Mutek is an international festival of electronic music and digital creativity, which is celebrating it's 12th anniversary this year from June 1 to 6 in Montreal, Canada. To say that Mutek is innovative is a huge understatement. This organization has been presenting the most forward thinking electronic music festival in North America since it's inception. While showcasing well known artists such as Ricardo Villalobos, Atom Heart, Monolake, Pole, and Matthew Herbert, they also played a huge role in introducing and developing Canadian artists such as Akufen, Deadbeat, The Mole, Mathew Jonson, Pheek, and many more. The full list of artists who have participate in Mutek over the past 11 years is truly mindboggling, and can be found on their Myspace page. Mutek is a lot more than a music festival though, putting an incredible amount of care and attention into the visual presentation of the events, and providing panels and forums for attendees and participants to share ideas and meet like-minded people. Discovering Mutek was truly a lifechanging event for us, and we're hoping to convince more of Brooklyn to head up to Montreal this year to check it out by bringing a small piece of the festival to you for one night only.

Akufen is one of the most well-known micro-house producers in the world. His 2002 debut album "My Way" on Force Inc caused ripples in the electronic music waters that are still being felt today. Since then, he has remixed everyone from Richie Hawtin to Massive Attack. Akufen incorporates found sounds, random radio static, and other weird noises into his music, giving it an instantly recognizable sound that really stands out from other producers. In 2005, he released "Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes" (Music for 3 Pregnant Women) on Mutek Records. This critically acclaimed album was aimed more at home listened environments, and really showed his range as a producer. Last, Akufen released his first dance track in quite some time, a brilliant house remix of Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts under his Horror Inc alias. He has albums from both Horror Inc and Akufen in the works, and will be presenting Horror Inc live for the first time ever at Mutek in June. Tonight is the seventh time we've brought Akufen to NYC.

Stephen Beaupré first came to our attention as one half of the Crakhaus duo with Deadbeat. He has since established himself as a solo artist, and several tracks from his debut album in 2006 were frequently heard on The Bunker dancefloor (seriously, if you've heard Derek Plaslaiko DJ in the past few years, you've heard Stephen's music). He always blows us away with his live sets at The Bunker, one of which you can download below. He released a very well received single on Wagon Repair last year, and just put out a new EP on Musique Risquée in March.

Musique Risquée co-founder Vincent Lemieux is one of our favorite DJs in the world. Dude has absolutely no concern about trends, and rocks the dancefloor every time with his unique taste in dance music, drawing heavily on his huge collection of classic records. His great taste has lead to DJ gigs around the world at Mutek events and repeat performances at European clubs such as Panorama Bar in Berlin for the Get Perlonized party. Listen to his set from The Bunker Podcast for an example of his mind melting DJ capabilities.

Kangding Ray's music reflects his wide musical background, and a particular way of merging beats and textured soundscapes into slowly evolving compositions. Kangding Ray combines machines with instruments in a subtle and rythmic suite, integrating noises, walls of distortion, massive bass lines, voices and field recordings. The result is a blend of deep advanced grooves and dark atmospheres, that one could describe as abstract bass music. Kangding Ray has a new album due out any day now on Raster Noton, and it is undoubtedly his greatest work to date. Although we have presented many Raster Noton nights at The Bunker in the past, this will be the first time Kangding Ray will be joining us.

In the early stages of Matthew Patterson Curry's musical adventures he was surrounded by the likes of Kit Clayton, Sutekh, Twerk, Kid 606, and Matmos who provided musical support and inspiration for his first forays into production under his Safety Scissors moniker. In May of 2000 at the very first Mutek Festival, he debuted his singing and electronic music in a live context. The dub-tinged techno pop was culled into Plug Research album Parts Water which received wads of international praise. Subsequent worldwide touring and invitations to well respected festivals soon followed, leading him to his obligatory Berlin stint. With Tainted Lunch, his second full length album, he strayed further from his initial techno roots, defining his own brand of "dork pop". His non-singer singing was more present and the structures echoed radio friendly tunes enlisting musical help from friends Kevin Blechdom, Francoise Cactus (Stereo Total), and Erlend Øye. He also has lent his talents for numerous remixes of artists in all shapes in sizes (including Matmos, Sketch Show featuring two members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and indie bands like Grizzly Bear and Architecture In Helskinki). During all this he also founded his Proptronix label, releasing acclaimed acts like My Robot Friend and the Pigeon Funk project. Returning to San Francisco eventually he became an audio slave for an Emmy award winning cable network, while he still hung out with his synthesizer friends at night. His record collection shifted from the newer electronic releases to vintage late disco, early house and Italo disco. He's recently moved all of those records, as well as his synthesizers, to New York where he will wrap up his next album and dj his eclectic record collection for you.

Seth Horvitz is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and designer whose work revolves around the perception of sound and the idiosyncratic behavior of machines. Since the mid-1990s, he has produced and performed electronic music under the name Sutekh for dozens of record labels including Creaked, Leaf, Soul Jazz, Orthlorng Musork, Force Inc./Mille Plateaux, and his own Context Free Media. He is also one half of the spastic dance-theater-self-help duo Pigeon Funk with Kit Clayton. With strong roots in dance music, most notably techno, Sutekh explores uncomfortable areas where that definition makes no sense, drawing on influences ranging from Jamaican dub, free improv, and noise to musique concrète and the classical avant-garde. Weaving between the meticulous and messy, abrasive and tranquil, rational and absurd, his work harnesses an expansive sonic palette that exploits the beauty and unpredictability of the recording medium itself. Though he began his musical adventures as a self-taught misuser of electronics, in recent years he has gravitated towards a more studied approach to composition, taking private courses in piano performance and music theory and completing scores for several independent films. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley (1995) and recently earned an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College, where he composed a series of works for computer-controlled piano among many other projects. After many years of trying to get him on board, we are thrilled to finally have Sutekh join us at The Bunker.