Recording: c_RL

Artist: c_RL

Songs: [trio piece for keyboards] [composer: Allison Cameron] + [excerpt from 1st piece] + Stick a Mic In It + [4th piece]

Recorded at Array Space (Allison Cameron Mini-Festival, Night 2), November 24, 2018.

c_RL - [trio piece for keyboards]

c_RL - [excerpt from 1st piece]

c_RL - Stick a Mic In It

c_RL - [4th piece]

How do you generate a sense of occasion for a band that's often as informal as c_RL? Some of this show's extra grandeur came simply from the venue, with Allison Cameron able to haul out some rarely-deployed gear from her studio at Array Space. That certainly informed her night-opening solo set, where she sat between two tables in a V formation filled with a selection of musical implements — and that extra gear came in handy as Nicole Ramersaud and Germaine Liu were called up to close out the opening half by playing a scored piece for keyboards (including melodica and toy accordion).

That also hinted at a running theme of seeing divergent strands, like parellel universe versions of c_RL playing chamber music or, a bit later on, rocking out like a noise band in "Stick a Mic in It", a no-wave tune dedicated to The Reveries. (There was also an unexpected and joyful tribute to trumpeter Lina Allemano as well.) The set covered a lot of ground, from Santana featuring Rob Thomas all the way to The Police. Er, no, wait, those were just snatches of Q107 being picked up by an amplifier. But they fit in as well, with the trio's eerie sounds engraved like a palimpsest over the monoculture.