Recording: Paint, Play Ensemble

Artist: Paint, Play Ensemble

Song: [set 1 excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Playscape Emporium: Paint, Play), May 21, 2026.

Paint, Play Ensemble - [set 1 excerpt]

Duo Cichorium’s Playscape Emporium curatorial residency at Array is "built around storytelling through cross-disciplinary collaboration". This instalment mixed music with visual improvisations from Constant Yen and Rowan Campbell. That gave plenty of ideas for the assembled musicians (Charlee Wielgoz, Fahmid Nibesh, Joe Strutt, Mira Martin-Gray, and Duo Cichorium's Louis Pino) to react to, leading to some really inneresting sounds. The event was livestreamed, so hopefully the archived version of that will become available at some point.

Recording: Nolan Hildebrand

Artist: Nolan Hildebrand

Song: portals II

Recorded at University of Toronto – Walter Hall (Nolan Hildebrand’s DMA Recital), March 11, 2015.

Nolan Hildebrand - portals II

You know it's not business as usual when you arrive for a DMA recital at the music school and greet your candidate as he's setting out a big jar of earplugs for the audience. Coordinating the proceedings in a Meshuggah t-shirt, Nolan Hildebrand's afternoon of music presumably had the requisite rigour required by his professors, but kept things wrapped in noise show aesthetics.

With an eight-channel speaker array set up around the auditorium, many of the pieces used spacialization effects quite nicely, moving from the interstitial audio collages to the performaces on stage. There was an inneresting variety to those as well, ranging from Hildebrand's own solo improvisations for modular synth (with some cool sound-triggered visualizations) to pieces for violin and MAX patch, to a percussion ensemble, to the all-star group (Colin Fisher, Patrick O'Reilly, Louis Pino) joining Hildebrand on this piece.

Recording: Louis Pino

Artist: Louis Pino

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Bickford Park "Stadium" (Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip 2024), September 19, 2024.

Louis Pino - [excerpt]

Starting with an array of bowls and other percussive implements, Pino added walkie talkies and other electromagnetic resonances to veer from meditative drones to buzzing, ticking glitched-out noise.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[As half of Duo Cichorium, Pino will be providing music and sharing some curatorial sensibilities at Of dances and dreams, the first instalment of the new Playscape Emporium series at Array Music. Check it out on Thursday, December 19th.]

Recording: Duo Cichorium

Artist: Duo Cichorium

Song: [1st piece, excerpt]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #92), June 4, 2024.

Duo Cichorium - [1st piece, excerpt]

Nominally a percussion duo, this partnership of Jasmine Tsui and Louis Pino was more electronically-inclined for this set, showcasing some homemade instruments. Those included an arduino synth box as well as an amplified paintbrush, picking up sounds as it swept over a canvas. (This set was literally a dry run for this new innovation, with actual live painting being the next step.) Moving from honk-squawk lurches to music box whispers, there were a variety of noise lullabies shared.

You can check out some the full set over on youtube:

[Track Could bend is back at Wenona on July 2nd, with sets from Kristina Warren & Karen Ng and Without a Single Green Feather. Duo Cichorium can be seen mixing various sounds at their People Soup residency at The Tranzac on the third Tuesday of every month.]