Karkwa, Marie Davidson, Bodega, Orchestra Gold, Loud Lary Ajust, Souldia, LaF, The Brooks, Nobro, Galaxie & much, much more!
Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue(FME) and SiriusXM, its official presenter, invite you to the 22nd edition of the unique event showcasing the best in new music, big names from Canada, and inspired international programming, including many exclusivities for this 2024 season. From August 29th to September 1st, FME strikes again with an eclectic selection of artists offering alternative, novel, and singular music, while also presenting many up-and-coming outfits of all genres. In all, close to 100 performances are taking place in the premium concert venues and other unique locations of Rouyn-Noranda.
“It is with great pride that SiriusXM will again be Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue’s official presenter in 2024. Year after year, this festival offers programming flush with young emerging musicians, thus resonating with our mandate to showcase new Canadian talent. At SiriusXM, we aim to provide these artists with great visibility, whether via our North American online platform or by supporting events celebrating our culture. In light of this, we are delighted to renew our long-established partnership with FME,” expressed Jean-Philippe Lavoie, manager of strategic development for Canadian content.
On Thursday at 7 pm, the Événements Sirius XM concert series kicks off with Hawa B – initially known for lending her voice to Hubert Lenoir, Charlotte Cardin, Clay and Friends, and more – challenging the limits of creation with her iconoclastic music of plural textures that touches on soul, jazz and alternative rock.
Later on that same outdoor stage – la Scène Extérieure – we discover Orchestra Gold (Oakland, CA), an outfit whose fierce new sound thrives with heavy swinging rhythms, a funky brass section, and cosmic guitars while paying homage to Malian musical traditions. The night continues with a first visit to Abitibi-Témiscamingue by post-punk group BODEGA (New York, NY), strong off releasing Our Brand Could Be Yr Life and “serving up an entertaining, intellectual and heartfelt riposte to the broken systems that have engulfed our culture” (Clash). We are then treated to Karkwa’s ethereal yet grounded live show as the celebrated Montréal group concludes a first tour in over 12 years.
On Friday, it is up to a handful of hip-hop aces from La Belle Province to blow the roof off the outdoor stage (pun intended), starting at 8 pm with young prodigy GreenWoodz’ distinctive emo rap brew, to be followed by Joy Ride Records’ protégé, Rymz, unraveling his customary avalanche of spiky hook-infused tracks. The bill’s headliner is none other than living legend Souldia, the emblematic rapper known for “willingly and candidly sharing his story censure-free” (CBC/Radio-Canada) throughout a career that has seen him release no fewer than 10 studio albums, all the while achieving the highest of honours for a Francophone hip-hop artist in Québec by winning Rap Album of the Year at Gala de l’ADISQ in 2022 with Dixque d’art.
Saturday’s proverbial saturnalia brings an absolute barrage of grooves and spits to 7e Rue, kick-started by hybrid hip-hop collective, LaF, whose recent long-player Chrome seamlessly meshes UK garage with elements of soul, jazz, and pop. The outdoor stage is also hosting transcendent Toronto singer-songwriter, performer, and producer, Haviah Mighty, the first-ever hip-hop artist to be awarded the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for her stand-out 2019 full-length, 13th Floor. To close out the shindig with a bang, festivalgoers can bounce to the lit sound of Loud Lary Ajust, the trio promising “to make it rain” when they visit Rouyn-Noranda for the first time in 10 years, following up on the critical success of their Blue Volvo reunion tour.
Every night after the Événements SiriusXM concert series, the curators offer one last hurrah under the moonlight. Thus, from Thursday to Saturday, Scène Fizz – also located on 7e Rue – will host Élégie (Francophone alternative rock), Érika Zaria (rap/R&B), and Turbine (turntablism or the art of manipulating turntables).
“Fizz is delighted to be sponsoring Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue for the first time, an event that gathers communities from the region as well as from the rest of Québec around their mutual love for music. Having been a part of Quebecers’ everyday life for 5 years now, it only felt natural for Fizz to support a far-reaching event such as FME, granting us a unique opportunity to invest in the area, while also contributing to its cultural development,” adds Martin Gendron, general director of Fizz.
On Saturday afternoon at Guinguette chez Edmund, Hydro-Québec presents a trio of artists fusing a myriad of styles, the first notes of which come from Miel Azevedo via her jazz and soul-informed futurist pop. Shortly after, this scenic stage overseeing Osisko Lake is taken over by the rock with a dash of dream pop of Grand Eugène, and later on by 2022 Francouvertes (Québec’s most established musical awards) grand winners, Rau_ze, “with their fragrances of jazz, R&B, and hip-hop, [a sound] that resonates perfectly with the spirit of the times as genres lose their boundaries” (La Presse).
Once again this year, Paramount will be vibrating to the carefully curated and diverse sounds of today’s up-and-coming trailblazers as well as that of artists whose reputations precede them. Friday night, we will bask amidst the hallucinatory epiphanies of the French group, Mossaï Mossaï (Tours, FR), the incendiary proto-pop earworms of Alix Fernz’ recently-released vinyl baptism, Bizou, as well as the musical onslaught and sheer brute stage presence of Galaxie, who are performing a mix of fan favourites and brand new scorchers off their latest LP, À demain peut-être. On Saturday, Douance shares a pop amalgam that flirts with grunge, The Wesleys entertain us with savvy art rock frequencies, while Gab Bouchard unveils his new live concert, tinged with country-folk, pop-rock and soul, in support of his sophomore effort, Grafignes. To close out the festivities on Sunday night, we can catch a minimalist iteration of Montreal country-folk stalwart Joe Grass’ rock canon, the psychedelic pop-rock from Mexico City in the form of Petite Amie, as well as the beautiful fury of groove purveyors, The Brooks, as they gear up to release Soon As I Can via Big in the Garden, immortalizing onto wax their intricate mixture of funk, soul, R&B, afrobeat and jazz.
For concerts taking place at Petit Théâtre du Vieux-Noranda, the curators have gone the extra mile in offering a beautifully motley selection of music, starting on Thursday with TVOD who are driving up from Brooklyn, NY to bang out violent yet benevolent post-punk, and NOBRO, a feminist rock quartet just as comfortable with the savagery of punk as they are blasting high-flying riffs à la 70s rock. The day after, hip-hop heads do not want to miss rapper Lost (a.k.a. Lost Gang), as he rifles through his extensive catalogue of hits from Bonhomme Pendu all the way to Héritage. Saturday sees MUTEK co-host the Soirée Électro, which opens with Kaya Hoax’s devilish brand of hip-hop via experimental pop inspired by UK grime, dancehall, and punk, to be followed by Marie Davidson. The artist, well-known for her generous live performances mixing hard-hitting percussion, sharp synth melodies, and her signature idiosyncratic vocal delivery, released Y.A.A.M. earlier this year, a new EP under Soulwax’ imprint, DEEWEE. As is tradition, the unchallenged-number-one venue on 7e Rue is hosting a metal gig on Sabbath. In collaboration with Productions Ça Bûche, FME presents local blackened grindcore outfit, I, Apokalypse (Rouyn-Noranda, QC), technical metal with a touch of deathcore by way of Fracturus, as well as Martyr, a cathartic and genre-blending mayhem through which Québec heavy music pioneers, François and Dan Mongrain (Voïvod), explore the complexity of the human condition.
On Friday at Agora des Arts, we can hear awe-inducing experimental pieces from transcendent artist, Eryka Angell (Thus Owls). The night anchored around heavenly voices concludes with Étienne Coppée’s “patchouli-scented poetry, empathic melodies [and] folk songs punctuated by soul and gospel” (Le Devoir). In keeping with offering songwriting of the highest quality, FME presents two concerts from Avec pas d’casque, whose career, spanning two decades, has been spent sculpting intimate, no frills folk, both in the studio and on stage. Opening for the prolific four-piece, we have celebrated singer-songwriter Myriam Gendron performing chiaroscuro ballads on Saturday, and Demain Déluge, an ambient music duo featuring Benoît Pinette from Tire le Coyote, on Sunday.
It is on Thursday at Cabaret de la Dernière Chance that the progressive purveyors of fuzz, Zouz, can be caught, as the Montrealers preview their new album that’s soon to be announced via Simone Records. Art punk with a hint of pop four-piece, Last Waltzon, is tasked with providing the early decibels. For their part, record label Bonbonbon celebrated on Friday their 5-year anniversary alongside melodist Félix Dyotte, who recently shared a fourth long-player that was co-produced by Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle, psychedelic bordering on glam rock septet, Allô Fantôme, and Bruxelles-based project, Ada Oda, an ambitious cross between 80s rock, post-punk and Italian pop. Saturday’s program reaches a pinnacle of subversion in music starting with Shunk, whose sound ranges from shimmering French love songs to cataclysmic rock. The evening continues with Montréal via Berlin garage outfit, Lemongrab, and Pypy (members of Duchess Says, CPC Gangbang), a supergroup “elevated by singer Annie-Claude Deschênes’ fierceness, [with songs] full of surprises, while still being melodic” (Le Devoir), the one-of-a-kind quartet soon to unearth a new album via Goner Records. At the festival’s QG (or headquarters), we can catch the jangle pop of Grand Public and the lo-fi power pop of Feeling Figures on Friday, as well as Rouyn-Noranda, QC noise rock band Radiology, power violence trio Jetsam, and post-hardcore summoners Birds in Row on a Saturday bill co-presented by Keep Hope Productions.
For late nights, Sous-Sol du Petit Théâtre du Vieux-Noranda has got you covered, striking the perfect balance between experimental sounds and groovy rhythms. From Thursday to Sunday, modern music aficionados can shake their booty to the beat of: austere disco by Aus!Funkt; deep low-ends and melodic flows from hip-hop duo, Dope.gng; techno-meets-electro-meets-punk from the Toronto-based two-piece, Slash Need; as well as modern-day krautrock from the collective Patche (members of Zouz, Mon Doux Seigneur, Duu), who just released Document (June 7th, 2024), a second album via Popop. As the clock strikes midnight, Bar Pazzo is also a great place to be. Friday it hosts “arachno-punk” group Chou and the catchy pop-punk tunes of Acadian newcomers, Peanut Butter Sunday, while Saturday features Bobo Ono and his Robeur Band (members of Les Deuxluxes, BPR, Les Hay-Babies), a rock project laced with psychedelia and funk, to be followed by the costumes, stage decors and unshakable rock mantras of Angine de Poitrine.
In terms of special events, there is a listening session for Marie-Pierre Arthur’s new album on Friday, 3:30 pm at an undisclosed location, as well as showcases held by record labels Six Shooter Records – Peter Dreams (new indie rock project from July Talk) and Nyssa (weirdo pop project with roots in Paganism) on Friday at 5 pm – and Disques Dure Vie – Gawbé (slacker Francophone alternative rock) and Perséide (psychedelic rock) on Saturday at 4 pm – at the festival’s QG. On Sunday, the venue is hosting the record launch of local artist Alix Pic. The late matinee kicks off with pop-folk artist Makenzie at 5 pm. There is also an old-school hip-hop Block Party, featuring rappers, breakers, and DJ Félix B. Desfossés at 5 pm on Saturday. The event taking place in front of Hub Desjardins is presented by Télé-Québec and organized by the creators of Les racines du hip-hop au Québec, a docuseries celebrating hip-hop culture and history.
On Friday, L’Abstracto is hosting a set by Goodbye Karelle, the indie pop project of Québec actress Karelle Tremblay (Our Loved Ones, Amsterdam, Corbo). Safia Nolin also visits the intimate café-bar turned venue for the occasion, performing at 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday alongside guitar player Marc-André Labelle, the two chasing musicality in imperfection: beauty in the spur of the moment. Le Polonais offers three concerts at l’heure de l’apéro (or 5 pm), namely: queer dance-pop artist Maryze on Friday; alternative folk ensemble Marontate on Saturday; and alternative hip-hop collective Strange Froots on Sunday. Happy hours at Les Mooses features hazy pop from Franco-Ontarian outfit, De Flore, and Amery, a new project from Born at Midnite’s lead vocalist. On Saturday, we get to be swooned by Americano-Canadian artist Paige Barlow, by way of her French songs at the junction of folk and shoegaze. On Sunday, following a set by country-folk singer-songwriter Erik Fines, we discover The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter, a conceptual live concert around Li’l Andy’s alter-ego – a fictional character and his fascinating old-time country works.
As per previous years, FME invites festival goers to the Hub Desjardins, a centralized venue where tickets and festival passes can be purchased, and where CFME Radio Station’s kiosque and the Jardin numérique can be found! All day long, CFME Radio Station (100.5 FM), a mainstay at the festival, lets you further immerse yourself in the event’s programming, while being entertained by DJs, hosts, and guests. For its part, the Jardin numérique, presented by Newmont Éléonore, hosts events and multimedia installations showcasing augmented reality and digital arts.
To everyone’s delight, the types of festival passes offered by FME last year are back: the Passeport extérieur – 7e Rue (Outdoor Festival Pass – 7e Rue) for $55, which grants access to all outdoor concerts taking place on 7e Rue from Thursday to Saturday; as well as the Passeport à la carte (À la carte Festival Pass) for $150, which grants access to a selection of venue concerts to go along with the outdoor concerts.
Festival passes are on sale now via www.fmeat.org. Passe à la carte (À la Carte Festival Pass) holders will have until Friday, July 16th, 2024 at 11:59 pm ET to choose the venue concerts they want to attend. Individual concert tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 19th, 2024 at 4 pm ET.
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