Recording: Michael Keith and friends

Artist: Michael Keith and Bob Vespaziani / cheryl o

Songs: [first piece with Bob Vespaziani, part 1] + [excerpt from first piece with cheryl o]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #14.1), January 14, 2014.

Michael Keith and Bob Vespaziani - [first piece, part 1]

Michael Keith and cheryl o - [excerpt from first piece]

Full review to follow. Though I had never caught him playing before, guitarist Michael Keith has a good name in Toronto's improvised music community. This edition of the Audiopollination series saw him and Bob Vespaziani as featured performers playing in duos, both together and with a couple guest artists. Keith had a couple tricks up his sleeve (including some prerecorded sounds courtesy of his phone and some nifty amp effects) but largely relied on savvy craftsmanship to being bring different textures to his set, from knotty note clusters to bluesy grooves. These selections see him paired with Bob Vespaziani on wavedrum and Cheryl Ockrant (who performs as cheryl o) on cello. As always, you can check out the whole carefully archived performance, and once again, I'll mention that if you want to hear some cool improvised music (with improvised live visuals!) in a casual setting, you really should really come check this monthly series out — next one up is February 11th.