CMD^CA/QC

As CMD, Corina MacDonald explores the deeper reaches of techno, her music building into an atmospheric reverie set in dub. Through a consistently evolving system of software paired with synths, samplers and oscillators, she crafts live shows and DJ sets that merge experimental ideas with an enviable sample collection and battering beats—where shimmering synth tones meet industrial grind and steady machine rhythms.

Notoriously plugged in to Montréal’s electronic music community, MacDonald is a founding member of music collectives. She produces CKUT 90.3FM’s long-running Modular Systems show, putting her impeccable tastemaking instincts to good use every Sunday afternoon, and her DJ mixes have been featured on international platforms Hypnotic Groove, Surface Tension and Berlin Community Radio. A software tinkerer honing her process-driven craft, CMD has released a series of polished albums and EPs that tread a transgressive line between pounding techno and simmering house, taking her wide-ranging aesthetic influences and rhythmic obsessions into compelling new territory. Her latest EP, Haptic Controls, explores another emotive side of human-machine music, diving into the world of carebots, haptic feedback and affective computing—the cyborg body propelled into motion by mechanical funk.

Currently exploring new aesthetic limitations with a more hardware-based and interactive live presentation, MacDonald returns to the MUTEK stage with resounding percussive power and a continued yearning to embrace the unexpected and set bodies in motion.

Currently exploring new aesthetic limitations with a more hardware-based and interactive live presentation, MacDonald returns to the MUTEK stage with resounding percussive power and a continued yearning to embrace the unexpected and set bodies in motion.