Recording: Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz

Artist: Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz

Song: [last section]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #115), April 7, 2026.

Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz - [last section]

The origins of this set reach back a year to TCB #103, which was co-presented with the Ministry of Phonic Services, and where Owen Kurtz was originally slated to perform before having to reschedule. The fullness of time has allowed this presentation of a first-ever performance from this pair of friends, with keyboardist Ben Mike abutting Kurtz's electronics. A bit like listening to Debussy while sending a fax, the pair evoked a saturated soundworld with strange hums, buzzings, and tapes alongside the pianistic sounds.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, May 5th) with sets from the rest (Joe Sorbara & Jonathan Kay), Wobbly + John Oswald, and Red Trillium. Ben Mike will be convening an appearance of his must-see large ensemble The Beatles at Dina's Tavern on Thursday, May 14th. Owen Kurtz will be performing as a member of Del Stephen's Furtherances (alongside Ghost Variables and Woolworm, Ontario) in the Tranzac's Living Room on Friday, May 15th.]

Recording: Ben Mike & The Beatles

Artist: Ben Mike & The Beatles

Song: "...the forest, the virgin forest, the life of a woodcutter" [middle section]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 14, 2026.

Ben Mike & The Beatles - "...the forest, the virgin forest, the life of a woodcutter" [middle section]

Catching these Beatles for the second time, I noted — given the consistency of the membership — that this was definitely more than a thrown-together jam. With only what looked like a photocopied page of notes for a score, the grounp moved together effortlessly through a variety of moods, from atmospheric drift to the rocking On The Corner-style funk heard here (and leaning back at the end to listen to some Cat Stevens). There was a wonderfully-mythic (though possibly apocryphal) origin story of sorts given at the start, but this is a unit built to carry some myths.

So far as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong!) the full ensemble was:

• Ray Goudy, Josh Sparks, Dylan Burrett (Guitars)
• Maxwell Stover, Ben Rositsan, Zack Goldstein (Reeds and Woodwinds)
• Lauren Dillen (Vocals)
• Steven Noronha, Ben Mike, Will Hunt (Keyboards)
• Sara May (Violin)
• Aidan McConnell (Percussion)

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Ben Mike & The Beatles will be reassembling at Dina's Tavern Thursday, May 14th. Chris Ma is also on the bill.]

Recording: Ben Mike & The Beatles

Artist: Ben Mike & The Beatles

Song: [excerpt]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), May 25, 2025.

Ben Mike & The Beatles - [excerpt]

So, to get the obvious out of the way: no, they are not those Beatles. And while such a cheeky moniker (and the clear vibes that this was definitely a group of friends having a great time hanging out together) might connote an unseriousness of purpose, there was definitely something interesting going on here. (Also interesting was the fact that a large improvising ensemble playing mostly-drifty music filled up the Tranzac's Main Hall on a Sunday night!)

Perhaps more telling was that for the purposes of this show, the band was billed with "(Orchestra)" tagged to its name, and while Ben Mike, on keyb at the centre of everything, was mostly hidden behind pages of scores, only the other keyboardists were similarly encumbered and there was no obvious direction/conduction going on — though for all that, there was a definite sense of organization at hand, especially in the sense of restraint that was evident for most of the set (although there was some build-up bombast — in a Cage-ean minimalmist sense — as well).

Obviously these folks were familiar with each other as players — there was, for example, a heavy overlap with a different large improvising ensemble I had seen not long before this. And while this brought to mind some attempts to bring compositional order to rock'n'roll chaos I've seen from some similar local friend-orchestras in the past, it was really satisfying to see the physical and conceptual sprawl here (with hints of psych rock, spiritual jazz, and "Thursday Afternoon"-style Eno) expand at the seams yet remain able to contain itself. If you're not going out to the shows where the younger cadres are, you're missing out on something very cool emerging in our midst.

The full ensemble for this show was:

• Ray Goudy, Josh Sparks, Dylan Burrett (Guitars)
• Maxwell Stover, Ben Rositsan, Zack Goldstein (Reeds and Woodwinds)
• Lauren Dillen (Vocals)
• Steven Noronha, Ben Mike, Will Hunt (Keyboards)
• Sara May (Violin)
• Aidan McConnell (Percussion)

^* Does anyone know the title to this piece as a whole? Please leave a comment!

Recording: an action committee

Artist: an action committee

Songs: Organ [in two versions] [composer: Max Stover]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 18, 2025.

an action committee - Organ [version 1]

an action committee - Organ [version 2]

I feel like it's a very Toronto thing to gather large groups together and have everyone play at once. ("Everyone playing loudly and at once," is, in fact, how I've heard the "Toronto style" of improvisation described by some of its detractors.) Whether it's a consequence of the social situations performers in Toronto's creative music scenes find themselves in or some sort of atavistic impulse towards maximalism, it warms the ol' heart to see the younger cadres rediscovering these sonic scenarios.

How large groups find ways to work together and navigate structure and freedom is, of course, a key question — and Maxwell Stover's new-ish Tranzac residency is an attempt to negotiate some of these queries. For this instalment, with a dozen musicians on stage, that was achieved through Stover's conduction and distribution of some fragments of material for the musicians to share space in. That this was a relatively unprecise approach could be seen from how the same three pieces were essayed twice with rather different results — quietly and spaciously in the first set, and with shades, feedback and fuzz pedals in the second.

The musicians for this performance were:

• guitars: Bjorn Kriel, Ben Rositsan, Josh Sparks, Jesse White
• keys: Max Donaldson, Will Hunt, Ben Mike, Steven Noronha
• bass: Adrian Russouw
• drums: Keith Barstow, Colin Cudmore, Mateos Labbe-Phelan
• conduction + compositions: Maxwell Stover

Apologies for the fact that this whole ensemble was too large to fit in its entirety in the frame, but you can check out the evening's full performance over on youtube:

[an action committee take on a different form of musical organization — three trios — at its next performance on Sunday (June 15th), with performances from Steven Noronha/Keon Narinesingh/Harry Vetro, Ben Rositsan/Adrian Russouw/Cal James Adam, and Jesse White/Maxwell Stover/Keith Barstow.]