At Open Ears, auditory circuitry is rewired over five days, with all senses fired up, as festival-goers embark on a sonic quest. The 2018 edition featured the gonzo music of Frank Zappa, an electrifying Nicole Lizée world premiere, and a jaw-dropping percussion solo. The festival audience, which has grown over the past twenty years, experiencedContinue reading “Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound. Kitchener, Ontario.”
Genre Archives
Fall 2018
Rebecca Bruton Lets The World In
Rebecca Bruton describes her work as an “understated, Surrealist folk music”—music that’s experimental but also simple, with a sensuousness and a weirdness to it. “Music that makes sense,” she says, “but you’re not sure why.” A composer, violinist, and vocalist, based in Calgary, Bruton studied music first at York University and then at Simon FraserContinue reading “Rebecca Bruton Lets The World In”
Demian Rudel Rey’s “Theophilus”
Argentinian composer and guitarist Demian Rudel Rey has received numerous awards and honorable mentions in various national and international composition compstitions, and his pieces have been selected and programmed at prestigious festivals across Europe and the Americas. Theophilus (which you can hear on this page) was written on the occasion of a tribute festival toContinue reading “Demian Rudel Rey’s “Theophilus””
Sarah Hennies, Linguist in the Land of Noises
Identity is a deeply personal, elusive, and complex thing, and thus, a common source of creative fuel. Yet for the endless variety of discrete identities and individual perspectives on the topic, there is a dominant set of tropes around the way that identity is addressed artistically. The supposed concreteness of narrative is often turned to,Continue reading “Sarah Hennies, Linguist in the Land of Noises”
Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut
The first time I heard Jeremy Dutcher on the radio, I was driving my son and some of his non-Native teammates to soccer practice in Peterborough. I had tuned in to the CBC a few bars into Dutcher’s single “Honour Song,” and the fifteen-year-old boys in the car fell silent. “Holy Simpson [read Mom], a NishContinue reading “Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut”
Stephanie Richards. Fullmoon.
Stephanie Richards, originally from Canada, has established herself as a trumpet player and composer while living in Brooklyn, where she’s collaborated with Butch Morris, John Zorn, and Henry Threadgill. She has expanded the trumpet’s sonic possibilities through extended techniques such as layering sounds emitted from the bell with close-miked valve noise. On Fullmoon, however, theContinue reading “Stephanie Richards. Fullmoon.”
Peggy Lee. Echo Painting.
Composer and cellist Peggy Lee has made major contributions to Vancouver music. She’s active in free-improvisation and chamber-music settings and much between and beyond; however, her identity grows much more distinct in her roles as bandleader and composer. She regularly leads octets, both the Peggy Lee Band and the cinematic Film in Music, and here,Continue reading “Peggy Lee. Echo Painting.”
2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview
The usual anticipation for nice weather has been feeling like more like desperation—a longing for warmth, good vibes, and the freedom to explore everything under the sun. I am planning to fill my “no Netflix” summer with as many park hangouts, patios, concerts, and spontaneous events as possible. Musicworks’ staff, contributors, and other friendly earsContinue reading “2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview”
Label Profile: Redshift Records
We won’t go into the details—because, frankly, we don’t understand them—but in astronomy a redshift is a way to measure an object’s placement in space, and its movement vis-à-vis the earth. “It’s like the Doppler effect, but for light,” Redshift Records mastermind Jordan Nobles tells me in a telephone interview from his North Vancouver home.Continue reading “Label Profile: Redshift Records”