Techno takes over Festival Hall during Oscill8’s SYNC Conference

YoYu - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

The Saturday night showcase of Oscill8’s SYNC: Sound and Image Conference encapsulated the ethos of the Calgary-based collective with four riveting techno sets flanked by visual art, dance performances and the powerful Ionic Sound System. Each set was performed with a combination of hardware that was completely unique to the performer, giving those in attendance a broad overview of the endless possibilities for creating dance music outside the confines of a laptop. 

Manitoba’s YoYu opened the evening with a downtempo set performed on what appeared to be a modular synthesizer attached to various devices. The warm basslines and muted textures created an inviting ambiance that prepared the dance floor for the heavier fare of the artists that followed.

YoYu - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

Oscill8 member KillMiDi followed next with a set of otherworldly techno delivered by his imposing rack of synthesizers. Layers of gritty digitized sounds over booming four-on-the-floor kick drums immersed Festival Hall in the unrelenting atmosphere of an underground warehouse rave. 

KillMiDi - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

KillMiDi - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

Robert Alexander continued down this same trajectory tempo-wise, but delved into a more minimal and groove-based sonic avenue. The Winnipeg-based producer appeared to be operating from a single Moog console, and the presence of headphones suggests he was using the machine’s functionality to perform traditional DJ actions like beat matching. 

Robert Alexander - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

Robert Alexander - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

Headliner Saytek embodied the dynamic nature of U.K. techno with a set that blended the heaviness of European warehouse clubs with synth stabs and instrumentation reminiscent of the genre’s American origins. His use of a Pioneer mixer marked the only time in the evening that a piece of conventional DJ equipment made an appearance. 

SYNC’s inaugural weekend established the conference’s ability to deliver world class forward-thinking dance music. The evening’s four performances complemented each other and worked together to create the journey-like progression of a techno rave, all while captivating those in attendance by completely reimagining the performance of a DJ set.

Saytek - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane

Saytek - Photo Credit: Jonathan Crane