Montag Memori

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About

“Memori” is Phase 10 of Montag’s (aka Antoine Bédard) 12 month digital single series and features a collaboration with long time friend Erika Spring of Au Revoir Simone. Their friendship stretches back to 2005 and in 2007 they collaborated on a track titled “No One Else”. Montag has also remixed a number of ARS tracks. Sharing a love for “keyboards and nostalgia”, they were eager to work together again and Phases provided the perfect opportunity. The seed for “Memori” came from a series of chords Erika shared with Montag and from there blossomed into a whole song very quickly. In fact, it grew into two songs. Lyrically Montag shares he, “wanted a song about traveling the world, feeling invincible, about being in different places at once.” Although Montag set out to make a “danceable” and “summery” single the resulting tracks are far more melancholic and pop based. James Bay (aka Simon Tremblay) who previously collaborated with Montag on Phase 7 “True Love” helped produce the more upbeat a-side. The darker, minimal b-side “Memori Encore,” focuses on the drums and explores different emotional terrain.

Artist Bio

Montreal’s Montag, otherwise known as DJ Antoine Bédard, launched his first record, Are You a Friend?, in 2002. The record was released on electronic music record label, Gooom Disques, which is also home to M83. Are You a Friend?’s dreamy and minimalistic sounds were soon noticed by France’s Les Inrocks. His extensive discography, which consists of two EPs and five records, demonstrates his composing abilities.  Bédard’s talent has sent him on major tours across the world.

The 2005 release of Alone, Not Alone (his first release on Carpark Records), received international praise, including a 7.8/10 rating from Pitchfork. His third release, Going Places (2007), was well-received in Japan where he toured with Au Revoir Simone and YACHT.

Through the years, Montag has performed live at a number of music festivals such as Mutek (Montréal), SXSW (Austin, TX), Sonorama (Guadalajara), Canadian Music Week (Toronto) and CMJ (New York).  He has shared the stage with Caribou, Broadcast, Feist, The Junior Boys, Lali Puna, Xiu Xiu and Stars among others. Montag regularly collaborates on visual art installations, theatre plays, art videos and other audio art projects.

In 2012, he conceived Audiosphere, an award-winning iPhone application that allows transit users to discover local artists with use of geolocalisation. In early 2013, he worked on the original score and sound design for Pascal Grandmaison’s Le jour des 8 soleils, presented as part of the event Luminothérapie in Montreal.

In parallel to his work in musical composition, Bédard has been producing various soundwalks that explore the relationship among sound, urban environment and history. He also co-hosts and spins at some of Montreal’s highly attended gay nights, Mec Plus Ultra and Audioporn Club.