We recently came across an interesting Belgian label MONTAGE, or as the official description on SoundCloud says: “Brussels-based trans-medial output.” It’s not just a music label, but also a music event collective focusing on experimental electronic music. MONTAGE derives its name from a love for what they call “edited music: music that manages to surpass genre boundaries for narrative structure and experiment”.
MONTAGE has featured many different releases by artists, that explore the possibilities of electronic music such as épong, Justin, Kiche, Dybbuk, and many others. I recommend their compilation Urgent Music vol.II: Assemblage, which is focused on the „political within abstract electronic music“. It is also a wonderful representation of the label’s avant-garde sonic vision. The collective also released Vessels Of Chaos: Celestial Tears by French producer and musician Griigg, who was also part of our third compilation Swine World 003.
Lately, they have also been making efforts in more discourse-oriented work with a telegram group chat and some social media posts. “A lot of this comes from the deliberate conflation of alternative culture with alternative ideas,” states MONTAGE.
With the next upcoming project, we are premiering the track “SFTG1” by cratje and made interview with Jonathan & Laura.
What is your idea behind the „Songs From The Gutter“ project? What artists should participate in this open call?
We noticed an interesting trend in club music where artists create ear-tingling sound design in high-energy club music. Songs From The Gutter tries to offer a selection of fast-paced post-industrial club music. The tracks bring together influences from everything from gabber, distorted drum and bass, spiky dancehall, and decayed pop. Maybe the title of the series speaks for itself to a certain extent.
With MONTAGE, we really like the idea of open calls, as we feel our eyes as ‚curators‘ will always be more limited than what our listeners can come up with together. Any and all artists can apply. So if you recognize yourself in the above description, shoot us an email at >> info@montage-label.com <<
How do you imagine the future of club music, particularly hard bass-heavy electronic music? Let’s say 200 years from now.
Dance music is an ever-evolving swirl of referentiality, with each artist building upon the work of the ones before them in a rhizomatic way. A current trend we see in cutting-edge club music is often a clique that manages to push into a certain direction with a sound they build upon each other in the community. As the world grows ever more populated, we think people will always remain interested in hearing community through sound. This can be online or in local communities. For us, music offers collectivity through shared experience. So while we can’t predict how it will sound like, we do believe the interest will be the same.
I’m currently writing another article about Blood Of Aza, her incredible sound design, and just the whole world of hard extraterrestrial sounds. You’ve also collaborated with Kavari. To name other artists, what are some of your biggest inspirations with the MONTAGE label regarding hard club music?
We absolutely looooved KAVARI’s set and were super happy to book her! We’ve had the chance to book so many inspiring artists already! Some of the favorites we collaborated with so far are: Aya, Golce, Klahrk, DJ Würm, DJ Loser, Authentically Plastic, KYYBERWALL, Age Reform, Loto Retina, Lumpex, DJ Lycox…
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If I may ask, why the word MONTAGE? Are you somehow inspired by the montage film editing technique from the 20s of the 20th century? [From Wikipedia: „Montages enable filmmakers to communicate a large amount of information to an audience over a shorter span of time by juxtaposing different shots, compressing time through editing, or intertwining multiple storylines of a narrative.“] I can imagine it’s an innovative twist when thinking about electronic music.
The name for the label indeed comes from a fascination with what we call „edited“ music. Music that combines different narratives, tempos, genres, styles, techniques… together to create a singular musical expression. On our releases one of the artists that pushes this to the most extreme might be Brussels‘ deconstructed music hero Épong. A more known example might be Klein, whose songs employ different parts, samples, styles, and tempos to construct a musical tale that takes the listener on a journey.
A lot of the artists on the label are trained in filmmaking, so there is a direct connection to thinking about editing as a technique as well. A prime example is Schobbee, who made his album on MONTAGE completely in Adobe Premiere, as he’s an editor in his day job.
Can you tell us more about cratje? I’ve listened to the artist’s various DJ mixes, which are full of ambient atmospheres and interesting meditative structures. Sometimes it’s more ambient, sometimes more club music. How do you think about DJ sets when you are creating one? What does it mean for you to create a good, interesting DJ mix?
My moniker cratje brings together a lot of the influences of the music I listen to. I think I have a quite jittery personality, in the sense that I have a very short attention span and change plans a lot. I feel this is reflected in the eclecticism of my mixes. For me, a good mix is a journey through the artists‘ listening, more so than a technical exercise. I do however keep one series of mixes strictly for dance music: Stoute Muziek on KIOSK.
In the coming months I hope to push more releases for the cratje project. For years I’ve been running the label with Laura and felt that my ears are more trained than my fingers, in the sense that what I produced wasn’t on par with what my peers are making. Slowly but surely, I do feel like I’m gaining the confidence to release my own work, so I’m looking forward to how people react to this first song on Songs From The Gutter and future releases on MONTAGE and other labels 🙂
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Text: Krištof Budke / Follow MONTAGE on Bandcamp, SoundCloud and Instagram
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