Intersystems. #IV. On Ghost—the first track on the new recording by the late ’60s Toronto exploratory psychedelic group Intersystems—a fragmented series of vignettes concresces over the irregular pulse of an analog synth patch. The lyrics, like the music they share space with, are unsettling[...] Read more

Recordings Brennan McCracken Issue 140

John Oliver. Isolation Journals. Vancouver’s multifaceted John Oliver is a renowned composer and guitarist with vast experience—from opera to electroacoustic music. With COVID-19 restrictions limiting live performance opportunities over the past many months, it has been fascinating to observe the multitude of[...] Read more

Recordings Lawrence Joseph Issue 140

Anna Webber. Idiom. Born in British Columbia, trained at McGill University, and living in New York since 2008, flutist, saxophonist, and composer Anna Webber is one of the most critically acclaimed forces in new music today. This latest double CD release reveals that her musical language easily matches her past[...] Read more

Recordings Lawrence Joseph Issue 140

Barbara Monk Feldman. Verses. The Northern Shore alludes in its title to Gaspé Peninsula, eastern Quebec, where the St. Lawrence flows into the Atlantic. The four other titles on this disc lack such site specificity, yet all five compositions may be heard as meditations on diffusion. The presence of each note as[...] Read more

Recordings Julian Cowley Issue 140

Various Artists. Music for Violas, Bass Clarinets & Flutes. As a conceptual blueprint, Lori Freedman’s To the Bridge (2014) connects five miniatures using four bridges. As a solo performance and listening experience, it’s a riveting, visceral tour de force. This recording was made at a concert of music with spectral orientation, hosted by[...] Read more

Recordings Julian Cowley Issue 140

Alex Eddington. A Present from a Small Distant World. An a cappella chorus of alien echoes accompanied by gritty electronics launches A Present from a Small Distant World. It is singing President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Voyager speech, the grainy reverberating voices chanting “we cast this message / into the cosmos,” ringing in[...] Read more

Recordings Vanessa Ague

Désolee. Enter Here. After nearly five years of dormancy, revered Toronto tape label Craft Singles has re-emerged from the underground with a bruised treasure: a cassette edition of Enter Here (also available on digital format), the debut album of avant-garde noise outfit Désolee, a recording project[...] Read more

Recordings Brennan McCracken Issue 139

Wormwood. My Two Minds Become Air. For the better part of the past decade, the London, Ontario-based husband-and-wife duo Wormwood have been quietly cultivating an aura of mystique with their spellbinding electroacoustic compositions. On their latest record, My Two Minds Become Air, the pair diverge from the IDM and[...] Read more

Recordings Griffin Martell Issue 139

The Underflow. Instant Opaque Evening. An evocatively named trio, the Underflow brings together three stars of the global experimental music scene, all with long-running ties to the city of Chicago: guitarist David Grubbs, saxophone virtuoso Mats Gustafsson, and cornetist Rob Mazurek. One senses the presence of the undertow in[...] Read more

Recordings Kurt Newman Issue 139

Scott Thomson. Pal o’Alto. Trombonist Scott Thomson has split much of his creative life between Montreal and Toronto. On this series of improvised duets with alto saxophonists, he explores key musical relationships in the two cities, playing with four distinctive musicians: Montrealers Yves Charuest and Jean Derome[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 139

Walter Smetak. Smetak & Interregno. The first comprehensive biographical article on Walter Smetak in English was published in Musicworks 121 (2015). Since then, interest has been growing: in 2017 the BBC Radio show Hear and Now dedicated an episode to his work; Smetak was the only artist to receive a full chapter in Sound Art[...] Read more

Recordings Neil Leonard Issue 139