Featured Articles

Roxanne Nesbitt's Soft Storms Welcomed and Jason Doell's Leaning Into Softness Two honourable mentions were given at Musicworks' 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest: the first to Roxanne Nesbitt's Soft Storms Welcomed, and the second to Jason Doell's Leaning into Softness.   Roxanne Nesbitt is an[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF

The Retro Aesthetic of Le Révélateur THE OCEAN RECEDES INTO THE DISTANCE, awash in thick bands of golden-purple sunset hues. Its surface ripples in loose synchronization with a burbling synthesizer score. Suddenly, a shimmering plane materializes and obliquely bisects the scene; the plane spins and the textures of the two[...] Read more

Visions of sound Greg J. Smith Issue 123

Andrew Staniland accelerates toward the next idea IN 2013, NASA CONFIRMED THAT the  Voyager 1 probe had become the first manmade object to cross the heliopause, leaving the bounds of our solar system and entering interstellar space. In addition to its scientific instruments, Voyager 1 was famously carrying a Golden Record entitled[...] Read more

Profile Jonathan Bunce Issue 122

Hans-Joachim Roedelius floats against the current On an unseasonably warm night in October, Toronto’s Monarch Tavern was packed to the rafters for a living legend. German electronic and ambient music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius—best known as a cofounder of 1970s experimental groups Cluster and Harmonia, renowned for their[...] Read more

Featured Article Jesse Locke Issue 129

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

Milan FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY   A sonic spectre is haunting Milan’s music scene. That ghostly presence is Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Italy’s best-known composer of romantic operas, who moved to the city when young, shot to fame with Nabucco in 1842[...] Read more

Sonic Geography Ken Waxman Issue 105

Cage And Duchamp's Reunion FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY   On the periphery of the dimly lit stage of Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre, four musicians are setting up musical instruments, laptops, and various musical gadgets in preparation for the evening’s all-night performance. Audio[...] Read more

Profile Chris Kennedy Issue 111

What's Inside Musicworks 151? ON THE COVER Rémy Bélanger de Beauport Rémy Bélanger de Beauport’s roots run deep in Quebec City, where he grew up and is now an activator in the city’s improvised music scene. An artist, cellist, and improviser, he creates communities of[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF Issue 151

The Piano and Erhu Project Expands the Repertoire “Let’s begin with a short history of this instrument,” says Nicole Ge Li, in a video shot at the Vancouver offices of the Canadian Music Centre. She’s speaking to a roomful of composers, gathered there to learn more about writing for PEP (Piano and Erhu Project), her[...] Read more

Profile Alexander Varty Issue 127

Label Profile: Redshift Records We won’t go into the details—because, frankly, we don’t understand them—but in astronomy a redshift is a way to measure an object’s placement in space, and its movement vis-à-vis the earth.   “It’s like the Doppler effect, but[...] Read more

Sound Notes Alexander Varty Issue 130

MUSICWORKS UNVEILS 2016 CONTEST WINNERS MUSICWORKS UNVEILS 2016 CONTEST WINNERS   Vancouver musician Craig Aalders and B.C. poet Tom Wayman win top marks in Musicworks’ 2016 Electronic Music Composition and Sonic Geography Writing Contests   For the first time in Musicworks contest[...] Read more

Sound Notes

Vancouver's Intercultural Music Scene Intercultural music-making in British Columbia is nothing new. Gold seekers brought the violin to the province’s north in the 1890s, and their jigs and reels were quickly adapted by the region’s Tahltan musicians into a true hybrid form. In the mid-1960s, Vancouver performers[...] Read more

Featured Article Alexander Varty Issue 121