Calgary’s electronic community gets in SYNC

The immersive experience of an electronic music conference is returning to Calgary with SYNC, a three-day series of workshops and performances curated by the non-profit Oscill8 Electronic Performing Arts Society.

Running from November 8th to the 10th, the “Image And Sound” conference will explore live electronic music, VJing and filmmaking, and movement-based flow arts. 

According to Oscill8 member Anthony Appleby, who performs under the alias Room Elephant, the inspiration for SYNC came when group members attended Montreal’s Mutek festival last year. 

“We really loved the experience of going to workshops, interacting with really interesting people, like amazingly talented famous people, and then seeing some of these people on stage later that night,” he says.

This experience led the group to reminisce about Oscill8’s inception in 2017 at the Alberta Electronic Music Conference (AEMCON), a similarly structured multi-day event that originated in Edmonton in 216 then moved to Calgary until its final year in 2019. 

“I went to AEMCON and that was sort of my introduction to the Calgary scene of live electronic music,” says Appleby.

“We all kind of basically on the plane home said let’s do another AEMCON in Calgary, you know now that AEMCON is no more.”

While AEMCON largely centred around music, Oscill8’s experience at Mutek encouraged them to explore the connection between visual artistry and electronica. 

“Every event had strong visual elements as well as the musical element,” says Appleby. “We’re all musicians, and I think a common blindspot of us musicians is the presentation of how people see stuff.”

The group received funding from Calgary Arts Development, and held a one day version of the festival in February at a Freemasons Hall that featured a live performance from Atlanta-based producer Richard Devine. 

Following its success, Oscill8 further expanded the scope of SYNC to include movement-based workshops and filmmaking. 

“We’re really excited to get the director Sandi Somers, and she’s going to talk about movies that predicted the future,” says Appleby. “She’s really quite a successful film director, and she’s got this amazing full length feature film that’s just coming out.”

Other workshops taking place on Saturday at the National Music Centre include topics like creating digital press kits, exploring the art of projection mapping, and a panel on the experience of performing live. The movement workshops, taking place during the day at Festival Hall, will give conference-goers the opportunity to participate in conscious dance, hula hooping, and poi. 

Equally as robust is SYNC’s nighttime offering, which will feature a rave-like environment showcasing international and local talent. 

“We’re proud of bringing Saytek from the U.K., and Daedelus from Los Angeles, but in addition we’ve got people from some Canadian centres,” says Appleby. “We’re bringing in from Winnipeg YoYu, which is just an amazing live, sort of ambient, live music producer.”

Caglary artists include names like KillMiDi, Sean Beaver, and Oscill8’s president Lokey. These performances, taking place at Festival Hall, will feature stage design from Nadia Zeal alongside Calgary’s Ionic sound system. 

Appleby also highlights Sunday’s programming, which features a collaboration with YYC Jazzfest at Coldgarden and a “Synth Petting Zoo” for anyone interested in music production. 

“We’ll have the opportunity for people to come down to Festival Hall and get a little hands on experience with some synthesizers,” he says. “Then some folks within the Oscill8 community are gonna just have a sort of free jam for a few hours.”

While Oscill8’s roster of artists perform on setups that may be intimidating at first, Appleby emphasizes that entry-level musicians can find valuable information at the conference on topics like self-management and marketing. Even seasoned DJs may come away with a different perspective. 

“It really makes a difference to the viewing experience to be able to grow sets with music visually,” he says. 

A full breakdown of SYNC’s schedule can be found on Oscill8’s website.