Nick Storring

Ryan Driver Quintet Plays The Stephen Parkinson Songbook. Since 1999, the Ryan Driver Quintet (as well as his Sextet and Quartet) has been serving up a unique, cooked take on jazz balladry—especially at its monthly residency at Toronto’s Tranzac venue. Ryan Driver Quintet Plays the Stephen Parkinson Songbook, its first studio recording[...] Read more

Review Spotlight Nick Storring

Marc Sabat and Lorenzo Pompa, Wave Piano Scenery Player; Chiyoko Szlavnics, Gradients of Detail. Maria De Alvear is a consistently intriguing composer whose World Edition label also releases recordings of music by unique composers of concert music—most recently, Berlin-based Canadians Marc Sabat and Chiyoko Szlavnics.    While Sabat is perhaps best[...] Read more

Review Spotlight Nick Storring

Zacht Automaat. Zacht Automaat. Since forming in 2010, Zacht Automaat (the duo of multi-instrumentalist Carl Didur and Oxford resident Michael McLean, mostly guitar and bass) have released no fewer than eleven albums in various limited formats. Now they’re given the deluxe treatment with a sort of best-of double LP ([...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 118

Drumheller. Sometimes Machine. Supergroup is both an apt and a ridiculous descriptor for Drumheller, which comprises some of Toronto’s most celebrated experimental and jazz musicians—Nick Fraser, Eric Chenaux (now a Parisian), Brodie West, Rob Clutton, and Doug Tielli—each member teeming with personality and[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 117

Standing Wave. Liquid States. Standing Wave has a been a fixture on Vancouver’s new-music scene since 1991, exploring a wide variety of aesthetics commensurate with the varied backgrounds of its members. Liquid States, the ensemble’s third CD, documents four recent commissioned works for the ensemble.[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 116

David Rosenboom. In The Beginning. Not unlike James Tenney, his late former colleague at York University, David Rosenboom is highly adept at taking rigorously structured systems and rendering them in a manner that is observable and bursting with sound colour. This two-disc set compiles the titular cycle of pieces whose creation[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 116

Jerusalem In My Heart. Mo7it Al-Mo7it. Radwan Moumneh is one of the key players in the Montreal scene that orbits Constellation, Alien8, and other local labels. As cofounder-producer at the celebrated Hotel2Tango studio and a collaborator with Land Of Kush, Cursed, and Eric Chenaux, among others, he’s helped shape a sizable[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 116

Scott Walker. Bish Bosch. Scott Walker's output since 1995's Tilt is unquestionably some of the most flamboyantly unique and ambitious song-craft of the past two decades, and Bish Bosch is no exception.   The prevailing feeling is one of revolting and sensational corporeality—teeming[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 115

Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin. Instrumental Tourist. Don't be fooled by the geeky irony of some of its technogically oriented song titles, such as “Whole Earth Tascam” and “GRM Blue I.” Instrumental Tourist is among some of the most deliberate and best work by Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin.   Moving[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 115

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! By the time Yanqui U.X.O., Godspeed’s previous full-length album, had hit the shelves, their marriage of Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs-inspired strings, grim crypto-political field recordings, and gory climaxes of guitar angst, had spawned legions of imitators worldwide.[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 115

Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Stones Stones showcases Gustafsson doing one of the things he does best: locking horns with another saxophonist. It also sees Stetson plunging into the loosest, freest material he’s yet committed to disc. This is, in fact, a recording of the pair’s very first meeting, at the Vancouver[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 115

Fleshtone Aura. On Rusticated Slant. Similarly to his other group, Gastric Female Reflex, Andrew Zukerman’s Fleshtone Aura project is an act of cheeky historical revisionism. Evoking the rubbery tactile sonics of musique concrète through jump-cuts and slippery tape-speed bends, Zukerman’s pieces are also[...] Read more

Recordings Nick Storring Issue 114