The Audible Connections of Xuan Ye On Xuan Ye’s website, layers of text, symbols, and images float across the home page like something halfway between poetry and code. The site is an ever-changing digital archeology of her artistic works across a wide range of sonic and visual media. All of it defies categorization. In[...] Read more

Featured Article Sara Constant Issue 136

Hyposurface FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY   On a 2004 visit to the MIT Media Lab, I encountered a small, flat wall with a skin of silver luminescent triangles covering a background of cables and metal frame. My host, the creator of Hyposurface, Mark Goulthorpe (dECOi Architects[...] Read more

Visions of sound Paul Steenhuisen Issue 108

The Audacious Artistry of Ig Henneman The year is 1979, and Ig Henneman is ready to rock. In pink zebra-print pants and a black tank top, she strikes a power pose on the stage of Amsterdam’s Paradiso. Her gold-painted Barcus-Berry electric viola glows in the spotlight. She is playing a Rock Against Racism show, flanked by[...] Read more

Featured Article Jennifer Thiessen Issue 142

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

Tate Carson's Before, I wandered as a diversion Tate Carson is a composer and upright bassist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Before, I wandered as a diversion (2016), for clarinet and live electronics, won second prize in Musicworks’ 2016 electronic music composition contest. Listen to the full piece, streaming on this page.[...] Read more

Sound Notes

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

Jennifer Walshe Spins a Fine Tale The centenary of Dadaism is only three short years away, but there’s still time for curators and arts organizations across the world to program fitting tributes to the full multiplicity of artists involved in the movement. Irish radio, for example, will be honouring Dublin[...] Read more

Profile Louise Gray Issue 116

Di Mainstone Fashions a New Sonic Future Di Mainstone, inventor of the Human Harp, describes herself as a “bridge botherer.” But to be accurate, her bridge-bothering activities are fairly recent. Before bridges (the Human Harp has, to date, played bridges in Brooklyn, Omaha, and Bristol) came mood-sensitive kinetic[...] Read more

Sound Notes Louise Gray Issue 123

Video Game Music: New Directions in Play       The first time I played PaRappa the Rapper was a struggle. I was with my parents at a novelty deli where each table was outfitted with a television and a PlayStation video-game console. I didn’t have one at home, but a paper-thin, hip-hop cartoon[...] Read more

Featured Article Zack Kotzer Issue 120

SlowPitchSound and the Universe Between the Grooves When it comes to picking the defining factors of a musical practice, some artists view their work as a single, continuous process, homing in on a specific vision and returning to it repeatedly. Others are the opposite—traversing a multitude of styles and sounds as they launch[...] Read more

Featured Article Sara Constant Issue 144