Recording: Our Way to Fall

Artist: Our Way to Fall

Song: [last section]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 14, 2025.

Our Way to Fall - [last section]

Sightings of this trio have been rare for a while now, but with vocalist Liz Lima making a swing through Toronto (no clarinet in tow this time around), the group was duly convened to join together for some sounds — tapes, textures, chimes, voices and more. Del Stephen proposed starting off the evening with a trio of solo mini-sets, giving everyone a chance to calibrate their headspace — he started off with some Today Versions, followed by Lima's chatter pulled from the æther, followed by Heraclitus Akimbo's encounter with The Inner Child. In group mode, improvised projections by Kasia Smuga tied the whole thing together, mixing abstraction and geometric precision.

You can check out some more from the solo mini-sets over on youtube:

And the full group set is right here:

Recording: Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio

Artist: Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio

Song: Nathan

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 14, 2025.

Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio - Nathan

The follow-up to Sarah Greene's Toronto Blues has been gestating for a fair while, but one consequence of that is that Greene has a big stockpile of songs now, and with her trusty collaborators (Michael Herring on bass, Paul Kolinski on guitar), the songs have a comfortably lived-in feeling.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

Recording: The Davison Auger

Artist: The Davison Auger

Song: [first section]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 6, 2025.

The Davison Auger - [first section]

With Nova Scotian Brandon Auger making a westward trip to play at Electric Eclectics came a chance to plan an in-the-flesh meeting for this pairing with local noisemaker William Davison. The duo have been exchanging sounds online for a few years now, and there was an easy sense of soundworlds meshing (or of steel mesh being contact mic'd) as the pair made some patient electroacoustic inquiries.

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

Recording: Wenderly Park

Artist: Wenderly Park

Song: [last section]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 6, 2025.

Wenderly Park - [last section]

Celebrating a new album, Wenderly Park here sported a new division of labour, with Joe Strutt holding down the low end on processed electric bass while Fahmid Nibesh wandered the room harnessing feedback and other sounds from a variety of implements. A bit of a noisier ride, suitable to the company they were keeping on this night.

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

Recording: Murmur

Artist: Murmur

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 6, 2025.

Murmur - [excerpt]

This night of noisy explorations was lead off by Murmur, using some simple tools to try and contain some small-batch feedback and other audio artifacts.

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

Recording: Michelle Breslin & Friends

Artist: Michelle Breslin & Friends

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded in The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst, December 8, 2024.

Michelle Breslin & Friends - [excerpt]

Michelle Breslin closed out the celebration of her new solo album with a group effort, inviting some members of Ghostlight as well as some of the evening's other participants to join together for a bit of abstract drift-noise. The ad hoc ensemble included Vassilios Alexiou (synth), Dave Rodgers (ipad), Chris Youknowwho (guitar), Soren Brothers (voice, electronics), and Heraclitus Akimbo (electronics).

You can check out the full jam segment over on youtube:

Recording: Lostworldsounds

Artist: Lostworldsounds

Song: These Waves

Recorded in The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst, December 8, 2024.

Lostworldsounds - These Waves

Michelle Breslin was celebrating the release of the new Heartbroken Yesterdays Fleeting Tomorrows album, but didn't feel the need to be constrained in an attempt to recreate its textures, instead ranging back through her songbook (even including a Sadoceanspacebear number). With some enhancements to the room's natural reverb and some evocative visuals, the set had just the right sense of atmosphere.

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

[You'll have a couple more chances right away to hear Breslin celebate this album, including tonight (Tuesday, January 7th) at Wenona for Track Could Bend, and Sunday afternoon (January 12th) at The Tranzac for Ayal Senior & Friends.]

Recording: Man Meets Bear

Artist: Man Meets Bear

Song: unknown^*

Recorded in The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst, December 8, 2024.

Man Meets Bear - unknown

Soren Brothers, curator of the Ur Audiovisual label, as well as purveyor of his own music, has been quiet lately in those realms, with other parts of life being busy. That made this night a chance to get back on stage and share some new songs, in a thoughtfully-constructed set following some of the wildlife and human affairs entwined with the Don River. Alternating readings and songs, the latter saw Brothers pushing in some new directions, with his Nick Drake fingerpicked folk stylings augmented by a throat mic run through some effects, suggesting forests and rivers pushing back against any unnatural constraints trying to contain them.

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

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Swanherds

Artist: Swanherds

Song: Somewhere on an Unnamed Mining Road Near Kaslo

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), January 23, 2024.

Swanherds - Somewhere on an Unnamed Mining Road Near Kaslo

Some things take longer than expected. Four years (to the day!) after debuting her Swanherds band — a show that was intended to be the lead-up to the group recording together — rebecca bruton was back in the city from out West to finally undertake the project, with this solo performance a pleasant byproduct. Filtering and refracting country music tropes into something more personal, the songs explored mountain and prairie terrains, trees and birds. Keep an eye out for the group recordings to eventually make their way out into the world.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

Recording: Kurt Newman

Artist: Kurt Newman

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), January 23, 2024.

Kurt Newman - [excerpt]

This solo pedal steel outing from Kurt Newman was neither country phasing nor evoking Nashville minimalism, choosing instead to play some games with a new glou-glou Loupé. That lead to some lush abstractions, microloops of pedal steel sound chirping and blipping alongside occasional triggered percussive taps. Mezmerising stuff which promises to get even more intruiging as this sonic wormhole is more deeply mined.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

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: Mira Martin-Gray & Mark Zurawinski

Artist: Mira Martin-Gray & Mark Zurawinski

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

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

Mira Martin-Gray & Mark Zurawinski - [excerpt from first piece, part 1]

Mira Martin-Gray & Mark Zurawinski - [excerpt from first piece, part 2]

This first-time collaboration seemed like an apt counterpoint to visitors Horseman, Pass By. "Noise" is not always "loud", and here the scrapes, sputters and percussive rustles gained an extra layer from that traditional Tranzac bleed-through, with a soulful cover band in the Main Hall adding an under-layer to the proceedings. In the Tiki, it was Whitney Houston like you've never heard her before.

[Mira Martin-Gray will be making sounds with Sound of the Mountain's Elizabeth Millar at a very cool Audiopollination (Sunday, May 5th at Array) welcoming Tokyo guitarist Yumiko Yoshimoto to town.]

Recording: Man Made Hill

Artist: Man Made Hill

Songs: Fantasy Pants + unknown^* + I'll Swallow You Whole + Find a Freak

Recorded at The Baby G (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration / A Night of Rock Music!), March 2, 2019.

Man Made Hill - Fantasy Pants

Man Made Hill - unknown

Man Made Hill - I'll Swallow You Whole

Man Made Hill - Find a Freak

Although I don't get out to as many rawk shows as I used to, the 10th anniversary of this blog felt like enough of an occasion to warrant a special Saturday night kind of celebration. With a limited preview run of a new best-of compilation tape on the merch table quickly selling out (side note: second batch coming soon!) and a mini-remount of my MFS listening station, it felt a bit like a party, but what really made it was seeing so many familiar faces out for the hang.

What also made it feel like a party was having the one and only Randy Gagne to close the night out. As Man Made Hill, his absurdist anthems and give-it-110-per-cent on-stage attitude make every show a sweaty delight. The set included a string of stone MMH classics, but there was a bunch of newer stuff as well, with a tune about Fantasy Pants melding into an atmospheric fantasy sequence, as well as "I'll Swallow You Whole", a slo-jam that's been heard at recent shows that just might be Gagne's "Time After Time". Or maybe his "Bizarre Love Triangle"? In any case, it's definitely the tenderest song I've ever heard to include the lyrical sentiment "I'll eat your fucking life-force!"

^* These titles are offered as tentative placeholders only for now. Please leave a comment if you have any info to confirm 'em! Update: "Find a Freak" confirmed via this fab new video!

Recording: Hooded Fang

Artist: Hooded Fang

Song: Sister and Suns

Recorded at The Baby G (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration / A Night of Rock Music!), March 2, 2019.

Hooded Fang - Sister and Suns

Although I don't get out to as many rawk shows as I used to, the 10th anniversary of this blog felt like enough of an occasion to warrant a special Saturday night kind of celebration. With a limited preview run of a new best-of compilation tape on the merch table quickly selling out (side note: second batch coming soon!) and a mini-remount of my MFS listening station, it felt a bit like a party, but what really made it was seeing so many familiar faces out for the hang.

There was no band that I wanted at this show more than Hooded Fang, largely because my tenure as a fan overlaps pretty much exactly with this blog's life. The first time I ever saw the band was at the second show I ever wrote about here, before I was even recording gigs, so I've seen the group evolve through different lineups and sonic approaches. This show even gave me a chance to properly document another wrinkle – with bassist/lyricist April Aliermo out doing fieldwork on her sonic art projects, Charise Aragoza (of Mother Tongues as well as her own projects) stepped in on bass, holding down the grooves as the band rocked some Dynasty House music as well as some older faves.

[Hooded Fang will be playing the Monarch Tavern on Thursday, May 9th along with Luge, Body Lens, and Nikki Fierce.]

Recording: Matthew "Doc" Dunn

Artist: Matthew "Doc" Dunn

Song: Grant Me Flight

Recorded at The Baby G (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration / A Night of Rock Music!), March 2, 2019.

Matthew "Doc" Dunn - Grant Me Flight

Although I don't get out to as many rawk shows as I used to, the 10th anniversary of this blog felt like enough of an occasion to warrant a special Saturday night kind of celebration. With a limited preview run of a new best-of compilation tape on the merch table quickly selling out (side note: second batch coming soon!) and a mini-remount of my MFS listening station, it felt a bit like a party, but what really made it was seeing so many familiar faces out for the hang.

Still in the midst of the fertile patch that saw the release of two singer-songwriter albums at the end of last year, Doc Dunn brought a stripped-back trio (with his guitar and vintage rhythm box accompanied by Jay Anderson and Grasshopper on percussion) to set sail over some mellow grooves.

[Doc Dunn's "other" project, The Cosmic Range, celebrates the release of their second album The Gratitude Principle this Friday (May 3rd) at The Garrison.]

Recording: Triples

Artist: Triples

Songs: unknown^* + Hillslide

Recorded at The Baby G (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration / A Night of Rock Music!), March 2, 2019.

Triples - unknown

Triples - Hillslide

Although I don't get out to as many rawk shows as I used to, the 10th anniversary of this blog felt like enough of an occasion to warrant a special Saturday night kind of celebration. With a limited preview run of a new best-of compilation tape on the merch table quickly selling out (side note: second batch coming soon!) and a mini-remount of my MFS listening station, it felt a bit like a party, but what really made it was seeing so many familiar faces out for the hang.

When I started booking this show, it had a retrospective tint, focusing on musicians that I've been following over the lifetime of the blog. Even if all of them are still creating vital work, I wanted to celebrate a different stream as well, of discovery, of seeing something new coming together in a satisfying way. It was lucky, then, that I'd caught Triples a few weeks previous at Long Winter — this was exactly what the show needed.

Madeline and Eva Link brought a briskly-paced set of catchy guitar-rock confections, and even managed to inject their own historical footnote in the proceedings by covering a tune from Calgary 90's garage rockers Shinolas (which just happens to be the band of the sisters' father Pete Link). Over ten tears, I saw a lot of great stuff and made some friends by showing up early enough to catch a night's opening band, so it felt befitting to offer the audience an opportunity like that at this gig.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: The Allison Cameron Band

Artist: The Allison Cameron Band

Song: [excerpt from 2nd piece]

Recorded at Array Space (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration: A Night of Improvised Music), February 10, 2019.

The Allison Cameron Band - [excerpt from 2nd piece]

Every year around Valentine's Day, I tend to remember that it's this blog's anniversary. Then I check back to that first entry, see I'm already a day late, and go on with life. This year, I was thinking about it well ahead of time, and seeing that big, round (and mightily unexpected) tenth anniversary approaching, it seemed befitting to do something a little special. That ended up being a pair of shows, conceptually split into "improvised" and "rock" nights.

For the former, Somewhere There helped out by lending me their regular second Sunday of the month slot at Array, and from there, it was just a matter of winnowing it down from the dozens of people that I wanted to ask to play. It was a no-brainer to ask Allison Cameron to play, as her work as an improviser has inspired and taught me so much. By sheer good luck, three busy schedules aligned and I managed to wrangle a rare show from the "new" Allison Cameron Band (and, as far as I know, their first away from the Tranzac) where Cameron's banjo, keyboard, toy hedgehog squeezebox and tableful of Honeytone mini-amps are augmented by Kurt Newman's guitar and Thom Gill's guitar and synth. There's been talk of working out some pieces for this group to play, but for now, it's just improvisations finding intriguing meeting points in loud and quiet places.

[Allison Cameron will be debuting a new trio named Agar Agar (with Germaine Liu and Andrew Zukerman) at a very cool/noisy Burn Down The Capital show at The Burdock on Tuesday, April 23rd, and will be bringing some Two Ted Country Blues to The Tranzac next Wednesday (April 17th) alongside Nick Storring and Kurt Newman. Newman will also be playing a trio with Mark Zurawinski and Allison Cameron that night, and you'll also be able to find him at The Tranzac tomorrow afternoon (April 14th), doing some pickin' at Ayal Senior's monthly.]

Recording: The Knot

Artist: The Knot

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration: A Night of Improvised Music), February 10, 2019.

The Knot - [excerpt]

Every year around Valentine's Day, I tend to remember that it's this blog's anniversary. Then I check back to that first entry, see I'm already a day late, and go on with life. This year, I was thinking about it well ahead of time, and seeing that big, round (and mightily unexpected) tenth anniversary approaching, it seemed befitting to do something a little special. That ended up being a pair of shows, conceptually split into "improvised" and "rock" nights.

For the former, Somewhere There helped out by lending me their regular second Sunday of the month slot at Array, and from there, it was just a matter of winnowing it down from the dozens of people that I wanted to ask to play. There are a lot of projects get shuffled into zombie mode — not dead, just shifted into the inactive pile as other artistic endeavours (or, just life) get in the way. Sometimes it just takes a "hey, whatever happened to...?" kind of conversation to stir something back up, and looking around for a special "reunion"-type set for this show, I managed to get The Knot back on stage.

This duo for acoustic (and often prepared) improvising cellos from Tilman Lewis and Nick Storring were regulars on the scene a little while back, but besides a tape a couple years ago there hasn't been much activity. But right from the start, the pair fell into some nice zones bowing (and not bowing) their cellos, gliding from rough skronks to double-barrelled pointillistic plinks.

[Nick Storring will be guesting with the Two Ted Country Blues (Allison Cameron/Kurt Newman) at The Tranzac next Wednesday (April 17th).]

Recording: Lender

Artist: Lender

Song: [first piece, part 1]

Recorded at Array Space (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration: A Night of Improvised Music), February 10, 2019.

Lender - [first piece, part 1]

Every year around Valentine's Day, I tend to remember that it's this blog's anniversary. Then I check back to that first entry, see I'm already a day late, and go on with life. This year, I was thinking about it well ahead of time, and seeing that big, round (and mightily unexpected) tenth anniversary approaching, it seemed befitting to do something a little special. That ended up being a pair of shows, conceptually split into "improvised" and "rock" nights.

For the former, Somewhere There helped out by lending me their regular second Sunday of the month slot at Array, and from there, it was just a matter of winnowing it down from the dozens of people that I wanted to ask to play. It's also one of the perks of putting on a show like this that I could "curate" a set, and throw together a band — like this one — that didn't previously exist. Christine Duncan provided the band name along with her voice and she was joined by Laura Swankey (vox, electronics), Nilan Perera (guitar) and D. Alex Meeks (percussion). The whole thing gelled in a quite satisfactory way, moving from abstract soundscapes into an impromptu spoken word piece from Duncan describing her week's events (three words: Snowmageddon in Seattle). Now I might have to put on another show to make sure this group plays a second time!

[D. Alex Meeks will be one of five percussionists (simultaneously and separately) playing "The Exploded Kit" at Nilan Perera's SynapticCircus night tomorrow (Sunday, April 14th), and will also be joining the picnic blanket of percussionists at The Titillators' historic sixth show afterwards. Christine Duncan and Laura Swankey, as two-thirds of Plastic Babies, will be at The Tranzac on Saturday, April 20th, helping to welcome Finnish jazz pianist Anni Rorke to town.]

Recording: Debashis Sinha

Artist: Debashis Sinha

Songs: Harmonium Pt. IV + unknown^*

Recorded at Array Space, September 25, 2018.

Debashis Sinha - Harmonium Pt. IV

Debashis Sinha - unknown

Floor-flooding torrential rain could merely delay — but never stop — this chance to celebrate Debashis Sinha's recent The White Dog album. Using live-looped percussion as part of an ableton setup, Sinha showed how the artful percussionist can get a lot of mileage from handclaps and other simple sounds.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!