Recording: Blümon

Artist: Blümon

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Tiki Room), February 5, 2020.

Blümon - unknown

This mysterious group turned out to be a duo between Allie Blumas and Charlie Murray, taking a break from a busy schedule as a popular wedding band. Hilarity ensued while jammin' on some keyboard presets, flute, and bass recorder. If you listen closely, you can hear a bit of Camp Combo's lounge exotica creeping in from the Southern Cross at the start of this one before things go galloping off.

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

Recording: Charlie Murray

Artist: Charlie Murray

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Piano Party 8), January 25, 2017.

Charlie Murray - [excerpt from first piece]

A last-minute cancellation left a gap to be filled in the Piano Party lineup, but Randy Gagne was able to bring out a fellow Still Boy to keep things rolling. Murray turned out to be a dab hand at tickling the ivories, pulling up his hood and settling into the spontaneous minimalist groove heard here. That was followed by some other blueberry-related content (all the pieces, as it turned out, were directly connected to blueberries in some obscure manner) mixing up improvised Glenn Gould riffing with some funky excursions accompanying some of the drum machine's more absurd settings — even pulling on some brightly-coloured rubber gloves while playing couldn't derail the skilled musicality here. A rather delightful surprise, all things considered.

Recording: Steve Kado with Ensemble

Artist: Steve Kado with Ensemble

Song: 2003 [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space, December 2, 2014.

Steve Kado with Ensemble - 2003 [excerpt]

Being played in a more acoustically-refined setting (than at, say, a lakeside grandstand or rock hall stage) and with a more robust instrumentation (than, say, with a guitar army, keyboardklatch or, um, solo drum machine) pushed this composition a little further towards Terry Riley's "In C", which is one of its points of inspiration. But the music surrounding the thubthubthubthub of the drum machine was lovely on its own merits, and rather entrancing as the composition eased from cell to cell. [The ensemble, on this occasion, was: Steve Kado, vibes; Adam Litovitz, piano; Colin Fisher, banjo; Charlie Murray, bass; Ian Russell, guitar; Val Uher, guitar; Isla Craig, piano; Mani Mazinani, vibes]