Recordings
Nightjars. The Natural Playmate. The Natural Playmate, apparently the final release in the Rat-Drifting catalogue, is a series of extremely concise and focused improvisations performed by Eric Chenaux (guitar) and Jason Benoit (banjo). The familiar misshapen melancholy found on many Rat-Drifting albums runs through this[...] Read more
Les Rhinocéros. Les Rhinocéros. The eponymous debut album of the young trio Les Rhinocéros from Washington D.C. is a crazy, playful musical collage. On one track, birds sing, an elderly singer croaks a folk ditty, loops pulsate, a guitar’s spiky notes seem bent on puncturing a waterbed, a drumkit rolls and[...] Read more
Maki Ishii. Maki Ishii Live. Distinguished composer, conductor, and curator Maki Ishii (1932–2003) created a body of music inspired by his lineage, heritage, and situation. The poetic sense of movement, gesture, and pace that pervades the three percussion concerti on this disc bespeaks the influence of his father[...] Read more
Joe Hertenstein/Thomas Heberer/Joachim Badenhorst/Pascal Niggenkemper. Polylemma. Drummer Joe Hertenstein defines polylemma as “a choice from multiple options, each of which is (or appears) equally (un-)acceptable or (un-)favourable.” He then applies the term to one of his compositions here and also to the group, a quartet of European musicians—Germans[...] Read more
Erdem Helvacioğlu and Şirin Pancaroğlu. Resonating Universes. Resonating Universes is an apt title for this collaboration between electroacoustic composer Helvacioğlu and harpist Pancaroğlu. Each section of this disc-long composition teems with microscopic activity—flocks of muted plucking and granular shivers weave their way around resounding[...] Read more
Kris Davis. Aeriol Piano. Kris Davis is a Calgary-born pianist who has followed a path from the University of Toronto to the Banff Centre, eventually to settle in New York in 2001. There she has gradually established herself as a musician who happily resides in the special terrain that has arisen between free jazz and[...] Read more
Toronto’s Standard Form. Standard Form is a Toronto-based print shop that has been putting out books and music for the past five years, averaging a couple of releases a year that range from avant jazz to post rock, from the likes of Feuermusik, Canaille, and I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can’t. This last year[...] Read more
John Wall and Alex Rodgers. Work 2006–2011. John Wall has been one of the most aggressive of sonic plunderers, shattering recorded electroacoustic improvisations and putting them back as mutated humpty-dumptys in intricate and lively collages. His series of CDs on his own imprint Utterpsalm are essential documents of this meticulous[...] Read more
Vivienne Spiteri. Jalsaghar. The highlight of Vivienne Spiteri’s fascinating and finely executed new CD comes in the final third of the recording, with two pieces for harpsichord and—wait for it—banjo! Within fifteen seconds my initial scepticism of this unlikely combination evaporated. It is clear[...] Read more
Maïkotron Unit. Ex-Voto. This Montreal-based trio, together since 1984, is a fluent jazz-based ensemble with Michel Coté on saxophones and bass clarinet, Pierre Coté on bass and cello, and Michel Lambert on drums. Michel Coté and Lambert also play maïkotron, a brass-reed hybrid with a saxophone[...] Read more
Adam Linson, Systems Quartet. Figures and Grounds. Currently working in Montreal, Adam Linson is a bassist with a highly developed interest in improvisation that combines the real-time integration of acoustic instruments and sound processing. In the past he’s recorded as a soloist, in duo with sound processor Joel Ryan, and with Evan[...] Read more
Tim Hecker. Ravedeath, 1972. Tim Hecker has been a prominent figure in the ambient electronic genre ever since his first recordings were released ten years ago by the Montreal label Alien8 Recordings. In past recordings, Hecker’s work has wrapped his digital manipulations into a fully organic sound.[...] Read more
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