“Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms / Inside your head, and people in them, acting.” These lines from “The Old Fools,” English postwar poet Philip Larkin’s fearsome ode to aging, sparked Montreal composer Ana Sokolović’s full-length opera of the same title, which the Canadian Opera Company commissioned in late 2018 and is scheduled toContinue reading “Ana Sokolović wants you to enjoy her imagination”
Article Type Archives
Laraaji, Forever Expanding in Experimental Directions
New Age legend Laraaji has soared through a five-decade artistic voyage, propelled by the fiery spirit of positivity that’s represented by his trademark orange clothes. The seventy-six-year-old African-American visionary, who continues to joyfully record, perform, and present laughter-meditation workshops around the world, kicked off 2019 with a pair of releases from Canadian labels. The firstContinue reading “Laraaji, Forever Expanding in Experimental Directions”
Charlie Morrow, Sonic Nomad
“My work is what it is and I move in many worlds. I would have nothing except for being carried on the shoulders of friendship and shared interest.” Intrepid sonic investigator Charlie Morrow’s early-’90s Lower East Side event, Urban Jungle, spilled out way beyond the confines of the Sareido Gallery on West Broadway, mushrooming intoContinue reading “Charlie Morrow, Sonic Nomad”
The Restless Sonic Architecture of William Kuo
Adjudicating applications for an emerging-composer program is a sort of high-volume evaluation scenario that necessitates a concentrated mode of listening in order to provide fair and sufficiently individualized appraisals. But every so often, you come across a candidate whose music is so immediately arresting that it shatters this hyperfocus and engulfs you. This is preciselyContinue reading “The Restless Sonic Architecture of William Kuo”
Bekah Simms’ Skinscape and Elliott Lupp’s Hinge
Bekah Simms’ Skinscape received an honourable mention from the jury of Musicworks’ 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest. Skinscape is a work for flute and fixed media inspired by the transformation of something intimately familiar into something processed and alien, particularly through the lens of tattooing. “Using almost exclusively flute samples for the fixed media part,Continue reading “Bekah Simms’ Skinscape and Elliott Lupp’s Hinge”
Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos
Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos won third place in Musicworks’ 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest, and also won first place in Category A of Musica Nova 2018 (the long-running international electroacoustic music composition competition presented by Society for Electroacoustic Music of Czech Republic). Chromatocosmos is an electroacoustic piece which is based on original recordings of the baglamas,Continue reading “Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos”
Wadada Leo Smith and the Possibilities of Dreaming
Think of this as a sketch. We’re not going to get into a complete report on the doings of Wadada Leo Smith here, his more than fifty recordings, his dozens of collaborations with luminaries from all over the globe, his long engagement with creative music. No, we’re merely orbiting the beautiful planet that is hisContinue reading “Wadada Leo Smith and the Possibilities of Dreaming”
Linda Catlin Smith Lets In the Light
It’s 2004. I am taking my first composition course at Mount Allison University. I have recently become enamoured of new music and am catching up on a long list of listening in the basement of the Alfred Whitehead Memorial Music Library. I come across Memory Forms (2001), a serene-looking disc with a still-life pear standingContinue reading “Linda Catlin Smith Lets In the Light”
Samuel Andreyev’s Sonic Organisms
There’s a strange duality about the music of Strasbourg-based Canadian composer Samuel Andreyev. His official bio states that his compositional process is “marked by a rigorous perfectionism,” which might immediately provoke the lazy cynic to slap it with the ultimate new-music pejorative: academic. His nimble ideas are, without fail, framed in tight, tidy structures andContinue reading “Samuel Andreyev’s Sonic Organisms”
11 Creative Music Festivals Making Waves in 2019
sponsored listings Intersection August 29 – September 1 in Toronto, Ontario Intersection is a four-day experimental music festival centered around a Saturday of free outdoor programming at Yonge-Dundas Square featuring a kaleidoscopic array of local and international acts from various corners of the avant-garde music world. Intersection this year kicks off with a free concertContinue reading “11 Creative Music Festivals Making Waves in 2019”
Trauma of My Mouth
In the spring of 2018, Chinese archeologists announced that they’d unearthed a four-thousand-year-old collection of jaw harps (kouxian in Chinese) at the Shimao ruins, a prehistoric site in Shenmu City in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. These artifacts, which were carved from bone, are the oldest jaw harps ever discovered, but various historic versions of theContinue reading “Trauma of My Mouth”
Musicworks 133
The lively stories in the Spring 2019 issue are sure to spark conversations about the diverse ways that people develop creative ideas and potential. BUY THE ISSUE NOW! ON THE COVER: Montreal’s Dominique Fils-Aimé has moved from the mainstream spotlight to a more intimate creative space where many genres unite in her powerful, elegant, and soulful music. TorontoContinue reading “Musicworks 133”
Luke Nickel Transmits a Living Score
Luke Nickel has written me a piece. No, wait. That’s not quite right. Luke Nickel has left me a series of sometimes vague, sometimes specific instructions via audio recordings of his voice, which I am only allowed to listen to once, so that I might create a piece. Confused? Let me explain. Over the courseContinue reading “Luke Nickel Transmits a Living Score”
Musicworks Unveils 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners
TORONTO, CANADA, March 8, 2019. For immediate release: Musicworks is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest. U.K. composer Manuella Blackburn (left)has won first prize with her composition Landline. An article about Blackburn will appear in Musicworks 133 (Spring 2019), available by subscription, from Musicworks’ shop, and on select CanadianContinue reading “Musicworks Unveils 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners”
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective: in memoriam . . . Project
THE EIGHTH PROJECT initiated by the Edmonton-based Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, in memoriam . . . , was nominally about a performance, but soon morphed into a unique achievement of seemingly infinite layers. Its complex genesis, motivations, resonances, and residual impact on its participants transcend its basic idea. It conveys a distinctively humane and elevated notion ofContinue reading “Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective: in memoriam . . . Project”
Musicworks 132
The final issue of Musicworks‘ 40th anniversary year features first-person stories, collaborative creativity, and a hint of chocolate. Buy it now! On the cover: Darcy Spidle Nova Scotia writer Darcy Spidle played in punk bands, ran the Divorce record label, and founded the annual OBEY Convention in Halifax. At the same time, he developed aContinue reading “Musicworks 132”
Maria de Alvear, Rebel By Nature
Contradiction is a huge theme in contemporary experimental music. Today’s most potent works situate the listener at hitherto unimaginable thresholds between seemingly irreconcilable points. While many artists use paradoxical scenarios as compositional devices, Spanish-German composer Maria de Alvear is one of those rare artists whose creative foundation actually reflects these contradictions. De Alvear’s defiantly uniqueContinue reading “Maria de Alvear, Rebel By Nature”
Peggy Lee and the Joy of Unknowable Notes
Her cello in a white case strapped to her small back, Peggy Lee had walked several unfamiliar blocks in her hometown Vancouver, since the bus dropped her at the edge of a genteel oceanside neighbourhood. She was looking for the Aberthau Mansion, where she would perform later that evening. Across a shaded park, Lee climbedContinue reading “Peggy Lee and the Joy of Unknowable Notes”
Jean-Sebastien Audet’s Songs of Ephemera
Jean-Sebastien Audet and I drink coffee in a café on Toronto’s Queen Street West, as we try to pin down his elusive music. The man who has kindly given us his larger table is now squeezed into a corner with his laptop and is feigning interest in nondescript wall art. He perks up his earsContinue reading “Jean-Sebastien Audet’s Songs of Ephemera”
The Warp and Weft of Kelly Ruth
In the history of musical instruments, the questions asked are pretty standard: Who played it? What did they play? How did it evolve? Kelly Ruth’s instrument, the weaving loom, carries an entirely different kind of history. It brings to mind mythology, solitary artisans, beautiful textiles, and the dangers and exploitations of mass production in “dark,Continue reading “The Warp and Weft of Kelly Ruth”
Sarah Hennies, Linguist in the Land of Noises
Identity is a deeply personal, elusive, and complex thing, and thus, a common source of creative fuel. Yet for the endless variety of discrete identities and individual perspectives on the topic, there is a dominant set of tropes around the way that identity is addressed artistically. The supposed concreteness of narrative is often turned to,Continue reading “Sarah Hennies, Linguist in the Land of Noises”
Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut
The first time I heard Jeremy Dutcher on the radio, I was driving my son and some of his non-Native teammates to soccer practice in Peterborough. I had tuned in to the CBC a few bars into Dutcher’s single “Honour Song,” and the fifteen-year-old boys in the car fell silent. “Holy Simpson [read Mom], a NishContinue reading “Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut”
Sam Shalabi and the Evolution of a Global Aesthetic
Sam Shalabi’s insightful musical take on the world can provoke both discomfort and laughter. On his numerous solo albums, he meshes guitar, oud, and field recordings into an electroacoustic collage. He leads a wide variety of small and midsize groups that encompass a who’s who of Montreal improvisers, as well as musicians of international renown,Continue reading “Sam Shalabi and the Evolution of a Global Aesthetic”
2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview
The usual anticipation for nice weather has been feeling like more like desperation—a longing for warmth, good vibes, and the freedom to explore everything under the sun. I am planning to fill my “no Netflix” summer with as many park hangouts, patios, concerts, and spontaneous events as possible. Musicworks’ staff, contributors, and other friendly earsContinue reading “2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview”