Mas Aya’s (Brandon Valdivia) bewitching Máscaras is a melding of disparate elements that add up to more than the sum of their parts. It’s the latest recording from this Nicaraguan-Canadian multi-instrumentalist who has produced or performed with Sandro Perri, U.S. Girls, Picastro, John Oswald, and many others. Valdivia’s soloist pseudonym Mas Aya derives from theContinue reading “Mas Aya. Máscaras.”
Genre Archives
Gordon Grdina and Jim Black. Martian Kitties.
Canadian Gordon Grdina and American Jim Black cannily invest this album’s thirteen tracks with multiple textures from two instruments each: Grdina playing guitar and oud, and Black using drums and electronics. The augmentation doesn’t follow the expected course though, with the additional instrumentation leading to neither faux–world music exotica nor an over-reliance on voltage. Instead,Continue reading “Gordon Grdina and Jim Black. Martian Kitties.”
Silla and Rise. Silarjuaq.
In 2017, the trio Silla and Rise released a self-titled debut that merged Inuit throat-singing duo Silla (Charlotte Qamaniq and Cynthia Pitsiulak) and the electronic beats of DJ Rise Ashen. They sounded like nobody else. In 2019, Galactic Gala proved that the innovative trio was crafting an undeniably distinct soundscape. Now, they return with Silarjuaq,Continue reading “Silla and Rise. Silarjuaq.”
Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed and Jason Doell’s Leaning Into Softness
Two honourable mentions were given at Musicworks‘ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest: the first to Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed, and the second to Jason Doell’s Leaning into Softness. Roxanne Nesbitt is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the space between sound and design. She is trained as an architect and orchestral bassist. Her research includes experimental instrumentContinue reading “Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed and Jason Doell’s Leaning Into Softness”
João Pedro Oliveira’s “La Mer Émeraude”
Third place in Musicworks’ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest was awarded to João Pedro Oliveira’s La Mer Émeraude (The Emerald Sea). The composition has also received awards at SIME Competition, Città di Udine Competition, the Destellos Competition and the Chicago Composers Consortium Competition. “Let us imagine a small invented world, a micro universe where everythingContinue reading “João Pedro Oliveira’s “La Mer Émeraude””
June Young (Will) Kim’s “Black, Emerald”
June Young (Will) Kim won second place in Musicworks’ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest for Black, Emerald, the third piece in his series of works for amplified canvas. A commission by München Landeshauptstadt Musikstipendium, Kim completed the piece in September 2020 and premiered it in Munich on October 12, 2020 with Sakhile Humbane (flute), AdrianContinue reading “June Young (Will) Kim’s “Black, Emerald””
The Apperceptive Musical Adventures of Taylor Brook
Canadian composer Taylor Brook—whose music can strike an unusual balance between challenge and charm,sometimes with an astonishing delicacy—had been based since 2011 in New York City, where he was first a doctoral student and then a lecturer at Columbia University, all the while making the most of the city’s wealth of performers. But in 2020,Continue reading “The Apperceptive Musical Adventures of Taylor Brook”
Pamela Z. A Secret Code.
Characterized by the transformation of mundane experience into something beautiful and poignant, A Secret Code includes works from across Pamela Z’s repertoire—pieces written for dance, excerpts from larger works, and works from live-sampled concerts. Pamela Z uses extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, and digital processing. Her voice is rich and powerfulContinue reading “Pamela Z. A Secret Code.”
Xylem Records: Building Community for Live Coding
The exploratory, collectivist ethos of the U.K. live-coding scene laid the groundwork for Xylem Records, an experimental electronic music netlabel founded by composer and computer scientist Dr. Norah Lorway. Originally from Vancouver, B.C., Lorway moved to the U.K. in 2010 to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham, where she researched electroacoustic composition andContinue reading “Xylem Records: Building Community for Live Coding”
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.”