Recording: Horseman, Pass By.

Artist: Horseman, Pass By.

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Tiki Room (Somewhere There and Mechanical Forest Sound present), March 6, 2019.

Horseman, Pass By. - [excerpt]

Havelock's Bennett Bedoukian (drums/electronics) and Ottawa's Mark Molnar (cello/electronics) returned to town in the midst of a tour celebrating the official release of their All Curses Are Mirrors, whose vinyl version is a beautiful thing with its silk-screened and letter-pressed inserts. The album has also been deliberately conceived as a recording, and something different than their live sets — whereas the latter unfold as a series of continuously-roiling simmer and shred zones, the album has more carefully-constructed standalone pieces. (The album also has a companionpiece, Under Ben Bulben, which veers from the live set in a different way with its gorgeous longform dronescape.)

This set featured the requisite peaks and valleys, channelling ghostly radio transmissions and manipulated thrums into a galloping haze.

Recording: Horseman, Pass By

Artist: Horseman, Pass By

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, November 11, 2018.

Horseman, Pass By - [excerpt 1]

Horseman, Pass By - [excerpt 2]

Coming at the end of a short run of tour dates with Vampire Belt, Havelock's Bennett Bedoukian (drums/electronics) and Ottawa's Mark Molnar (cello/electronics) were right in their zone here — building up layers of sound on top of each other, then letting them fade away. As usual, the pair explored a range of textures, from ascending drones to futzing sizzles to punkish shredding.

Recording: Horseman, Pass By

Artist: Horseman, Pass By

Song: [last section]

Recorded at Belljar Café (Track Could Bend #36), March 6, 2018.

Horseman, Pass By - [last section]

A very exciting opportunity for the series to play host to this duo of Havelock's Bennett Bedoukian (drums/electronics) and Ottawa's Mark Molnar (cello/electronics). Over the course of their set, the pair managed to range from punk shredding to skewed grooves to tense textures. A long-awaited album from the pair is said to be coming soon, so that will hopefully draw them back to these parts before too long.

[Track Could Bend returns on Tuesday (May 1st) in a special "studio" edition featuring Jen Wardle & John Mark Sherlock, David Sait and Hank Powell (a.k.a. Karen Ng + D. Alex Meeks).]

Recording: ¼ Tonne

Artist: ¼ Tonne

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Ratio (Decreation – Night 2), June 3, 2017.

¼ Tonne - [excerpt 1]

¼ Tonne - [excerpt 2]

Given the internal and external pressures that come to bear, it's no surprise that no DIY space lasts forever. It still made it a sad occasion to learn that Ratio was winding down its active presence, news leavened slightly with the corresponding announcement of a series of farewell shows, with many artists making a final return to the space. Three heavy-hitters from Montréal combine in this group, mixing Eric Craven (drumkit, guit, keyb), Nick Keupfer (guitar, reel to reel loops) and Mark Molnar (cello) into something that would make a convincing Constellation platter. There were some cool abstract tension-building moments here, which would then implode as the trio flipped into driving frenzies.

Recording: Horseman, Pass By

Artist: Horseman, Pass By

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (Somewhere There Presents), June 29, 2016.

Horseman, Pass By - [loud excerpt]

Horseman, Pass By - [quiet excerpt] (edited)

This Ottawa/Peterborough duo has a low-key online presence and shouldn't be confused with a couple other bands also lifting the same Yeats reference. The pairing was new to me, but I had caught Bennett Bedoukian (drums and electronics) and Mark Molnar (cello) a few months back as half of Dust Scored Dark. On their own, they generated some industrial rumblings and intense noisebursts in between stretches of tense stasis. Very tasty stuff and a worthy rumble to start a percussive night.

Recording: Dust Scored Dark

Artist: Dust Scored Dark

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), February 28, 2016.

Dust Scored Dark - [excerpt]

After a weekend of intensely-local action at the Somewhere There Festival, Sunday's unofficial wind-down in the Southern Cross featured some out-of-towners offering tasty Montréal-style improvisations. I was familiar with some of the members here (Craig Pedersen, trumpet; Vicky Mettler, guitar; Mark Molnar, cello; Bennett Bedoukian, drums) in other contexts; from what I can gather, this is a newer unit, but the players all had an easy familiarity as they ranged from scuttling atmospheric sounds to a clattering junkyard groove.