The final issue of 2020 is is dedicated to the art of conversation . . . in music and about music. Unable to practice, perform, or listen to music together in person in a room, music friends have been meeting each other in other kinds of venues—including the pages of Musicworks—to make and talk aboutContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 138?”
Author Archives: Musicworks
Aidan Baker’s Ambient Autonomy
Over the past twenty years, Berlin-based Canadian guitarist and composer Aidan Baker has developed a creative rhythm, using his guitar as a gateway to seemingly disparate sounds and marrying noise, krautrock, metal, drone, and free jazz in thrilling and unexpected ways. Through his workmanlike approach, he has amassed a sprawling discography—the selected discography on hisContinue reading “Aidan Baker’s Ambient Autonomy”
Susan Alcorn’s Vibrant Deviations
Susan Alcorn moves through life in methodical motion, a few beats slower than the usual rapid flow. At the 2020 edition of Toronto’s Women From Space festival, held in mid March, the pedal steel guitarist’s entrancing performance made the Burdock Tavern feel as if clocks had frozen and the room had entered zero gravity. InContinue reading “Susan Alcorn’s Vibrant Deviations”
Markus Floats’ Motion Emotion
How do you think and write about sound outside of metaphor? Is music necessarily tethered to other aspects of our sensuous and interior lives? Or can we appreciate its meaning more essentially—as energy and dynamics, waves and reverberation? These questions come up around the work of many contemporary musicians working in and around unconventional composition.Continue reading “Markus Floats’ Motion Emotion”
An Inexhaustible Source of Wild Music
In the 1970s, electronic music studios at the University of Toronto and McGill University sparked exciting ideas in guitar composition. With a focus on the evolution of Canadian works for guitar and electroacoustics, guitarist and composer Amy Brandon tracks key events and works from then to now. (Check out Amy’s SoundCloud playlist at the bottomContinue reading “An Inexhaustible Source of Wild Music”
C. Diab’s Cascadian Guitar Music
Vancouver-based bowed guitarist Caton Diab (who composes as C. Diab) makes sonorous music that you feel deeply. Primarily crafted on an acoustic guitar with a pickup, effects pedals, a loop station, and bow, Diab’s textured and mournful tones rattle your bones and settle into your heart, coaxing you into acknowledging your emotions. Diab has referredContinue reading “C. Diab’s Cascadian Guitar Music”
Eliza Kavtion’s Call and Response
In her spellbinding live show, Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist Eliza Kavtion twists threads from documentary films, punk-rock distortion, and hip-hop innovation together with her wailing, virtuosic guitar playing. She and guitar become one: a fury of fuzzy drones, rhythmic sputters, and menacing loops, out of which emerge soaring melodies and defiant roars. Off the stage, Kavtion considersContinue reading “Eliza Kavtion’s Call and Response”
Musicworks launches the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique
Please share this news with your friends, collaborators, and community. Musicworks launches the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique as part of its annual Electronic Music Composition Contest [this was announced in September 2020] Donor-supported annual prize awards $300 to a self-identified female or non-binary composer 2022 EMCContinue reading “Musicworks launches the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique”
Casey Koyczan Resonates the Future
In early July 2020 it was my pleasure to interview Tlicho Dene interdisciplinary artist Casey Koyczan. He is extremely generous and open. I have done my best to represent our conversation in order for readers to discover and understand his creative practices. Focusing on the Northwest Territories, specifically Yellowknife, where he lived for several years,Continue reading “Casey Koyczan Resonates the Future”
New Frequencies
This issue of Musicworks comes preloaded with guitars. Hollow, heavy, bowed, cracked, pedalled, flung. Trusty companions. Feedback demons. Easy to pick up, hard to put down. While I do not declare this as The Guitar Issue, I do aver that the guitar informed my aleatoric curatorial process for Musicworks 137. Last year Nova Scotia guitaristContinue reading “New Frequencies”