Cyberfest: Where Humanity Meets Machine

Article by Melanie Macpherson Photos by Tracy Creighton (Copperblue Photography)

Saturday October 24, downtown Saskatoon’s Green Room pulsed with glowing lights and the erratic heartbeat of Cyberfest. The air outside was cool but comfortable as the crowd gathered, sociable while waiting for soundcheck to finish. When the doors opened, the space slowly filled, Legacy Recall’s mellow, ethereal electronic soundscapes easing everyone into the night.

IMMATERIA opened the evening with a dark, cinematic synthwave set that gradually transported me to another place. I let my mind drift with the music, watching scenes unfold in my imagination; one song felt like exploring an abandoned, dust-covered building haunted by forgotten memories; another sent me running down a neon-lit corridor straight out of Tron, desperate to escape some unnameable nightmare. It wasn’t background music; it was the soundtrack to a haunting dreamscape.

Then came Jordan Perry, stepping behind his drum kit in his signature neon shutter shades. Like a human drum machine, Perry’s performance was a fascinating fusion of precision and playfulness. His set, mostly originals with well-placed covers from Dan Mangan and The Midnight, spanned the electronic spectrum, from moody synth pop to funky retro jams that would have felt at home during a Miami Vice car chase.

Perry’s big grin and dry humour pulled the audience in from the start. He joked, “That song was about divorce. This next one is… also about divorce,” and the crowd laughed, fully on his side. He was joined onstage by Brodie Mohninger on sax and synth, Graham Tilsley on guitar, and even Vikki Minor, who surprised everyone by stepping out of the audience mid-song to sing a haunting duet and then a second song that they had co-written. Their voices blended beautifully — warm and aching, yet somehow uplifting.  

As many times as I’ve seen Perry play, I hadn’t realized what an incredible singer he is. His range shifted from chest-punching power to soft, ghostly notes that crawled under your skin. Even his songs about winter depression and heartbreak somehow became danceable; upbeat explorations of heavy emotions that never felt manufactured. It’s futuristic music as might be imagined by someone in the 1980s: bright, emotional, and deceptively personal. Like a cyborg with a heart, Perry blurred the line between man and machine and made it groove.

Theo Noble closed out the night with a set that leaned into early ’90s R&B and hip-hop energy. Animated and engaging, Noble moved across the stage with confidence, weaving serious themes into his lyrics while keeping the rhythm alive. His electronically modified vocals fit perfectly with the Cyberfest aesthetic, blending sleek futurism with vulnerability. At one point, he swapped his black leather jacket for a black mask, a nod to his childhood Spider-Man obsession, and the crowd loved it.

With Perry back behind the kit and Legacy Recall layering the melodies, Noble’s performance rounded out the night with warmth, momentum and human stories wrapped in digital sound.

Cyberfest may have been built on circuits and synths, but what lingered was the unmistakable heartbeat of something human.