Artist: Annie Elgie & co.
Song: [excerpt]
Recorded at the Bata Shoe Museum (Track Could Bend @ X Avant XVIII – Neeeerrrrddddssss: shoe horn), October 12, 2023.
I'm still not entirely sure what I did to deserve such an honour, but somehow I ended up curating a night of this year's X Avant Festival. And not just any ol' night as we were invited to conspire a musical takeover of the Bata Shoe Museum. Thanks to the amazing powers and positive energy of Artistic Director Sanjeet Takhar, we were able to fill the building with creativity, bringing a grouping of nine musicians to first enfold some sounds in the museum's galleries, then gather them all together for a collaborative improvisation. Best of all, though it was on a grander scale than I'd usually allow myself to imagine, it really felt like it was all done in the spirit of Track Could Bend. And were there shoes? Oh yes, there were shoes.
When I saw the "In Bloom" exhibit on the first site visit to the museum I made a mental note that it would be a perfect spot for vocalist Annie Elgie. And indeed, in between a couple benches at the far end of the room she settled right in between flowers and footwear to conjure up some spirits. This section, from the end of the event's first half up in the galleries, was one of my favourite parts of the whole night — you can hear horn players Lina Allemano and Tom Richards circling around like the sampled seagulls that are calling out.
You can check out another segment of this performance, with tap dancer Tegan Dietsch joining in (and much more!) over on youtube:
[The Bata's new exhibition Dressed to Impress: Footwear and Consumerism in the 1980's is now open. Track Could Bend will be back in its regular first-Tuesday-of-the-month incarnation at Wenona Lodge on December 5th, with sets from kat estacio and Alma.]
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