You are on S.O.U.L.MAG, the review of the night by S.O.U.L. Montréal. This is a text by Costa, “The Dancer”, about an experience lived on the dance floor. If you were there, or if you have something to tell us about it, share it with us in S.O.U.L.MEMORY, below.
Recapturing the beat
Piknic · The Day After · Stereobar — 251018 — Maceo Plex, Erik L
How can a season close in a single day, as if it were a whole year?
What a magnificent end of season.
Since this is a way of life and not an impulse, I had indeed started the summer with you at a few events, but I had to step back for several weeks right in the middle, which kept me far from the festivities for most of the summer.
I did get back into it since August though, and this closing weekend of the big seasonal events was absolutely exquisite.
PIKNIC ELECTRONIK
You’ll tell me what you think, but for me it was the best picnic of the season! What do you think?
Because there was SOUND — a lot more than usual — which let us really feel it. The crowd wasn’t bad, a little static at times, but the DJ was fabulous. Excellent light show, very diverse and not invasive like others I’ve seen. Extremely in tune with the music, very complementary, so it deepened the experience.
It was my first experience of DJ Maceo Plex, and he deeply impressed me: with his technique, his artistic choices and the energy he projected.
The guy is a true professional, and you can hear it. He played incredible tracks from the future that carried us elsewhere. For real, Daaammmmnnnn!! The guy went from tech-tech-house to trance and to dub and to minimal and to here-I-pick-you-up-like-a-plough-and-here-AGAIN!! Technically masterful, and the guy was WORKING! It wasn’t showing off and he fackin tore the piknic apart. He gets people clapping, slapping their hands, he’s very good this guy!
The finale was masterful: a rise of pure energy, a moment of total union, the thousands of people there shouting, clapping, howling their joy at being together to celebrate the grand finale of the summer’s Piknics! Superb! It was human, vibrant, and whatever all and all and blah blah blah, that moment was real and manifest! People had full gratitude for it all! So I really lived this thing, Montréal is magical for that…
Because for real! Think about that…
Don’t you find fascinating, as I do, this magic that unites us when our brains work in collective mode? When all the conditions are met — friends, energy, music — and when you’re immersed in the egregore** ideas fly, intuition opens, everything happens naturally, as if the obvious presented itself to you naturally, more than usual.
This is the result of collective consciousness: the Spirit of underground living, or the S.O.U.L.! The famous Spirit Of Underground Living!
There was some of that in our group this weekend, we were very connected and we were very very funny. Bursts of laughter are so therapeutic and beneficial, no? It’s a privilege to have friends for whom you count, and who count for you, with whom to share so much happiness.
In the end, in general, Piknics are always moments of family-like and memorable reunion. We’re lucky to have that in our city…
Come on then! Bye Piknic and Thank You For Existing!!
OK! We’re moving on!
THE DAY AFTER
After that, a short stop at House Nation Montréal let me savour a few hours of this musical jewel box that will keep us alive all winter. If you didn’t have it on your calendar, from now on, every Sunday from 3 pm to 11 pm, it’s happening at TDA (The Day After).
TDA Sundays: the refuge of souls still vibrating.
Our friends at HNM created an extraordinary room for us, with SOUND, remarkable lighting, WIND, and a whole PER-FECT set up, for all the Sundays of the coming winter. We’re lucky to have passionate people like them bringing together the conditions to give us a dance space for winter. Thank you House Nation Montreal for that, big love.
https://www.facebook.com/housenationmontreal
And it’s with eagerness to contribute that we’ll be offering to share the SOUL charter for a SAFE SPACE, free from misconduct, in this space of Sunday souls who are there to dance above all…
(Curious? http://www.soulmontreal.com )
Les Beaux Dimanches — the cream of the crop
And it concluded with the cream of the crop: the season’s closing night of Les Beaux Dimanches at the Stereo Bar, with its creator, Erik L at the controls, and the whole elite of dancers who came for one last Sunday…
It’s very hard to find the words that express the state we’re plunged into in this environment, but for the hours it lasts, it’s exceptional. If you know the place, you know what I’m talking about. Putting into words the sensation and the state of being experienced in the great dive is extremely hard to do, so far do you find yourself in the movement and the surrender of the body to an imperial rhythm you give yourself to completely.
But I tried, while dancing, to hold on to certain breaches of consciousness that expressed my bliss… here they are for you.
So…..
It’s true I don’t know all the sound rooms in existence, but having visited dozens or hundreds over the decades…. it’s true that one day, after knowing Stereo and Stereo Bar, I simply stopped searching, because I had found.
What I found is a space where the sound frequency itself becomes matter.
The waves truly become a substance, or rather a material to dive into and cut the movement with a knife between the lasers, the bursts of colour and the pitch black pierced with deep blue.
It’s such a small space, but it benefits from such sonic compression, because of its construction, that our bodies absorb its balance for their greatest pleasure.
The performance by the creator of the Les Beaux Dimanches (LBD) night himself, Éric L., was breathtaking and beyond everything.
We really saw who’s the daddy in the house.
This experienced old hand threw things at us in a merciless and imperial way.
He was literally the beat dictator.
The power and roundness of the rhythm demanded movement from every body, swaying without any decency.
The guy literally smashed the place, and the atmosphere ran down the walls without any dignity.
He used the full power of the sound without ever going beyond it, never making it unpleasant, always knowing how to balance the absolute sequences and the moments of release, to plunge us back into total delinquency.
Pure delight! A therapeutic experience, cleansing every fibre of body and mind, doing enormous good to all your worries for tomorrow.
This hypnotic power, in which dancers are immersed in such an environment, carries the mind beyond tomorrow, to anchor it absolutely in the present moment, the animal unconscious, hyper-conscious.
There, you’re no longer in dance: you’re in trance. The TranceInDance…
The next step becomes the only measure of time. You surrender. You forget form, appearance, modesty. You become simple vibration, immersed in sound. That moment of surrendering yourself, when you let go fully on this train that won’t let you go, and that supports you endlessly to move all your limbs. That moment, you abandon all your prejudices, your preconceived ideas, at the border of decency, to plunge back into these rhythms that have lived in you forever actually…
That moment when only the next step counts, and only the next breath, the next beat…
That moment when you no longer care about your appearance, or what people around you may think, because you’re immersed in the room like a child in its mother’s womb.
All the stereophonic night fauna was there: many faces from this circle of success and of close friends of these nights. The atmosphere was at its climax and the dance shared on every square metre.
What a privilege and what a pleasure to dance in this small, reassuring environment, concentrating a power of sound impossible to experience elsewhere, not even on the big floor upstairs.
You know, when you dive in fully and go past that moment when everything should be over, and you know you’re in extension, then you go for it without limits, telling yourself this moment doesn’t exist…
It was the last Sunday of the season for the Stereo Bar, freeing up many “Souls of Sundays” to meet again at House Nation Montréal
But what a magnificent end of season.
One of those nights when the universe whispers to you: sound is the body’s prayer.
conclusion
It’s with great gratitude that I thank the universe and all the friends with whom we shared these extraordinary, unique, fleeting moments, eternal within us.
We have here, at home, artists and music lovers of exceptional talent who must be encouraged and supported, far beyond many worldwide reputations. We are incredibly lucky to have these people who organize quality events, who create spaces of shared consciousness.
From here on, your next Sundays won’t be orphans.
Those who already know are smiling, the others will find out: TDA every Sunday from 3 pm to 11 pm at Sainte-Catherine Hall, in a room designed with love, with time, passion and care, to give you more experiences steeped in sound and sophistication. https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CN4kj7Qb9/
Signed your friend: THE DANCER
Note
Egregore: a form of energy or collective field of consciousness generated by the convergence of emotions, intentions and rituals shared within a group. A kind of common spirit born of the union of individual consciousnesses.
Thank you for reading
To carry on with the musical delight of your weekend’s artists:
SAFETY REMINDER: YOUR EARS
Don’t forget to protect your ears! Over the years, you’ll systematically damage your eardrums by immersing yourself in such loud sound environments, so whatever device you use, the important thing is to wear earplugs. And NO! It doesn’t reduce your experience; on the contrary, by cutting the excess frequencies, you’ll hear the music BETTER, Costa’s word.
I’ve tried everything that exists in earplugs, and because of my small ear canals, the perfect ones for me are LOOP, which I invite you to get with my promo code, giving you 15% off a first purchase.
ESSENTIALS: LOOP EARPLUGS WITH 15% OFF A FIRST ORDER
Costa’s talk: How does music connect you to your spirituality?
Costa’s talk on the ethics of the night.
The great talk of Oct 17, 2024, long video.
The great talk divided into 16 easy-to-share capsules
THE ENDAnd you?
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