Recording: Off World

Artist: Off World

Song: unknown [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 3), June 14, 2015.

Off World - unknown [excerpt]

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. Vibe-wise, Sunday's final show of the festival came up the middle between Friday's chill drones and Saturday's Big Rock Show, with many in the crowd sitting on the floor of the stage area in front of the bands throughout. Throw in the fab afternoon events and this was a great weekend, showing off what can be done when the community has access to a space like Geary Lane. Hopefully this will indeed only be the first of a new annual local tradition.

With an 80's Nova soundtrack vibe, this was a nice follow-up to Carl Didur's set. My understanding is that this exploratory duo between Sandro Perri and Lorenz Peter (Processor, Corpusse) has been an intermittant parnership for quite a while now, dating back to 2008 but surfacing only infrequently for gigs. Whirrs and zworps were the musical equivalent to the Stan Brakhage footage being projected behind the band — vaguely familiar but re-assembled according to some unconventional logic.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!