Pensione Popolo sponsors Initial Shock

The Pensione Popolo is located above Casa Del Popolo on historic St-Laurent boulevard. Perched between the frenzy of the Plateau Mont-Royal and serenity of the Mile-End, the surroundings offer the most dynamic and culturally driven neighbourhood experiences Montreal has to offer, all within walking distance.

The Pensione Popolo consists of seven rooms each offering a little something different at very affordable prices. All rooms are equipped with air-conditioning and free wifi, plus a 25% discount on food at Casa del Popolo throughout the duration of your stay.

Electronic reservations can be made via reservit.com

Advanced tickets for Initial Shock III are available now!

K.M. Toepfer and Amarior at Initial Shock III

KARL MICHAEL TOEPFER is a sound art and noise performer inspired by intrapersonal and interpersonal communication, social cognition and sensory perception processing, and intuition. KARL MICHAEL TOEPFER’s creative process involves hardware and software sound synthesis and processing, misappropriation of non-sound producing circuits as sound or sound-control sources, initiation and exploitation of feedback systems, and re-contextualization of pre-recorded sounds into abstract, visceral collages and auditory events.

“funeral dirges for a burning world.” amarior (members of jetsam, pamphleteer, and alsarath) uses transverse flute to build and deconstruct drones and ambient soundscapes, sometimes incorporating spoken word or vocal elements.

CJLO sponsors Initial Shock

CJLO is the official campus and community radio station for Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and is operated almost entirely by its volunteer membership. The station broadcasts from the Loyola campus, and it can be heard at 1690 AM in Montreal, iTunes radio in the College/University category, the CJLO mobile app, or on the CJLO website.

Advanced tickets for Initial Shock are available now!

Rocker sponsors Initial Shock

Rocker Magazine is a bimonthly digest printed and published in the great city of Philadelphia, USA by the folks at @no_rent_records. Its focus is on harsh noise, ambient, musique concrète, electroacoustic, drone, tape music, wall noise, experimental, unclassifiable, concept works, computer music, field recording, indeterminate electronic, narrative, ecological, text-based, religious, song, acoustic ensemble, gorenoise, power electronics, and sound design. Each issue contains lengthy artist interviews delving into unusual subjects for the genre, several recurring columns, art page(s), how to’s, histories of and guest columns.

The newest issue of Rocker returns with a packed double issue. They discuss literal underground noise, intersample peaks, and reverb with Grant Richardson (Gnawed, Hex Audio Labs), the function of crisis with Austin Sley Julian (Sunk Heaven), the sidewalks of Chicago with History of Leather, Freak World Fest with Tom Miritello and David Drucker — plus some real grimy shit with Mack Chami (God Is War).

Includes expanded review section.

In this issue:
– Gnawed
– Sunk Heaven
– History of Leather
– Freak World
– God Is War
– Expanded review section

76 pages, full color, perfect bound (first issue with a spine).

Affordable shipping, including free in the USA.

Get your Rocker subscription today at
https://www.patreon.com/c/RockerMagazine

Advanced tickets for Initial Shock III are available now!

Grkzgl and Windshear at Initial Shock III

Grkzgl is Alex Scarfone, a fixture of the Montreal electronic music and noise scenes for the better part of two decades, whether a solo artist or a member of the trio Chansons d’amour (with Cabral Jacobs and John Brennan). While Grkzgl’s output has vacillated somewhat unpredictably between various poles (improvised/sequenced, clean/distorted, tonal/atonal), the performance at Initial Shock will be one of unrestrained, ecstatic noise.

Rather than force intent or mirror accomplices, inspiration comes to WINDSHEAR through routine sensory curiosity and the realized functions of unwanted modules. Paired with petty technical skills and an unsparing yet charitable desire to maintain fidelity and commitment, WINDSHEAR shifts currents intentionally yet unknowingly in directions neither rational nor candid. WINDSHEAR is from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Thanks to everyone who has bought advanced tickets so far!

Initial Shock #12

US Noise in Montreal!

JHK (NY)
Energetic harsh noise from NYC’s premiere noise sound tech and one half of Ende Tymes festival.

VALISE (NY)
Maralie Armstrong-Rial’s VALISE “transposes ancient star data into video song, and listens for ecstatic energies”

VOSP (RI)
“the floating world that VOSP created is an interstellar river which cascades hail or steel slag along the sides of the listener’s head”

UNIVERSAL CELL UNLOCK (NY)
Christopher Forgues from KITES. Homemade electronic ruminations.

SPLINTER ASSEMBLY (QC)
Local noise lad.

Friday June 13, 2025
Doors 8 / Show 9 / End by midnight
$15 PWYC
Rocket Science Room

Please note the venue has a strict no BYOB policy!

CKUT sponsors Initial Shock

Initial Shock is supported by CKUT 90.3 FM, a non-profit, campus/community radio station based at McGill University in Montreal.

Since 1987, CKUT has existed as an important voice of, and for, the community of Montreal. The crew of staff and volunteers provide exceptional alternative programming, delivering music, news and spoken word programs to the city, surrounding areas and around the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

CKUT has been a supporter of noise since its early broadcasting days and have a dedicated “musique actuelle” section in their station library, which contains a wide array of boundary-pushing albums in the realms of noise, avant-garde, power electronics, glitch, ambient, and improvised music (and plenty of late-90s selections from local noise label Alien8 Recordings).

As an important cultural hub for activists, community organizers and artists, CKUT remains a vital part of the Montreal community and Initial Shock is proud to partner with them this year. Keep your FM dial tuned to 90.3 or tune in online at www.ckut.ca to hear our advertisements for the festival on their airwaves.

Advanced tickets for Initial Shock III are available now.

Nauseous Ejector and Quivering + Nausiate at Initial Shock III

Nauseous Ejector is the project of Max Parker, an artist based in New York City. He makes crude and frantic electronic noise mostly utilizing cheap tape recorders, contact microphones, and broken stringed instruments. Forthcoming releases on Angst, Narcolepsia, and the artist’s own Magnetic Irritation Recordings.
NAUSIATE, Autumn/Otto Evelyn (she/they) is a sound artist, designer and technician originally from Kingston, ON. Their main practice is within industrial and noise music based in feedback loops, synthesiser and metal sounds. QUIVERING, Steff(ania) Juniper (they/them) is a non-binary trans, neuroqueer, cultural worker and performance artist from Toronto, ON. Now residing in Montreal, QUIVERING + NAUSIATE enjoy collaborating on their noise projects as they passionately align themselves with gay leather politics, harm reduction networks, disability justice, activist art, and DIY ethics. Together, Steff & Otto appreciate community building in all its many forms in the leftist spirit that grieves for lost futures and fights for better possible worlds! They will be performing a set inspired by their 2024 release, “The Earth Bleeds Fire”, which heavily features themes of climate collapse, femicide and ecocide.
Tickets on sale now!

The Nausea: A Page of Madness + Ritual Purification (Suoni x Initial Shock)

24 Juin – 19h/19h30 – LA SALA ROSSA – 20/25$

Delve into the unsettling brilliance of Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1926 silent film masterpiece, “A Page of Madness”. This groundbreaking work, co-written by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, transcends conventional narrative to explore the fractured psyche of individuals confined within an asylum.

Anju Singh’s project, The Nausea, will provide a live, multi-instrumental score, amplifying the film’s emotional intensity.

The evening beings with Ritual Purification (Jarrett Martineau), an Indigenous noise and drone artist.

Following the film and performance, join Anju Singh and Jarrett Martineau for an artist talk.

Tickets available via Suoni per il Popolo.

Presented with Initial Shock, MUFF, CJLO and la lumière collective.

Matriarch and Generic Fatigue at Initial Shock III

Matriarch is the alias of Julia Spotts, currently based out of Philadelphia, PA. After beginning in Massachusetts, Matriarch rose to a venerable position within the Western Massachusetts noise scene through her work of experimental compositions exploring themes of memory and detachment. Matriarch is primarily a project focused on transcriptions of memory, taking listeners on a journey through specific instances of highly emotive and key experiences in the artist’s life. Taking a step back from these memories, her work exhibits moving, dynamic experimental sound most notably seen at Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, otherwise known as LUFF, in 2023. Currently, Matriarch is exploring the techniques of classical music, and applying those forms to experimental compositions, resulting in pieces of work made in the form of acts, segmented yet dynamic in nature.

Generic Fatigue is a moniker of Montreal based artist and musician Harpur Quee. Fusing their love of venetian plaster with exaggerated and archaic amplification, a curious and overblown exposure is given into the world of grit weathered trowels, palette knife sorcery, and luxury mineral abuse.