Feature Friday - Hakeem Lapointe
Photo by Dayana Matasheva
Name
Hakeem Lapointe
Pronouns
He/They
Bio
Recording artist, musician, visual artist, and critic. I'm also the founder and current head of the EAF label and events.
Nowadays, under the Amselysen moniker, I operate in genres like experimental, ambient, techno, noise, punk, IDM, to morph them into confrontational leftfield electronic music.
Instagram
@amselysen
Website
https://hakeemlapointe.co
Photo by Emiliano Moreno Quesada
Where in Montreal are you located?
Outremont
What do you love about your neighborhood?
Central but surprisingly calm, has one of the loveliest parks in town, Saint-Viateur park. Love the proximity to a plethora of fun shops (shout out La Rama, LVNEA), good restaurants and, let's face it, the PA grocery store.
What’s your favourite art space in Montreal and why?
Tough question! The Casa/Suoni spots hold a big spot in my heart for their vital role in the city and for allowing me to play my first show at the defunct Vitrola, but the complete network of art spaces, illegal, DIY or institutional, as a whole is what I love most about the city's art scene.
Describe your art in your own words.
Oddball, leftfield, evocative; whether in sound or in visual art, I aim for a perfect split between deep affect and aesthetic innovation.
What have you been working on recently?
Polishing the last few details of an upcoming album and doing sonic research for the next album, centred around New Age, Slowcore, Ambient, and a bit of New Wave. Dredging up old sample romplers and exploring more acoustic productions for a weird hybridization on this one.
What sparked your passion for music?
Soundtracks! Especially video game soundtracks, they continue to be a driving inspiration to this day.
Describe your sound.
Unique (to a fault), bold, unconventional, rich, harrowing, gritty.
What does your creative process look like?
My creative background being visual and conceptual art, I always come up with the title of the album/track first, write about it, and drum up a visual lexicon/scenario before committing to composing. In parallel, there are great deals of sonic research and technical experiments, but the concept/name and visual are always the driving force behind the music as it allows to access a specific mind space reliably, where the first emotional impulse to create resides.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
The Garden, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tujiko Noriko, Cocteau Twins, Beatrice Dillon, Rei Harakami, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mr Oizo, Sd Laika, and a lot of my Montreal peers.
What do you love about playing live?
It's interesting to see what the audience feels about the music, art is about the space between the intended emotion/concept and the perceived one, so for music, it's one of the only times where that becomes tangible. It also such a rush to get to perform music in a more raw format, love going wild on the mic.
