Lance Austin Olsen / Gil Sansón. Works on Paper. The hypnotic double-disc set Works on Paper is the most recent collaboration between Victoria, B.C.-based composer and painter Lance Austin Olsen and Venezuelan composer and artist Gil Sansón. The stark, purposeful, expletive-laced monologue (courtesy of audio engineer and composer[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 134

Tim Olive / Martin Tétreault. Faune; Doreen Girard / Tim Olive. Boro. Tim Olive is a Prairie-raised sound artist and improviser currently based in Kobe, Japan. He regularly releases music on his 845 Audio label, both on Bandcamp and on CD, the latter in editions of 100. Faune and Boro document Olive in duets with Canadian musicians Martin Tétreault and[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 134

Music In The Barns. Bolton-Godin-Oesterle. While one no longer has to adopt postmodernism’s cheeky nihilism when referring to the past in exploratory musical domains, exhibiting this hungry curiosity in concert-music circles might still earn you the regressive neoromantic label. Toronto composer Rose Bolton addresses this[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 134

Mark Takeshi McGregor. Lutalica. The word lutalica, invented by writer John Koenig in his Web-site and YouTube series Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, denotes the parts of one’s identity that are uncategorizable. For West Coast flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor, the word calls to mind the dissonance between his Japanese,[...] Read more

Recordings Sara Constant Issue 134

Lori Freedman. Solor. The title of Montrealer Lori Freedman’s latest disc, Solor, could be a play on solo and Lor(i), but based on the recording’s explosive music, it could also be referring to the volcanic island of Indonesia of the same name. The seven works include five Freedman compositions,[...] Read more

Recordings Lawrence Joseph Issue 134

Harris Eisenstadt. Old Growth Forest II; The Fictive Five. Anything is Possible. Creative and cooperative (or should we just say, Canadian?), Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt has, for the past fifteen years, attracted attention as a sophisticated bandleader and band member. On his latest recording, the disciplined Old Growth Forest II, Eisenstadt[...] Read more

Recordings Ken Waxman Issue 134

Suoni per il Popolo Festival, 19th Edition. Spread across four main halls and seven auxiliary venues, the sprawling 2019 Suoni per il Popolo Festival encompassed close to two hundred acts covering the musical spectrum, including electronic, jazz, rock, and the less easily classifiable. The festival is breathtaking in its scope, and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Lawrence Joseph Issue 134

Strangewaves V: Mother Nature. On the last day of Strangewaves V, we drove onto the festival’s site at the fairgrounds in Paris, Ontario, a little after 2 p.m, when Myriam Gendron—a singer and guitarist best known for her 2014 release Not So Deep As A Well, which sets Dorothy Parker poems to fragile folk[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 35th Edition. There has always been something slightly enchanted about FIMAV’s existence. Sheltered in a small city between Montreal and Quebec City, Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville is devoted to musique actuelle (music of the moment), which embraces improvised music, free[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer

George Lewis & Roscoe Mitchell. Voyage and Homecoming. Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis, two great standard-bearers for improvisation and experimentation, have enjoyed a long partnership. A 1975 Mitchell quartet recording from Toronto’s A Space introduced Lewis as trombonist and as composer of Music for Trombone and B Flat Soprano;[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 133