Toronto’s Standard Form. Standard Form is a Toronto-based print shop that has been putting out books and music for the past five years, averaging a couple of releases a year that range from avant jazz to post rock, from the likes of Feuermusik, Canaille, and I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can’t. This last year[...] Read more

Recordings Chris Kennedy Issue 111

OK.Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival. Sackville, New Brunswick. July 25–31 2011. The mandate of OK.Quoi?! is to showcase contemporary art by bringing it to the people outside of gallery walls. This raises an important question—are people willing to allow contemporary artwork to exist in public spaces? Community member and artist Elizabeth von Rosenbach thinks so.[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Blair Ellis Issue 111

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 27 Edition. Victoriaville, Quebec. May 19–22, 2011. FIMAV has a distinctive character, from its unlikely location in rustic Victoriaville, an hour’s drive from Quebec City, to its insistence on celebrating so many musical frontiers: free jazz, rock, electroacoustic improvisation, DJs, and sound-art installations. Despite its rich[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer Issue 111

John Wall and Alex Rodgers. Work 2006–2011. John Wall has been one of the most aggressive of sonic plunderers, shattering recorded electroacoustic improvisations and putting them back as mutated humpty-dumptys in intricate and lively collages. His series of CDs on his own imprint Utterpsalm are essential documents of this meticulous[...] Read more

Recordings Chris Kennedy Issue 111

Vivienne Spiteri. Jalsaghar. The highlight of Vivienne Spiteri’s fascinating and finely executed new CD comes in the final third of the recording, with two pieces for harpsichord and—wait for it—banjo! Within fifteen seconds my initial scepticism of this unlikely combination evaporated. It is clear[...] Read more

Recordings Tim Brady Issue 111

Maïkotron Unit. Ex-Voto. This Montreal-based trio, together since 1984, is a fluent jazz-based ensemble with Michel Coté on saxophones and bass clarinet, Pierre Coté on bass and cello, and Michel Lambert on drums. Michel Coté and Lambert also play maïkotron, a brass-reed hybrid with a saxophone[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 111

Adam Linson, Systems Quartet. Figures and Grounds. Currently working in Montreal, Adam Linson is a bassist with a highly developed interest in improvisation that combines the real-time integration of acoustic instruments and sound processing. In the past he’s recorded as a soloist, in duo with sound processor Joel Ryan, and with Evan[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 111

Tim Hecker. Ravedeath, 1972. Tim Hecker has been a prominent figure in the ambient electronic genre ever since his first recordings were released ten years ago by the Montreal label Alien8 Recordings. In past recordings, Hecker’s work has wrapped his digital manipulations into a fully organic sound.[...] Read more

Recordings Chris Kennedy Issue 111

Keiji Haino. Un autre chemin vers l’Ultime. Keiji Haino is a master instrumentalist—particularly of loud instruments—so this album featuring his unamplified voice comes as a bit of a surprise. Recorded by sound artist Eric Cordier, these recordings find Haino improvising in a small church and in a quarry in Normandy[...] Read more

Recordings Chris Kennedy Issue 111

Dolphins Into The Future. Two Romantic Landscapes. On Two Romantic Landscapes Belgium’s Dolphins Into The Future offers up a new pair of sumptuous, sprawling pieces. Sweet and languid, both sides of this lovingly packaged, limited-edition cassette conjure a delicious summer-evening beach image. It’s a delicate balance of sated[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 111

Bill Dixon. Envoi. American trumpeter Bill Dixon began composing his moody, darkly abstract music in the mid-60s, fusing free jazz with modernist chamber music elements touching on Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Envoi is the last of these works, recorded at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville just three weeks[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 111