ON THE COVER
Rémy Bélanger de Beauport
Rémy Bélanger de Beauport’s roots run deep in Quebec City, where he grew up and is now an activator in the city’s improvised music scene. An artist, cellist, and improviser, he creates communities of experimentalists, such as the Musique pas d’air concert series, the EMIC large improvising ensemble, and the GICLE experimental research group. He is also often heard improvising across Quebec, in large and small communities, and is a frequent guest collaborator of Ensemble Supermusique and the GGRIL. In this article focusing on his recent activities, which included a November 2024 tour with double-bass icon Joëlle Léandre, Terri Hron describes how Bélanger de Beauport’s generous, encouraging spirit permeates his projects and connections.
Lola de la Mata
When U.K.-based conceptual sound artist, composer, and musician Lola de la Mata was in her late twenties, a blast from a restaurant sound system gave her chronic tinnitus. She was advised to give up her music career. Instead, she made instruments out of ceramic, glass, and metal, visited a neuroscience laboratory to record the sounds in her head, and began composing, recording, and performing experimental music. Writer Angus MacCaull, who explores his tinnitus through his writing practice, speaks to de la Mata about what is means to bring the sounds out of her head to create stories. He also speaks with biophysicist Francesco Gianoli and Canadian musicologist Dr. Marcia Jenneth Epstein about how the human body perceives sound.
Untethering the Dragon
Koto artists Michiyo Yagi, Sarah Pagé, and Hiroko Nagai
Likened to a dragon, the koto—a traditional Japanese zither—evolved from seventh-century gagaku court music to innovations in modern instrument-building and avant-garde repertoire. Writer Juro Kim Feliz investigates the koto’s new-found homes amid trade wars and a changing global world order through the work of three artists; Tokyo-based composer and performer Michiyo Yagi, Montreal-based harpist Sarah Pagé, and Manila-based anthropologist and performer Hiroko Nagai. Creating a patchwork of koto futures, these three artists construct new solidarities out of traditional cultures in an increasingly polarizing world.
Also Inside
Yoo Doo Right takes its formidable instrumental post-rock into the stratosphere.
Kathryn Patricia Cobbler connects with audiences and dance collaborators with her loop-pedal viola improvisations.
Edzi'u, a Tahltan and Tlingit artist, explores stories and songs of the past through new ideas and technologies.
We talk to Rocío Cano Valiño, first-place winner of the 2024 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest.
We profile the Nova Scotia new classical label Leaf Music.
We review the 2025 Women from Space Festival (Toronto), and A Year of Deep Listening: 365 Text Scores for Pauline Oliveros.
We review new recordings from: Big | Brave; Brûlez les Meubles; Kara-Lis Coverdale; Michael Cloud Duguay; Dan Fortin; Andy Haas; loscil; Naomi McCarroll-Butler & Jason Doell; Diane Roblin & Life Force; and Nick Storring.
Summer 2025
Musicworks 151
Rocío Cano Valiño pg 6
1> Intortus 6:50
Edzi’u
2> Warrior Song 3:22
Yoo Doo Right pg 12
3> Ponders End 7:18
Kathryn Patricia Cobbler pg 17
4> Resolute 5:07
Rémy Bélanger de Beauport pg 22
5> Le pont et l’entrevue 3:29
6> Danses 3:02
7> mi 4:20
Lola de la Mata pg 28
8> Right Ear 1:32
9> Calibration God 3:30
10> Whorling 4:33
Koto: Michiyo Yagi pg 36
11> Whither 4:45 (with Tamaya Honda)
12> Bibi 4:08 (with Dai Fujikura)
Koto: Sarah Pagé pg 36
13> Premiers Pas au Marécage 6:36
14> Seracs 3:05 (with Jonah Fortune)
MW151 CD photo by Peter Gannushkin
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