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Hans-Joachim Roedelius floats against the current

On an unseasonably warm night in October, Toronto’s Monarch Tavern was packed to the rafters for a living legend. German electronic and ambient music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius—best known as a cofounder of 1970s experimental groups Cluster and Harmonia, renowned for their celebrated collaborations with Brian Eno—sat behind the bar’s piano with a pair of glowingContinue reading “Hans-Joachim Roedelius floats against the current”

OBEY Convention X.

“In New York, there would be twelve people here,” venerable Halifax percussionist and mentor Jerry Granelli declares. “Here we are in Halifax, and tons of people are coming out to hear weird music!” OBEY is weird. Its programming is marked by an aesthetic of eclecticism that reflects the diversity of contemporary expressive music. (“Experimental” andContinue reading “OBEY Convention X.”

The Astral Excursions of John Mills-Cockell

The imagination of electronic composer John Mills-Cockell exists in a liminal space. His music, with its neon-pastoral glow, feels neither jarringly futuristic nor soothingly nostalgic. Nevertheless, as the very first Canadian owner of a Moog synthesizer (purchased the same day Wendy Carlos bought hers from creator Robert Moog in Trumansburg, New York), Mills-Cockell is rightlyContinue reading “The Astral Excursions of John Mills-Cockell”

Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche. Pas Pire Pop, I Love You So Much.

“Theme and variations” isn’t exactly rock ‘n’ roll’s modus operandi, unless you count the retrograde lyrical motif of “cars, girls, repeat.” But thanks to this modern-day Montreal quartet, it’s no longer the exclusive domain of Mozart and Elgar. Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche (“with the sun coming out of his/her mouth”) has aContinue reading “Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche. Pas Pire Pop, I Love You So Much.”

Plumes Deconstructs Grimes

Many Visions: Plumes Deconstructs the Music of Grimes is a genre-spanning music collaboration that seeks to explore and ultimately blur the lines between classical and pop. Thirteen contemporary classical composers have been asked to reimagine and rework the thirteen tracks on Grimes’ 2012 album Visions in, as it were, their own vision. The new works—byContinue reading “Plumes Deconstructs Grimes”

Electric Eclectics 2016.

THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE AT ELECTRIC ECLECTICS IS THAT YOU’RE NEVER REALLY BALANCED. The three-day midsummer festival of weird music and art takes place at Gordon Monahan and Laura Kikauka’s Funny Farm in Meaford, Ontario, which has hardly any level ground. The ground in front of the stage slopes away from it, not towardsContinue reading “Electric Eclectics 2016.”

Various Artists. Kudatah—Vol. 1

Electronic dance music has always been notorious for its overly rarefied stylistic niches. Within the past few years, the cartoonish overabundance of incomprehensible genre designations has folded in on itself, producing a vast polymorphous body of peculiar and self-aware work. Record labels like 1080p, Orange Milk, Los Discos Enfantasmes, PC Music, and Noumenal Loom haveContinue reading “Various Artists. Kudatah—Vol. 1”