Recording: Anne Bourne

Artist: Anne Bourne

Song: Piano Improvisation for R.G.

Recorded at The Church of St. Andrew by-the-lake, Toronto Island ("Gathering of Rontumnal Happiness"), October 24, 2021.

Anne Bourne - Piano Improvisation for R.G.

On an unexpectedly bright and warm fall day, family and friends from many overlapping worlds gathered to celebrate the life of Ron Gaskin. Hot toddies and pumpkin pie in hand, it felt especially appropriate to gather at a place R.G. loved so well and worked to fill with music so frequently. Stories were told, poems were read, songs were sung. Word on the street is that there will be a larger celebration of the whole Rough Idea — Ron Gaskin's musical legacy — coming up in a season or two, so stay tuned.

This meditation closed out the performance part of the afternoon, a gentle energy bridge reminding all those present to keep sharing the love and affection that flowed to R.G., in his final days and in the years before that. Memories live on, and communities stay stong in celebrating their essential binding forces.

photo by Joe Sorbara.

Recording: Anne Bourne & tUkU

Artist: Anne Bourne & tUkU

Song: Fragment 147 [text by Sappho, as translated by Anne Carson]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (Women From Space Festival – Night 3), March 7, 2020.

Anne Bourne & tUkU - Fragment 147

It's generally acknowledged that the key to a successful sequel is in making things bigger and more explosive while staying true whatever it was that made the original feel special and unique. The second annual Women From Space Festival applied that maxim to great effect, cosmically expanding in all directions while nourishing its core ideal of creating Space for a diverse range of women-centred creative expressions. This night opened with a collaboration between jazz/soul vocalist (and theatrical sound designer) tUkU with cellist (and Deep Listener) Anne Bourne. Their set was based around exploring and animating the words of the lyric poet Sappho — searching for the soul of these disconnected fragments through passion, repetition, breath. How can we know someone of whom we have only these scattered bits, tossed through time, translated? How could we be known in the fragmentary and incomplete ways we manage to express ourselves? In the end, the breath and the sound bring out bits of humanity, if not personality — deep needs and desires. "Someone will remember us / I say / even in another time."

Recording: Public Recordings

Artist: Public Recordings

Song: To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, in two parts] [composer: Pauline Oliveros]

Recorded at City Hall's Council Chambers, February 17, 2019.

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, part 1]

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, part 2]

This joyfully ambitious undertaking saw Chris Willes and his Public Recordings crew bringing music — radical music, music that demands deep listening and focused attention — into the City Hall chambers, a space associated with noisemaking of a different kind. The culmination of a process reaching back a couple years (including its previous mounting at the Gardiner Museum), this version brought a larger audience and bigger crew of musicians into its larger space. (Adding to the logistical complexity of the entire undertaking, there were also a series of public rehearsals in different venues in the week leading up to the performance.)

The beginning of a new form of composition from Pauline Oliveros, this piece for open ensemble has guidelines, but few musical directives, meaning there are a wider range of possible sonic outcomes than with a through-composed piece. With simple instructions and shared light cues, this large ensemble of musicians and non-musicians weave together a drone symphony, a slow-moving sound-river that invites closed-eye meditation (though, especially in an environment such as this, also some open-eyed gawking at how the spectacle is creating itself). The participant list reveals artists from many fields coming together to make these sounds: Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Victoria Cheong, Prices Easy, Ishan Davé, Ellen Furey, Thom Gill, Claire Harvie, Ame Henderson, Brendan Jensen, Germaine Liu, Bee Pallomina, Liz Peterson, Heather Saumer, Brian Solomon, Anni Spadafora, Evan Webber, and Christopher Willes.

[This concert was co-presented by the Music Gallery, who have had an ongoing stream of Pauline Oliveros-related events this season. The last instalment of the Anne Bourne-facilitated Deep Listening Workshops ("Sounding Difference Through The Text Scores Of Pauline Oliveros") will be at 918 Bathurst on Sunday, April 28th. Free with registration.]

Recording: Public Recordings

Artist: Public Recordings

Song: To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [two excerpts] [composer: Pauline Oliveros]

Recorded at the Gardiner Museum, August 17, 2017.

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt 1]

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt 2]

Toronto's close kinship with Pauline Oliveros continues. Oliveros gave her final concert performance at last year's X Avant Festival, and with permission from The Pauline Oliveros Trust, this large ensemble undertook a new staging of this major work originally performed in 1970. Cellist Anne Bourne is one of the connections here, playing both at last year's concert as well as in this ensemble, which came together under the guidance of Christopher Willes.

Part of Xenia Benivolski and Su-Ying Lee's Feminist Art Museum, this event filled the large upper-floor gallery space with the audience lining the room's walls, surrounding the dozen performers facing each other in a rough circle organized around the exhibition's brick piles.

Devised as "a continuous circulation of power," this piece demands a balance between listening and playing from the performers, but within that constraint, its simple, open concept is an invitation for musicians of varying abilities (and some in this group of artists, choreographers, composers, and dancers were indeed "non-musicians") to participate in a decentred experience. Guided by slowly moving, slowly changing light projections, there weren't many remarkable features of the piece — which is to say the whole was a warmly-undulating dronefield. Word is that this will be remounted later on at The Music Gallery, so there will be another chance to soak in the vibes.

[Meanwhile, for more Pauline Oliveros vibes, Anne Bourne will be hosting a Deep Listening Intensive on October 14th as part of this year's X Avant festival. Meanwhile, Chris Willes has a couple other cool activities going on, including next week's Listening Choir remount as well as a series of Quiet Concerts at the beautiful new Scarborough Town centre library branch.]

Recording: Ted Reichman

Artist: Ted Reichman / Ted Reichman & Anne Bourne

Songs: [excerpt from first piece] / [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Tone Festival – Show #8), June 29, 2017.

Ted Reichman - [excerpt from first piece]

Ted Reichman & Anne Bourne - [excerpt]

Although the local "jazz" festival is anticipated in some quarters, it seemed that too often there was no home there for adventurous and experimental creators. Thus, out of necessity, the TONE Festival was born to give these touring musicians a chance to connect with local audiences and artists. A collaboration between Burn Down the Capital's Tad Michalak, Ron Gaskin (a.k.a. Rough Idea) and Karen Ng and Daniel Pencer, the goal was to create shows that were rewarding for players and listeners alike. Coming a few days after the previous burst of shows, the music in the festival's final night served as a series of meditations upon and tributes to the work of Pauline Oliveros, a suitably-relaxing deep listening experience to close out on.

Ted Reichman's CV notes that he studied under Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton (the latter of whom urged him to take up the accordion) but in this solo set, one could definitely feel the influence of Pauline Oliveros front and centre (her instruction to "play long tones" serves as an inscription on his album of solo accordion recordings). With just a couple pedals to enhance the drone, the set really accentuated the accordion as a breathing thing, as layers of sound were woven into a comfortable swaddling blanket. After two long pieces, Reichman unplugged for the encore, where he was joined by Anne Bourne, who was similarly unplugged after serving as a source for sonic manipulations earlier in the night.

Recording: Anne Bourne & Matt Rogalsky

Artist: Anne Bourne & Matt Rogalsky

Song: For Pauline Oliveros (But Mostly For You) [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Tone Festival – Show #8), June 29, 2017.

Anne Bourne & Matt Rogalsky - For Pauline Oliveros (But Mostly For You) [edited excerpt]

Although the local "jazz" festival is anticipated in some quarters, it seemed that too often there was no home there for adventurous and experimental creators. Thus, out of necessity, the TONE Festival was born to give these touring musicians a chance to connect with local audiences and artists. A collaboration between Burn Down the Capital's Tad Michalak, Ron Gaskin (a.k.a. Rough Idea) and Karen Ng and Daniel Pencer, the goal was to create shows that were rewarding for players and listeners alike. Coming a few days after the previous burst of shows, the music in the festival's final night served as a series of meditations upon and tributes to the work of Pauline Oliveros, a suitably-relaxing deep listening experience to close out on.

This set from Anne Bourne (cello, voice) and Matt Rogalsky (electronics and processing) began with a structured meditation on William W.H. Gunn's A Day In Algonquin Park, one of the earliest field recorded nature albums, which not only used the album's sounds but also its liner notes, spoken/sung by Bourne and manipulated by Rogalsky. After that came this improvisation, which mostly floated along in a very satisfying way.

Recording: Oliveros-Ione-Bourne-Van Nort

Artist: Pauline Oliveros/Ione/Anne Bourne/Doug Van Nort

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (X Avant XI – Night 2), October 14, 2016.

Pauline Oliveros/Ione/Anne Bourne/Doug Van Nort - [excerpt 1]

Pauline Oliveros/Ione/Anne Bourne/Doug Van Nort - [excerpt 2]

This visit to the X Avant Festival from legendary electronic music theorist and Deep Listening advocate Pauline Oliveros (alongside her partner Ione) was accompanied with a couple spin-offs from some of her local acolytes — a talk at York University overseen by electroacoustician Doug Van Nort earlier on the day of this performance as well as an outdoor Deep Listening workshop out in the St. George the Martyr courtyard the following afternoon. Both also accompanied the honoured guests for this improvised quartet, delivered in 8-channel surround sound live-mixed by Van Nort, who was also supplying some other sonic interventions to Bourne's cello, Oliveros' digital accordion and Ione's spoken dream-fragments. There were some cool spacialization effects with sound occasionally sweeping around the room, adding moments of immediacy to the players' patient sound-tilling — and plenty to be harvested for those with an attention span and an itch for serenity.