Sounds Like - An Audio Festival

Sounds Like is an audio art and experimental music festival based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It presents local, national and international artists whose work encompasses experimental audio practices. The festival is curated within an annual theme and takes the format of nightly performances, as well as artist-led workshops, artist talks, installations, and film screenings. In 2022, Sounds Like will be presented by the Unheard Sound Collective.

Sounds Like is made possible through the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, Saskatchewan Arts Board, as well as our local community partners Remai Modern, Broadway Theatre, University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Collection, Nokomis Craft Ales, PR Productions, CFCR and our amazing volunteers.

Our Story

What is Sounds Like? The festival’s title refers both to simile and the game of charades. Along those lines, the artists participating at Sounds Like collectively navigate the nuanced connections between sound and the bodily actions and physical gestures of performance. From densely layered soundscapes and audio collage to subtle plays of tonal difference, from bombastic movements of cathartic exuberance to delicate explorations of multi-dimensional space, these performances will challenge expectations of what art is supposed to sound like.

Started in 2011 by AKA artist-run, the festival quickly expanded to a three-fold partnership between PAVED Arts, a Saskatoon media based artist-run gallery and production centre, and Holophon, a non-profit organization that seeks to unite communities using sound as an artistic medium.

Under the direction of PAVED Arts through 2016–17, Sounds Like was reformatted as an annual project of sustained curatorial exploration with an annual theme. PAVED Arts engaged Saskatoon’s Unheard Sound Collective to curate the 7th edition of the festival, and Unheard presented the festival in 2018. In 2019, it was back under the directive of PAVED Arts, and presented in partnership with Unheard Sound Collective. In 2022, the festival returns and is presented & curated by the Unheard Sound Collective - in partnership with PAVED Arts.

For details about past years, visit the Archive