Down here in the basement the air is sticky and humid, and the music is loud. I can feel the bass moving through my body. It’s in the floor, beneath me. Up on the top floors you can listen to music, too, but in the basement you can play it loud. The room is nestledContinue reading “A Eulogy for Café Resonance”
Author Archives: Musicworks
You Can Can’s Tonal Possibilities
In late March, Felicity Williams and Andrew Zukerman found themselves in a familiar place—the Main Hall of Toronto’s Tranzac Club—doing something they haven’t done before: performing live as the experimental electronic–folk act You Can Can. Zukerman is an audio and visual collage artist who releases music under the Fleshtone Aura moniker and collaborates with BadgeContinue reading “You Can Can’s Tonal Possibilities”
Wayne Lavallee’s Journey to Bones of Crows
Wayne Lavallee has taken an adventurous creative path to reach his latest milestone: writing music with fellow Vancouver musician Jesse Zubot for filmmaker Marie Clements’ Bones of Crows, one of the largest Indigenous-led production in Canadian screen history. Lavallee grew up in residential schools and foster care and left home to start working at ageContinue reading “Wayne Lavallee’s Journey to Bones of Crows”
Nicole Mitchell and Coco Elysses at Women From Space
“How is wonder experienced in your life?” This text has been placed in a small gold frame, tucked under a tree-like structure with leaves of dazzling colour, and left for curious concertgoers to find at Women From Space (WFS), a four-day festival that celebrates and creates space for women’s innovation during the International Women’s DayContinue reading “Nicole Mitchell and Coco Elysses at Women From Space”
Levy Lorenzo Maximizes the Human Algorithm
New York City’s David Geffen Hall opened its doors again to the public in October 2022, and the New York Philharmonic wasted no time in settling back into its reimagined home. After departing from Carnegie Hall in 1962, the orchestra performed in David Geffen Hall’s previous incarnation, which was muddled with acoustic problems; the newContinue reading “Levy Lorenzo Maximizes the Human Algorithm”
Simone Schmidt’s Audible Songs of Defiant Meaning
“Can you believe that you can record a song?” Simone Schmidt says. “I’m not even trying to sound like a stoner. It blows my mind. It’s total magic. It seems like something worth devoting a lot of time to. I never get over it.” The creative process behind Schmidt’s visionary country songs is rooted inContinue reading “Simone Schmidt’s Audible Songs of Defiant Meaning”
Resequencing Resonances
Resonances are ghosts. They accentuate unseen presences of sounding bodies as they amplify frequencies inherent in them. Noted Italian composer Luciano Berio explored the transfer of energy from one body to another in his Sequenza X (1984), which requires a pianist to silently depress keys and pedals while a trumpeter blasts accented notes to activateContinue reading “Resequencing Resonances”
What’s Inside Musicworks 144?
Cozy up with the Winter 2022–23 issue and discover new pathways of sonic connectivity! ON THE COVER: SLOWPITCHSOUND With roots in turntablism that extend into the likes of classical composition, sound design, and theatre, Toronto-based artist and musician Cheldon Paterson—aka SlowPitchSound—is an artist whose music is difficult to define. In an interview with Musicworks contributing editorContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 144?”
Jessica Moss Explores the Orchestra Within
If there is a through line connecting traditional Eastern European klezmer, indie rock, and experimental drone music, it can be found in the work of Jessica Moss. Whether her music is acoustic or electronic, post-rock or post-classical, a stark and dramatic amplified violin performance or a lively klezmer tune with mandolin and Yiddish vocals, Moss’sContinue reading “Jessica Moss Explores the Orchestra Within”
The Quasi-Punk-Rock Life of Du Yun
Whether exploring a musical idea on her own or working with a new collaborator, Du Yun follows her intuition. The New York-based composer, performer, and curator—currently professor of composition at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and distinguished visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music—has said that her work is often aboutContinue reading “The Quasi-Punk-Rock Life of Du Yun”