Recording: Evan Ziporyn and Contact

Artist: Evan Ziporyn and Contact

Songs: Warszawa [composer: David Bowie/Brian Eno] + Everything Merges with the Night [composer: Brian Eno]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Day 3), August 31, 2019.

Evan Ziporyn and Contact - Warszawa

Evan Ziporyn and Contact - Everything Merges with the Night

Once more, Tad Michalak's Burn Down the Capital brought a full day's worth of entertainment to the concrete canyon of Yonge-Dundas Square. Random passers-by would occasionally stop and regard the proceedings with curiosity, bemusement or disdain while in the background the thrum of the busker's amplification outside Eaton Centre seems to grow louder every year, sharing the sonic space with sirens and engine roars.

And also once more, the day in the square wrapped up with a performance from Contact Contemporary Music, revisiting and expanding upon some past strands. Bringing back Bang on a Can All-stars founder Evan Ziporyn, the group previewed a new collaborate project interpreting the music of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. Note that that doesn't just mean the music released by "Fripp & Eno" (though the pair's "Evening Star", which has been in Contact's repertoire for a while now, did indeed make an appearance) but rather pieces from each alongside their various collaborators.

Thus, there was room for a couple King Crimson reinterpretations, and by tangential association even Kraftwerk's genteel "Morgenspaziergang" found a spot in the setlist. Perhaps it's just a reflection on my taste, but I found the arrangements more satisfying on Eno's textures than on Fripp's fussy propulsion — although the environment made the bombast of the latter go over better than some of the quieter moments (such as a beautiful arrangement of the Eno/Budd piece "Not Yet Remembered" that was somewhat drowned out by the square's background sounds).