For many composers, a work in progress comes with strings attached—no pun intended. There are arts councils and concert presenters to satisfy, musicians to liaise with, premiere dates that draw ever closer. Deadlines, of course, can get the juices flowing, and creative constraints (such as writing for a specific ensemble) can certainly focus the mind.Continue reading “Emilie LeBel’s Field Notes”
Author Archives: Musicworks
We Are All Connected
I have often stopped to listen to the trees during a walk in a forest on a breezy day. Only recently, however, did I realize that it is possible to stop and listen to the fungi. Mycelium is the underground network of fungal threads that connects the roots of different plants and provides a kindContinue reading “We Are All Connected”
What’s Inside Musicworks 135?
The artists in the Winter 2019 issue are connected through the sonic mycelium of Musicworks! Order the Winter issue now. Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Illuminations Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Illuminations is one of the most sonically beguiling, technologically groundbreaking, and undeniably brilliant albums of the 1960s folk era. Sadly, it failed to find commercial success upon its release in 1969 andContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 135?”
Amy Brandon is Capturing Intimate Chaos
The first time I met guitarist-composer Amy Brandon, we talked about the lineage of a particular sound. Her 2019 composition Mimic—written while she participated in the Canadian League of Composers’ Pivot mentorship progam (presented in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre and Continuum Contemporary Music)—contains a percussion technique in which a woodblock set on topContinue reading “Amy Brandon is Capturing Intimate Chaos”
Ana Sokolović wants you to enjoy her imagination
“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”
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”
Sami Blanco’s Experimental Atmospheres
Yellowknife-based experimental electronic-music artist Sami Blanco plays me a snippet of a soundbank he made for late-night broadcast on Yellowknife’s francophone radio station, CIVR-FM, familiarly known as Radio Taïga. Emerging from a Korg MS2000—the virtual analog synthesizer Blanco dreamed about owning since he was sixteen—is a dazzling sequence that twinkles like stars on a clearContinue reading “Sami Blanco’s Experimental Atmospheres”
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”
Mystery & Wonder Records: Extending the Sound
A striking musical and visual aesthetic distinguishes Mystery & Wonder Records from other artist-curated labels. The recordings are concise yet complete musical statements. High-definition sound with a lively, in-your-face feel results from microphones placed very close to the instruments. Releases are downloadable from the label’s Website but are more fully appreciated on vinyl or CD,Continue reading “Mystery & Wonder Records: Extending the Sound”