FULL TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Buffalo has long held an aura of adventure for me. The first time I visited the city, I was intrigued by the impressive collection of modernist work at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, where I returned often in the 1970s, driving from Toronto with a carful of my fellowContinue reading “Buffalo New Music”
Genre Archives
Summer 2013
The Venice Biennale 56th International Festival of Contemporary Music.
Using the words “Venice” and “music” together likely brings Vivaldi to mind. Or if one says Venice Biennale, thoughts turn to contemporary art or perhaps film or architecture. Yet the Venice Festival of Contemporary Music just marked its fifty-sixth edition. Why is it that this festival, with such longevity, with a stated concern for exploringContinue reading “The Venice Biennale 56th International Festival of Contemporary Music.”
Bedroom Community
Reykjavik to Breidholt, a suburban district south of downtown that is home to Valgeir Sigurdsson’s Greenhouse recording studio and the offices of Bedroom Community, the record-label collective that the native Icelander cofounded in 2006 with American composer Nico Muhly and Australian sound artist Ben Frost. It’s this sleepy location that gave Bedroom Community its name.Continue reading “Bedroom Community”
Various Artists. REWORK_ (Philip Glass Remixed).
And how, you may well ask, do the epochal Beck and the magisterial Glass bond and re-bond? With lots of echo, I’m here to report. Echo and backwards-boinging. And the chanting of an avant-garde choir. Because “avant-garde” is “now,” for now, this choir sings high-low, high-low for a while; a male voice arises chanting aboutContinue reading “Various Artists. REWORK_ (Philip Glass Remixed).”
Erdem Helvacioglu
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY When you’re caught up in the thick of it, all those cute, clichéd little epithets about turning life’s lemons into lemonade, spinning grave fuck-ups into rapturous inspiration, and the like, hardly seem to hold any wisdom whatsoever. Things suddenly went awry for Turkish composer and performer Erdem Helvacioglu whileContinue reading “Erdem Helvacioglu”
Glenn Buhr
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Definitions of personal style don’t get any clearer with life experience. This becomes obvious during my interview with Canadian composer and pianist Glenn Buhr. It also becomes clear however, that personal style can be evaded more deliberately with age. With impressive compositional chops at his disposal, Buhr can articulateContinue reading “Glenn Buhr”
Casa Da Música Builds A Home For Experimental Music
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY 1497. Lisbon, Portugal. Navigator Vasco da Gama commands the first ship to sail from Europe to India. During the fifteenth century Portugal’s navigators are at the cutting edge of innovation and world discovery, their travel exploits feats of experimental technique. While Vasco da Gama discovered the world’s vastness andContinue reading “Casa Da Música Builds A Home For Experimental Music”
Linda Bouchard’s Murderous Little World
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Couple Linda Bouchard’s vision and sound with poet Anne Carson’s texts, engage the talents of a host of collaborators, including extraordinary musicians Guy Few, Joseph Petric, and Eric Vaillancourt, give it all several years to cook, move, splinter, and coalesce, and you have Bouchard’s multimedia performance piece Murderous LittleContinue reading “Linda Bouchard’s Murderous Little World”
Cassandra Miller’s Unclassifiable Concert Music
If you had just commissioned Cassandra Miller to write a new piece of music for you, she might get the ball rolling by chuckling and then asking you, “What do you sing when you’re in the shower? What was your favourite song as a kid? What would you be if you weren’t a musician?” ThenContinue reading “Cassandra Miller’s Unclassifiable Concert Music”