In the 1970s, electronic music studios at the University of Toronto and McGill University sparked exciting ideas in guitar composition. With a focus on the evolution of Canadian works for guitar and electroacoustics, guitarist and composer Amy Brandon tracks key events and works from then to now. (Check out Amy’s SoundCloud playlist at the bottomContinue reading “An Inexhaustible Source of Wild Music”
Genre Archives
Yves Charuest. Le Territoire de l’anche.
Yves Charuest is a distinguished alto saxophonist with deep roots in improvised music, including five years spent in German bassist Peter Kowald’s trio and decades of collaboration with fellow Québécois musicians. On Le Territoire de l’anche (territory of the reed), Charuest steps out for an hour-long series of eleven solo improvisations. Charuest possesses an originalContinue reading “Yves Charuest. Le Territoire de l’anche.”
New Frequencies
This issue of Musicworks comes preloaded with guitars. Hollow, heavy, bowed, cracked, pedalled, flung. Trusty companions. Feedback demons. Easy to pick up, hard to put down. While I do not declare this as The Guitar Issue, I do aver that the guitar informed my aleatoric curatorial process for Musicworks 137. Last year Nova Scotia guitaristContinue reading “New Frequencies”
A message from the Musicworks Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of Musicworks acknowledges that the new and experimental music scenes covered in the magazine are built on a foundation of systemic racism, and that through our content we have facilitated and upheld that system. Musicworks is a long-standing publication dedicated to expanding the usual understandings of music by covering new andContinue reading “A message from the Musicworks Board of Directors”
What’s Inside Musicworks 137?
The Fall 2020 issue comes preloaded with guitars. Hollow, heavy, bowed, cracked, pedalled, flung. Trusty companions. Feedback demons. Easy to pick up, hard to put down . . . just like every issue of Musicworks! BUY THE FALL 2020 ISSUE FROM OUR SHOP OR SAVE 50% OFF THE COVER PRICE WITH A SUBSCRIPTION TO MUSICWORKS. SUPPORT CREATIVEContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 137?”
Fall 2020
Pantayo. Pantayo.
Pantayo is five Toronto-based women who bring ancient Philippine kulintang music and modern Western pop styles together in a fascinating, startling, and exciting new hybrid. The band members—Eirene Cloma, Michelle Cruz, Joanna Delos Reyes, and sisters Kat and Katrina Estacio—play the kulintang, an instrument that consists of eight brass gongs on a wooden rack, asContinue reading “Pantayo. Pantayo.”
Anthony Pateras: Sonic Phenomena in Real Time
The music of Anthony Pateras covers vast expanses of composition and improvisation, of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and combinations of these. He is also a virtuosic pianist. Between 2012 and 2019 he created Immediata, an ambitious series of fifteen albums, self-released over seven years, of music created in various modes and contexts, in order to explore howContinue reading “Anthony Pateras: Sonic Phenomena in Real Time”
Backxwash—The Healing Music of Productive Rage
If you want to win over rapper and producer Backxwash (Ashanti Mutinta), start a conversation with her by talking about the outlier sounds of American rapper–producers Missy Elliot and Timbaland. I’m speaking with her a couple of days after she fired up audiences at her first-ever Toronto show—the February edition of the eighth annual LongContinue reading “Backxwash—The Healing Music of Productive Rage”
music, interrupted
A barrage of media releases announcing the cancellation or postponement of concerts and festivals—in my hometown of Toronto, in music hubs across Canada and beyond—began hitting my inbox with increasing intensity the second week of March. Like many who actively follow, attend, present, or document live music, I had been aware that a sound-dampening waveContinue reading “music, interrupted”