Featured Articles
What's Inside Musicworks 148? ON THE COVER Stefana Fratila is a Toronto-based, Romania-born composer and sound designer whose work in sound and love of sci-fi led her to wonder: “If each planet in our solar system were a different room, what[...] Read more
Erdem Helvacioglu FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY When you’re caught up in the thick of it, all those cute, clichéd little epithets about turning life’s lemons into lemonade, spinning grave fuck-ups into rapturous inspiration, and the like, hardly seem to hold any[...] Read more
Adam Basanta “I’ve always been interested in perception and apperception,” writes Montreal-based composer Adam Basanta in a recent e-mail correspondence. “This has led me, as a musician and composer, to centre my work on listening as a perceptual and psychological experience.[...] Read more
Sonic City We presume hush because business has yet to come. People stand, the movement of feet inaudible Over the creeping perception of noise An indistinguishable hum pervading the acoustic Of suitcases’ wheels Clitter-clattering across cobbled stones Some[...] Read more
Leah Reid’s Jouer U.S. composer Leah Reid’s composition Jouer won the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique in the 2024 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition (EMC) Contest. This donor-supported annual prize awards $300 to[...] Read more
Ashley Au Is Stretching Out Most music fans in Winnipeg have seen plenty of Ashley Au playing bass in recent years in a wide range of idioms—Americana, hip-hop, jazz, and sludge metal. Pausing to tally current projects, Au counts in blinks before saying, “I’m in an open relationship with maybe seven[...] Read more
Tim Olive’s Flexible Aesthetic It’s a typically humming Saturday night at the Tranzac Club. Different events are in progress in each of the Toronto venue’s three rooms. The Tiki Room (the smallest and most living-room-like of the three) is hosting a special edition of the Audiopollination series, which is[...] Read more
Musicworks 132 The final issue of Musicworks' 40th anniversary year features first-person stories, collaborative creativity, and a hint of chocolate. Buy it now! On the cover: Darcy Spidle Nova Scotia writer Darcy Spidle played in punk bands, ran the Divorce record label, and[...] Read more
Timothy Roy’s “dans les dents de la guivre” Saint Paul, Minnesota-based composer Timothy Roy’s “dans les dents de la guivre” was awarded second place in the 2023 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest. Format: Binaural Stereo . . . please listen with headphones! [...] Read more
Curtis Running Rabbit-Lefthand Ignites the Rhythm of the People Blackfoot Confederacy member Curtis Running Rabbit-Lefthand is the founder and executive artistic director of Indigenous Resilience in Music (IRIM), a collective that supports Indigenous musicians and youth in their learning, performing, recording, and collaborating. The group’s[...] Read more
Gil Delindro’s instruments of nature Earlier this year, an eight-foot-across circle of solid ice was hung from the ceiling of Winnipeg’s RAW: Gallery of Architecture and Design. Why would anyone in the world’s second-coldest city (after Ulan Bator, Mongolia) want that legendary cold brought indoors? The occasion was[...] Read more
Senyawa plays the music of the universe On a chilly, rainy Thursday May night, a crowd of sixty or so people, spread unevenly around the pews of Halifax’s Fort Massey United Church, is waiting. OBEY Convention creative director Andrew Patterson has just introduced Indonesian “doom folk” duo Senyawa, but after the[...] Read more
