Political Ritual. Political Ritual. Political Ritual, the eponymous release by the Québécois electronic music duo of Maxime Corbeil-Perron and Félix-Antoine Morin, presents itself as a mystery, white print on a grey cover, a series of lighter, vertical oscilloscope intrusions appearing almost possibly[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer

Gordon Grdina Quartet. Inroads. Moving away from the hushed nature of his earlier chamber music, Vancouver guitarist and oudist Gordon Grdina enlists a trio of New Yorkers to toughen his sound while maintaining its fluidity. The nine tracks on Inroads find keyboardist Russ Losing frequently elaborating themes in double[...] Read more

Recordings Ken Waxman

Nick Fraser. Is Life Long? The opening four minutes of Toronto drummer and composer Nick Fraser's new disc consists almost entirely of long astringent tones that seem simultaneously on the brink of decay and of gathering momentum. This impression is compounded by Fraser’s brittle, skittering accompaniment of[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

send+receive: a festival of sound, v.19 For a festival of any stripe to last until its nineteenth edition suggests a deep commitment by its organizers to maintaining the attention of their audience. crys cole, director of send+receive, builds the festival around a different theme every year, going with “outside of the box[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Emberg Issue 129

Tim Beattie. Of Spectra. The debut release from young, award-winning Toronto classical guitarist Tim Beattie is filled with compositions that subtly shift, the way sunlight does in a room throughout the day. Merging classical guitar and electronics, Beattie, producer Connory Ballantyne, and engineer William Crann,[...] Read more

Recordings Laura Stanley

James Rolfe. Breathe: music for voices and early instruments New music for period instruments is not always convincing. But in these substantial works, James Rolfe avoids pastiche, homage, and self-conscious novelty, creating music that is subtle, sophisticated, and surprising.    In Breathe (2011) Anna Chatterton’s new[...] Read more

Recordings Cecilia Livingston

ISCM World New Music Days 2017 Let’s get the complaints out of the way first, shall we? An awful lot of take-out sushi was eaten during the International Society for Contemporary Music’s annual festival, held this year in Vancouver. With up to five official concerts a day, plus secret showcases not[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Alexander Varty

2017 Guelph Jazz Festival Striding confidently towards its 2018 silver anniversary, the Guelph Jazz Festival was invigorated this year with choice concerts from U.S. and European artists—but nonetheless, two of the most notable performances were from Canadian bands.     Montreal trio[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Ken Waxman Issue 129

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Luciferian Towers.     At this point, the GY!BE formula probably needs no introduction. Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been making long-form, crescendo-driven, enigmatically titled, outspokenly political, communally produced, instrumental post-rock for over twenty years, with no major[...] Read more

Recordings Daniel Glassman

Something Else! Festival of Creative Music The rough, faded industrial city of Hamilton, Ontario, might seem an unlikely setting for a top-notch festival of creative music, but thanks to the efforts of Cem [pronounced Jem] Zafir, the artistic director of Something Else!, the city proved a perfect little world for the musicians and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Mike Chamberlain

Joni Void. Selfless. It’s hard to be lo-fi in the twenty-first century. Even the most rudimentary contemporary sound recorders—on a smartphone or laptop, say—lack the auditory artifacts so fetishized by connoisseurs of tape and vinyl and emulated by much contemporary sampling and plunderphonics[...] Read more

Recordings Daniel Glassman Issue 128