For the better part of the past decade, the London, Ontario-based husband-and-wife duo Wormwood have been quietly cultivating an aura of mystique with their spellbinding electroacoustic compositions. On their latest record, My Two Minds Become Air, the pair diverge from the IDM and electronica-inspired sound of previous efforts, instead opting to indulge their filmic neo-classicalContinue reading “Wormwood. My Two Minds Become Air.”
Genre Archives
Anoush Moazzeni Weaves a New Narrative
In Anoush Moazzeni’s The drops of the rain become one with me, small mechanisms move inside and above an open grand piano. Wooden structures glide across the piano strings of their own accord, hammering and pressing the instrument with mallets, while microphones pick up sounds that are then processed digitally on a computer. Moazzeni, seatedContinue reading “Anoush Moazzeni Weaves a New Narrative”
The Audible Connections of Xuan Ye
On Xuan Ye’s website, layers of text, symbols, and images float across the home page like something halfway between poetry and code. The site is an ever-changing digital archeology of her artistic works across a wide range of sonic and visual media. All of it defies categorization. In concert programs, the first sentence of herContinue reading “The Audible Connections of Xuan Ye”
Alex Buck’s Screaming Trees
Convergence is often the magical force in the creative process that leads to an ear-catching work. Two or more seemingly disparate elements meet in the imagination of an artist who unites them into something new that resonates with both universal and personal meaning. This is the story behind Brazilian composer Alex Buck’s evocative eight-minute sonicContinue reading “Alex Buck’s Screaming Trees”
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is just scratching the surface
“My relationship to sound is [an] obsession with texture and how sounds affect each other, and also [with] playing with the human psyche.” Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi then bursts out laughing, saying, “That’s a lot in one sentence.” Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is very funny, and she’s also very focused. The Iranian-Canadian Simon Fraser University student is just twenty-one yearsContinue reading “Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is just scratching the surface”
Bekah Simms’ Skinscape and Elliott Lupp’s Hinge
Bekah Simms’ Skinscape received an honourable mention from the jury of Musicworks’ 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest. Skinscape is a work for flute and fixed media inspired by the transformation of something intimately familiar into something processed and alien, particularly through the lens of tattooing. “Using almost exclusively flute samples for the fixed media part,Continue reading “Bekah Simms’ Skinscape and Elliott Lupp’s Hinge”
Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos
Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos won third place in Musicworks’ 2018 Electronic Music Composition Contest, and also won first place in Category A of Musica Nova 2018 (the long-running international electroacoustic music composition competition presented by Society for Electroacoustic Music of Czech Republic). Chromatocosmos is an electroacoustic piece which is based on original recordings of the baglamas,Continue reading “Epa Fassianos’ Chromatocosmos”
Hugh Marsh. Violinvocations.
Electric violinist Hugh Marsh’s impressively varied list of collaborations includes projects with Bruce Cockburn, Bauhaus’s Peter Murphy, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Iggy and The Stooges, the film scores of Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, and—most recently—recordings with Joseph Shabason and Jon Hassell. It was the latter who instigated the oblique strategy behind Marsh’s latest solo release:Continue reading “Hugh Marsh. Violinvocations.”
MUSICWORKS UNVEILS 2017 CONTEST WINNERS
Musicworks is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2017 contests. Erik Ingalls’ The Gravity of Plim has won first place in Musicworks’ 2017 Electronic Music Composition contest. Ingalls’ winning piece began as an accompaniment to a science-fiction short story written by his partner. “Being a classic science-fiction fan, I had in mind an impression ofContinue reading “MUSICWORKS UNVEILS 2017 CONTEST WINNERS”
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”