Why has a vibrant community of emerging composers chosen British Columbia’s cozy, scenic capital over more bustling contemporary-music hubs? THERE’S A DEEP HUSH in the church where I am sitting and nervously listening to an especially slow and fragile performance of my piece Ruins. It’s not that familiar, polite, sneeze-stifling, concert-quiet; it’s something else altogether: anContinue reading “Victoria Composers Cultivate a Place to Listen”
Author Archives: Musicworks
Spool: Music in the Margins
CERTAIN LABELS are very much the product of a particular vision and exude cohesion of an almost iconic order—one that even seems to magically weather shifts in taste and approach. ECM’s elegant black and white photography, sans serif typeset, and crisp, reverberant sonic profile is a universe unto itself, carefully sculpted by its founder ManfredContinue reading “Spool: Music in the Margins”
What’s Inside Musicworks 129?
BUY THE WINTER 2017 PRINT ISSUE OR THE PRINT+CD ISSUE FROM OUR NEW SHOP! Take a peek at what’s between the covers and the tracklist on the CD: ON THE COVER: Geronimo Inutiq The music and media art of Geronimo Inutiq recently attracted attention from the New York Times, which described his piece in the 2017 Musée d’ArtContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 129?”
the art of crowdsourcing
I “Like,” “Love,” “Follow,” and otherwise engage with an array of working musicians and music people—from coast to coast and beyond—through my Musicworks and personal social-media channels. They share news of residencies or gigs or recordings, commiserate, debate, and celebrate. And when they’re researching sound equipment or places to crash—or specialized things like score proofreaders—theyContinue reading “the art of crowdsourcing”
Julie Andreyev and Simon Lysander Overstall’s Biophilia
November, some might say, is not the ideal time to visit the wild West Coast. The days are short, the leaves are down. In any normal year, monsoon season will have kicked in, producing alternating bands of drizzle and downpour, both equally grey and almost equally wet. But when the International Society for Contemporary MusicContinue reading “Julie Andreyev and Simon Lysander Overstall’s Biophilia”
Michael Pounds’ “Breathing 2: Re/Inspiration”
Michael Pounds began his career as a mechanical engineer, receiving a B.S. from Ohio University. After working at the NASA Lewis Research Center, he returned to the academic world to study music composition with a focus on computer music and music technology. After undergraduate music studies at Bowling Green State University he earned graduate degreesContinue reading “Michael Pounds’ “Breathing 2: Re/Inspiration””
Another Timbre’s Canadian Composers Series
“I earn my living as a sound recordist on TV programs,” Simon Reynell relates. “I don’t put creative energies into that, but it’s well paid, so I don’t have to work more than an average of six days a month, which allows me to spend most of my time on the label, doing the thingsContinue reading “Another Timbre’s Canadian Composers Series”
Artificiel’s “Three Pieces With Titles”
“I had never seen such new things before. I didn’t even know what a new object could be,” the poet and art critic André Salmon wrote, after visiting the studio of Pablo Picasso in the spring of 1914. Of particular interest to Salmon was Guitar, a wall-mounted 3-D collage of a semi-exploded guitar built withContinue reading “Artificiel’s “Three Pieces With Titles””
Senyawa plays the music of the universe
On a chilly, rainy Thursday May night, a crowd of sixty or so people, spread unevenly around the pews of Halifax’s Fort Massey United Church, is waiting. OBEY Convention creative director Andrew Patterson has just introduced Indonesian “doom folk” duo Senyawa, but after the applause has faded they have still not appeared. Finally, two diminutiveContinue reading “Senyawa plays the music of the universe”
Bekah Simms’ Music of Discomfort
Bekah Simms likes music that challenges. “I don’t want to ever get too comfortable,” she tells me, as we sit down to talk about her work. “I don’t want it ever to be super easy to write a piece, because I feel like then I won’t be a better composer when I’m done it.” It’sContinue reading “Bekah Simms’ Music of Discomfort”