Recording: Jessica Houghton & Kathryn Merriam

Artist: Jessica Houghton & Kathryn Merriam

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded December 4, 2022 at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Audiopollination 10th Anniversary Bash).

Jessica Houghton & Kathryn Merriam - [excerpt]

A round number anniversary is always worth celebrating, and more so for this labour of love devoted to creative expression and community building. Kudos to Mike Lynn for putting in the work to keep Audiopollination going for a decade — definitely worth celebrating with a slice of pie and a crowded room in the Southern Cross.

The afternoon opened with a pairing of Jessica Houghton (movement) and Kathryn Merriam (harp). Houghton used the thin strip of space at the front of the stage area (and, later, gained some height on the piano bench) to reflect Merriam's lush notes and reverse delay sweeps.

You can check out some footage from this set over on the Audiopollination youtube channel:

[Audiopollination is back at Array Space on Friday, January 13th with sets by Mike Barber/Daisy Betlej/Tegan Dietsch / Kousha Nakhaei/Owen Kurtz / Jamie Eriksen/Adrian Russouw/Bri Clarke and Kimberly Ivany/Katheryn Merriam.]

Recording: Merriam/Clermont/Vorstenbosch

Artist: Kathryn Merriam/Isabelle Clermont/Elysha Vorstenbosch

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (Women From Space Festival 2022 – Night 4), May 1, 2022.

Kathryn Merriam/Isabelle Clermont/Elysha Vorstenbosch - [excerpt]

For the past three years, the Women From Space Festival has been an excellent encapsulation of its moment. Coming on the cusp of the First Big Lockdown, the 2020 Festival is remembered by many as the last event of the beforetimes, while last year's "hologram edition" was an elegant solution to the flatness of livestreams. And now, this year's Festival had to bear all the relief and angst of "returning to live" at this uncertain mid-point of the pandemic. Presented with joy and community spirit over four nights, the Festival was a chance to run into seldom-seen familiar faces and to hear a dizzying variety of sounds.

Dazzled with a formidable array of harpists applying to play the festival, the organizers took a "yes, and" approach and invited them all, combined into a quartet to improvise together and explore their diverse approaches to their instruments. Sadly, Grace Scheele was unable to play, but the remaining trio found some really beautiful spaces to inhabit, with Isabelle Clermont's electronics stretching out spaceward on the lattices constructed by Kathryn Merriam and Elysha Vorstenbosch.

Recording: Labikova/Merriam/Liu/Swankey

Artist: Bea Labikova/Kathryn Merriam/Germaine Liu/Laura Swankey

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 30, 2019.

Bea Labikova/Kathryn Merriam/Germaine Liu/Laura Swankey - [excerpt]

This evening started out with some harp-based songcraft from Kathryn Merriam before veering off into improvised realms. Re-assembling most of that group de-centered the harp, giving equal weight to Bea Labikova's sax and effects, Germaine Liu's percussive bricabrac and Laura Swankey's vocals.

Recording: Kathryn Merriam

Artist: Kathryn Merriam

Song: Lens

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 30, 2019.

Kathryn Merriam - Lens

This evening started out with some harp-based songcraft from Kathryn Merriam before veering off into improvised realms. The "song" set saw her accompanied by Patrick O'Reilly on guitar/effects, and on a few numbers they were embellished by Laura Swankey's vocalizations, Bea Labikova's winds, and Germaine Liu's picnic blanket of percussive implements, embroidering additional atmospheres to Merriam's evocative songs.