Recording: Nightmare Alley

Artist: Nightmare Alley

Song: Of Being Numerous [excerpt] [from the poem by George Oppen]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (SynapticCircusSundays), December 30, 2018.

Nightmare Alley - Of Being Numerous [excerpt]

For my final gig of the year, I had the honour of guest-hosting Nilan Perera's Synaptic Circus monthly, so I asked some friends to play. Given a slot to do whatever he wanted, guitarist Kurt Newman took a risk, eschewing his ususal projects to experiment with uneasy listening textures and user-unfriendly spiky dynamics — call it Haino-eque spoken word theatre. Enlisting Picastro's Liz Hysen to sing some excerpts from George Oppen's "Of Being Numerous", Newman controlled the effects on both guitar and voice for a holiday downer session lurching like an undead thespian hastily reanimated from jury-rigged leftover body parts.

[Synaptic Circus will be back at The Tranzac on Sunday, February 24th, featuring a vocal set from Paul Dutton, Christine Duncan, Liz Lima and Laura Swankey as well as a duo set from Paul Newman and Heather Saumer.]

Recording: mkl32 and Mira Martin-Gray

Artist: mkl32 and Mira Martin-Gray

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (SynapticCircusSundays), December 30, 2018.

mkl32 and Mira Martin-Gray - [excerpt from first piece]

For my final gig of the year, I had the honour of guest-hosting Nilan Perera's Synaptic Circus monthly, so I asked some friends to play. This set mixed Mike Lynn's prepared double bass with Mira Martin-Gray no-input mixer and monotron for some interactive soundbursts, static, scrapes and skronks.

[Synaptic Circus will be back at The Tranzac on Sunday, February 24th, featuring a vocal set from Paul Dutton, Christine Duncan, Liz Lima and Laura Swankey as well as a duo set from Paul Newman and Heather Saumer. Mike Lynn will be performing in a double bass duo at the next Audiopollination on Saturday, March 2nd, while Mira Martin-Gray will be performing with drummer Mark Zurawinski to welcome Horseman, Pass By to the Tiki Room on Wednesday, March 6th.]

Recording: The Titillators

Artist: The Titillators

Songs: Pennies From Heaven [composer: Arthur Johnston] + If I Were a Bell [composer: Frank Loesser]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 30, 2018.

The Titillators - Pennies From Heaven

The Titillators - If I Were a Bell

This holiday special from Ryan Driver's Titillators saw special guest Alex Samaras sitting in for Thom Gill as designated whistler — a task he pulled off with aplomb, buoyed by regulars Tania Gill (keyb) and percussionists Germaine Liu and D. Alex Meeks. It was to no-one's surprise that even in an all-whistling ensemble that the irrepressible Samaras could not be stopped from belting out a verse — especially when there were tunes from Guys and Dolls on offer!

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis IX

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis IX

Songs: Where No Bird Has Gone Before [excerpt] + Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor! [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 30, 2018.

Cosmic Homeostasis IX - Where No Bird Has Gone Before [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis IX - Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor! [excerpt]

One last drone session to close out the year, Cosmic Homeostasis convened to celebrate Voyager 2 exiting the heliosphere as well as the Ultima Thule flyby – distant encounters that feel close to home to the whispers-from-space crowd. The crew this time comprised of Del Stephen, Trevor Turple, Mike Lynn, Liz Lima, Patrick O'Reilly, Ron Blake, Paul Newman and Heraclitus Akimbo. The whole session is available over bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis X will be taking place in the Southern Cross on the afternoon of Sunday, March 31st.]

Recording: MOOONS

Artist: MOOONS

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Invocation presents Ur Audiovisual's Year End Release Extravaganza), December 29, 2018.

MOOONS - [excerpt]

This night celebrated not only the year's passing but also some recent releases on Ur Audiovisual (including Melissa Boraski's Eiyn Sof side-project The Hologlyph, who shared a new video and some projections on the night). Casual hangs, a pot-luck and four sets of music made for a satisfying night.

The night closed with a rare opportunity to see long-distance collaborators Roan Bateman (who had played a Dark Bird set earlier in the night) and Soren Brothers (who had just performed as Man Meets Bear) working together in the same room. There are some more smoothly-assembled sounds on their recent Strange Currents EP (which comes complete with some excellent 70's sci-fi novel-esque cover art) but there was a nice sense of interaction between the pair as they brought the night to its drifting conclusion.

Recording: Man Meets Bear

Artist: Man Meets Bear

Song: two unknown songs^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Invocation presents Ur Audiovisual's Year End Release Extravaganza), December 29, 2018.

Man Meets Bear - unknown #1

Man Meets Bear - unknown #2

This night celebrated not only the year's passing but also some recent releases on Ur Audiovisual (including Melissa Boraski's Eiyn Sof side-project The Hologlyph, who shared a new video and some projections on the night). Casual hangs, a pot-luck and four sets of music made for a satisfying night.

Expatriated Ur Audiovisual co-founder Soren Brothers took advantage of being in town to play a couple sets at this show, starting with some solo songs as Man Meets Bear. In his recordings, his folk-y rambles are given various atmospheric adornments, and there were some scaled-down takes on that here, with a contact mic adding some ghost vocalizations and piano sounds.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Dark Bird

Artist: Dark Bird

Song: Out Of My Mind

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Invocation presents Ur Audiovisual's Year End Release Extravaganza), December 29, 2018.

Dark Bird - Out Of My Mind

This night celebrated not only the year's passing but also some recent releases on Ur Audiovisual (including Melissa Boraski's Eiyn Sof side-project The Hologlyph, who shared a new video and some projections on the night). Casual hangs, a pot-luck and four sets of music made for a satisfying night.

Roan Bateman started things off with a set of Dark Bird songs. Besides an excellent EP of atmospheric instrumentals, his year also included October's Lay Low, out on Ur, and he drew some tunes from that. But also reflecting back on a long-gone time when he lived in the city and was a regular performer at The Tranzac, he also brought out some older songs like this one.

Recording: The Ryan Driver Quintet

Artist: The Ryan Driver Quintet

Song: You Go to My Head [composers: J. Fred Coots/Haven Gillespie]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 28, 2018.

The Ryan Driver Quintet - You Go to My Head

This holiday season outing saw a couple subs sitting in with Ryan Driver's ballad-heavy heavy-hitters' group, including Karen Ng on alto sax and clarinet as well as Thom Gill adding some subtle synth textures that more filled in for Michael Davidson's vibraphone than Martin Arnold's guitar. It was all rather dreamy and beautiful as the group stretched out with some standards over a couple sets, ranging from subtly-surging Latin rhythms to woozy clockwork to dreamtime wind-downs.

[Aurochs will be back in the Southern Cross on Friday, February 22nd.]

Recording: Aurochs

Artist: Aurochs

Song: [set 1, 2nd piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 28, 2018.

Aurochs - [set 1, 2nd piece]

A quiet evening at The Tranzac, the sort of night where instead of introducing the bandmembers at the end of the set, bassist/podcaster/raconteur Pete Johnston instead introduced each of the audience by name. But instead of using the room in the room (and a quiet evening in the Main Hall with no sound bleeding through) to add more quiet space to their music, the group went the other way, with Johnston's fuzzy bass textures pushing the group into some pretty rockin' territory. Even with extra volume and velocity, there was still room for the pieces to unfold in some surprising and rather satisfying ways, with Mike Smith's dub interventions on Ali Berkok's piano and Jake Oelrichs' percussion folding in nicely at the edges.

[Aurochs will be back in the Southern Cross on Friday, February 22nd.]

Recording: DeiCont/Driver/Meeks/Ng/Pencer

Artist: Mike DeiCont/Ryan Driver/D. Alex Meeks/Karen Ng/Daniel Pencer

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 27, 2018.

Mike DeiCont/Ryan Driver/D. Alex Meeks/Karen Ng/Daniel Pencer - [set 1, 1st piece edited excerpt]

Mike DeiCont/Ryan Driver/D. Alex Meeks/Karen Ng/Daniel Pencer - [set 2 excerpt]

Filling up some time in the post-xmas/pre-New Years' holiday gap, this ad hoc quintet brought some wobble/clonk/glide to the Southern Cross, mixing the talents of Dan Pencer (clarinet), Ryan Driver (piano), Mike DeiCont (electric bass), D. Alex Meeks (percussion) and Karen Ng (alto/clarinet).

Recording: Matthew "Doc" Dunn & Friends

Artist: Matthew "Doc" Dunn & Friends

Songs: Only Love Can Guide Us Now + Crying Shame [Jennifer Castle cover]

Recorded at The Baby G, December 20, 2018.

Matthew "Doc" Dunn & Friends - Only Love Can Guide Us Now

Matthew "Doc" Dunn & Friends - Crying Shame

A slightly-belated night to celebrate the release of Doc Dunn's Lightbourn album turned out to be a twofer, with the additional appearance of its follow-up Some Horses Run on the merch table. These "solo" albums (as distinguished from the collective grooves he heads with the Cosmic Range) found their songs fleshed out with an all-star band that included Simone T-B on drums, Grasshopper on percussion, James Matthew VII (formerly Blind Matty) on guitar, Andrew Scott on bass, Jonathan Adjemian on keybs as well as special guest backing vocalists Isla Craig and Meg Remy on a few numbers.

That exploded the sometimes-introspective vibe of the recorded versions into a cranked-up push-it-to-the-back-of-the-stadium wall of wailing guitars and pulsing funk, making these versions feel like they'd belong up on the merch table in a gatefold cover double-live album — the kind with just a couple stretched-out songs per side. There's even a tip of the hat here to peer and inspiration Jennifer Castle on a version of "Crying Shame" that tears with such momentum Dunn was pushing hard to keep up with the flow of the lyrical river.

[Doc Dunn and a smaller group of friends will be bringing some joy to the Mechanical Forest Sound 10th Anniversary celebration at The Baby G on Saturday, March 2nd.]

Recording: Andrew Kay

Artist: Andrew Kay

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By & For Ken Aldcroft XXIV), December 12, 2018.

Andrew Kay - [first piece]

Saxophonist Andrew Kay had previously played this series with some music by Ken Aldcroft, but this time brought some solo and duo improvisations in his memory. Alternating between alto, clarinet and bass clarinet, there were some different textures and moods explored here, especially when Jake Parker Scott (now based in Oakland) joined in on alto, a touch of piano and some genteel impromptu percussion.

[Music By & For Ken Aldcroft will be back at The Tranzac on Wednesday, February 13th.]

Recording: Patrick O'Reilly + Heraclitus Akimbo

Artist: Patrick O'Reilly + Heraclitus Akimbo

Song: Gospel [composer: Ken Aldcroft]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By & For Ken Aldcroft XXIV), December 12, 2018.

Patrick O'Reilly + Heraclitus Akimbo - Gospel

This set saw guitarist Patrick O'Reilly playing some of Ken Aldcroft's pieces, but without his usual panoply of effects pedals. Instead, that sonic manipulation was handled by an external agent, adding some unstable twists to the proceedings. I must confess I pitched the concept for to this one, both of out an ongoing recent interest in manipulating other people's sounds, as well as having a chance at digging into Aldcroft's actual songs in a way I wouldn't be able to do on my own. Although he wouldn't've made these sorts of manipulations, Aldcroft was a dab hand with the few effects he did use, and there's some serious scholarship yet to be done on, say, his deft use of looping, especially in his solo guitar work.

You can also stream the full set if you like:

[Music By & For Ken Aldcroft will be back at The Tranzac on Wednesday, February 13th. Heraclitus Akimbo will be celebrating the release of a new solo album at the Tranzac on Wednesday, February 20th.]

Recording: Brodie West Quintet -1

Artist: Brodie West Quintet -1

Songs: C.T. [composer: Nick Fraser] + They Call This Everything [composer: Ryan Driver] + Possesional [composer: Rob Clutton]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 12, 2018.

Brodie West Quintet -1 - C.T.

Brodie West Quintet -1 - They Call This Everything

Brodie West Quintet -1 - Possesional

Playing as a quartet sans percussionist Evan Cartwright left Brodie West (alto), Tania Gill (piano), Josh Cole (double bass) and Nick Fraser (drums) a bit of space to play around in — and one leg of this group's rhythmical foundation removed. They did manage to tackle a few pieces from the group's current set ("Tumbling In" perhaps had more rolling than tumbling, but "Prel and Fug" bounced nicely) but for the bulk of the night the group instead reached beyond the regular repertoire to play some pieces from members and friends. Gill and Cole offered charts, but perhaps the most intriguing voyages were on a couple classic Drumheller¹ tunes, and there was also this beautifully-lyrical reading of a song from Ryan Driver's latest, tackled in the best jazz tradition of transforming pop tunes into standards.

---

¹ This is as good a place as any to remind you that the four albums by Drumheller — all essential Toronto weird-jazz documents, besides just being groovy-good listens — are online at Nick Fraser's bandcamp.

Recording: Davison/O'Reilly/{AN} EeL

Artist: William Davison/Patrick O'Reilly/{AN} EeL

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series), December 9, 2018.

William Davison/Patrick O'Reilly/{AN} EeL - [excerpt]

A now-infrequent visit to the city from the expatriated Neal Retke was an opportunity to enter the world of {AN} EeL, facilitated by occasional collaborator William Davison as well as guitar hero Patrick O'Reilley. Moving from a buzzing electroacoustic soundfield punctuated by Retke's occasional shouts, things shifted into a sputtering narrative arc, like listening to talk radio in a car beneath an overpass — and eventually ending with a found-sound snatch of Handel's Messiah. Hallelujah indeed!

[William Davison will be performing a collaborative set with Bob Vespaziani at Track Could Bend #47, coming up at Wenona Lodge on Tuesday, February 5th. Meanwhile, Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series will be playing host to the spectacular MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration at Array on Sunday, February 10th and featuring sets from The Allison Cameron Band (Allison Cameron/Thom Gill/Kurt Newman), Lender (Christine Duncan/Laura Swankey/Nilan Perera/D. Alex Meeks) and The Knot (Tilman Lewis/Nick Storring).]

Recording: David Sait

Artist: David Sait

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at Array Space (Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series), December 9, 2018.

David Sait - [second piece]

It's always a joy to hear David Sait's meditations for guzheng (his Bandcamp has a pair of fabulous solo guzheng albums, including last year's Good Luck Corporation) and this outing saw the usual gentle tones augmented with some new extended techniques.

[David Sait is co-facilitating "Search & Reflect", a new series of participatory bi-weekly improvisers' workshops/hang-outs with Rod Campbell. In fact, the next one is today (Wednesday, January 23rd) at 5 p.m. in the Tranzac's Tiki Room. Meanwhile, Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series will be playing host to the spectacular MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration at Array on Sunday, February 10th and featuring sets from The Allison Cameron Band (Allison Cameron/Thom Gill/Kurt Newman), Lender (Christine Duncan/Laura Swankey/Nilan Perera/D. Alex Meeks) and The Knot (Tilman Lewis/Nick Storring).]

Recording: Tetsuo

Artist: Tetsuo

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 66), December 8, 2018.

Tetsuo - [excerpt]

Closing out the night, this improvising power trio (with Yusuke Frutate on guitar, Gordon Fynes on drums and Michael Lynn on bass) skipped around between a few genres in their song-length spontaneous compositions.

You can also watch this full set on youtube:

[The next Audiopollination will be at Array Space on Sunday February 3rd.]

Recording: Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly

Artist: Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly - [excerpt]

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 66), December 8, 2018.

Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly - [excerpt]

The third party to sign up for this set didn't make it, leaving more space for these frequent collaborators to explore interactions for voice, pedals and guitar.

You can also watch this full set on youtube:

[The next Audiopollination will be at Array Space on Sunday February 3rd. Laura Swankey will be performing as part of the supergroup Lender (along with Christine Duncan, Nilan Perera and D. Alex Meeks) at Mechanical Forest Sound's 10th Anniversary Celebration, Sunday, February 10th at Array. Patrick O'Reilly will be playing guitar in the Nick Arseneau Sextet, tonight (Tuesday, January 22nd) at the Tranzac.]

Recording: Shortt/Lowry/Watson

Artist: Olivia Shortt/Amanda Lowry/Katherine Watson

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 66), December 8, 2018.

Olivia Shortt/Amanda Lowry/Katherine Watson - [excerpt]

An acoustic interlude in a night some more plugged-in sounds, this mini-wind ensemble brought flutes, sax and recorder to engage in a playful conversation.

You can also watch this full set on youtube:

[The next Audiopollination will be at Array Space on Sunday February 3rd. ]

Recording: Newman/Roblin/Heraclitus Akimbo

Artist: Paul Newman/Diane Roblin/Heraclitus Akimbo

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 66), December 8, 2018.

Paul Newman/Diane Roblin/Heraclitus Akimbo - [excerpt 1]

Paul Newman/Diane Roblin/Heraclitus Akimbo - [excerpt 2]

Sometimes in improvised settings, one participant will show up with a gameplan that imposes to a greater degree on their fellow players. Fortunately, in this case, when Heraclitus Akimbo announced a plan to put microphones on Diane Roblin's piano and Paul Newman's saxophone and manipulate their signals, they were seemingly content to go along for the ride.

You can also watch this full set on youtube:

[The next Audiopollination will be at Array Space on Sunday February 3rd. Diane Roblin will be back at The Tranzac on Sunday, February 17th, presenting (and playing in) Glen Hall's Ossingtone. Heraclitus Akimbo will be releasing a new album (also at The Tranzac) on Wednesday, February 20th, and Paul Newman (along with Kayla Milmine) will open the show.]