Sarah Davachi. Gave in Rest. Calgary-born and currently resident in Los Angeles, Sarah Davachi has quickly developed a significant reputation creating music that is ambient, minimalist, and highly compelling. She recently spent a summer in Europe exploring her fascination with the acoustic properties of ancient churches[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 132

Vancouver New Music Festival: Quartetti—A festival of string quartets. This year’s Vancouver New Music annual fall festival was devoted to string quartets. At Quartetti, which ran for three days at the Orpheum Annex in downtown Vancouver, audiences were treated to diverse performances of a wide array of pieces from Black Dog String Quartet (Vancouver),[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Zach Bergman Issue 132

2018 Guelph Jazz Festival. “I’d rather be a human being / than to be avant-garde,” intones William Parker towards the conclusion of his solo bass performance at the 2018 Guelph Jazz Festival. Fittingly, the performance of his piece—which is excerpted and adapted from Flower In A Stained-Glass[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman Issue 132

Petra Glynt. My Flag Is A Burning Rag of Love. Petra Glynt is a sonic swashbuckler. Her electronic art-punk music reveals an unapologetic originator whose politics are integral to everything she produces (including her subversive. rainbow-coloured artwork). Her self-produced sophomore release, My Flag Is a Burning Rag of Love, which was[...] Read more

Recordings Chaka V. Grier

Ida Toninato / Jennifer Thiessen. The Space Between Us. The debut duo album of rising improvising stars Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen, The Space Between Us, is an intimate, nuanced dialogue between baritone sax and viola d’amore. The players weave around each other in a sophisticated conversation, often overlapping, in agreement,[...] Read more

Recordings Monica Pearce

The Cluttertones with Lee Pui Ming. Leeways. Bassist Rob Clutton has been composing for his group the Cluttertones for over a decade, modelling his work for a quartet that includes trumpeter Lina Allemano and guitarist–banjoist Tim Posgate, with Ryan Driver playing analog synthesizer and singing. The approach is unusual,[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer

Castle If. Sector 3. Castle If (Jess Forrest) creates an analog synthscape as the futuristic backdrop for her latest recording, Sector 03. Inspired by William Gibson’s 1984 sci-fi novel Neuromancer, Forrest conveys an anxiety about technology as she examines a future in which disorder is magnified.[...] Read more

Recordings Laura Stanley

Joseph Shabason. Anne. Saxophonist and electronic composer Joseph Shabason’s 2017 debut recording Aytche was a warm, charismatic release that invited repeated listening, even though its influences occasionally swam pretty close to the surface. The credits on Anne, his latest, actually include Gigi Masin (one[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

Sound Symposium XIX. The nineteenth iteration of the biennial Sound Symposium was distinguished by its colloquium, new awards, and of course, world premieres of risk-taking works. The event opened with the Indigenous Improvisation Colloquium: Freedom and Responsibility; and heritage ceremony and cultural[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Gloria Hickey

Suoni per il Popolo Festival: 18th Edition Like the accordion played in the large improvising ensemble GGRIL, this year’s Suoni per il Popolo expanded in some dimensions and contracted in others, while continuously bellowing out fascinating sounds. Some years the festival has unfolded over a full month, but the 2018 edition ran[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Lawrence Joseph

Brodie West Quintet. "Clips." There’s something different afoot in saxophonist Brodie West’s quintet, its singular construction of a jazz combo with alto saxophone, piano, bass, and drums—as traditional as Brubeck to that point—and a departure from the norm with a second set of drums. The sound[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer