Cluster Festival 2025 opens with sonic rituals, immersive AV, and speculative soundscapes
Cluster Festival is back—and it's bolder, wilder, and more wondrous than ever.
Kicking off its 16th season tonight in Winnipeg, the experimental arts festival once again blurs the boundaries between sound, movement, and visual art. With a lineup spanning turntables, medieval mysticism, corporate satire, and even queer feminist gardening societies, Cluster 2025 dives headfirst into the unexpected.
Artistic Director Ashley Au has spent years curating the works featured in this year’s edition. “Some projects have been brewing for maybe two or three years. I'm excited to see it all kind of come to fruition.”
Opening with water and rituals- June 3rd
The festival opens outdoors at The Forks with Tributaries: A Wet Ritual for Witnessing—a free, participatory water ritual inspired by 12th-century composer and mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Conceived by London-based artist Sophie Seita and former Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Naomi Woo, the piece invites audiences to bring or collect water as part of the performance.
“They’ve been working on this since 2018, creating performance and installation works that relate to the ethos of Hildegard—in her music, her art, her pseudo-witchy spirituality,” said Au. “I don’t want to spoil too much, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Hip-hop meets ambient- June 5th
The festival continues Thursday, June 5 at Output (in the Artspace building) with Above the Clouds, an audiovisual set from Toronto turntablist SlowPitchSound. Merging early ’90s hip-hop techniques with ambient textures, field recordings, and live visuals, the performance transforms the DJ table into an experimental sound instrument.
“They take a much more experimental approach,” said Au. “I really love that kind of overhead shot of an artist working with their electronics. It gives us a glimpse into the actual action.”
Frogs, vocals, and projection boxes- June 6th
On Friday, June 6, the West End Cultural Centre hosts Oscillations, a double bill of layered vocals, dance, and projection art.
The first act, Soft Tongues, is the creation of Vancouver-based composer (and Winnipegger at heart) Jamie Reimer. The piece mimics the overlap between human and amphibian vocalizations, drawing inspiration from the natural chorus of nighttime wildlife.
“It blends operatic vocal work with electronics and a lot of layering and looping,” said Au. “It’s going to be really beautiful.”
Also on the bill: a collaborative, interdisciplinary performance from Chilean psych-rock artist Los Dias Floreados (Paulo), multidisciplinary artist Rayannah, and dancer Carole-Ann Bohrn. The trio's project—first sparked at last fall’s Hyper Art festival—features improvisational vocals, contemporary dance, and live video projection.
“Caroline was in a box of projections that danced around them as they moved,” said Au. “Afterwards, they said, ‘I wish we could explore this further.’ So I said, ‘Well, I have a festival…’”
Spiritual ambient meets shoegaze shimmer- June 8th
One of the most anticipated performances in this year’s festival is a rare collaboration between ambient legend Laraaji and shoegaze-inspired guitarist Zoon. Known for his meditative zither and autoharp work, often processed through lush electronic effects, Laraaji has long been a spiritual force in ambient music. Zoon, meanwhile, brings a dreamy, reverb-soaked sound rooted in the traditions of Anishinaabe shoegaze. Their collaboration—years in the making—stems from a previous connection working on a project led by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. At Cluster, the two artists will join forces to create a layered, transcendent soundscape that promises to be as calming as it is emotionally expansive. It’s a meditative pairing that invites the audience into a deep listening experience—less a concert, more a sonic ceremony.
Currents of breath and electronics- June 8th
On June 8 the festival is presenting Currents, a final double bill at the West End Cultural Centre featuring saxophonists Olivier Macharia and Eamon Sheil. Using electronic pedals and sample-based controllers, the duo transform their instruments into a dense, layered sound machine. Their performance explores the physicality of breath, the flow of air, and the possibilities of wind instruments shaped through technology.
“You can build these intense layers of stacked fourths—it’s wild. I love it,” Au said, describing the harmonizer-heavy approach. “It’s a pretty interesting exploration of sound and air.”
Office satire gets an experimental twist- June 10th
Taking the festival in a very different direction is Montreal-based percussion quartet Architek, who bring a chaotic and hilarious theatrical work titled Quigital Corporate Retreat. This long-gestating piece parodies office culture, satirizing the corporate world through a blend of experimental percussion, absurdist performance art, and real-time audience interaction. Viewers are invited to log into an online interface during the show, sending feedback via smartphone that directly influences the action onstage. Think Office Space reimagined by avant-garde musicians with a flair for chaos and critique. It's loud, unpredictable, and deeply funny—a pointed takedown of late capitalism disguised as a team-building exercise gone very, very wrong.
A queer horticultural society
Cluster’s immersive experiences extend beyond the concert hall with BingenTV, an installation at Poolside Gallery rooted in speculative fiction and botanical fantasy. The piece imagines a secret society founded by Hildegard von Bingen, passed down through generations to the present day. Central to the installation is a fictional queer gardening television show—created by this underground lineage—which was supposedly shut down during the Thatcher era. Through a playful narrative blending invented history, queer theory, and plant symbolism, BingenTV builds an alternate timeline where resistance blooms in the garden. Equal parts satire and world-building, the work invites viewers to question whose histories are preserved and which stories are allowed to grow.
From ancient water rituals to dreamy guitar drones, office absurdity to speculative horticulture, Cluster Festival 2025 invites audiences to step into fully realized worlds of sound and story. With an all-access pass priced at just $60, the festival continues to prioritize both experimentation and accessibility—offering a rare platform for works that challenge, surprise, and delight.
Whether you're a new music aficionado or just curious about the outer edges of art, Cluster promises a week of bold, bizarre, and unforgettable experiences.