Musicworks is pleased to announce that Panayiotis Kokoras has won first prize in the 2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest for Viper Snake. “I have been following Musicworks for more than 15 years, so this recognition is especially meaningful to me,” said Kokoras upon receiving the news. “Viper Snake explores the physicality, friction, and volatileContinue reading “2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners Announced!”
Genre Archives
Ohama’s Alternative Dimensions
Tona Walt Ohama has lived many lives. Born on a potato farm in Southern Alberta, he has spent the past forty years making passionate, deeply personal music while forging friendly connections with anyone who enters his orbit. Since his debut album, the 1982 cassette release Midnite News, Ohama has become a prolific producer and sound-artContinue reading “Ohama’s Alternative Dimensions”
Gordon Grdina. Oddly Enough: The Music of Tim Berne.
During COVID-19 lockdowns, Brooklyn-based Tim Berne began sending idiosyncratic compositions to Vancouver guitarist Gordon Grdina. As soon as one of the interpretations was recorded and emailed back, Berne dispatched another. This back-and-forth continued for a year until enough music was collected for this album. A polymath soloist, Grdina plays Berne’s variations on acoustic and classicalContinue reading “Gordon Grdina. Oddly Enough: The Music of Tim Berne.”
Alejandro Morse, Cian, and Eduardo Padilla. Einath.
Translating the ephemeral and serendipitous qualities of live, improvised collaboration onto a recording is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. Those singular moments of intuitive interplay between performers are highly elusive and are sometimes diminished or entirely lost in the process of their reproduction. True musical improvisation—its radical newness—is arguably only fully realizedContinue reading “Alejandro Morse, Cian, and Eduardo Padilla. Einath.”
Joyfultalk. Familiar Science.
Crousetown, Nova Scotia’s Jay Crocker revs up Joyfultalk for another kinetic record of rhythm and ooze. Whereas previous Joyfultalk outings have grown out of Crocker’s singular, often solitary practice of instrument-building (he calls his creations “compositional systems”), Familiar Science finds him engaging former collaborators to expand his palate. Recording were created by Nicola Miller (saxophoneContinue reading “Joyfultalk. Familiar Science.”
Maurice Louca. Saet El-Hazz (The Luck Hour)
Some of the most mind-bending and genre-blending music is emerging from the fertile underground scene of Cairo, Egypt. Maurice Louca is a founding member of the Dwarfs of East Agouza trio with Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls fame and Montreal’s Sam Shalabi, as well as other Cairo-based groups such as Bikya and Alif. OriginallyContinue reading “Maurice Louca. Saet El-Hazz (The Luck Hour)”
New Chance. Real Time.
Last night I held my finger to the sky and stood still long enough for the moon to shift one degree and crest my fingertip. This observation—that we feel the Earth’s axis in the vector of gravity’s pull—may verge on axiomatic, but to witness the Earth’s rotation, rather than infer it, nevertheless felt grounding. RealContinue reading “New Chance. Real Time.”
Intersystems. #IV.
On Ghost—the first track on the new recording by the late ’60s Toronto exploratory psychedelic group Intersystems—a fragmented series of vignettes concresces over the irregular pulse of an analog synth patch. The lyrics, like the music they share space with, are unsettling: children play in tattered clothing; a crow is silent, “all tired out fromContinue reading “Intersystems. #IV.”
John Oliver. Isolation Journals.
Vancouver’s multifaceted John Oliver is a renowned composer and guitarist with vast experience—from opera to electroacoustic music. With COVID-19 restrictions limiting live performance opportunities over the past many months, it has been fascinating to observe the multitude of approaches that musicians have employed to keep the creative juices flowing. Here, Oliver contributes two innovative lockdownContinue reading “John Oliver. Isolation Journals.”
Alex Eddington. A Present from a Small Distant World.
An a cappella chorus of alien echoes accompanied by gritty electronics launches A Present from a Small Distant World. It is singing President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Voyager speech, the grainy reverberating voices chanting “we cast this message / into the cosmos,” ringing in ever-increasing strength. From there, the album’s celestial sound twists and turns throughContinue reading “Alex Eddington. A Present from a Small Distant World.”