Concerts and Events

Fourth Calgary New Music Festival. You may imagine Calgary as a repository of rednecks, oil executives, and a rabidly vocal reactionary element. You wouldn’t be totally wrong. You might imagine a city that splits the difference between Dallas and Anchorage. Who could blame you? The thing is: you live long enough, you[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Jason Philip Wierzba Issue 135

MUTEK Montreal, Twentieth Edition. Montreal, Quebec. August 20–25, 2019. MUTEK Montreal has long served as the high-water mark around the world for a festival presenting leading artists in the fields of electronic music and digital art. The twentieth edition of the five-day festival confirmed MUTEK’s enduring relevance and commitment to promoting fresh[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Michael Rancic

Suoni per il Popolo Festival, 19th Edition. Spread across four main halls and seven auxiliary venues, the sprawling 2019 Suoni per il Popolo Festival encompassed close to two hundred acts covering the musical spectrum, including electronic, jazz, rock, and the less easily classifiable. The festival is breathtaking in its scope, and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Lawrence Joseph Issue 134

Strata Festival, 8th Edition. The two-page program for this year’s Strata Festival was headed by the words “Eighth Annual.” That surprised me. At no point did I sense the scale or the atmosphere of a festival that had been running for close to a decade; the crowd was sparse and the overall vibe I[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Noah Dimitrie

Strangewaves V: Mother Nature. On the last day of Strangewaves V, we drove onto the festival’s site at the fairgrounds in Paris, Ontario, a little after 2 p.m, when Myriam Gendron—a singer and guitarist best known for her 2014 release Not So Deep As A Well, which sets Dorothy Parker poems to fragile folk[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 35th Edition. There has always been something slightly enchanted about FIMAV’s existence. Sheltered in a small city between Montreal and Quebec City, Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville is devoted to musique actuelle (music of the moment), which embraces improvised music, free[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer

Sonic Acts Festival 2019: Hereafter—An Exhibition in Three Acts. In Promised Lands, an installation by British artist Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, alluring landscape emerges through foliage in the distance. Vegetation, lush and green, stretches all the way to hills on the horizon. Watching it makes you wish to enter that scenery, to wander around in it, to[...] Read more

Concerts and Events René van Peer Issue 133

Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival. Since 2010, Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival in Winnipeg has been offering an annual space where musical inspiration meets modern technology and interdisciplinary art. Its tenth edition featured nearly three dozen artists presenting performances, installations, lectures, and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Emberg Issue 133

28th Winnipeg New Music Festival. The twenty-eighth edition of the Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF) opened by continuing a tradition of bringing listeners out to unusual, wonderful venues, but this year broadened its scope asking both performers and audience to one evening risk the potential extremes outside in[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Emberg

2019 Push International Performing Arts Festival. “Art should be understood, and enjoyed, as a world that hasn’t been infected by commercialism. And within that, it should serve as a reminder that we are creatures who have the ability to access our souls.”           [...] Read more

Concerts and Events Zach Bergman

Vancouver New Music Festival: Quartetti—A festival of string quartets. This year’s Vancouver New Music annual fall festival was devoted to string quartets. At Quartetti, which ran for three days at the Orpheum Annex in downtown Vancouver, audiences were treated to diverse performances of a wide array of pieces from Black Dog String Quartet (Vancouver),[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Zach Bergman Issue 132

2018 Guelph Jazz Festival. “I’d rather be a human being / than to be avant-garde,” intones William Parker towards the conclusion of his solo bass performance at the 2018 Guelph Jazz Festival. Fittingly, the performance of his piece—which is excerpted and adapted from Flower In A Stained-Glass[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman Issue 132