Featured Articles

Isaiah Ceccarelli “I know it may sound crazy, but I am interested in making beautiful music—music that sounds good. I’m not saying this just to be different, and it might not be in line with a lot of the reasons that people make music today, but I am actually not very involved with, or[...] Read more

Profile Nick Storring Issue 119

Resonant Frequencies I first encountered Alanna Stuart on a mid-November evening in 2018. After an exhilarating trudge through the snow-muted streets of Toronto’s Stanley Park neighbourhood, I made what felt like a heroic landing at Array Space, where a few dozen or so hearty souls were gathering for a[...] Read more

Sound Notes Jennie Punter Issue 141

Resequencing Resonances PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREEN YANG   Resonances are ghosts. They accentuate unseen presences of sounding bodies as they amplify frequencies inherent in them. Noted Italian composer Luciano Berio explored the transfer of energy from one body to another in his Sequenza X (1984), which[...] Read more

Featured Article Juro Kim Feliz Issue 143

Mark Molnar’s alternative trajectories Harrowingly unbridled and unpredictable, yet blatantly meticulous in their construction, Mark Molnar’s compositions frequently emerge as rugged tangles of bowed-string sonorities. Even though their gestural expressivity might suggest that they could’ve been conceived in myriad[...] Read more

Featured Article Nick Storring Issue 118

Between Folklore and the Future: The Music of Heidi Chan Heidi Chan began combining her passions for arranging, technology, and traditional instruments when her father gave her a demo version of the music software program Cakewalk. “Because it was a demo version, I couldn’t save anything,” she recalls. “So I had to leave[...] Read more

Sound Bite Francesca D’Amico Issue 126

BLACKOUT MUSIC Deep black space is speckled with birdcalls and falling water until an ominous boom looms and the drumming of   rat-a-tat-tat - insect infestation or insistent rain - is jarring and subsides in the darkness   a piano perforates the heavy steely[...] Read more

Sound Notes Heather Kelly

James Rolfe FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY. I first met James Rolfe nearly twenty years ago, when we were finalists in the 1990 edition of the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers. As a frequent visitor to Rolfe’s Toronto apartment at that time, I was afforded an insider[...] Read more

Featured Article Chris Paul Harman Issue 105

Listening Conditions We tend to think of an emergency as something sudden—the kind of jarring, life-and-death situation that leaps out at us with abrupt urgency. And when we think about what an emergency sounds like, that assumption is often fresh in our minds: sirens, clatter—noises sharp and loud[...] Read more

Featured Article Sara Constant Issue 139

Musicworks Announces 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners TORONTO, CANADA, August 30, 2021. For immediate release: After a four-month delay due to challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, Musicworks is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest. We thank the 2020 entrants for their patience.[...] Read more

Sound Notes STAFF

Sounds of an Unfolding Emergency “we have no power or wifi/internet”                                        [...] Read more

Sound Notes Monica Pearce Issue 139

Aidan Baker’s Ambient Autonomy Over the past twenty years, Berlin-based Canadian guitarist and composer Aidan Baker has developed a creative rhythm, using his guitar as a gateway to seemingly disparate sounds and marrying noise, krautrock, metal, drone, and free jazz in thrilling and unexpected ways. Through his[...] Read more

Profile Michael Rancic Issue 137

Julia Mermelstein's "wonted II-III" Toronto-based composer Julia Mermelstein creates music focused on detailed tone, colour, textures, and gestural movement that reveal evocative, immersive, and subtly changing soundscapes. Her work aims to blend acoustic and electronic sound worlds in seamless interactions.[...] Read more

Sound Bite STAFF