwide; including some of the main international museums, galleries...

, Matthew Herbert

Matthew Herbert

Matthew Herbert , also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician...

, Rechenzentrum, Murcof

Murcof

Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronica artist Fernando Corona.Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians under the Terrestre project name...

, Coil

Coil

A coil is a series of loops. A coiled coil is a structure in which the coil itself is in turn also looping.-Electromagnetic coils:An electromagnetic coil is formed when a conductor is wound around a core or form to create an inductor or electromagnet...

, Luciano

Luciano

Luciano is a Jamaican second generation roots reggae artist and poet....

, Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear is an American music producer, DJ and electronic avant-pop artist.-History:Texas- born Dear moved to Michigan as a teenager, where he was inspired by the sound of Detroit Techno...

, Monolake

Monolake

Monolake is an electronic music act based in Berlin. Originally consisting of members Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke, Monolake is now perpetuated by Henke while Behles focuses on running music software company Ableton, which they founded in 1999 together with Bernd Roggendorf...

, Senor Coconut, T. Raumschmiere

T. Raumschmiere

Marco Haas is a punk techno DJ known by the stage name T.Raumschmiere who has released two albums of aggressive electropop. He has worked with notables such as Miss Kittin and Ellen Allien, and helped found the Shitkatapult record label...

, Telefon Tel Aviv

Telefon Tel Aviv

Telefon Tel Aviv is a Chicago, Illinois-based American electronic music act. Formerly comprising Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis, Telefon Tel Aviv continues with Eustis as the sole official member since Cooper's death in 2009.-History:...

, Andrew Weatherall

Andrew Weatherall

Andrew Weatherall is a DJ, producer, and remixer.Andrew, Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes started Boy's Own initially as a fanzine commenting on fashion, records, football, and other issues...

, Apparat

Apparat (musician)

Apparat is a German electronic musician living in Berlin and was previously a co-owner of Shitkatapult records. Starting out with dance floor-oriented techno, he later started to create ambient music and more recently became "more interested in designing sounds than beats".In 2004, he appeared at...

, Biosphere

Biosphere

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...

, Isolée

Isolée

Isolée is microhouse artist Rajko Müller. Isolée is a minimalist house producer whose music is reminisent of indie electronic pop music of the early eighties and ambient techno from a decade on. Isolée is credited with creating the very first microhouse record to reach the club charts...

, FM3

FM3

FM3 is the Beijing-based music duo of Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian. They are considered among the pioneers of electronic music in China.. Since 1999, Virant and Jian have been making meditative music by combining the sound of Chinese classical instruments with modern digital techniques.Their...

, Jan Jelinek

Jan Jelinek

Jan Jelinek is a German electronic musician who also operates under the names of Farben, Gramm and The Exposures. His music is usually categorized as minimal techno, glitch or microhouse, and is characterized by deep basslines, extensive use of samples from earlier jazz and rock recordings, and...

, Modeselektor

Modeselektor

Modeselektor is an electronic music band formed in Berlin, featuring Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. The group draws heavily from IDM, glitch, Electro house and hip hop. In an interview the group said regarding their sound: "Happy metal, hard rap, country-ambient, Russian crunk. We don’t like...

, Michael Mayer

Michael Mayer (musician)

Michael Mayer is one of the key figures of Cologne, Germany's electronic music scene. Mayer is a remixer, DJ, and producer, and has released a small handful of his own singles on the Kompakt music label that he helps run with founder Wolfgang Voigt...

, Rhythm & Sound, Shackleton, Kode 9 & Spaceape, Wighnomy Brothers

Wighnomy Brothers

Wighnomy Brothers were an electronic music duo from Jena, Germany composed of Gabor Schablitzki and Sören Bodner . Wighnomy Brothers' live mixes include an eclectic blend of deep house, minimal techno, jazz, and soul, and their original releases are infused with a unique deep-house sound...

, Christian Fennesz

Christian Fennesz

Christian Fennesz is an Austrian guitarist active in electronic music, often credited on albums simply as Fennesz....

, The Field

The Field

The Field is a play written by John B. Keane, first performed in 1965. It tells the story of the hardened farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents. The play debuted at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 1965, with Ray McAnally as "The Bull" and Eamon Keane as "The Bird" O'Donnell. The play...

, Radio Slave and many others.

Canadian acts include Plastikman, Richie Hawtin

Richie Hawtin

Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...

, Akufen

Akufen

Marc Leclair, better known by his stage name Akufen, is a Canadian electronic musician. His music is electronic music that is often described as minimal house, minimal techno, glitch, or microhouse....

, Deadbeat, Jacob Fairley, Pheek, Jeremy P. Caulfield, Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker is an electronic musician and sound artist based in Montreal, Canada. Hecker previously recorded under the moniker Jetone, but has become better known internationally for his ambient recordings released through Kranky, Mille Plateaux, Alien8, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat under his...

, Martin Tétreault

Martin Tétreault

Martin Tétreault is a free improvisation musician and visual artist. Often using the turntable as the basis for his experimental music, he has released many collaborative records with people such as Kevin Drumm and Otomo Yoshihide, as well as his own solo work.-External links:* at Discogs...

, Mitchell Akiyama, Mike Shannon

Mike Shannon

Thomas Michael Shannon is an American-born former Major League Baseball player and current radio sportscaster.Shannon is a radio broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was raised in St. Louis, Missouri and played with the Cardinals during some of the team's most successful years...

, Ghislain Poirier

Ghislain Poirier

Poirier is a DJ/producer from Montreal who is signed to the Ninja Tune record label. He has, however, also worked with other labels such as Chocolate Industries, Rebondir, Shockout, Musique Large, Intr_version and 12k. His work mainly consists of original instrumental mixes and mixes featuring...

, Solvent

Solvent

A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...

, The Mole, Sixtoo

Sixtoo

Sixtoo was the main project of a Canadian hip hop DJ, MC and producer Vaughn Robert Squire between 1996-2007. He has since retired the Sixtoo name pursuing other directions in electronic music, with a large genre shift from experimental hip hop to deeper club sounds of various temposSquire rose to...

, Cobblestone Jazz, Mathew Jonson, Junior Boys

Junior Boys

-History:Junior Boys formed in 1999 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada as a duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark. Years of collaboration followed and a demo was produced, but after many rejections and near-misses, they were resigned to being bedroom beat constructors. Soon after, Johnny Dark left the...

, Loscil

Loscil

Loscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function in Csound...

, Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker is a musician from Toronto, Canada who has released numerous records both as a solo artist and with his groups Nadja, ARC, and Mnemosyne. He has also written several books of poetry....

, Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, Jesse Somfay, Mark Templeton

Mark Templeton (electronic artist)

Mark Templeton is a Canadian experimental electronic artist. Templeton's works are released by New York City record label Anticipate Recordings.-Background:...

, Secret Mommy

Secret Mommy

Andy Dixon is a Canadian musician and graphic designer, who gained notoriety as a member of the North Vancouver punk rock band d.b.s. He founded the record label Ache Records, and later played in The Red Light Sting...

, Kid Koala

Kid Koala

Eric San , who records under the name Kid Koala, is a Canadian DJ, turntablist, musician and an author of graphic novels. He is signed to the British record label Ninja Tune, is a member of alternative hip hop supergroup Deltron 3030, and The Slew with Dynamite D and former members of the...

, Knifehandchop

Knifehandchop

Knifehandchop is electronic musician Billy Pollard from Toronto, Canada. He started programming electronic beats when he was 18.Knifehandchop takes from many different influences and styles, and mixes them together into a form of bastard pop...

, Megasoid, and many others.

The festival celebrated its 12th Montreal edition Jun 1-5, 2011.

External links

• MUTEK Canada
• MUTEK Mexico
• MUTEK Chile
• MUTEK MySpace Page
• Musique Risquée MySpace Page
• Discogs.com page on MUTEK_REC
• MUTEK on www.samurai.fm - samurai.fm | NEW MUSIC RADIO
• Interview with Alain Mongeau (founder of MUTEK) on Headphone Commute (May, 2010)