Darius Jones. fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred). In the early 1960s, Fluxus artist George Maciunas began assembling fluxkits: small boxes containing everyday objects alongside interdisciplinary works by his peers in the movement. These unique collections allowed everyone who opened a package to experience their own art event. During a[...] Read more

Recordings Jesse Locke Issue 146

François Houle Genera Sextet. In Memoriam The loss of Vancouver International Jazz Festival founding artistic director Ken Pickering in 2018 was difficult to process for those who knew him. François Houle Genera Sextet’s new release, In Memoriam, gives cathartic, yet celebratory, closure. Ken would have approved.[...] Read more

Recordings Kerilie McDowall Issue 146

DeVon Russell Gray, Nathan Hanson, and Davu Seru. We Sick Recording inside a church on a single day in December 2020, the three musicians on We Sick found themselves in a sanctuary rendered empty by the pandemic and the ensuing quarantine. The liner notes reference a Malcolm X speech from 1963 before bringing us back to the present day:[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Kate Gentile and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Biomei.i. Kate Gentile and Andrew Smiley. Flagrances Obliquity Records is a new label started by drummer–composer Kate Gentile and pianist–composer Matt Mitchell. They are likely familiar to fans of the composed and improvised experimental music coming out of New York, having both worked with artists like John Zorn, Tim Berne, and[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Markus Floats. Fourth Album Montreal composer Markus Floats’ dynamic new LP moves between free jazz, musique concrète, and minimalism. Whereas his previous records were largely individual endeavours produced solo with MIDI instrumentation, Fourth Album welcomes contributions from Ari Swan (violin), James[...] Read more

Recordings Brennan McCracken Issue 146

Jason Doell. Becoming in Shadows ~ Of Being Touched On Becoming in Shadows ~ Of Being Touched, Jason Doell’s piano and electronics roam wherever they please. The Toronto-based composer and sound artist created the music by recording piano phrases and tinkering with them using an algorithmic program, but it rarely sounds inflexible.[...] Read more

Recordings Vanessa Ague Issue 146

Susan Alcorn, José Lencastre, Hernâni Faustino. Manifesto One of the joys of improvised music is its openness to unusual instruments and novel sounds. The pedal steel guitar, largely restricted to country music, has found new life in the creative vision of Susan Alcorn, whose practice extends to the works of Olivier Messiaen and Astor Piazzolla as[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 146

Experimental Music Unit. Land Sea Sky Land Sea Sky is certainly not rock music, but it’s elemental like a weathered stone, and similarly resists any kind of interrogation. This is music as stripped down to its fundamental components as possible. It just simply is. Yet, like a rock, for those who speak the language of[...] Read more

Recordings Jonathan Bunce Issue 147

New Age Doom. There Is No End On the 2021 album Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide to the Universe, furious Vancouver avant-metal duo New Age Doom collaborated with the late dub legend, powerhouse jazz players, and members of Canadian indie-rock bands. On There Is No End they continue this approach, welcoming[...] Read more

Recordings Jesse Locke Issue 147

Thin Edge New Music Collective and Linda Catlin Smith. Dark Flower. “The question is not what you look at,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in his journal, “but how you look and whether you see.” That insight might easily be adapted to fit the music of Linda Catlin Smith. Although written over a span of more than twenty years, these six[...] Read more

Recordings Julian Cowley Issue 147

Jeremy Dutcher. Motewolonuwok. On his breathtaking 2018 debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, Jeremy Dutcher, an operatic tenor, composer, musicologist, and two-spirit member of the Tobique (Neqotkuk) First Nation in New Brunswick, transcribed century-old wax cylinder recordings of songs in the endangered Wolastoqey[...] Read more

Recordings Mary Dickie Issue 147