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Lea Bertucci composes time and space

As I sit here listening to Metal Aether, the most recent full-length release from New York composer and performer Lea Bertucci, the difficulty of locating this music’s boundaries becomes increasingly clear. Bertucci’s compositions balance minimalist saxophone patterns with field recordings collected in places as disparate as New York City and ancient regions of Mexico. TheContinue reading “Lea Bertucci composes time and space”

Colin Fisher. V Le Pape.

V Le Pape, the debut solo album by Toronto guitar-and-electronics whiz Colin Fisher (Not the Wind, Not the Flag; Fake Humans; much else besides), invites comparisons as much to the works of New-Age experimentalist Laraaji as it does to classics of the loopy, psych-ambient solo-guitar subgenre it more obviously inhabits, such as Manuel Göttsching’s InventionsContinue reading “Colin Fisher. V Le Pape.”

Getting Out More Often

In my five years as editor of Musicworks, I cannot recall a more action-packed time than the three-day whirlwind of stimulating events, conversations, and music I experienced last May. All the chatting and typing and reading and listening that I do in front of (or holding) a screen certainly keeps me connected to my colleaguesContinue reading “Getting Out More Often”

Julia Mermelstein’s “wonted II-III”

Toronto-based composer Julia Mermelstein creates music focused on detailed tone, colour, textures, and gestural movement that reveal evocative, immersive, and subtly changing soundscapes. Her work aims to blend acoustic and electronic sound worlds in seamless interactions. Drawing inspiration from Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and ritual, as well as her extensive background in ballet, Mermelstein blends multipleContinue reading “Julia Mermelstein’s “wonted II-III””

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””

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.”