Recording: Lima/West/Kay/Newman

Artist: Liz Lima/Brodie West/Andrew Kay/Paul Newman

Song: Job's Anguish [last section] [composer: Brian Abbott]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: juice?$#%*), March 23, 2024.

Liz Lima/Brodie West/Andrew Kay/Paul Newman - Job's Anguish [last section]

This night of improvisations closed out with a clarinet quartet essaying this new composition ("a sort of collage piece," it was explained) from Brian Abbott, who also conducted.

You can check out the complete piece over on youtube:

[This is the sort of thing you might hear more of at gatherings of the Cowbell Composer Collective, who have just started a residency at The Tranzac on second Sundays of the month, so keep an eye for further announcments on that front.]

Recording: Kay/Milmine/Vespaziani

Artist: Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani

Song: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: juice?$#%*), March 23, 2024.

Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt 1]

Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt 2]

This trio set saw horns up from from Kayla Milmine (soprano sax) and Andrew Kay (clarinet, bass clarinet, wooden flute) backed by Bob Vespaziani's expansive wavedrum sounds.

You can check out the complete set over on youtube:

Recording: Brian Abbott & Ryan Kinney

Artist: Brian Abbott & Ryan Kinney

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: juice?$#%*), March 23, 2024.

Brian Abbott & Ryan Kinney - [excerpt]

This duo for electric guitars moved from throrny abstraction into a building postrock groove in this ending section, with Ryan Kinney providing the repeating riff/bassline while Brian Abbott shredded towards the strat-o-sphere.

You can check out the complete set over on youtube:

[Brian Abbott will be playing some solo microtonal banjo (with "hypnotic hints of bluegrass, maqam, and swirling clusters of notes clunking and sliding into your ear holes") at Track Could Bend, coming up on May 7th.]

Recording: Happy Apple

Artist: Happy Apple

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: juice?$#%*), March 23, 2024.

Happy Apple - [excerpt]

This electroacoustic playtime project from Allison Cameron and Joe Strutt made its return to live performance with a table full of electronics as well as a trio of the titular toys/instruments. Manipulating their pleasant chimes, there would later be some laptop granulations, banjos, red delicious and granny smiths added to the mix.

You can check out the complete set over on youtube:

[Joe Strutt will be appearing with a different duo next Tuesday (April 23rd) to celebrate the release of Wenderly Park's self-titled album.]

Recording: Amrita

Artist: Amrita

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Gerard Art Space (Faster presents), February 25, 2023.

Amrita - unknown

Rather a pleasing treat to return to this cozy east end haunt with Brian Abbott and Kayla Milmine reactivating their "Faster presents" banner. This first set saw the latter joined by tabla player Anita Katakkar for some Indo-jazz forays. This piece, with Katakkar singing the rhythm in the lead-up, tells about Lord Shiva embodying all sound.

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

Recording: Tone Cathedral

Artist: Tone Cathedral

Song: It's Always the Apocalypse [edited excerpt]

Recorded at Gerard Art Space (Faster presents), February 25, 2023.

Tone Cathedral - It's Always the Apocalypse [edited excerpt]

Rather a pleasing treat to return to this cozy east end haunt with Brian Abbott and Kayla Milmine reactivating their "Faster presents" banner. Here Abbott (on guitar) lead an ensemble of top-notch players (Meghan Cheng, violin; Sara Constant, flutes; Andrew Furlong, double bass; Paul Newman, tenor saxophone + clarinet) through a couple of his pieces showing his ever-deeper burrowing into the realms of microtonality.

Unlike the works on his A Loose Grip on Reality album, which focuses on hyper-real pieces ("music that would purposely be unplayable by humans even if anyone was crazy enough to try"), the pair of compositions essayed here had a woozier pace, with sounds from one instrument sliding into another in a sort of slow-motion hocketing, sounding almost like paulstretched audio at times — or perhaps like a version of a tape-loop piece like Music For Airports where little loops are being played on tape decks with dying batteries, putting things out of skew in subtle ways.

[That same album will be celebrated this Saturday (March 25th) at Array Space with animation by Meghan Cheng and performaces from Tone Cathedral and Mun Mun C.F.]

Recording: FASTER

Artist: FASTER

Song: [second piece, edit]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (FASTER Presents), July 30, 2019.

FASTER - [second piece, edit]

Filling in an extra Tuesday night at Wenona, FASTER brought this night of electronic and acoustic improvisational explorations. Kayla Milmine and Brian Abbott closed out the night with an old-fashioned set of FASTER improvisations, shifting genres exploding outward from their mind-meld.

Recording: cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani

Artist: cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (FASTER Presents), July 30, 2019.

cheryl o & Bob Vespaziani - [excerpt from first piece]

Filling in an extra Tuesday night at Wenona, FASTER brought this night of electronic and acoustic improvisational explorations. Pared back from a planned trio, Bob Vespaziani (wavedrum) and cheryl o (cello) had plenty of space to explore.

Recording: Kieran Maraj

Artist: Kieran Maraj

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (FASTER Presents), July 30, 2019.

Kieran Maraj - [excerpt from first piece]

Filling in an extra Tuesday night at Wenona, FASTER brought this night of electronic and acoustic improvisational explorations. Kieran Maraj offered the night's electronic zones, celebrating cicada season with glitchy fragments on top of digital surf hitting an electronic rocky shore.

Recording: Hübsch Martel Zoubek

Artist: Hübsch Martel Zoubek

Song: [excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at at Gerrard Art Space (FASTER Presents), September 15, 2018.

Hübsch Martel Zoubek - [excerpt, part 1]

Hübsch Martel Zoubek - [excerpt, part 2]

This tri-national unit stopped on their way to the Guelph Jazz Festival for this show, offering an intriguing mix of Carl Ludwig Hübsch's tuba, Pierre-Yves Martel's viola da gamba and Philip Zoubek's synthesizer, with plenty of extended techniques to go around. Moving from a drone to warbling purrrps to breath-pffts to plucks to three-way sputtering, there's something scintillating about such radically-different instruments zoning in to work in similar tonalities. (Their new Otherwise album is highly recommended.)

Recording: magiceyeimage

Artist: magiceyeimage

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at at Gerrard Art Space (FASTER Presents), September 15, 2018.

magiceyeimage - [excerpt 1]

magiceyeimage - [excerpt 2]

A cozy art gallery, walls lined with a lifetime's worth of prints, was an excellent space for a night of listening. If I'd thought that the quietness of the previous time I saw this trio was striking, I was soon to discover that that was like an arena show compared to the spare stillness on display here. Playing totally acoustically, the trio's gestures included near-silent bass-bowing, e-bow whispers on an acoustic guitar, a ball clacking against rotating tiles and so on. As always with material this quiet, my mics don't do it justice at all, but hopefully they give some flavour of what was going on.

Recording: FASTER

Artist: FASTER

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Summer Sound Explorations), July 21, 2018.

FASTER - [excerpt]

After opening this night of electronic and acoustic sounds with separate sparring partners, Kayla Milmine and Brian Abbott finished things off with an old-fashioned FASTER set. "Old-fashioned" in the sense that they took a night off from the large-scale compositional pieces that have been occupying them lately and just went on an improvised high-speed chase with hairpin turns and random songbursts.

[FASTER is presenting another excellent night of creative sounds at Gerrard Art Space tomorrow night (September 15th) with visiting improvisers Carl Ludwig Hübsch/Pierre-Yves Martel/Philip Zoubek as well as the ever-quieter Montréal/Toronto force of MagicEyeImage.]

Recording: Paul Stillwell

Artist: Paul Stillwell

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Summer Sound Explorations), July 21, 2018.

Paul Stillwell - [excerpt]

Paul Stillwell did bring some acoustic elements to his set — most notably a large PVC pipe overtone flute heard in the closing section here — but also featured some very tasty (and largely ambient) electronic textures.

[FASTER is presenting another excellent night of creative sounds at Gerrard Art Space tomorrow night (September 15th) with visiting improvisers Carl Ludwig Hübsch/Pierre-Yves Martel/Philip Zoubek as well as the ever-quieter Montréal/Toronto force of MagicEyeImage.]

Recording: Eugene Martynec & Brian Abbott

Artist: Eugene Martynec & Brian Abbott

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Summer Sound Explorations), July 21, 2018.

Eugene Martynec & Brian Abbott - [excerpt]

On this FASTER-curated night of electronic and acoustic sounds, both halves of the duo split off to perform with separate sparring partners. Eugene Martynec (MIDI instruments) and Brian Abbott (guitar) brought a different temperament to the proceedings, playing a microtonal duo where the acoustic and electronic sounds melded nicely together.

[FASTER is presenting another excellent night of creative sounds at Gerrard Art Space tomorrow night (September 15th) with visiting improvisers Carl Ludwig Hübsch/Pierre-Yves Martel/Philip Zoubek as well as the ever-quieter Montréal/Toronto force of MagicEyeImage.]

Recording: James Bailey & Kayla Milmine

Artist: James Bailey & Kayla Milmine

Songs: [two excerpts from an improvisation]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Summer Sound Explorations), July 21, 2018.

James Bailey & Kayla Milmine - [first section]

James Bailey & Kayla Milmine - [second section]

On this FASTER-curated night of electronic and acoustic sounds, both halves of the duo split off to perform with separate sparring partners. To lead things off Kayla Milmine (on soprano sax) was joined by James Bailey, who was armed with a bench full of percussive bricabrac (roto-tom frames, computer parts, serving tray, wire brushes, bread saw, etc.).

[FASTER is presenting another excellent night of creative sounds at Gerrard Art Space tomorrow night (September 15th) with visiting improvisers Carl Ludwig Hübsch/Pierre-Yves Martel/Philip Zoubek as well as the ever-quieter Montréal/Toronto force of MagicEyeImage.]

Recording: Deenzi

Artist: Deenzi

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Spring Sounds), March 25, 2017.

Deenzi - [excerpt 1]

Deenzi - [excerpt 2]

This collaboration between Heidi Chan (flute, modular synth) and Andy Yue (MIDI keyb) is simultaneously finding its own musical space while expanding perpendicularly into new zones. That means there's sonic surprises in every set, even as they continue to define their core musical territory. Yue often provides structure on keyb percussion or electric piano sounds while Chan is slicing and dicing her own sampled instruments or adding radio noise-drifts. The tense they speak in is future abstract.

[The next Faster Presents show at G.A.S. is on Saturday, May 20th and includes a make-up for the Faster set that was postponed at this show alongside a solo outing from Matt Miller and an appearance by the Four Shadows Quartet (Zach Clark/Paul Newman/Brian Abbott/Kayla Milmine).]

Recording: Brian Abbott & Lorne Shapiro

Artist: Brian Abbott & Lorne Shapiro

Song: [excerpt from first piece, in two parts]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Spring Sounds), March 25, 2017.

Brian Abbott & Lorne Shapiro - [excerpt from first piece, part 1]

Brian Abbott & Lorne Shapiro - [excerpt from first piece, part 2]

Originally planned as a chance for Faster to share a new composition in the midst of some electronic improvisation, a last-minute cancellation saw things shifting to this improvised set with Faster's Brian Abbott (on electric guitar + pedals) sharing the stage with Lorne Shapiro (on viola da gamba). Shapiro was also rocking some cool effects to stretch and manipulate his sound, so although things would later get to plinky-plunky splatter burstin', this stretch focuses on a more sedately-drifting portion of the proceedings.

[The next Faster Presents show at G.A.S. is on Saturday, May 20th and includes a make-up for the Faster set that was postponed at this show alongside a solo outing from Matt Miller and an appearance by the Four Shadows Quartet (Zach Clark/Paul Newman/Brian Abbott/Kayla Milmine).]

Recording: Abbott-Clark-Phillips-Doell

Artist: Brian Abbott/Zach Clark/Ted Phillips/Jason Doell

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Odd Electronics), October 21, 2016.

Abbott-Clark-Phillips-Doell - [excerpt 1]

Abbott-Clark-Phillips-Doell - [excerpt 2]

The title of this low-key evening put together by the Faster crew summed things up pretty well. The night closed with all of the show's participants joining together in a group electroacoustic improvisation, mixing radiophonic found-sound drift and a variety of drones.

[Faster will be hosting their 6th or 7th Annual Christmas Show at Gerrard Art Space on Friday, December 9th.]

Recording: Turtles All The Way Down

Artist: Turtles All The Way Down

Song: Unbalanced Melatonin Levels [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Odd Electronics), October 21, 2016.

Turtles All The Way Down - Unbalanced Melatonin Levels [excerpt]

The title of this low-key evening put together by the Faster crew summed things up pretty well. Faster's Brian Abbott had a hand in three of the night's sets, including the unveiling of his "Plunderpunk" project and this new duo with Zach Clark, on guit/pedals and laptop/keyb/effects, respectively. They played just this one extended piece, based on Abbott's explorations of just intonation. The full piece included a unison overture and conclusion; this bit comes from the middle of the excursion's drones and warbles.

[Faster will be hosting their 6th or 7th Annual Christmas Show at Gerrard Art Space on Friday, December 9th.]

Recording: Jason Doell

Artist: Jason Doell

Song: 7-channel surround sound system [excerpt]

Recorded at Gerrard Art Space (Faster Presents: Odd Electronics), October 21, 2016.

Jason Doell - 7-channel surround sound system [excerpt]

The title of this low-key evening put together by the Faster crew summed things up pretty well. Leading things off was this improvised electroacoustic set from noted local composer Jason Doell. Partly tongue-in-cheek and partly DIY statement-of-purpose, his "seven channel surround sound" diffusion system was modest in scale (clock radio, tape deck, megaphone, etc.) but did stretch along the two long walls of the rectangular gallery space. The sounds were likewise modest in scale, with little curls of feedback, a buzzing egg vibrating the strings of a snare drum, and soundbursts and plinks ping-ponging from left to right via live radio transmission.

[Faster will be hosting their 6th or 7th Annual Christmas Show at Gerrard Art Space on Friday, December 9th.]