Montag

Montag embodies the creative outlet of French Canadian musician Antoine Bédard, who merges ethereal electronic layers with melodic pop structures. Raised in Quebec, Bédard later established himself in Vancouver. His first album, 2002's Are You a Friend?, presented Montag's abstract and appealing sonic washes and came out on Gooom Disques, the label also associated with M83 and Cyann & Ben. Bédard pursued a stronger emphasis on songs with the 2003 Objets Perdus EP and the 2005 album Alone, Not Alone, issued jointly by Gooom and Carpark Records. That direction became central on the third album, 2007's Going Places. Ghislain Poirier, M83's Anthony Gonzales, Au Revoir Simone, and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett contributed to the project. Montag followed with two self-released shorter releases, 2008's Hibernation and 2009's Des cassetes et un walkman jaune, while also supplying remixes for M83, Au Revoir Simone, and Stars and hosting and DJing at Montreal's Mec Plus Ultra club night. Most of Bédard's focus turned to sound design and composition, including scores for theater productions and contemporary dance works, along with narration and editing of audioguides and soundwalk pieces. In tandem with his work on the award-winning iPhone application Audiosphere, Bédard launched a 2012 project that generated one single per month across the year; the tracks later appeared together as 2013's Phases.