Preview/Contest: X Avant XVII

X Avant XVII: LifeWorld

October 12-15, 2022

A sure sign of fall's full arrival, The Music Gallery's X Avant festival is back next week. Last year's edition was a cautious (but most welcome) return to live events, and this year's is a scaled-up party to release some of the pent-up desire for community and spectacles. Artistic Director Sanjeet Takhar has used the concept of the remix as a central motif in assembling four nights exploring the tensions and affinities between global and local cultures and between traditional approaches — "dreams of a world where we can hold the past, present, and future at the same time."

Here's what to expect in the festival's four nights:

• Night 1 – Rebetika (Wednesday, October 12): Andy Moor (of The Ex, and someone you should never miss seeing when you have a chance) and Netherlands-based, Cyprus-born composer Yannis Kyriakides join together to add a post-punk edge to classic Rebetiko songs with explorative tendencies. Quatuor Bozzini join them for a collaborative piece, and neo-soul producer M.I.Blue opens things up.
• Night 2 – Namamahay (To Dwell) (Thursday, October 13): local hero kat estacio curates this "multi-room unpacking of diasporic Filipin* art-making through sound, visuals, performance and food that explores where, when and with whom do we consider home" with works by works by April Aliermo, Patrick Cruz, Kristina Guison, Victoria Fard-Young, Krēme Inakuchi, Megan Arnold, and Standpartners.
• Night 3 – Bijuriya (Friday, October 14): A much-anticipated Ontario premiere from Montréal’s Gabriel Dharmoo, Bijuriya (Dharmoo's drag alter ego) "explores her cultural roots by representing the diversity of South Asian female identities. Code-switching between drag performance, vocal improvisation, original songs, experimental sound design and the porosity between singing and lip-syncing".
• Night 4 – Big Family House Party (Saturday, October 15): Bringing everything together for one big blow-out, this closing night (co-presented with Lula Lounge and Labyrinth Ontario) is set "to transform the entire 918 Bathurst venue into a family house party with multiple levels and rooms, a kitchen full of free food, music at every corner, and art installations." The floor-to-ceiling action includes live sets from NPNP Trio [Jackson Darby, Evelyn Charlotte Joe, James Goddard], JER, Labyrinth Ensemble and Rick Sacks.

TICKETS + MORE INFO

You can fine all the information you need over at the MG's website, and ticket info is here. Nightly tickets are $10 to $20, and there's a Festival Pass available as well. All of the events are all ages.

CONTEST

Courtesy of the Music Gallery, I am giving away a pair of tickets to the Big Family House Party on Saturday, October 15th!

To enter, shoot me an email to mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com, with "contest" in the title and your name in the body. I'll randomly draw a winner on Tuesday, October 11th at noon.