Arbutus Records and MUTEK: Two Models of Experimental Electronic Music Promotion in Montreal

This chapter examines the MUTEK festival and Arbutus Records as two key infrastructures supporting the experimental electronic music scene in Montreal. Both institutions, in their own specific ways, showcase and support local electronic music talent and have become emblematic of the musical identity of the city. On one level MUTEK and Arbutus appear to exist within opposite the spatial and historical trends in the artistic development of Montreal in the late twentieth century/early twenty-first century. On another level, they are both embedded within wider developments of music policies in Montreal: MUTEK has grown increasingly connected to municipal planning for cultural tourism and Arbutus is connected to informal Do-It-Yourself underground music practices. Therefore, this chapter argues that MUTEK and Arbutus Records exemplify contrasting yet interlocked trends surrounding the policing of electronic music in the city.