Recording: Dawn of Midi

Artist: Dawn of Midi

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Koerner Hall (Wavelength 701 @ 21C Festival), May 28, 2016.

Dawn of Midi - unknown

The 21C Festival is one of those things that I should probably take more of an interest in, but have never felt too strongly about. It does seems to make more of an effort to connect to the local "New Music" community than, say, the TSO's New Creations Festival — Continuum co-presented the Japan: NEXT concert, for example. But it also seems to treat its "world class" visiting headliners as something from a different world. This night was technically a co-presentation with Wavelength, but it definitely had a WINO (Wavelength in name only) vibe, with no-one from the festival making any effort to help the audience connect with a forward-thinking music presenter that's working around town year-round. That said, my understanding is that Wavelength had a hand in the evening's curation and this was an ambitious gig that they wouldn't have been able to pull off on their own.

After a surprisingly-brief two-song set from The Visit, there was a quick switch-over for Brooklyn's Dawn of Midi. True to their name, the trio employ acoustic techniques to reproduce digital effects, approaching the hypnotic power of loops through sheer repetition. Through their minimalism has more of a pulsing quality to it, their music brought to mind The Necks, another zone-out trio inasmuch as both bands create huge musical tension that slowly builds though accumulating minuscule changes — and then resolves as the pattern shifts to something new. On record, the group's sound is super "dry", so it was something else entirely to hear the reverb of the big concert hall — and to watch the rigour of their techniques in action.

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