Let’s get the complaints out of the way first, shall we? An awful lot of take-out sushi was eaten during the International Society for Contemporary Music’s annual festival, held this year in Vancouver. With up to five official concerts a day, plus secret showcases not entered in the program, there was precious little time forContinue reading “ISCM World New Music Days 2017”
Genre Archives
Julie Andreyev and Simon Lysander Overstall’s Biophilia
November, some might say, is not the ideal time to visit the wild West Coast. The days are short, the leaves are down. In any normal year, monsoon season will have kicked in, producing alternating bands of drizzle and downpour, both equally grey and almost equally wet. But when the International Society for Contemporary MusicContinue reading “Julie Andreyev and Simon Lysander Overstall’s Biophilia”
Eighty-five scores celebrate Pauline Oliveros
Still Listening: New Works in Honour of Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) is a project initially conceived to mark Oliveros’ eighty-fifth birthday on May 30, 2017. Eighty-five artists were invited to create eighty-five new compositions, each with a duration of eighty-five seconds. Organized by trumpeter Eric Lewis and flutist Ellen Waterman, with help from McGill University studentsContinue reading “Eighty-five scores celebrate Pauline Oliveros”
Amanda Dawn Christie’s Requiem for Radio
In 2012 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) began to tear down its Radio-Canada International towers in Sackville, New Brunswick (home to some 6,000 people and best known as the locale of the beloved SappyFest). The dismantling of the towers wasn’t just another chapter in the public broadcaster’s ongoing fight to keep its funding, but somethingContinue reading “Amanda Dawn Christie’s Requiem for Radio”
The Sound Future of Virtual Reality
I HEAR A PERCUSSIVE THUD. SOMETHING IS HITTING THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF ME REPEATEDLY. It’s reverberating (I’m in a large room, I guess) and the rhythm is punctuated by frenzied bursts of high-pitched squeaks nearby. In the distance, I hear shuffling and the murmur of voices. I open my eyes. I’m standing in aContinue reading “The Sound Future of Virtual Reality”
Intersystems. Intersystems.
Released in late 2015 by the Italian label Alga Marghen in both CD and LP formats, the richly documented Intersystems boxes set the bar high for reissuing and critically examining the legacy of one vigorous—however obscured by the ensuing almost half century—branch of experimental sound art, spoken word, visual, and performance art of the lateContinue reading “Intersystems. Intersystems.”
Christine Sun Kim Explores the Politics of Sound
“Low frequencies just being abstract and shit — High frequencies be like anal and micromanaging for no good reason — Silence oblivious as ever” These words are handwritten in a drawing that was included in an exhibition of new works by Christine Sun Kim in the summer of 2015 at White Space Beijing, a contemporary artContinue reading “Christine Sun Kim Explores the Politics of Sound”
Send + Receive: A Festival of Sound, 16.
Send + Receive (s+r), a sound-art showcase held annually in Winnipeg, is curated around a different theme each year. Its acknowledged aims are to highlight the contributions of women to sound art, to develop an audience for emerging local artists, and to utilize different venues from one night to the next. This helps focus theContinue reading “Send + Receive: A Festival of Sound, 16.”
Video Game Music: New Directions in Play
The first time I played PaRappa the Rapper was a struggle. I was with my parents at a novelty deli where each table was outfitted with a television and a PlayStation video-game console. I didn’t have one at home, but a paper-thin, hip-hop cartoon dog named PaRappa that goes on some sort of adventure inContinue reading “Video Game Music: New Directions in Play”
Myriam Bleau spins Soft Revolvers
In a darkened room, an artist is manipulating four translucent circular objects on a tabletop, moving from one to another. Audience members gather around. The objects emit light. Their spinning motion activates deep tones and beats that crackle and whir, and snippets of voice that drop in and out. The sounds fade as the spinningContinue reading “Myriam Bleau spins Soft Revolvers”