Rabble Without A Cause, May 6: FIMAV 42 preview
A preview of the 42nd annual FIMAV festival in Victoriaville, Quebec
The Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) first arrived on the scene in 1983. Held every year, the festival celebrates free and experimental music. This year, the festival runs from May 14 to 17.
The 2026 lineup is an interesting variety of free jazz and experimental music. On the show, I will feature some of the artists appearing this year: Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, Pat Thomas, Darius Jones, Sabhina Abdou with Toma Gouband and Marta Warelis, and Sarah Pagé.
Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones are from Brooklyn. I will be playing a track from their most recent release “Live at Vilnius”. You can watch some of that performance here.
Pat Thomas, the British keyboardist, will be playing a solo performance, as well as with his group, [Ahmed]. Alnoor featured some of their music on a show last month. Ahmed will be playing from their forthcoming release, “Play Monk”. On the show, I will play some of his solo recording, “HIKMA”. Here is a taste of [Ahmed] recorded live last year.
Darius Jones will also be doing two performances - once with his trio and another with the Josh Zubot Strings. The latter performance sounds like an interesting immersive experience - he will be playing his composition “fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred)”. Here is a mini documentary about the origins of the composition.
Sakina Abdou, Toma Gouband, and Marta Warelis will be playing music from their album “Hammer, Roll and Leaf” on May 15. We will hear a track from that release. I played more of this album on a show last year.
Sarah Pagé is a Montreal-based harpist and composer and she will be performing her composition “Voda” at FIMAV on May 17, joined by the No Hay Banda chamber ensemble. Here she is with a live performance of “Méduses” from that album.
You can listen to the show live on Wednesday at 11 p.m. at 93.1 FM in the Ottawa region or through live streaming. The show is also available for on demand streaming.