Skip to content

Musicworks

Genre Archives

Ion Zoo. Venus Looks Good.

Vancouver-based Ion Zoo has released one previous CD, Set Free at the Cellar (on the NOW Orchestra label), a fine live performance that introduced the quartet, which comprises singer Carol Sawyer; Steve Bagnell on reeds, from baritone saxophone to clarinet, as well as percussion; Lisa Miller on piano; and Clyde Reed on bass. This secondContinue reading “Ion Zoo. Venus Looks Good.”

Drip Audio.

Violinist Jesse Zubot’s Drip Audio label has spent the last seven years releasing over thirty strongly produced records that have served as important documents of the improvised music scene in Vancouver. A dip into the back catalogue reveals a wildly interconnected scene—practically every release shares at least one performer with any other release on theContinue reading “Drip Audio.”

Joe Hertenstein/Thomas Heberer/Joachim Badenhorst/Pascal Niggenkemper. Polylemma.

Drummer Joe Hertenstein defines polylemma as “a choice from multiple options, each of which is (or appears) equally (un-)acceptable or (un-)favourable.” He then applies the term to one of his compositions here and also to the group, a quartet of European musicians—Germans Hertenstein, quarter-tone trumpeter Thomas Heberer (best known for his subtle presence in Amsterdam’sContinue reading “Joe Hertenstein/Thomas Heberer/Joachim Badenhorst/Pascal Niggenkemper. Polylemma.”

Kris Davis. Aeriol Piano.

Kris Davis is a Calgary-born pianist who has followed a path from the University of Toronto to the Banff Centre, eventually to settle in New York in 2001. There she has gradually established herself as a musician who happily resides in the special terrain that has arisen between free jazz and improvised music, working regularlyContinue reading “Kris Davis. Aeriol Piano.”

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 27 Edition. Victoriaville, Quebec. May 19–22, 2011.

FIMAV has a distinctive character, from its unlikely location in rustic Victoriaville, an hour’s drive from Quebec City, to its insistence on celebrating so many musical frontiers: free jazz, rock, electroacoustic improvisation, DJs, and sound-art installations. Despite its rich history, “Victo” isn’t resting on its laurels. Following its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2008, there have beenContinue reading “Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 27 Edition. Victoriaville, Quebec. May 19–22, 2011.”

Maïkotron Unit. Ex-Voto.

This Montreal-based trio, together since 1984, is a fluent jazz-based ensemble with Michel Coté on saxophones and bass clarinet, Pierre Coté on bass and cello, and Michel Lambert on drums. Michel Coté and Lambert also play maïkotron, a brass-reed hybrid with a saxophone mouthpiece, a combination of valves and keys and multiple bells, with aContinue reading “Maïkotron Unit. Ex-Voto.”

Bill Dixon. Envoi.

American trumpeter Bill Dixon began composing his moody, darkly abstract music in the mid-60s, fusing free jazz with modernist chamber music elements touching on Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Envoi is the last of these works, recorded at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville just three weeks prior to Dixon’s death in June 2010. Dixon’s failing health requiredContinue reading “Bill Dixon. Envoi.”

Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.

I’m an avid music collector with wildly eclectic tastes, and this book spoke to me like few books have before. I instantly connected with the accounts by the seven individuals involved in the project. In the book’s first section, music enthusiasts and contributors Lawrence Joseph, Dan Lander, Donal McGraith, Bill Smith, Alan Stanbridge, Scott Thomson,Continue reading “Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.”