Recording: Clarinet Panic

Artist: Clarinet Panic

Song: Hard Dads [excerpt]

Recorded at Pioneer Village Station (Intersection Day 1: Music For Subways), August 29, 2019.

Clarinet Panic - Hard Dads [excerpt]

A couple years back, Intersection made its first step into presenting creative sounds in unconventional environments. This sequel moved from the core to the end of the line, exchanging a jam-packed greenhouse for plenty elbow room in the city's newest subway stations. Skipping over the hurly-burly of York University, the travelling concert moved on to the very edge of the city. At Pioneer Village Station (whose sprawling, station-spanning half-million dollar interactive art installation has never been turned on) the mezzanine level above the trains has a large open area that's quite perfect for throwing a concert in — in a better world there'd be a band playing there every night.

Perhaps in tribute to the subway system's buskers, this section of the venerable "Hard Dads" had D. Alex Meeks and the other members of the ensemble flicking coins on the floor. Meanwhile, this "reduxx" phase of the Clarinet Panic's existence is seeing the project become a bit less of a "band" and more of an "ensemble" that can plug in different performers to tweak the pieces in various ways — this set saw saxophonists Olivia Shortt and Naomi McCarroll-Butler joining the core quintet, first beside them on the floor, then playing their way to the upper level, dramatically overlooking the players and audience assembled below.