Reviews
Yuko Fujiyama. Night Wave. On this new recording, Japanese-born pianist Yuko Fujiyama has created fifteen musical colour fields in duo, trio, and quartet configurations alongside sympathetic American associates Jennifer Choi (violin), Susie Ibarra (drums and percussion), and Graham Haynes (cornet and flugelhorn).[...] Read more
Ken Vandermark and Michael Snow. Duol. Recorded in Toronto, this brief program of slashing, staccato improvisations by Toronto visual artist and pianist Michael Snow and visiting Chicago multireedist Ken Vandermark shows that a first-time meeting can engender fresh impetus. Vandermark, who has a university film degree, and Snow,[...] Read more
Brian Olewnick. "Keith Rowe: The Room Extended." At some point during the 1960s (the exact date is unclear, but happenings were starting and the Fab Four were still singing “yeah yeah yeah” on their radio hits) a young art-school graduate began to do horrible and wondrous things to a guitar. He took a vow to eschew tuning, for[...] Read more
Eve Egoyan. Maria De Alvear: De Puro Amor & En Amor Duro. Fluid music. That is the first notion that comes to mind while listening to Maria De Alvear’s De Puro Amor & En Amor Duro, played by the Toronto-based pianist Eve Egoyan. Listening to this double album feels like swimming in the middle of a benign sea. Waves are constantly moving[...] Read more
Event Cloak. Vague Definition. Life Strategies, the 2015 record by Montreal electronic musician Nick Maturo, made one of the most compelling cases for sixteenth-note grids in recent memory. Like a revisionist history of early-1990s ambient music packed into a single LP, its dancing arpeggios and rhythmic flickers of[...] Read more
Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound. Kitchener, Ontario. At Open Ears, auditory circuitry is rewired over five days, with all senses fired up, as festival-goers embark on a sonic quest. The 2018 edition featured the gonzo music of Frank Zappa, an electrifying Nicole Lizée world premiere, and a jaw-dropping percussion solo. [...] Read more
Festival de International Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 34th Edition. As spring erupts in the Centre-du-Québec region, so too does FIMAV, the festival of exploratory music that’s been running since 1984. “Eclectic” barely describes the four-day event. Its scope ranges from near-silent to deafening, from the ineffable to the ridiculous[...] Read more
Alanis Obomsawin. Bush Lady. Alanis Obomsawin is known more for filmmaking than music, and indeed she is a prolific and much-lauded director who has made more than fifty films, many of them documentaries for the National Film Board about the indigenous experience in North America. She’s also a visual artist and a[...] Read more
Colin Fisher. V Le Pape. V Le Pape, the debut solo album by Toronto guitar-and-electronics whiz Colin Fisher (Not the Wind, Not the Flag; Fake Humans; much else besides), invites comparisons as much to the works of New-Age experimentalist Laraaji as it does to classics of the loopy, psych-ambient solo-guitar[...] Read more
Bonneau / Heward / Thomson. 4 X 3. This is a trio of Montreal improvisers with an unusual configuration of instruments and a rich, if not that well-known, backstory. John Heward has a long history as a drummer—including partnerships with saxophonists Joe McPhee, Glenn Spearman, and Joe Giardullo[...] Read more
Les Transformables (V). The opening night of the sound-art exhibition Les Transformables (V) featured two live performances. Adorned with a sound-generating mask, Diana Burgoyne was a constant, awesome presence as she marched mechanically throughout the space. Alexandre St-Onge, meanwhile, was in constant motion[...] Read more
Stephanie Richards. Fullmoon. Stephanie Richards, originally from Canada, has established herself as a trumpet player and composer while living in Brooklyn, where she’s collaborated with Butch Morris, John Zorn, and Henry Threadgill. She has expanded the trumpet’s sonic possibilities through extended[...] Read more
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