Monday Roundup #6

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Livestream nation:

• Exit Points didn't have too much time to take root before being forced to shift online, but it's been thriving there, creating a platform for spontaneous sonic interactions. The series celebrates its first anniversary on Wednesday (February 24th) with live sets from two ensembles (Claire Yunjin Lee/Danny Sheahan/Vania Fortuna/Michael Palumbo and then Diane Roblin/Colin J. Gibson/Dot Starkey/Marcus A. Gordon) plus the usual open-call recombinations.

• Long Winter TV returns on Saturday night (February 27th) in its new online format, a brisk mix of music and art, contextualized with mini-talkshow segments. This outing is co-curated with Heart Lake Records and in collaboration with Hand Eye Society and will offer music from Yasmine, Rosie Monday, Lillian Blue Makin and Frosty Valentine as well as art by Spencer Glassman, Meghan Cheng, I Am Robot and Proud, Matt Beckett & Maria Bui, Shaïra Boursiquot, Adam Bovoletis and the Free Flow showcase.

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Bandcamp corner:

• Saxophonist Keir Neuringer, who used to be a regular visitor to the city at Tad's Burn Down the Capital shows, dips into his archive for terminal one (evoke the forms), a "set of solo acoustic saxophone recordings made at STEIM (the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam in 2009", finding they resonated in this now as "elegies for cataclysms to come."

• Kat Burns' pandemic time has been spent in contemplation and isolation, which lead to some ambient explorations last year and now to this plush huggable of an EP, whose title is something of a mission statement. The title track (declaring "whenever life gets hard, I just get soft") also stands up with Burns' best songs.

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It happened this week...

• ... on February 25, 2011 at the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio.

Okavango - Kharami

• ... on February 26, 2012 at The Garrison, for Crosswires #1. (This was even before this group was dubbed "The Wrong Guys").

Julie Doiron - Heartbeats

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Monday Roundup #5

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Bring me my cake!

• Once more, it's time to celebrate MFS' blogiversary, though I almost feel like the past year hardly happened, or should count for blog-age purposes. (And, for that matter, the fun of the 10th Aniiversary celebrations two years ago still feels really close at hand!) In these times, the future of so many things remains uncertain, but I guess one should still mark twelve years of doing a thing with some manner of curt nod to oneself.

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Livestream nation:

• Double feature at the Music Gallery on Saturday night, with sounds and visions from Ami Dang and Gudiya commencing at 7 p.m. The night "will showcase the intricacies of Dang's experimental effected sitar techniques with synthesizers and electronic instruments from South Asia along with Gudiya's original electronic music production and visual collages." As with all of their events this season, the livestream is free and available to all, on facebook or over at the MG's website.

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In case you missed it...

• MFS faves Not The Wind, Not the Flag convened for a special pandemic-at-home performace as part of Bogotá's "Sesiones Bolón de Verde". It's a real shot of spiritual energy to hear Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher playing together, and their jam is still up on youtube for your enjoyment:

Monday Roundup #4

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

A quieter week this time 'round. I grabbed plenty stuff from Bandcamp on Friday, but I'm just starting to absorb it now, so expect some recommendations next next week!

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It happened this week...

• ... on February 13, 2018 at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (for Ornate Ornette).

Andrew Furlong/Alexei Orechin/Germaine Liu/Nelson Moneo - Latin Genetics

• ... on February 9, 2019 at Workman Arts' Main Hall (for Long Winter 7.4).

Donna Linklater - I Hear Voices

• ... on February 14, 2019 at The Tranzac's Main Hall (for Sound For Silence II). [P.S.: kind of an inside-out cover-band version of The Weather Station here, with Tamara Lindeman joined by Ben Whiteley, Sam Gleason, Geordie Gordon and Evan Cartwright.]

Unclassic Classics - In the Shape of a Heart

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Bumping into... Paul Newman

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

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How are you? Where are you?

I'm still in Toronto, and doing pretty well.

What have you been up to since March or so?

I've been working at two projects: Copernicus, which is a very long piece designed to last from dawn till dusk on the Winter solstice and involves a lot of loops; it's a very Cosmic Homeostasis-influenced piece; and a new set of solo music which I hope to have up on Bandcamp by the start of March, it's called Time is Both Concrete and Elastic.

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

I have been discovering Bandcamp lately and am really liking that I can buy all the great records my friends are making even though I don't get to see them. So if you have a new record, please send me a Bandcamp link!

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

I've been doing a lot of reading, although I'm drawing a blank at the moment on exactly what I've been reading. I've also been listening more than usual, and have particularly enjoyed Twelve Psalms of Repentance by Alfred Schnittke.

How are you feeling about 2021?

It's going to be magic when we can play together again. I've had a pretty productive time during the epidemic. I have enjoyed the quietness of life and have learned a lot about playing the saxophone. So it's been good to have this time to breathe, but it will be nice to see regular life restored at some point in the coming year.

Monday Roundup #3

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• The big news of the week was the announcement of this year's Women From Space Festival. Last year's edition remains vivid in my mind, not only for being the last "regular" shows I went to in the before-time, but even more for its excellent vibe and programming. Organizers Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine are attending to both of those things, with another intruigingly-mixed lineup including Denise Solleza & Madeleine Ertel, Britta B & Pursuit Grooves, Thanya Iyer featuring Anh Phung, Laura Barrett/ SlowPitchSound/Mairi Greig, Eve Egoyan, Fides Krucker & Tania Gill and plenty more. But they're also fostering a vibe as well, this time as purveyors of the Holobox Theatre, a "miniature tabletop stage where performances come to life as holograms". The whole thing is being streamed (in standard two dimesions as well) on March 6 to 8.

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Livestream nation:

• Keep your receptors tuned to TURNONANDBENOTALONE on Wednesday and Thursday this week for the Music Gallery's presentation of a "multi-channel audio and visual installation, activated by a series of four solo instrumental performances" (by Amahl Arulanandam, Yang Chen, Sara Constant, and Émilie Fortin) assembled/curated/composed by Jason Doell. I don't entirely know what that means either, but as part of the MG's efforts to make livestreams into more than just a filmed performance, it seems intruiging. And in the meantime, there's a cool lava lamp effect bloobering away on the event's homepage.

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It happened this week...

• ... on February 5, 2016 as part of Nite Comfort 41 at Handlebar.

Tenderness - unknown

• ...on February 2, 2014 in the Southern Cross Lounge.

Allison Cameron and D. Alex Meeks - [end of first set]

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

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Bandcamp corner:

Don't forget it's bandcamp Friday this week, from midnight to midnight Pacific time on the 5th. That gives you a few days to share recommendations with your pals! Here's a couple things that I've been waiting to grab...