Featured Articles

Margaret Noble's Safer Is Better   With an underground club DJ’s flair for performance and a conceptual artist’s commitment to the rigorous investigation of ideas, San Diego interdisciplinary artist Margaret Noble explores in her sound work Frakture the resonance in contemporary society of George[...] Read more

Sound Bite Jennie Punter Issue 118

Kamancello explores a new duo dimension “Kamanche means little bow in Kurdish and Farsi,” says Shahriyar Jamshidi, the kamanche player in Kamancello, his Toronto-based duo with cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne. The pair marry rich lyricism and microtonal ornamentation, influenced by Iranian, classical, and metal musics[...] Read more

Sound Bite Daniel Glassman Issue 129

Richard Windeyer FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY     Sitting behind his drum kit and laptop, Richard Windeyer manages the energy of the dance floor, while his colleague Sabrina Reeves emcees the evening’s events. A slow folk ballad suddenly ramps up to 120 bpm; the room pauses for[...] Read more

Featured Article Chris Kennedy Issue 107

What's Inside Musicworks 149? ON THE COVER Brendan Grey and the Evolving Ethos of Super Duty Tough Work  As Winnipeg hip-hop ensemble Super Duty Tough Work (SDTW) hits the ten-year mark, founder and MC Brendan Grey, sits down with writer Abiola Regan to talk about tapping in to his family’s[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF Issue 149

Michael Red's Low Indigo Michael Red has been an in-demand DJ and producer since the 1990s, when he was a key instigator of Vancouver’s jungle and drum-and-bass scenes. He presented hugely popular underground events featuring beats you couldn’t hear elsewhere. He became a regular on Western Canada’[...] Read more

Sound Notes Nancy Lanthier Issue 126

The Restless Sonic Architecture of William Kuo Adjudicating applications for an emerging-composer program is a sort of high-volume evaluation scenario that necessitates a concentrated mode of listening in order to provide fair and sufficiently individualized appraisals. But every so often, you come across a candidate whose music is so[...] Read more

Featured Article Nick Storring Issue 134

Xylem Records: Building Community for Live Coding The exploratory, collectivist ethos of the U.K. live-coding scene laid the groundwork for Xylem Records, an experimental electronic music netlabel founded by composer and computer scientist Dr. Norah Lorway. Originally from Vancouver, B.C., Lorway moved to the U.K. in 2010 to pursue a Ph.D.[...] Read more

Sound Notes Griffin Martell Issue 140

Joseph Shabason’s patient unravelling When we listen to music, are we meant to enter the hearts and minds of those who’ve created it? Or is listening more of an interior experience—of turning inwards and creating space to experience our own feelings? For Joseph Shabason, the answer to both questions is yes.[...] Read more

Sound Bite Brennan McCracken Issue 132

Luke Nickel Transmits a Living Score Luke Nickel has written me a piece.   No, wait.   That’s not quite right.   Luke Nickel has left me a series of sometimes vague, sometimes specific instructions via audio recordings of his voice, which I am only allowed to listen to[...] Read more

Featured Article Heather Roche Issue 132

Bret Parenteau widens the loop When Bret Parenteau’s name is attached to a release or performance, those familiar with his music find themselves wondering what kind of intensity the Winnipeg artist is unleashing this time. His work ranges through harsh noise, urban field recordings, and looping synth sounds, but the[...] Read more

Profile Daniel Emberg Issue 127

The Blessed Riders of Streetcars in Vienna Streetcars in Vienna are blessedly quiet. The machines—brand new, high-tech plastic platforms—announce themselves on approach with only a slight electric hum. I now react to their high pitch with the same short sprints I used to make to catch the lumbering College streetcar in[...] Read more

Sonic Geography Caitlin Smith Issue 118

Saxophonist Karen Ng Sets The Scene THINK OF ANY STYLE OF MODERN saxophone playing, and chances are Toronto’s Karen Ng has done it, and done it beautifully. Her tone can be eerily high and pure, rich and fluid, deep and mellow, alluringly tender or startlingly abrasive. Her fingers fly in a dazzling, exuberant run, then[...] Read more

Featured Article Mary Dickie Issue 129