With a pay-what-you-can price point, a drive to create an accessible and inclusive atmosphere, and more than 30 artists, curators, and speakers – including a relatively evened-out blend of local acts and out-of-towners – set to bring their talents to Ottawa’s downtown core over the course of the day, Pique prides themselves on being able to recruit some of the most groundbreaking, diverse and topical acts for the current times. They term their genre umbrella this year as being “from experimental sound art and tropical dance pop to minimal electronic, post-internet hyperpop, ethereal soundscapes, neo-soul R&B, and many styles in between.”

Here are some of our picks for the festival’s can’t-miss musical sets. 

8485

With an alluring and mysterious image – having refused to reveal any details surrounding her name, age, and origins – and a sound that lands somewhere between drum n’ bass, cyberpunk and all-out pop music, 8485 has been making waves in the SoundCloud underground and is on the verge of breaking out as a pop artist to watch – already having teamed up with acts like Anamanaguchi, underscores and Frost Children. A member of the Helix Tears collective that has been turning heads in hyperpop communities since 2020, the backstory that she’ll tell you is that 8485 is actually an AI consciousness embedded in the body of a human woman. You’ll have to see her set to believe it. 

Cecile Believe

Now based in LA, you’ve been able to find her name in the liner notes consistently when it comes to some essential projects to the hyperpop movement. Now, however, the Montreal-born artist will be returning to her home country to play a set taking place only weeks after her inclusion on electronic pioneer SOPHIE’s posthumous album. After having worked as a producer and songwriter with the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, A. G. Cook, Shygirl, Caroline Polachek, Dorian Electra and Hannah Diamond in the past, Believe is now touring behind her first solo material since 2020’s Plucking A Cherry From The Void. 

LA Timpa

Born in Nigeria and having emigrated to Toronto at the age of six before relocating to London, Pique will be a homecoming of sorts for noise-pop musician LA Timpa as well. With roots as a DJ, Timpa’s music is often constructed out of ghostly loops that are as ambitious as his stated goals for his music: to “subconsciously understand the vast nature of death, erotica, devotion, ailment, wilful change, and the nature of man and life.” 

Olivia Shortt

An Indigenous saxophonist self-described as a “weirdo, noisemaker, video artist, wannabe fashion icon, curator and composer,” Olivia Shortt’s artwork has been exploring the intersection of Indigeneity, gender expression and drag. The performance that they have been preparing for Pique is termed a “semi-structured improvisational composition about corvids” – a classification of birds that includes crows and ravens – and will revolve around the rituals they have for mourning their dead and how they parallel our own. With backgrounds in theatre and performance art to go along with it all, it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to predict what they’ll do next. 

Pelada

Returning to the festival after playing the summer edition, it’s clear why Montreal rave-punk duo Pelada are a favourite artist of the Pique Festival: they certainly aren’t an act you can expect to conform to just about any of the typical trappings of their genre label. Recently longlisted for the 2024 Polaris Prize and having announced that 2024 will be the last year containing Pelada live performances, the Spanish-speaking duo have been co-signed by everyone from punk godfather Iggy Pop to fellow Montreal native and horrorcore rapper Backxwash. With lyrics that often speak to social justice and revolution, be prepared for an act that’s equal parts party and protest.

Pique Fall Edition takes place at Arts Court in Ottawa, ON on Saturday. Sept. 28 

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