Vanessa Ague
Carmen Jaci. Happy Child. Netherlands-based French-Canadian Carmen Jaci crafts maximalist collages out of electric shards. Classical symphonies crash into dance beats and video game music-like bleeps, all coloured in neon. Happy Child codifies her style in seven pieces, each capturing a lightheartedness—and[...] Read more
No Hay Banda. I Had a Dream About This Place No Hay Banda, a commissioning group, presenter, and record label founded in Montreal in 2016, codifies their work in the Canadian experimental music scene on their adventurous debut album, I Had a Dream About This Place. The four-track record presents winding, texturally explorative pieces[...] Read more
Marina Hasselberg. Red Ricercar Primo, by composer Domenico Gabrielli, opens Vancouver cellist Marina Hasselberg’s Red by dropping us into a hollow, windy atmosphere that feels a little like a haunted house. Her cello gradually enters with a Bach-like solo, resonant and a little forlorn, surrounded by[...] Read more
An Laurence 安媛. Almost Touching. Montreal-based guitarist and vocalist An Laurence (An Laurence 安媛, in full) fervently explores every crevice of her instruments on her debut album Almost Touching. The record features six works for guitar, voice, and electronics, each traversing a different sonic palette including spiralling[...] Read more
Bekah Simms. Ghost Songs. On Ghost Songs, Toronto-based composer Bekah Simms has written music made of flying sparks and haunted echoes. The JUNO- and Gaudeamus Award-nominated composer often explores all-consuming atmospheres through visceral textures and nervous energy. Ghost Songs follows this trajectory, creating[...] Read more
Aiyun Huang. Resonances. On Resonances, Toronto-based percussionist Aiyun Huang showcases an eclectic range of musical ideas. The seven-track album is out on the Chicago label Sideband, which was founded in 2020 to present a wide spectrum of new-music records. Resonances features works by an assortment of[...] Read more
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
Saman Shahi. Breathing in the Shadows. Iranian-Canadian composer Saman Shahi is full of surprises. He writes music for anything from films to electric guitars, makes rock fusion music, and directs concert bands. On Breathing in the Shadows, his debut album, he pulls yet another compositional style from his massive toolkit in[...] Read more
JunctQín Keyboard Collective. reTHiNK. On reTHiNK, JunctQín Keyboard Collective presents an eclectic collection of piano compositions new and old that vibrantly showcases their broad range. While this trio, comprising Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie Chua, has been performing together for more than a decade,[...] Read more