Recording: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Artist: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Piece: Shimmer, Tree (In Memoriam Jonathan Harvey): II. I count the fleeing hours [composer: Kotoka Suzuki]

Recorded at the Canadian Music Centre (Riparian Acoustics/CMC Presents), November 8, 2018.

Thin Edge New Music Collective - Shimmer, Tree [2nd mvt]

Following on the triumph of their live soundtracking of Sarah Hennies' experimental documentary Contralto, Thin Edge headed to the Canadian Music Centre for this more modest night of intimate compositions. Consisting of solo pieces, duos and one trio (Barbara Monk Feldman's defiantly un-urgent drift of "The Northern Shore") these were mostly small-scale but deep sonic explorations from pianist Cheryl Duvall, percussionist Nathan Petitpas and violinist Aysel Taghi-Zada. As is usually the case with the works that Thin Edge chooses to explore, there were some uncanny frissons in the pieces here, whether the flowerpot clonks of Chiyoko Szlavnics' "Her Teeth Were White" or the broken furniture music of Samuel Andreyev's "Piano Pieces".

As of this posting, you can still watch the archive of the livestream here (note that the Barbara Monk Feldman piece, embedded below, is in a separate video!):

[The Riparian Acoustics/CMC Presents series continues on Thursday, January 17th with a night of vocalisations from Alex Samaras (along with Lara Dodds-Eden and Bram Gielen). There's also an excellent-looking night coming on February 22nd with Lindsay Dobbin and Kat Estacio.]

Image screencapped from CMC livestream.

Recording: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Artist: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Piece: Fothem [composer: Mick Barr]

Recorded at Jam Factory (Intersection – Day 1/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), August 31, 2017.

Thin Edge New Music Collective - Fothem

In recent years, the Intersection Festival would normally consist of a paid concert, usually the night before the day-long extravaganza in Yonge-Dundas Square. This year, however, under the continued guidance of Burn Down The Capital's Tad Michalak the festival expanded to four events, including a pair of concerts at The Jam Factory. In an echo of last year, this opening night was once more a co-presentation with the Music Gallery's Departures Series, mixing Thin Edge's chamber styles with a visiting composer/musician.

After a panel discussion teasing out the common threads between metal and "classical" music (including a mutual affinity for virtuosity and technical perfection), Thin Edge tackled a trio of pieces from visitor Mick Barr, who certainly keeps his feet planted in both of those worlds. Besides an affinity for some intense sawing, his chamber works weren't over-the-top "metal" in their execution. Operating just as a string trio/quartet (with piano from Cheryl Duvall in the middle piece) this final selection just had strings from Ilana Waniuk, Suhashini Arulanandam, and Amahl Arulanandam.

[You can see some footage from this set over at Brandon Caswell Douglas' Intersection playlist.]

[Thin Edge's seventh season opens on October 10th with "Speaking", featuring Chicago-based pianist Shi-An Costello.]

Recording: Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu

Artist: Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu

Song: Crossfading Accents [composer; Germaine Liu]

Recorded at Ratio, September 23, 2015.

Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu - Crossfading Accents

Experimental chamber ensemble Bespoken made a welcome return to close out this show, playing three new pieces whose scores looked as unique as their composers. Viewed from across the room, Nick Storring's looked like a circuit diagram, with lines connecting different sections, while Matthew Ramolo's looked like a typewritten prose poem. Germaine Liu (guesting with the group in the stead of Brandon Valdivia) brought this piece whose score looked like a mystical code sheet, with a series of hexagram-like figures apparently showing the shifting accents in the ongoing patterns-of-six. With its slightly-unsteady percussive lurch, it sounded a bit like a loop of "Powerhouse" being processed on a cartoon assembly line.

Six years/Six pack: Jonathan Adjemian

MFS has turned six! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

Today's list is from Jonathan Adjemian. Before I knew him personally, he was a mysteriously cool dude (he'd been in Jon-Rae and The River, fer goodness sake!) in a poncho that you'd see off to the side of the room at gigs, reading novels in French. Once I came to know him, I discovered he was truly a gentle man and a scholar. You can catch him these days under his own name or as Hoover Party, busily making drones (not drones).

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Digging through the MFS archives is a treat. Here's music from three shows I was at, and three shows I missed but enjoy imagining that I was there. The process made me feel old, though — lots of what I got excited about dragging up from the archival depths (Fox the Boombox, the Silt, Deep Dark United, etc.) turn out to date from a pre-MFS Toronto. Part of why it's nice to have this "service" of Joe's — it keeps things from falling entirely into "you had to be there" land. Still — good luck imagining Allison's dance, or the crowd chez Polyrhythmo, or that old 2011 feeling. Thanks to Joe for the memories and to everybody for making and continuing to make music, for the love of it, for whoever shows up and however little it pays. Makes this a nicer place to be.

Isla Craig - Parcel of Rogues

Allison Peacock & Alia O'Brien - unknown

Andy Haas - [excerpt]

Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk - Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement]

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - unknown

Jason Doell & Germaine Liu - Wild Bengal Tigers [excerpt]

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You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been a half-dozen songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.

Recording: Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk

Artist: Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk

Song: Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement] (composer: Alfred Schnittke)

Recorded at The Tranzac - Main Hall ("The Second Annual Somewhere There Creative Music Festival" - Show 3), February 22, 2014.

Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk - Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement]

Full review to follow. In a festival filled with various degrees of "out" music, it was a nice touch to have some representatives of the recreative music scene. In terms of DIY spirit and energy put into fostering new, local sounds, the work that Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk do with Thin Edge Music Collective isn't too far removed from the what's going on at Somewhere There — and in any case, genre be damned, they can often be found playing alongside local "creative" musicians. As it turned out, this set (with this piece as well as some John Cage) included one of the least expected/most delightful moments of improvization in the festival when Waniuk broke a violin string. While musicians and crowd chatted about Schnittke, she sat down, changed the string, re-tuned and then threw herself back into the piece. Bravo!

Recording: Bespoken

Artist: Bespoken

Song: Aigre Douce IV

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), December 10, 2013.

Bespoken - Aigre Douce IV

Full review to follow. Conceived as an ad hoc ensemble to present one of Nick Storring's compositions, Bespoken has turned into something of an actual group. Joined by Matt Ramolo, Brandon Valdivia, Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk, this show also served as a launch party for the ensemble's first album, on the new Divorce Records sub-imprint Heavy Fog (which is dedicated to documenting "deep undercurrents in classical music"). Taking place in the Tranzac's main hall and with a cassette being sold at the door, this had a strong DIY feel that will hopefully serve as a catalyst to bring together folks from the New Music, free improvization and indie rock realms. (And on that score, do note that the band's next show will apparently be at the January edition of the Long Winter series.)