English singer Phil Minton and pianist Veryan Weston have been working together since the early 1980s, their wayward path crisscrossing and combining music hall, art song, free improvisation, and union anthems. Usually restricted to duo and quartet formats, here they make the most of a unique opportunity to match their material to an orchestra, creatingContinue reading “Phil Minton / Veryan Weston. Ways for an Orchestra.”
Genre Archives
28th Winnipeg New Music Festival.
The twenty-eighth edition of the Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF) opened by continuing a tradition of bringing listeners out to unusual, wonderful venues, but this year broadened its scope asking both performers and audience to one evening risk the potential extremes outside in Winnipeg’s notoriously frigid winter elements. Norwegian artist Terje Isunset arrived in town earlyContinue reading “28th Winnipeg New Music Festival.”
Paul Dolden. Histoires d’histoires.
Paul Dolden is a maximalist’s maximalist, combining literally hundreds of simultaneous acoustic tracks of standard orchestral instruments, augmented with rock drums and guitars and spiced with exotic instruments. So great is the attention paid to the minutest detail of each track that, in fractal-like fashion, there seems to be equal complexity no matter how deeplyContinue reading “Paul Dolden. Histoires d’histoires.”
Those Who Walk Away. The Infected Mass.
Though Gavin Bryars’ 1972 The Sinking of the Titanic is itself widely known, its influence on subsequent works by other composers has yet to be duly recognized. One could argue that Bryars’ work gave rise to an entire subgenre’s worth of imitators who wrapped their elegiac ensemble ambiences in indistinct textural audio vérité and subaquaticContinue reading “Those Who Walk Away. The Infected Mass.”
Darcy James Argue Secret Society. Real Enemies.
Its title meant to be taken satirically, Real Enemies is an extended multimedia meditation on paranoia and conspiracy theories—and you can dance to it. Created by Vancouver-born composer Darcy James Argue and interpreted by eighteen of New York’s top improvisers, the thirteen tracks delve into all manner of twentieth- and twenty-first-century conspiracy theories, ranging fromContinue reading “Darcy James Argue Secret Society. Real Enemies.”
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival.
LIKE A BENEVOLENT OCTOPUS, THE VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S ANNUAL NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL HAS BEEN EXTENDING ITS TENTACLES in a variety of occasionally surprising directions since its inception four years ago. This year, for example, the event opened with a performance by avant-jazz big band the Hard Rubber Orchestra—not quite as shocking as it might seem, givenContinue reading “Vancouver Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival.”
Apocalypsis
I ATTENDED A PERFORMANCE of the Luminato Festival’s production of R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis not knowing what to expect; the full version of this work had only been produced once, thirty-five years ago. After the performance, I obtained the scores for its two acts—John’s Vision and Credo—as well as recordings of both the early production andContinue reading “Apocalypsis”
Louis Andriessen brings the noise
Louis Andriessen arrived on the international scene with a bang. In 1976 he unleashed De Staat (The Republic) on unsuspecting audiences. The political charge of the composition came from texts of Plato sung by four soprano voices hovering like ethereal apparitions over pounding, iron-fisted piano rhythms. The breathlessly whirling repetition was reminiscent of Steve Reich’sContinue reading “Louis Andriessen brings the noise”
Isaiah Ceccarelli
“I know it may sound crazy, but I am interested in making beautiful music—music that sounds good. I’m not saying this just to be different, and it might not be in line with a lot of the reasons that people make music today, but I am actually not very involved with, or worrying so muchContinue reading “Isaiah Ceccarelli”
Jocelyn Morlock. Cobalt.
Cobalt, Jocelyn Morlock tells us, is one of the most poisonous elements, but it’s hard to imagine anyone dying of exposure to this Vancouver-based composer’s music—unless it was from a surfeit of beauty. Her strongest pieces can be described in a single word: numinous; although one suspects that if there’s a dash of the mysticalContinue reading “Jocelyn Morlock. Cobalt.”