Recording: Sait/Bailey/Close

Artist: David Sait/James Bailey/Eunoia Jean Close

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), June 13, 2025.

David Sait/James Bailey/Eunoia Jean Close - [excerpt]

A poignant but celebratory chapter-closing season-ender at Audiopollination, with the community coming out to celebrate founding host Mike Lynn's last night at the helm. The night opened with this excellent trio, with three different soundworlds (guzheng, suitcase o' percussion, and laptop granulation, respectively) mixing together really well.

You can also check out the archived livestream from the night over on youtube:

[It's important to note that Audiopollination will continue, under enterprising new hands! In fact, the sign-up sheet for the fall run of shows (September through December) is already posted and starting to fill up, so now's the time to add yourself to the musical conversation!]

Recording: David Sait

Artist: David Sait

Song: [track 4]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Ayal Senior & Friends), January 12, 2025.

David Sait - [track 4]

David Sait brought some songs and other inventions for his guzheng, as usual, exploring some new variations in tone and technique, including some cool bowing and (as heard here) some subtle shimmer.

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

[Ayal Senior & Friends is back in the Southern Cross on Sunday (January 9th) with a special "public dress rehearsal" as they prepare to enter the studio to cut a new album.]

Recording: David Sait

Artist: David Sait

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Ayal Senior & Friends), August 11, 2024.

David Sait - [second piece]

David Sait's guzheng complemented the other sets' sounds in this afternoon of gentle string excursions. This piece in particular features some work with santur mallets, giving a subtle variation to the sonic attack.

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

[Davis Sait will be performing at the next instalment of the Liquid Architecture series at Mischief Makers on Saturday, September 14th. Ayal Senior & Friends returns to the Southern Cross with performances by Senior & Newman, Greydini, Nick Flanagan and an unnamed "special guest" next Sunday (September 8th).]

Recording: Martin van de Ven/David Sait

Artist: Martin van de Ven/David Sait

Song: [1st piece]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), June 9, 2023.

Martin van de Ven/David Sait - [1st piece]

This last-minute pairing came together wonderfully, the complementing tones of flute and guzheng finding some beautiful, calm intersections.

[You can check out the full set on the archived livestream over at Audiopollination's youtube playlist.]

[Audiopollination is on summer break right now — it'll be back in September, and there are still some open slots in the self-curation sign-up sheet.]

Recording: David Sait

Artist: David Sait

Song: [2nd piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Ayal Senior & Friends), April 9, 2023.

David Sait - [2nd piece]

A treat, as always, to hear some guzheng from David Sait. Delicate sounds for a Sunday afternoon, here with some bonus happy baby enthusiasm.

You can check out some footage of the full set over on youtube:

[Ayal Senior & Friends is back at the Tranzac on Sunday (May 14th) with sets from Ayal (joined by Kurt Newman, Andrew Furlong, and Jay Anderson) plus Colin Fisher, Nick Flanagan & the mysterious (((M))) Man.]

Recording: Toronto Improvisor's Orchestra

Artist: Toronto Improvisor's Orchestra

Song: [set 2, 2nd piece] [conductor: Diane Roblin]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), October 9, 2022.

Toronto Improvisor's Orchestra - [set 2, 2nd piece]

With the cooler weather bringing out a larger crowd of musicians, the TIO was looking more like, well, an orchestra this time out, with enough bodies on hand that it made sense to add some more structure. Some of that came from a series of shifting duos and trios, but the heart of it was some conduction to co-ordinate the members. Rod Campbell conducted one piece in this set, but for this one, Diane Roblin took over, nearly dancing aross the room as she co-ordinated the note-burtsts, held together throughout with some nice circular vibe-sounds from David Story's MalletKat.

Recording: Stewart/Sait/Ng

Artist: Andrew Finlay Stewart/David Sait/Karen Ng

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at Array Space (Track Could Bend #49: Fourth Anniversary All-Star Spectacular!), April 2, 2019.

Andrew Finlay Stewart/David Sait/Karen Ng - [first piece]

For its fourth anniversary, Track Could Bend once more invited back all of the past year's performers to partake in some instant bands, with names being drawn from a hat before each set. A dozen musicians took up the challenge, divided into four trios. Unexpected connections emerged — there were more violins than usual, for example — and once more the results were highly satisfying. This first grouping, with Andrew Finlay Stewart's violin, David Sait's guzheng and Karen Ng's alto sax set the tone, with lots of space left open for listening.

[Track Could Bend is back at its Wenona home base tonight (Tuesday, June 4th) offering sets from Mike Barber, Ashley Urquhart and Friends plus Pete Johnston's Bog Standards.]

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: David Sait

Artist: David Sait

Songs: two pieces

Recorded at Celestina ("Track Could Bend #38"), May 1, 2018.

David Sait - [track 1]

David Sait - [track 3]

Between venues, Track Could Bend was lucky enough to offer this intimate "studio" show, with some couches and a chance for close listening to some delicate sounds and a perfect environment to hear some solo guzheng from David Sait. He sometimes presents his instrument with additional electronic manipulations, but the unadorned acoustic interplay of the strings was more than enough to dazzle in this attentive space.

[On Tuesday (July 3rd), come celebrate Track Could Bend's first show in its new home, down in the cozy basement space at Wenona Lodge (1069 Bloor Street W., just over from Dufferin Station). There will be sets from Fleshtone Aura, American Standard Trio and Jessica Stuart x Michael Davidson.]

Recording: Sait-Hall-Phillips

Artist: David Sait/Glen Hall/ Ted Phillips

Song: [excerpt from second piece]

Recorded at Array Space ("Audiopollination 16.2"), March 13, 2014.

Sait-Hall-Phillips - [excerpt from second piece]

Full review to follow. David Sait picked out some melodies on his clear-bodied guzheng, which served as source material for laptopists Glen Hall and Ted Phillips to add some algorithmically-correct sympathetic sounds.

As always, you can check out the entire show on Audiopollination's bandcamp page!