Joël Lavoie

Joël Lavoie is a composer, sound artist and sound engineer based in Montréal/Tiohtá:ke, Canada. His sonic explorations sails through the troubled water of the individual and collective subconscious. Evoking the themes of the souvenir, the elsewhere and introspection, he encourages us to reconsider our environment through speculative scapes and subjective temporalities. Using mainly field recordings and generative synthesis, he extract the musicality of these sonic timescapes to underline their changing nature and context, thus questioning the politics and aesthetics of inhabited spaces. His works take form in performances, installations and recordings.

He is part of the Montreal artists collective Kohlenstoff and the A/V trio mesocosm with Emma Forgues and Philippe Vandal. He released music, on Mikroclimat (CA), Aosmosis (DE), Rohs! (IT), Phinery (DK), Kohlenstoff (CA) and Jeunesse cosmique (CA).

Besides composition and sound design for theatre and dance, he pursues his career as sound engineer ; a practice that has brought him to apply his sonic visons onto the world of performing arts. In 2023 he received a Félix (ADISQ) award for “Live sound of the year”. He has presented his works at MUTEK, Elektra, Akousma (Canada), Pretxe, ACC, Dotolim (South Korea), Mans Sonore, Blockhaus (France), Videocittà (Italy), Currents (USA), Kontejner (Croatia), Forma, Sejf (Poland), Filkingen (Sweden), among others.

Amongst his collaborators: Guillaume Vallée, Chita Project, Bettina Szabo, Marilyn Daoust, Gabriel Lessard-Savard (Le temps des fruits), Danse K par K,  Marie Béland, Alexa-jeanne Dubé, La Fratrie, Jocelyn Pelletier, Cirque l’envers, La 2ieme porte à gauche, Audrey Rochette, Émile Pineault, Chita Project, Laurence Dauphinais, La messe basse, Mykalle Bielinsky, Claudel Doucet et Sébastien b. Gagnon.