Markus Lake is multidisciplinary artist, musician and composer based in Montréal/Tiotia’ke. He has performed and released synthetic audio works under as Markus Floats over the past decade, alongside playing bass in a wide range of punk, post-punk, experimental and Afrofuturist outfits (including Elle Barbara’s Black Space, Sheer Agony, Silver Dapple and Egyptian Cotton Arkestra).He co-founded the local indie music space Drones Club and has been an active force in the Montréal’s DIY music community since relocating to the city from his native Calgary in 2008. Lake is a graduate of the Electroacoustic Studies program at Concordia University and has a prior background in Jazz Performance.
Lake’s musical practice began in Calgary, Alberta at the age of 16. He became involved in community activism, attending and eventually promoting all-ages punk shows, while playing in post-punk band The Incandescence. These experiences initiated and moulded a DIY ethic which grounds his art and politics to the present. Having predominantly played bass in rock bands Lake craved new creative expression upon his move to Montreal and began to make music on his own, eventually launching his solo project Markus Floats. “For the first time I found the freedom to explore my own ideas; experiment with the structures, tonalities and music making methods that I found most interesting.”