Nick Storring

Christopher Otto. Rag’sma. Microtonal tuning systems have provided the underlying architecture for some of the most intriguing and sumptuous works of the past century; yet even among adventurous listeners, there is still some prejudice about these approaches. In the press release accompanying his debut release as a[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 141

Badge Epoch. Scroll. The psychedelic era’s unprecedented explorations of studio technology birthed a fruitful concept that has since infiltrated many genres of recorded music: the collision of music performance and collage tactics.   Toronto’s Badge Epoch—a slimmer variation of[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 140

claire rousay. A Softer Focus. Over the past while, prolific and multifaceted Canadian-American artist claire rousay has managed to find visibility and acclaim while maintaining a firm commitment to creative restlessness and sonic ambiguity. Recent outings have tended to showcase an evocative blurred-Polaroid approach[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 139

Insides. Soft Bonds. Simon Reynolds’s well-known essay on post-rock was published in the U.K. magazine The Wire in May 1994. Though today the genre tag tends to connote a particular sound, in the context of Reynolds’s piece, post-rock was more of a tenuous label for a diverse bunch of curious bands[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 139

Endlings. Human Form. Endlings is the duo of John Dieterich—best known as a guitarist for the bent-rock outfit Deerhoof—and composer, artist, and performer Raven Chacon. Much of their new album Human Form feels damaged and sweet in equal measure, its peculiar sonics tumbling all over you like an[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 139

Kyle Gann. The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory & History for the Impractical Musician. In addition to being a fascinating composer (e.g. the exuberant microtonal multi-Disklavier opus Hyperchromatica) and a professor of music theory and composition at Bard College, Kyle Gann remains one of the best-known contemporary-music critics, thanks to his writing for the Village Voice[...] Read more

Books Nick Storring

Marc Sabat and the Harmonic Space Orchestra. Gioseffo Zarlino. The notes that accompany this new release by Berlin-residing Canadian composer and string player Marc Sabat epitomize one of the greatest difficulties around composing in Just Intonation (tuning systems derived from the harmonic series). Though his notes are precise and succinct, it is all[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 138

Works by Alberta composer Mark Hannesson featured on three Edition Wandelweiser Records albums Neil Young’s music is maybe one of the last things one would associate with Wandelweiser, the international collective of composers known for their copious silences, extended durations, and soft dynamics. However, on Albertan member Mark Hannesson’s guitar work If I appear[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

Charles Barabé. La lente histoire de l’oubli. Based in Victoriaville, Quebec, the prolific electronic composer Charles Barabé has become a preeminent figure in the North American tape-label underground with a varied five-year streak of releases for notable imprints such as Jeunesse Cosmique, Orange Milk, Crash Symbols, and Astral[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring

James O’Callaghan & Ensemble Paramirabo. Alone & Unalone. Montreal’s James O’Callaghan exemplifies a wave of younger composers whose unique remedies have successfully healed some of the major ideological rifts that characterized twentieth-century music. This new disc, immaculately performed by the brilliant and agile Ensemble Paramirabo[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 135

Lance Austin Olsen / Gil Sansón. Works on Paper. The hypnotic double-disc set Works on Paper is the most recent collaboration between Victoria, B.C.-based composer and painter Lance Austin Olsen and Venezuelan composer and artist Gil Sansón. The stark, purposeful, expletive-laced monologue (courtesy of audio engineer and composer[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 134

Music In The Barns. Bolton-Godin-Oesterle. While one no longer has to adopt postmodernism’s cheeky nihilism when referring to the past in exploratory musical domains, exhibiting this hungry curiosity in concert-music circles might still earn you the regressive neoromantic label. Toronto composer Rose Bolton addresses this[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 134