Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide. Perpetual Motion. Satoko Fujii. Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams The pandemic was a productive time for the ever-prolific pianist Satoko Fujii. Along with her venture into virtual recording—most notably in some remarkable long-distance duets with the Berlin-based vibraphonist Taiko Saito—Fujii released a surprising pair of albums simply titled[...] Read more

Recordings Kurt Gottschalk Issue 145

Erin Rogers and Alec Goldfarb. Earth’s Precisions Within the lineage of improvised guitar-and-saxophone duo recordings, Earth’s Precisions sets itself apart with its stated aim: exploring a single simulated hybrid of the two musicians’ instruments. Across five expansive tracks, saxophonist Erin Rogers and guitarist Alec Goldfarb[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Zeena Parkins. Lace Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Zeena Parkins was not initially inspired by lace, finding it “too ornate, too bourgeois, not [her] thing.” Despite this, she would collect bits of lace, among other textile treasures, from fabric stores on her travels. In 2008, on a[...] Read more

Recordings Monica Pearce Issue 146

Pantayo. Ang Pagdaloy Originating centuries ago in the southern Philippines, kulintang music is played on a set of brass gongs strung on a cord, sitting on a wooden resonator and hit by wooden mallets. Each gong has its own tuning and timbre, and players usually improvise over set rhythms with additional gongs[...] Read more

Recordings Mary Dickie Issue 146

Pierre-Yves Martel. Mer Bleue: Music for Solo Viola da Gamba Adapting and altering the parameters of an instrument first created in the fifteenth century, Montreal’s Pierre-Yves Martel creates a brief (under twenty-five-minute) sound picture of Mer Bleue, a sphagnum bog near Gloucester, Ontario where he often hikes. No watery or moss-like[...] Read more

Recordings Ken Waxman Issue 146

Lune très belle. Ovale Ovale, the second full-length album from Montreal-based composer, singer, and writer Frédérique Roy, defies reduction: Its tendrils are too vast, its heart so pure, its moments never completely passing. Across eleven tracks, Roy and company unfurl a series of dulcet compositions[...] Read more

Recordings Andrew Patterson Issue 146

Darius Jones. fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred). In the early 1960s, Fluxus artist George Maciunas began assembling fluxkits: small boxes containing everyday objects alongside interdisciplinary works by his peers in the movement. These unique collections allowed everyone who opened a package to experience their own art event. During a[...] Read more

Recordings Jesse Locke Issue 146

François Houle Genera Sextet. In Memoriam The loss of Vancouver International Jazz Festival founding artistic director Ken Pickering in 2018 was difficult to process for those who knew him. François Houle Genera Sextet’s new release, In Memoriam, gives cathartic, yet celebratory, closure. Ken would have approved.[...] Read more

Recordings Kerilie McDowall Issue 146

DeVon Russell Gray, Nathan Hanson, and Davu Seru. We Sick Recording inside a church on a single day in December 2020, the three musicians on We Sick found themselves in a sanctuary rendered empty by the pandemic and the ensuing quarantine. The liner notes reference a Malcolm X speech from 1963 before bringing us back to the present day:[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Kate Gentile and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Biomei.i. Kate Gentile and Andrew Smiley. Flagrances Obliquity Records is a new label started by drummer–composer Kate Gentile and pianist–composer Matt Mitchell. They are likely familiar to fans of the composed and improvised experimental music coming out of New York, having both worked with artists like John Zorn, Tim Berne, and[...] Read more

Recordings Patrick O’Reilly Issue 146

Markus Floats. Fourth Album Montreal composer Markus Floats’ dynamic new LP moves between free jazz, musique concrète, and minimalism. Whereas his previous records were largely individual endeavours produced solo with MIDI instrumentation, Fourth Album welcomes contributions from Ari Swan (violin), James[...] Read more

Recordings Brennan McCracken Issue 146