Recordings
Cassandra Miller. Traveller Song / Thanksong. The Canadian-born composer Cassandra Miller often uses existing music as the starting point for her own work. In the case of Warblework, written for Quatuor Bozzini, she incorporated the songs of four North American thrushes. She does something similar in the two pieces on Traveller Song /[...] Read more
ICOT Chamber Orchestra. Recurrence. Repetition, in many guises, is the theme of this resonant and evocative new recording from the ICOT Chamber Orchestra, which features some of Canada’s finest chamber musicians playing new works by five Canadian composers. Nature’s pleasing repetition appears in[...] Read more
Eve Egoyan and Mauricio Pauly. Hopeful Monster. Expanding her reach beyond contemporary notated music interpretations, Toronto’s Eve Egoyan has created her first all-improvised session with these ten selections. Her partner here is Costa Rican-born Vancouverite Mauricio Pauly, who manipulates all sorts of prepared acoustic and[...] Read more
Sophie Dupuis. Comme Bon Lui Semble. On Comme Bon Lui Semble, Sophie Dupuis crafts eerie atmospheres with a dreamy haze. The New Brunswick-based composer and violinist is an expert at writing diaphanous melodies using ghostly extended techniques. With this album, which takes its inspiration from visual art, she showcases her[...] Read more
Witch Prophet. Gateway Experience Discovery and understanding are tenets of the work of Witch Prophet, aka Ethiopian-Eritrean Canadian musician Ayo Leilani. Her 2020 album DNA Activation was a prism reflecting the range of the African diaspora experience. On her third album, Gateway Experience, the Toronto-based artist[...] Read more
Spektral Quartet, Julia Holter, and Alex Temple. Behind the Wallpaper Behind the Wallpaper occupies the unknown space just before a transformation is complete. Inspired by composer Alex Temple’s gender transition, the album explores themes of renewal and realization and is performed by Chicago’s Spektral Quartet and singer-songwriter Julia Holter.[...] Read more
Rasmussen / Flaherty / Rowden / Corsano. Crying in Space Mette Rasmussen is a Danish alto saxophonist who has worked in diverse and distinguished contexts, including Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and the all-star multinational quartet Hearth. Here she joins Connecticut-based saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a free-jazz warrior whose wily name for[...] Read more
Éliane Radigue. 11 Dec 1980. Quatuor Bozzini. Éliane Radigue: Occam Delta XV. In approaching the work of French composer Éliane Radigue, one is recommended to let go of any preconceptions of what music should sound like. The music moves outside the realm of rhythm patterns, melody, and fixed pitch, with slow and subtle changes in sound and in the layering of[...] Read more
Roxanne Nesbitt / Ben Brown / Marielle Groven. Play Symbiotic Instruments A brief note accompanying the latest record from Montreal free-jazz purveyor Small Scale Music highlights things before players: The titular “instruments,” we read, represent “a collection of resonant objects and systems played by an ever-evolving group of musicians.[...] Read more
Joëlle Léandre. Zurich Concert During her long career, Joëlle Léandre has been a constant explorer of the possibilities of her string bass and of exploratory musical languages, moving from creative collaborations with composers John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi to a devotion to free improvisation. This June, L[...] Read more
Ingrid Laubrock. The Last Quiet Place In recent decades, tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has moved from her native Germany to an extended stay in England to her current American residency. Through the process she has become one of the most inventive members of the international improvising community, a central[...] Read more
Tim Hecker. No Highs Since his last release on Kranky, Tim Hecker has been busy with soundtrack work—most recently for Brandon Cronenberg’s science fiction horror film Infinity Pool. As a result, a directness of intent and execution has settled into his musical approach. The press release for No[...] Read more