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: Happy Apple

Artist: Happy Apple

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (Women From Space Festival – Night 4), March 11, 2019.

Happy Apple - [excerpt 1]

Happy Apple - [excerpt 2]

The first Women From Space Festival saw four excellent concerts take place over the course of the International Women's Day weekend. Organized by Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine, the festival felt like a really savvy gathering, always more than the sum of its parts and showcasing the depth of talent in the city's various creative music streams in a women-centred environment.

One of my stronger memories of the previous time I got to perform with Allison Cameron was her deployment of a Fisher Price happy apple, so that seemed like a good band name for another duo set. Cameron obliged by producing her full collection of no less than four happy apples and with some contact mics we were on our way. Plucked strings, synthbursts and tape shenanigans were some of the ingredients here, with the occasional cheerful chime a nice framing element.

[Allison Cameron will be presenting a Quintet where she'll be joined by Robin Dann, Felicity Williams, Christopher Willes, and Mark Zurawinski at her next Tranzac night on Wednesday, May 15th.]

photo by Susan O'Connor

Recording: Allison Cameron with Heraclitus Akimbo

Artist: Allison Cameron with Heraclitus Akimbo

Song: Pass Around The Happy Apple

Recorded at The Canadian Music Centre (Bridging Worlds), October 6, 2016.

Allison Cameron with Heraclitus Akimbo - Pass Around The Happy Apple, Part 1

Allison Cameron with Heraclitus Akimbo - Pass Around The Happy Apple, Part 2

A cool late-afternoon gathering at stately Chalmers House, home of the Canadian Music Centre. The joint has a somewhat stodgy rep in some of the circles I travel, so it's nice to see them willing to shake things up a little and engage with some weirder sounds. This was the season launch for a series of concerts curated by Music In The Barns' Carol Gimbel — and a re-appearance by Kristel Jax (who spoke with Norma Beecroft last year) in her capacity as interviewer. This time out, she was in conversation with Allison Cameron, and the pair spoke about her career as a composer and its relationship to her work as an improviser. Following that came a brief joint set with obscure ambient noodler Heraclitus Akimbo, attempting to match his keyboard loops, cassettes and Buddha Machines with Cameron's banjo, vintage crackle synth and Happy Apple (which was, indeed, passed around the crowd).

You can also check out a "remix" of the performance over on soundcloud:

[The "CMC Presents" series — all curated by Carol Gimbel — continues with three more gigs at the CMC as well as a very cool-looking season-closer next May at The Drake.]

Photo by Kristel Jax.