“I’M JUST GOING TO TOUCH IT ON THE TOP,” SAYS CARMEN BRADEN, LOOKING AT A BLACKENED PORCUPINE-LIKE LUMP OF ICE. “WHAT I THINK WILL HAPPEN: IT’S JUST GOING TO FALL APART. READY?” It’s May 2014, and she’s talking to a camera. Her now-husband, Eli Purchase, is filming her on the banks of the Mackenzie RiverContinue reading “Carmen Braden Raises the Volume on the Subarctic”
Author Archives: Musicworks
The Material Soundscapes of Roarke Menzies
On a Sunday afternoon this past June I visited Outlet Fine Art, one of many independent galleries and performance spaces that have popped up in and around the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Bushwick in recent years. I was there to attend a performance by sound artist Roarke Menzies, the second in his series of appearances inContinue reading “The Material Soundscapes of Roarke Menzies”
The Musical Lightness of Éric Normand
The world of improvised music has spawned a core of musician–organizers who have built scenes and networks and record labels to support and extend the music. Few, however, have achieved what Éric Normand has, creating a hotbed of free improvisation in the relatively isolated little city of Rimouski, more than 500 kilometres northeast of MontrealContinue reading “The Musical Lightness of Éric Normand”
Erin Gee Sings the Body Electronic
SHOULD YOU EVER FIND YOURSELF IN A CONFINED SPACE WITH ERIN GEE, PREPARE TO BE ENTERTAINED, AND PERHAPS ALSO PUZZLED—AT LEAST BRIEFLY. “If someone meets me in an elevator,” she tells Musicworks in a telephone interview from her office in downtown Montreal, “my elevator pitch is that I explore the communicative potential of the human voice inContinue reading “Erin Gee Sings the Body Electronic”
the centre is wherever
Are you experienced? Even if you haven’t strapped on a virtual reality headset to interact with brave new computer-simulated worlds or to visit real-life remote locations (Mount Everest!) or to watch 360° music videos, news documentaries, and pro-sports games, you know that V.R. is here. Earlier this year, I started wondering about the role ofContinue reading “the centre is wherever”
Daniel Blinkhorn’s frostbYte—wildflower [ONLINE EXCLUSIVE]
Daniel Blinkhorn is an Australian composer and sound and new-media artist currently residing in Sydney. He has worked in a variety of creative, academic, research, and teaching contexts. An ardent location field recordist, he has embarked on many recording expeditions; his sonic travels have taken him throughout Africa, Alaska, the Amazon, the West Indies, NorthernContinue reading “Daniel Blinkhorn’s frostbYte—wildflower [ONLINE EXCLUSIVE]”
Ocean Bug and Bird Songs
BORN CONFUSED. FLY AT LIGHT. Tonight you June bugs pelt my office window in a relentless barrage—desperate wings fanning air that will not hold and tap-tap-tap-tap-tap on the glass. I turn off the lights, sneak outside, guide you through the yard by the glow of my phone. A conductor of insects. Flap-flap-flap-flap-flap. We serenade eachContinue reading “Ocean Bug and Bird Songs”
Dasha Rush: Dark Hearts of Space
The prospects are grim for a person who has fallen into a black hole. The gravitational forces exerted by these mysterious regions of space are so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape, once it passes a certain proximity threshold. From a safe distance, the unlucky soul would appear to stretch and smear as it approachedContinue reading “Dasha Rush: Dark Hearts of Space”
New Stages For New Music
Intense purple LED light washes over the Thin Edge New Music Collective (ABOVE PHOTO) as they scramble to soundcheck, seeming to heighten the chaotic mood at Long Winter, Toronto’s monthly interarts festival series during the coldest season. Two different sources of electric guitar bleed into the room from other performance spaces inside the historic, ramblingContinue reading “New Stages For New Music”
Public Recordings’ what we are saying
“Is being together possible?” The first words spoken in what we are saying, a sound–dance piece by the Toronto-based experimental performance company Public Recordings, have a disruptive effect—an abrupt imposition of language into an initially wordless and ambient sound environment, presenting the basis for what’s to come: a language-propelled choreography of sounds, bodies, objects, andContinue reading “Public Recordings’ what we are saying”