ON THE COVER Lisa Conway
Lisa Conway's music bridges sound installation, improvisation, experimental composition, and song. In conversation with Sara Constant, Conway traces her creative journey across the genre and disciplinary lines of Canada's experimental music scene. She studied with fiddler-composer Oliver Schroer in rural B.C., improvised with dancers and played in bands while studying in Toronto, and delved into the sonic arts in Belfast. Now based in Montreal, Conway is experimenting with finicky feedback and reel-to-reel tape, developing a theory of technical troubleshooting as an artistic practice, and learning how traditional instruments like the alphorn summon complicated forms of resonance.
Cover photo by Stacy Lee.
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Kalun Leung
Trombonist and performer-composer Kalun Leung learned at a young age that art is a way to relate to the world around us. While studying at NYC's New School he began revelatory immersions in experimental art. Since then, he has been creating augmented instruments (the mubone) and playing with technology and like-minded musicians. Shortly after returning from the 2025 Darmstadt Summer Course, Leung invites writer Luke Ottenhof to his residency studio in Montreal's Perte de Signal and walks him through his journey in sound and his efforts in the larger movement to tear down the hegemony of composer worship.
Susie Ibarra
With jazz and avant-garde beginnings as a percussionist and composer, Filipinx-American interdisciplinary artist and 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Susie Ibarra is now expanding her work into opening ears and minds to the rhythms of forests, water, and geological landscapes. But are natural environments simply fodder for creativity? After attending the Something Else! Festival in Hamilton, Ontario, in June 2025, writer Juro Kim Feliz explores the place where sky islands and rhythms converge, whether in Ibarra's research and music, in her advocacy for climate justice, or in hearing birds sing in their natural habitats.
Mali Obomsawin
Bassist and composer Mali Obomsawin's roots run deep. Her musician father inspired her love for jazz. In Maine, where she grew up, she learned songs from vibrant local folk scene. The music and culture of her Abenaki heritage also had a strong presence in her home. She composed the score for the Oscar-nominated Sugarcane, an investigation into the lives of residential school survivors. And she's working with her ensemble on Triage, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2022 album Sweet Tooth. She talks to Kurt Gottschalk about heritage, family, and the music all around her.
Also inside . . .
For his solo project ASKO, Marek Tyler was guided by advisors through a process of cultural exploration that helped him to interpret his ancestors’ teachings through electronic soundscapes. In a conversation with Rosie Long Decter, he shares stories about his journey in music and the creative collaboration behind ASKO and outline some of the policy items he feels are necessary forIndigenous artists find steady work and, in many cases, remain in their home communities .
Montreal’s late-night listening vibe gets cozy with Koala Karnival.
We review new releases from Lina Allemano Four; The Dwarfs of East Agouza; Endlings + VNM; Beny Esguerra, New Tradition Music, and Gaita Loop; Rebecca Foon; i.o.; Cecilia Kang, Angela Park, and Wanyun Ensemble; Terry Riley; Linda Catlin Smith; Andrew Staniland; Webber/Morris Big Band.
We review Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival (Winnipeg); Soft Verges at Prairie Wires Modular’s Festival of Electronic Sound (Brandon) and the new graphic novel Fela: Music Is the Weapon.
Musicworks 152 | Fall 2025 CD
Lisa Conway
1> Alphorn Tape Loop I 3:41
2> 2 Heimatort 4:27
ASKO
3> nisis 3:05
Kalun Leung
4> Die Posaune 4:20
5> Conversations with Space & Architecture —Saint Laurent 10:23
Inside Cover Playlist
Stephen Seto / s:cage
6> when it all falls APART 8:09
Gayle Young and Robert Wheeler
7> Rabbits & Riliriks 14:42
Allen Ravenstine
8> Postcard from Dobbin Street 9:16
PHOTO BY STACY LEE
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