96 fall 2006
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FEATURE ARTICLES:Autorickshaw: A modern spin on a classical tradition
By Tilman Lewis
Article Summary: Multicultural Canada, and Toronto in particular, has become a hotbed of world musics bending and blending. Toronto’s Autorickshaw, a four-piece ensemble that plays Indojazz fusion, is one example that’s been creating a buzz. Singer Suba Sankaran is the daughter of master drummer Trichy Sankaran, an influential teacher of the South Indian, or Carnatic, classical musical tradition. She and tabla player Ed Hanley share artistic direction of the band. Perhaps the most distinctive element of Autorickshaw’s sound is the unexpected, intimate interplay between Suba’s voice and the infectious gleefulness of Rich Brown’s electric bass, a decidedly untraditional instrument. Suba talks about “connecting the dots” between different musics, and about the common ground—and differences—of jazz and Carnatic music
Naturally Eelectronic: The art of Kristi Allik and Robert Mulder
By Stephanie Moore
Article Summary:Kristi Allik and Robert Mulder are a creative duo with a shared passion for performative and interactive art that engages multiple senses. This article outlines several of their projects, from their more recent focus on omniscape, the interconnection of image, sound, experience, memory, intuition, and gesture; to their treatment of the themes and features of natural environments
Beyond postcards from the concert hall: An interview with Paul Dolden
By Jeremy Owen Turner
Article Summary:Montreal-based electroacoustic composer, Paul Dolden is both famous and infamous for heavily multi-tracked compositions of epic length that seem to go perceptually well beyond the conventions of what currently passes for the human standards of technical performance and classical aesthetic taste. Although Dolden has been working full time for the last twenty-five years on these rather intense and intricate compositions, there remains confusion about how to pigeonhole his work. In spite of this confusion around his work, Dolden has won over twenty international awards and so has managed to convince many people that his extroverted compositions have historical legitimacy within the new-music canon.
Entering K-Space
By Julian Cowley
Article Summary:English multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson and Scottish drummer Ken Hyder have travelled extensively in rural Siberia, investigating local music and shamanic practices, and reflecting critically upon their own assumptions. Encounters with Tuvan throat-singer and musical shaman Gendos Chamzyryn led to the formation of K-Space, an improvising trio that seeks to find shared ground between Western and Siberian cultures, while embracing their differences. This piece offers an overview of the circumstances that brought K-Space into existence, traces key moments in the formation of its distinctive character, and identifies some of the views and aspirations that make it so musically intriguing.
COMMENTARY
Music Without An Audience Part 2: The visual and the aural, popular and unpopular
By Donal Mcgrait
Article Summary: In his second Commentary column, a companion to his first, which appeared in Musicworks 95, Donal McGraith compares the relative success of the visual avant-garde in relation to the musical avant-garde. He discusses why the visual avant-garde has managed to move from small galleries to major museum collections, while the audience for the musical avant-garde has become smaller and more focused. Part of the reason for this is the different nature of visual pleasure. Visual art can still amuse the casual viewer even when it is shocking or disturbing. Music requires spending more time, and avant-garde music appeals to a committed, educated listener who has learned to understand it. Casual listeners usually will not give experimental music the necessary time to understand or enjoy it. Because avant-garde music is so demanding, it has the kind of economy that is based on barter and mutual aid, as described in the first of McGraith’s Commentary columns.
What makes you believe in the future of art music? Why we make music. why we need it
By Tim Brady
Article Summary: In this article, composer Tim Brady responds to a seemingly simple question from a McGill University graduate student: “What do you feel is most important to communicate to society about the validity of new music?” In answering the question, Brady found himself moving back into the archaeological history of human society, and searching for the deepest psychological and sociological roots of musical expression. For Brady, ultimately, it is the fact that musical creation can bridge both time and distance that makes it a unique part of our human heritage.
SONIC GEOGRAPHY:
We've begun a new section of the magazine with this issue, called sonic geography, in which writers describe aspects of their local music communities. In issue 96 we have:
Eric Leonardson in Chicago
Doug Harvey in Los Angeles
Benjamin Klein in Northern New Zealand
1 | Kapi-Wallah (2003) 16:29
by / par Suba Sankaran and / et Ed
Hanley of / de Autorickshaw Performed by /
interprété par Autorickshaw: Suba Sankaran, voice /
voix, solkattu; Ed Hanley, tabla, solkattu,
percussion; Rich Brown, bass / basse; Debashis Sinha,
riqq. Commissioned by / commande de Natasha
Bahkt. From the album / tiré de l’album autorickshaw
Download MP3:
2 | Ganamurthy
(2004) 6:29
Arranged by / arrangé par Suba Sankaran and / et
Ed Hanley for / pour Autorickshaw.
Performed by / interprété par Suba Sankaran, voice /
voix, solkattu; Ed Hanley, tabla, solkattu,
percussion; Rich Brown, bass / basse; Debashis Sinha,
multikit, doumbek Sruti box (drone). From the album /
Tiré de l’album Four Higher
3 | Below the Walls of Jericho
(excerpt/extrait) (1988-89) 5:39
by / par Paul Dolden
4 | Twilight’s Ritual Incantations
(excerpt/extrait) (1997-2002) 4:30
by / par Paul Dolden
5 | Beyond the Walls of Jericho
(excerpt/extrait) (1991-92) 4:19
by / par Paul Dolden
6 | L’ivresse de la vitesse
(excerpt/extrait) (1992-93) 4:15
by / par Paul Dolden
7 | Live In The
Northern Hemisphere (2000) 3:53
by / par K-Space
Composed by Tim Hodgkinson and Ken Hyder, registered with the
Performing Rights Society. Performed by
Gendos Chamzyryn, Ken Hyder, and Tim
Hodgkinson.
8 | Kungaa and
Kaznacheev Rap (2004) 3:59
by / par K-Space
Composed by Tim Hodgkinson and Ken Hyder, registered with the
Performing Rights Society. Performed by
Gendos Chamzyryn, Ken Hyder, and Tim
Hodgkinson.
9 | Moving Sprits
(2004) 4:37
by / par K-Space
Composed by Tim Hodgkinson and Ken Hyder, registered with the
Performing Rights Society. Performed by
Gendos Chamzyryn, Ken Hyder, and Tim
Hodgkinson.
10 | Machine Symphony
(2000) 3:13
by / par Kristi Allik
11 | Sea Spirits
(2002) 5:07
by / par Kristi Allik
12 | Funk Island
(2002) 3:02
by / par Kristi Allik
Performed by / interprété par David McCallum, didgeridoo.
13 | Debrusions
(2005) 4:04
by / par LEARK
Performed by / interprété par Mike Cassells, David McCallum, Robert Mulder,
Kristi Allik: laptop and electronics / ordinateur portable et
l’électronique; Cheryl O, cello/violoncelle.
14 | Skyharp (excerpt/extrait)
(1999) 3:49
by / par Kristi Allik and / et Robert Mulder
REVIEWS:
Events:
Anne Bourne on the
Electric Ecclectics Festival in Meaford, Ontario
Anne Bourne on Music (in)
Galleries in Toronto.
David McCallum on Mutek in
Montreal
Gayle Young on FIMAV in
Victoriaville, Quebec
Brent Lee on Thinkbox in
Windsor, Ontario
Recordings:
Carnival Skin on Nemu
Contest of Pleasure on
Potlatch
Tom Djll on Soul On Rice
Productions
Ethiopian Orthodox
Christian Church on Inedit
Leroy Jenkins’ Driftwood
on Mutable
Kyron on Black Note Music
Pierre-Yves Martel on
Ambiances Magnétiques
Mattin/Radu Malfatti on
Formed
Numinous Opossum on
Umbrella
Satoko Fujii Quartet on
Libra
Reuben Radding on Pine Ear
Ursel Schlicht and Reuben
Radding on Konnex
Kees Tazelaar on CV NEAR
John Wall on Utterpsalm
Phillip Werren on Cast
Exotic
Shahrokh Yadegari on
LilaSound
Alla Zagaykevych on
Nexsound
Words:
Aden Evens. Sound
Ideas: Music, Machines, Experience. (University of Minnesota Press)
Steven L. Isoardi. The
Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles.(University of
California Press)
Visions Of Sound
W. Mark Sutherland
