Recording: orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp

Artist: orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp

Songs: Empty Skies + unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Departures Series), July 15, 2022.

orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp - Empty Skies

orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp - unknown

This Geneva-based group, a dozen strong on stage, was making their first appearance on this side of the Atlantic. A unique sort of "big band" (dual marimbas, dual percussionists, dual guitars, strings and horns) there were some familiar elements here (the postpunk tension/repeat/release of The Ex, the meticulous rhythmic drive of Stereolab, the joyful singalongs of The Raincoats, and maybe just a soupçon of LiLiPUT's musical DNA) but this was a fully unique (and groovin') experience. Luckily, the band was well-served by the space they were playing in, with amazing clarity for such a large group, with all the players clear in their own space, rather than the muddle it could be if not done with such great care.

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

Recording: Sam Shalabi

Artist: Sam Shalabi

Song: Ghosts [composer: Albert Ayler]^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Departures Series), July 15, 2022.

Sam Shalabi - Ghosts

Before the groovestorm of the dozen-strong orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp, Montréal-based oud maestro Sam Shalabi took to the crowded stage on his own, and unleashed something like a flowing river of music, filled with flourishes that never seemed so much like showy displays of technique as suggestive elaborations of a story he was delighted to be sharing.

^* Thanks to Sam for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Leucrocuta

Artist: Leucrocuta

Song: exorcise no 3

Recorded at Jam Factory (Intersection Day 4), September 1, 2019.

Leucrocuta - exorcise no 3

Once more, Burn Down the Capital's Tad Michalak crosswired a couple of his curatorial endeavours, bringing together the Intersection festival and the Music Gallery's Departures series to make it possible to host an esteemed visiting musician — in this case pioneering electronic musician Morton Subotnick. Mirroring his futuristic sounds of the past was an opening set from local synth explorer Leucrocuta, alternating austere soundscapes with blippier, beat-driven zones, and offering a gracious sense of floating, expanding space.

[Leucrocuta will be helping to get things going at Venus Fest's Merganzer album release party this Saturday (October 26th) alongside Blue Light.]

Recording: The Dwarfs of East Agouza

Artist: The Dwarfs of East Agouza

Songs: two unknown pieces^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series: TONE Festival), June 6, 2019.

The Dwarfs of East Agouza - unknown #1

The Dwarfs of East Agouza - unknown #2

Continuing a recent tradition, Tad Michalak brought together two of his curatorial undertakings — the TONE Festival and the Music Gallery's Departures Series — to put on a scaled-up show to launch the former's third iteration. This trio of transcultural deep-groovers saw Sam Shalabi (guitarist, known for his work in Shalabi Effect and Land of Kush) and Alan Bishop (of the Sun City Girls and co-founder of the Sublime Frequencies label) joined by Maurice Louca (on synth and beats) to mutate Egyptian pop and other styles into a seamless pastiche of shortwave transmissions, postpunk shred, no wave skronk and further unclassifiable ingredients, similar to the mix heard on their Bes album.

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

Recording: Omar Bongo

Artist: Omar Bongo

Song: Ruux aad Bari istarateen

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series: TONE Festival), June 6, 2019.

Omar Bongo - Ruux aad Bari istarateen

Continuing a recent tradition, Tad Michalak brought together two of his curatorial undertakings — the TONE Festival and the Music Gallery's Departures Series — to put on a scaled-up show to launch the former's third iteration. This night of cross-genre grooves saw crate-digging fusionists The Dwarfs of East Agouza making their local debut, but local content was provided by kaban (Somali oud/lute) master Omar Bongo, playing in the Qaraami style.

[Omar Bongo has a recent tape (also out on bandcamp) put out by Wait and See, who are tracking under-documented musical strains in the Toronto area.]

Recording: Nadah El Shazly

Artist: Nadah El Shazly

Song: Palmyra

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 18, 2019.

Nadah El Shazly - Palmyra

A packed room was buzzing in anticipation of Cairo-based Nadah El Shazly's experimental Egyptian pop. Bringing the tunes from her Ahwar album to life, her keyboard/electronic setup was augmented by Montréal's Thierry Amar (who also recorded the album) and saxophonist Brahja Waldman. That allowed for a wide range of textures veering from full-on electronics to more restrained acoustic interludes and moving from pop precision to ecstatic abandon.

Recording: ZOË

Artist: ZOË

Song: Tunnel

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 18, 2019.

ZOË - Tunnel

Zoë Alexis-Abrams' namesake popsong project has been simmering for awhile, adding songs and testing different lineups and instrumental possibilities, but this was one of those shows that felt like a bold announcement something has arrived. Focusing on vocal performance instead of keybs, Alexis-Abrams instead led a keyboard trio on stage, her gestures conducting Xuan Ye, Kvesche Bijons-Ebacher, and Amelia H. in glorious bursts of circuit-bent soul. The other key change here was the addition of percussionist D. Alex Meeks, powering the tracks with his precision grooves. It was the sort of set where you just wanted to call up 4AD and hold your phone toward the stage until they sent someone down to make the band into international stars.

[A slightly different version of the band will be joining in for a night of "moody tunes from broody heads" alongside Bunny and Hank the Kid (a new project from Henri Fabergé) at Handlebar tonight (Thursday, July 4th). ]

Recording: Qarafa

Artist: Qarafa

Song: [excerpt from first piece]^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 18, 2019.

Qarafa - [excerpt from first piece]

This "nebulous improvised music entity" has morphed a bit since releasing their first tape, but is still exploring some interesting drone-jazz avenues. This set saw them substituting trombone for the tape's sax up front, but digging around a bit indicates that there is some flexibility in the band's stage alignment, which presumably allows for some different flavours to emerge as they let the grooves stretch out.

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

Recording: Suzanne Ciani

Artist: Suzanne Ciani

Song: [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Revue Cinema (Intersection (Night 1)/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), August 31, 2018.

Suzanne Ciani - [edited excerpt]

This year's Intersection Festival started with a genuine happening, with this presentation of modular synth legend Suzanne Ciani. The night began with a screening of A Life In Waves, the recent documentary tracking her several careers (electronics sound pioneer for TV commercials, leading New Age musician) and re-discovery as a sonic forerunner whose early work is only truly being appreciated now. That, plus a Q + A session hosted by Katie Jensen, gave the audience a sense of Ciani's engaging personality before she played a live set for Buchla synthesizer in quadraphonic sound, which was grounded by inspiration from birds, winds and waves of all kinds.

Recording: Oren Ambarchi & Will Guthrie

Artist: Oren Ambarchi & Will Guthrie

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Jam Factory (TONE Festival/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), June 19, 2018.

Oren Ambarchi & Will Guthrie - [excerpt]

The night's visiting headliners closed their eyes and generated an expanding sonic sphere, slowly amping up rumbles and drones into an extended peak at maximum velocity. The long, steady swelling-up was buoyed by Ambarchi's mess of wires and electronics (creating at times an almost hurdy-gurdy tonality) and nudged ever forward by Guthrie's rolling/roiling percussion.

[The Departures Series will be returning on August 31st with a film screening and live quadraphonic performance from Suzanne Ciani, which is itself the first event of the Burn Down The Capital-curated Intersection Festival.]

Recording: Jazz Bras Dot Com

Artist: Jazz Bras Dot Com

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Jam Factory (TONE Festival/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), June 19, 2018.

Jazz Bras Dot Com - [excerpt]

If it takes a festival invite or other similar situation to facilitate the logistics of bringing this pan-continental trio together, then a helluva lot more festivals need to get with the program, as this was fabulous stuff. Mixing Elisa Thorn's harp, Jessica Ackerely's guitar and Laura Swankey's treated vocals, this felt like an expansive conversation between three old friends, where deeper connections held together what might seem like nonlinear superficial riffing — three parallel lines meeting at infinity, sort of a musical equivalent of ye olde impossible trident.

[Laura Swankey, JBDC's local representative, will be celebrating an EP Release of her work for solo voice and electronics with a show at Burdock on Thursday, October 4th. The Departures Series will be returning on August 31st with a film screening and live quadraphonic performance from Suzanne Ciani, which is itself the first event of the Burn Down The Capital-curated Intersection Festival.]

Recording: Retired

Artist: Retired

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Jam Factory (TONE Festival/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), June 19, 2018.

Retired - unknown

This jazz-punk quartet lead off an excellent night of rampaging sonic explorations at the Jam Factory. Spread out in a line across the stage zone they pushed out a walloping wall of sound — Adam Hanrahan's bass drowned out Alex Howard's sax a bit, but when they leaned in to focus (such as on the slow-simmering piece heard here, building up from from a menacing Freeze drone and some looped step oscillations from Hanrahan's bass) it was powerful stuff.

[The Departures Series will be returning on August 31st with a film screening and live quadraphonic performance from Suzanne Ciani, which is itself the first event of the Burn Down The Capital-curated Intersection Festival.]

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

Recording: Mick Barr

Artist: Mick Barr

Pieces: [excerpts from two sections]^*

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

Mick Barr - [excerpt from first section]

Mick Barr - [excerpt from second section]

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 getting a chance to hear some of his chamber pieces being played by Thin Edge, Mick Barr performed a solo set. With a rep for musical virtuosity and known for his work in a series of extreme-metal projects, there was an interesting arc to this set, leading off with an extended shimmering Reich-like piece, before adding some drum machine to power some machine gun riffs — and then heading off to shredsville, with no pedals or fancy stuff, just "proper" technical playing.

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

^* Does anyone know the titles to these? Please leave a comment!

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: DKV Trio

Artist: DKV Trio

Songs: "Toronto 2" + "Toronto 6"^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (TONE Festival – Show #2/Music Gallery Departures Series), June 15, 2017.

DKV Trio - Toronto 2

DKV Trio - Toronto 6

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. Multitasking Tad Michalak managed to use his position as curator for the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series to bring some big names under the TONE banner, closing out the night (and the Music Gallery's season) with some shredding from one of saxophonist Ken Vandermark's more "free" projects. This trio, with Vandermark joined by Hamid Drake (drums) and Kent Kessler (bass), has been playing together for more than two decades, so it was no surprise that they could hit the stage and launch into some intense blowing. There was lots of drive here (often propelled by Drake's beautifully musical percussion work) but the momentum was maintained even when things shifted down for more introspective moments and solo spotlights.

^* I'm not sure if these are composed pieces or improvisations from the group — they do plenty of both — so I have adapted a naming convention they have used themselves. Please leave a comment if you can tie titles to these!

Recording: Icepick

Artist: Icepick - [excerpt]

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (TONE Festival – Show #2/Music Gallery Departures Series), June 15, 2017.

Icepick - [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. Multitasking Tad Michalak managed to use his position as curator for the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series to bring some big names under the TONE banner, meaning the night's middle act could easily have been the headliner in their own right. A new trio bringing together Nate Wooley (trumpet), Chris Corsano (percussion), and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass), this was action-jazz from the get-go with plenty kineticism on stage. Equally willing to pull together and to pull apart, there was room here for each of the players to bring their own ideas, personalities and sheets of metal.

Recording: Invisible Out

Artist: Invisible Out

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (TONE Festival – Show #2/Music Gallery Departures Series), June 15, 2017.

Invisible Out - [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. Multitasking Tad Michalak managed to use his position as curator for the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series to bring some big names under the TONE banner, but he also included some slight-of-hand counter-programming in deploying an entirely different sort of improvising project to start the night off. I've seen Xuan Ye and Jason Doell doing plenty of things in their own projects, but this collaborative set pushed some of their individual quirks and tricks into a different zone. Call it "ring pop pop", with all sorts of apps, found sounds and found objects being deconstructed and rewired into their sound-field.

[My recording of the whole set can be found over on IO's bandcamp. Xuan Ye will be celebrating her new double album You've Just Become Part of Me with an evening of performances at the Tranzac on Sunday, July 16th, with guests Heraclitus Akimbo & Jason Doell, Brigitte Bardon't and Zoë Alexis-Abrams & Johnny Spence joining in.]

Recording: Peter Evans Ensemble

Artist: Peter Evans Ensemble

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Array Space (Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 16, 2017.

Peter Evans Ensemble - unknown

When Peter Evans was last at the Departures Series a couple years back, it was in an intense solo set with plenty flight-of-the-bumblebee speedshredding. This return saw him at the head of a quintet, spreading out the musical labour somewhat, and adding a variety of textures, easing from drum-burst explosions (courtesy of Jim Black) to mellower mantras. There were also some pleasing electroacoustic elements, courtesy of Levy Lorenzo's electronics and percussion as well as Ron Stabinsky's synth work. Playing a continuous suite segueing between scored pieces, this ebbed and flowed in a rather satisfactory way.

[The Music Gallery's Departures Series closes out its season on Thursday, June 15th at Burdock, with a night featuring DKV (Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler and Ken Vandermark), Icepick (a new trio of Nate Wooley, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Chris Corsano), plus locals Invisible Out (Xuan Ye and Jason Doell). This show is also part of the TONE series' excellent ain't-a-jazz-festival programming.]

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

Recording: Weinberg/Welcome/Bennett

Artist: Sam Weinberg/Chris Welcome/Ben Bennett

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 16, 2017.

Sam Weinberg/Chris Welcome/Ben Bennett - [excerpt]

There was plenty home-spun inventiveness in this Brooklyn-meets-Philly collaborative set between Ben Bennett (percussion), Chris Welcome (synth) and Sam Weinberg (sax). Welcome's littleBits-style science-fair synth modules mixed with Bennett's percussive bricabrac (trowel, cutting board, breath jackhammer, membranes, cut-out drumhead for bowing), which was inventive enough that locals Germaine Liu and Brandon Valdivia were right up watching him work. The sax sputters doubled up with the electronic sputters as the membrane drone doubled up with the sax drone. Very tasty sounds (that you can check out on a tape the the trio put out for this tour).

[The Music Gallery's Departures Series closes out its season on Thursday, June 15th at Burdock, with a night featuring DKV (Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler and Ken Vandermark), Icepick (a new trio of Nate Wooley, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Chris Corsano), plus locals Invisible Out (Xuan Ye and Jason Doell). This show is also part of the TONE series' excellent ain't-a-jazz-festival programming.]

Recording: Not The Wind, Not The Flag

Artist: Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [first piece, part 1]

Song: [first piece, in two parts]

Recorded at Array Space (Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 16, 2017.

Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [first piece, part 1]

Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [first piece, part 2]

Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher pulled off their usually-phenomenal back-and-forth for percussion and sax, but they also started off their set with this electronic jam, mostly using their pedals. Fisher would occasionally rub or flick at his guitar strings but they were mostly just the sound source for his moogerfooger sonar bloops. Meanwhile, Valdivia added bass undercurrents and scissor-slice percussion with his rig. This made for a nice counterpart to the lo-fi electronics and analog blasting in the Sam Weinberg/Chris Welcome/Ben Bennett set that followed.

[The Music Gallery's Departures Series closes out its season on Thursday, June 15th at Burdock, with a night featuring DKV (Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler and Ken Vandermark), Icepick (a new trio of Nate Wooley, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Chris Corsano), plus locals Invisible Out (Xuan Ye and Jason Doell). This show is also part of the TONE series' excellent ain't-a-jazz-festival programming.]