Montag Next Life

Release Preview

About

As we enter Phase 4 of Montag’s 12 month project ‘Phases’ we see Montag in an introspective mood, working alone this time and without a collaborator he creates a dreamy, hazy and warm analogue soundscape complementing the idea of a possible ‘Next Life’. “I wanted to express the idea of having the chance to live a second time. I wrote a few sentences down and recorded them separately, each with their own melody and I reassembled them later, making room for improvisation”. The result is a somewhat more lo-fi outing than previous phases. Although the sound is less polished and was pieced together part by part the end result is far from disjointed. Instead it draws the listener in with its hypnotic melodies and airy spacious drum sound. Although Montag worked alone on ‘Next Life’ he did enlist the help of Dayve Hawk, known more commonly as Memory Tapes, to remix the previously released Phase 2 track ‘Trip The Light Fantastic’. Dayve’s signature spongy bass sound, soaring synths and treated vocals paired with the rolling percussion really help to take the track out of the studio and onto the dance floor.

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.