Innovations en concert est ravi de coprésenter la deuxième édition annuelle du FLUX FESTIVAL de Montréal, un festival de musique expérimentale qui se tiendra du 1er au 11 octobre 2025 et proposera un mélange unique de concerts, d’ateliers, de tables rondes et de lancements !

“All of us come together because there is a certain kind of life-giving ingredient that goes into the music that we make. Even the source of it, it’s what the American situation is concerned, it has been African and the suffering that we’ve had… But what has happened as a result of what we have learned how to do is that we have provided people around the world another methodology to express themselves, to forgive.”

—Andrew Cyrille, “The Discipline of Freedom, the Beauty of Creation and it’s Real” (2015)

Andrew Cyrille’s contribution to the evolution of black music is colossal. Affectionately referred to by collaborator Milford Graves as “the guy with the fast hands from Brooklyn,” his combination of technical mastery and creative freedom has revolutionized the contours of avant-garde jazz and improvised music.

Cyrille is perhaps most widely recognized (by record collectors) for treasured albums such as What About? (1969) and Dialogue of the Drums (1974), or his iconic 11-year collaboration with pianist Cecil Taylor. Yet the boundlessness of Cyrille’s innovation extends to recent offerings including Lebroba (2018), Embracing the Unknown (2024), and the many live recordings documenting his contemporary practice. A Haitian-American born in 1939, Cyrille’s playing is associated with an almost-magical and painterly sense of time and texture—qualities present throughout his collaborations with luminaries including Archie Shepp, Jeanne Lee, Jimmy Lyons, Rashied Ali, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, William Parker, Marilyn Crispell, Henry Grimes, Tomeka Reid, Bill Frisell, Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann, and countless other giants of the modern jazz tradition.

For this date, however, Cyrille is playing solo; but he is never playing alone. His continuous study of Afro-Cuban, African, and Afro-diasporic percussion teaches us that “all of it is vibrations.” This means that attending a Cyrille performance is to feel the vibrations of an assembly that includes not just his infinite set of collaborators, but also the dancers, conversations, rehearsals, and audiences that pass through and guide his creative orbit. To witness a Cyrille performance is to join this ensemble—to become part of its gathering work—and to attune oneself to a life-giving ingredient that is nourished by the past while planting seeds for the future. His drums are, as William Parker describes, “for human beings who need to feed their souls.” So, arrive hungry. Arrive with a wandering mind. The generosity of Cyrille’s leadership is well-documented, and the place he will take us already welcomes our arrival.

5ilience is a brand-new ensemble based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal that brings together five emerging artists passionate about chamber music. The ensemble, comprising Léanne Teran-Paul (oboe), Mariane Pellerin (clarinet), Thomas Gauthier-Lang (saxophone), Gwénaëlle Ratouit (bass clarinet), and Alex Eastley (bassoon), is Québec’s first reed quintet. By combining the timbral specificities of the instruments in this formation, they have developed a sound palette that is both unique and versatile.

Following in the footsteps of the Calefax ensemble from Holland, 5ilience is dedicated to expanding the existing repertoire for reed quintet by developing new works from emerging and established composers, and is committed to showcasing the vast possibilities of its formation by exploring various musical styles.

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Flux Festival is a collaboration initiated by Arts in the Margins with:  Canadian New Music Network /daphne/EAF /International Institute for the Critical Studies in Improvisation / Interzone / Le Vivier / Mardi Spaghetti / McGill University’s Laboratory of Urban Culture / Québec Musiques Parallèles /  Small Scale Music

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We would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, and the SOCAN Foundation for their support.