Lab Synthèse was an arts collective and venue space in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

during the late 2000s. It was located at 435 Beaubien Ouest.

Sebastian Cowan Sebastian may refer to: People * Sebastian (name), including a list of persons with the name Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Sebastian'' (1968 film), British spy film * ''Sebastian'' (1995 film), Swedish drama film ...

, Yan Basque, David Peet and Carlos Chancellor founded the space in 2007 after discovering a 4600 square foot loft in an abandoned textile manufacturing warehouse. One year after its inception David Peet committed suicide, resulting in the departure of Basque and Chancellor from the collective. They were replaced by the painter Ezra Gray, musician Jeff Boyd,

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Emily Kai Bock Emily Kai Bock (born 1983 or 1984) is a Canadian writer and film director. In 2017, her short film '' A Funeral for Lightning'' was included in TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list of the top 10 Canadian short films of the year, selected by a pane ...

and musician Alexander Cowan (who later founded

Blue Hawaii ''Blue Hawaii'' is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written Americ ...

). The collective hosted a series of live music concerts, art exhibitions and free weekly film screenings, and grew to become a hub for artists living around the Mile End neighbourhood. The community and concerts surrounding Lab Synthèse led to the founding of

Arbutus Records Arbutus Records is a Montreal based record label and Artist Management, management company founded by Sebastian Cowan in 2009. The label is named after the street by the same name in Vancouver, where Cowan grew up. The label have also begun expand ...

, and helped launch the career of several notable musicians including

Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...

Majical Cloudz Majical Cloudz was a Canadian music group from Montreal consisting of singer-songwriter Devon Welsh and Matt Otto. The group disbanded in March 2016. History Welsh, the son of actor Kenneth Welsh and Corinne Farago,Sean Nicholas Savage Sean Nicholas Savage (born London May 30th, 1986) is a Canadian Singer, Songwriter, and Musical Playwright. He has been described by Emilie Friedlander in an article for ''The Fader'' as "a singer-songwriter, madcap philosopher, and all-around sc ...

TOPS Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), S ...

and BRAIDS. Several members of the collective were also involved in creating the ''Beaubien''

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...

, which ran three issues and included Emily Kai Bock,

and Claire Boucher of Grimes among its editors. After becoming the focus of heavy police attention, which resulted in a series of municipal fines,

closed Lab Synthèse in November 2009 to focus full-time on

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lab Synthese Culture of Montreal