Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong Season 2 Spectacular!), September 25, 2019.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7 - [excerpt]

This self-declared spectacle — which came complete with celebratory cupcakes — was an anniversary party for Andrew Furlong and Harry Vetro's Tranzac residency. As usual, each of them put together an ensemble to play a set. Vetro's shifting ensembles are regularly dubbed a part of his "Search For Eternal Happiness", and this large group brought together most of the players who came together at the series' first outing. This part of the search was less "composed" than some, but there was still the strong shared sense of a game plan, with the crew managing to hold onto a reasonably-layered structure and not just pile sounds on top of other sounds, raising up to a swell worthy of a birthday party.

The full ensemble was:

• Harrison Argatoff (sax)
• Madeleine Ertel (trumpet)
• Ben Frost (flugelhorn)
• Kaelin Murphy (bass trumpet)
• Patrick Smith (sax)
• Meghan Gilhespy (vocals)
• Nick Donovan (drums)
• Patrick O'Reilly (guit)
• Harry Bartlett (guit)
• Caleb Klager (double bass)
• Harrison Vetro (drums)

[Music By Harry and Furlong will continue at The Tranzac on Wednesday, November 27th, with sets from Harry Vetro's Drum Trio (Harry Vetro, Nick Donovan, and Miles Fuller) as well as a duo of Andrew Furlong and Kurt Newman.]

Recording: Kerhachne

Artist: Kerhachne

Songs: [1st piece, in two parts]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #50), May 7, 2019.

Kerhachne - [1st piece, part 1]

Kerhachne - [1st piece, part 2]

I was adequately moved by this ensemble the first time I saw them to book 'em on the spot for TCB. Somewhere on the way to the basement, they acquired a name, but otherwise the mix of strings (from Nelson Moneo's viola and Cheryl O's cello) and interference (Kristian Fourier's piano and electronics), held together by Harry Vetro's percussion, continued the spell of swells and crashes that convinced me the first time.

[Track Could Bend is back in Wenona's basement on Tuesday, August 6th with performances from Hiroki Tanaka, Del Stephen's Today Versions and Liz Lima.]

Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4

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

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong S1E5), February 27, 2019.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4 - [excerpt from first piece, part 1]

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4 - [excerpt from first piece, part 2]

"The Search For Eternal Happiness" seems to be drummer Harry Vetro's catch-all for ad hoc ensembles brought together to explore new works or new sounds. This iteration brought together Kristian Fourier (piano/electronics), Nelson Moneo (viola) and Cheryl O (cello) to mix some sweepingly romantic sounds (flowing strings'll do that) with occasional jagged edges (delay pedals and feedback'll do that). Really lovely stuff — at set's end, I booked the band to play another one.

[That reprise will see the group — now re-christened "Kerhachne" — play Track Could Bend at Wenona on Tuesday, May 7th. Meanwhile, the next manifestation of Vetro's Search For Eternal Happiness will unfold tonight (April 24th) at The Tranzac, where he'll be joined by Ben Frost, Karen Ng, and Patrick O'Reilly.]

Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2

Song: Dog Pound [composer: Caleb Klager]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong, S1E3), November 28, 2018.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2 - Dog Pound

This "episode" of this new-ish Tranzac residency delivered exactly what its title promised: music curated and performed by Harry Vetro and Andrew Furlong. As a musical unit, Vetro's Search For Eternal Happiness seems to be as conceptual as the titular metaphysical pursuit, with different iterations bringing a rotating series of musicians to join him.

This set saw him on drums backing a sort of double trio that included Dan Pitt and Harry Bartlett on guitar plus Jill McKenna and Caleb Klager on double bass. It's possible that it's an expanded version of a trio containing Bartlett, Klager, and Vetro that recorded some tunes together — including the ode to the Alberta village heard here. Carefully-arranged countrypolitan twang, this was "jazz" as filtered through the influence of Bill Frisell, whose work was also tackled during the set.

[Music By Harry and Furlong continues at The Tranzac on Wednesday, January 23rd, with a new The Search For Eternal Happiness configuration (with Harry Vetro plus saxophonist Harrison Argatoff as well as dancers Alison Keery and Mateo Gilando) plus a duo set from Patrick Smith and Mike Gennaro.]

Recording: Harrison Vetro & Friends

Artist: Harrison Vetro & Friends

Song: [sections 2 + 3]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By & For Ken Aldcroft XXI), September 12, 2018.

Harrison Vetro & Friends - [sections 2 + 3]

The first half of this night of music for Ken Aldcroft brought some carefully-crafted sounds from drummer Harry Vetro alongside Kaelin Murphy (trumpet) and Dan Pitt (guitar). With some nice give-and-take all around, there were moments of quiet introspection pushing outward seamlessly into louder abstractions.

^* I'm not sure if these are a couple smaller pieces, or two parts of a larger suite. If you know that and/or the titles, please leave a comment!

Recording: HARP

Artist: HARP

Songs: Trace [composer: Patrick O'Reilly] + Stockholm [composer: Andrew Downing]

Recorded at Array Space (Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series), March 12, 2017.

HARP - Trace

HARP - Stockholm

On the first night of the hated daylight savings time and in the face of winter's last threatened snowblast before the spring, Somewhere There presented this cozy night in their Second Sunday of the month series. Alphabetically named from the initials of players Harry Vetro (percussion), Andrew Downing (double bass), Russell Matthews (sax) and Patrick O'Reilly (guit), this group presented pieces from each of the players (including another of the picture-scores that Vetro had presented earlier in the night), mixing O'Reilley's deftly-echoplexed guitar twists with Downing's balladic grace.

Recording: Adolescence

Artist: Adolescence

Songs: Why Do People Smoke Outside of Hospitals? + Which Way is Up?

Recorded at Array Space (Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series), March 12, 2017.

Adolescence - Why Do People Smoke Outside of Hospitals?

Adolescence - Which Way is Up?

Once again, Somewhere There was supporting and amplifying the voices of emerging composers + performers with their Second Sunday of the month series. This group (with some familiar faces from the younger cadre and a few that were new to me) was assembled by percussionist Harry Vetro and included Emily Denison (trumpet), Harrison Argatoff (sax), Meghan Gilhespy (vox), Dan Pitt (guitar), and Jacob Thompson (synth + piano). Vetro's scores contained both notated lines as well as pictures, giving the musicians a basic musical framework plus room to explore based on the moods the images evoked. That meant the pieces were more "atmospheres" than "tunes", but they were rather agreeable spaces to range around in.

Recording: Shelly/Jurgensen/Vetro

Artist: David Shelly/Arnd Jurgensen/Harrison Vetro

Song: [excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #48.2), November 12, 2016.

Shelly/Jurgensen/Vetro - [excerpt, part 1]

Shelly/Jurgensen/Vetro - [excerpt, part 2]

Audiopollination's fourth anniversary was celebrated in typical fashion — that's to say with an eclectic mix of musicians playing together in ad hoc small combos. The highlight of the night, and one of the best improvised sets I've seen this year, this was a too-rare opportunity to see David Shelly in action inside. Often found busking throughout the city (under the project name Treeotica), Shelly plays a custom-designed amplified tree branch. The wide range of sounds here come from bowing, scratching and tapping the branch, and running the resulting sounds from a contact mic into some pedals. Later on, you can hear the chiming sounds of a music box being held against the branch. Meanwhile, Arnd Jurgensen (on guitar) and Harrison Vetro (on percussion) provide admirable musical support here, holding back and not overwhelming Shelly's beautifully-delicate sounds.

[There are two Audiopollination events left before the end of the year: a special event on Sunday (December 18th) featuring electro-acousticians Sound of the Mountain, and an improv session with cellist Rémy Bélanger de Beauport on December 22nd.]