In a city that’s embraced the art hotel, the listening bar, the supper club and all manner of fusion cuisine, the arrival of SonoLux, a contemporary art and music hotel, is nonetheless something new to Montreal. Opening this week in a neoclassical building on a graceful Old City street, the business has a unique take on showing guests a good night. Aside from the 36 swaddled bedrooms are 10 exhibition spaces plus listening lounges, bars and a mood-lit restaurant called Lumi, which are specially designed to enhance mood, relaxation, stimulation and closeness. The lighting design is orchestrated by Solotech, responsible for lighting Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
The whole production is impossible to perceive from the narrow street. Architects from local practice Geiger Huot preserved the columned façade of the former bank while opening the squeezed footprint to provide vaulted spaces that envelop and awe from the threshold. Zabb Design collaborated on the interior look, flipping the classical script and carving out smooth, sound-dampened, cavernous rooms where warm, tactile materials are antidotes to the weather. They manage to feel earthy while at once futuristic.
Photography: courtesy of Sonolux.
Photography: courtesy of Sonolux.
Photography: courtesy of Sonolux.
Photography: courtesy of Sonolux.
While in residence, simply existing thrusts you into the creative programme. Art breaks out of the exhibition halls into the corridors, along with light projections that are paired with immersive soundtracks. Katherine Melançon and Jasmina Cibic are two artists whose projected works have been installed in the communal spaces. Even the guest rooms, with their wood panelling, intuitive lighting and, essentially, sound-dampening, have screens that act as portals to what’s playing out in the building, operated through an app.
Cheryl Sim, director of the nearby contemporary art venue Phi, is curating the hotel’s inaugural exhibition. Titled Seeds of R/Evolution, it rounds up local and international artists who confront history, imagine the future, contemplate nature and the cosmos, and adopt strategies for survival.
The ultimate attraction, arguably, is the Subterra audio lounge, where the house DJ and producer Fred Everything is appointed ‘music curator’. He’ll schedule talks, weekend DJs and playlists covering soul, jazz, funk, dub, reggae and hip hop. To the delight of purists, each evening will finish off with the listening of a full album.
The hope is that Montrealers, and not just hotel guests, will begin an evening at Lumi, on the main floor, then descend three floors to Subterra for dessert, nightcaps and a listening experience. The journey, they say, will be worth the trip.
