Monday Roundup #85

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Concert announcements:

Track Could Bend #71 (feat. Jelly Ear [Cory Harper-Latkovich/Naomi MaCarroll-Butler/Sara Constant, Flute / Tania Gill Trio [Tania Gill/Victor Bateman/Blake Howard])/ Wenona Lodge 2022-09-06 (Tuesday). $PWYC, masks required. [FB event]

Ghostlight / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-09-07 (Wednesday) [FB event]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Floatation Device) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-09-11 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Richard Laviolette / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-09-11 (Sunday – 5 p.m.)

SynCirSundays / (feat. Alex Fournier/Nilan Perera/Rick Sacks / Robin Buckley/Jay Hay/Jim Lewis/Nilan Perera ) / 2022-09-11 (Sunday – early!) [FB event]

By Divine Right [LP Release!] (Ace Of Wands / JEEN) / Monarch Tavern 2022-10-22 (Saturday). $15.50 advance, 19+. [FB event]

Badge Époque Ensemble [Clouds of Joy release show!] (Jennifer Castle / Jozem) / Lee's Palace 2022-11-05 (Saturday). $31.68 advance, 19+. [FB event]

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Shows this week:

Nick Fraser/Josh Cole/Kayla Milmine / 2022-08-30 (Thursday) [FB event]

Departures I (feat. Elizabete Balčus / New Chance / Chiquita Magic) / St. Matthew's Clubhouse 2022-08-31 (Wednesday). $13.92 advance, all ages. [FB event]

Estonian Music Week presents (feat. Kristjan Kannukene / Christine Duncan & Patrick O'Reilly / Fuzzy Nibesh/Bea Labikova/Heraclitus Akimbo) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-08-31 (Wednesday – doors @ 7, music @ 8). $PWYC.

Intersection Festival: A More Beautiful Journey Launch Event (feat. SHN SHN / Nick Storring / Absolutely Free Duo / Prince Josh / SlowPitchSound & Laura Barrett / Korea Town Acid / Emissive / Felipe Sena / Brodie West / Kind Mind / Debashis Sinha / OBUXUM) / Neville Park Loop; Wolseley Loop; Humber Loop; Long Branch Loop; Regent Park Loop 2022-09-01 (Thursday). $free, all ages. [FB event]

Packet Trio [Susanna Hood/Tania Gill/Kayla Milmine] (Tania Gill & Brodie West) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-09-02 (Friday – early!) [FB event]

Intersection Festival (feat. Anthony Braxton & James Fei / Nadja) / St. Anne's Anglican Church 2022-09-02 (Friday) [FB event]

Psychic Weapons / The Cameron House 2022-09-02 (Friday) [FB event]

Intersection Festival: Marathon Concert and Marketplace Event (feat. The Dead Are Those Who Have Died / Kristina Guison / Nihilist Spasm Band / Marc Edwards & Colin Fisher / Joyfultalk / BDP Trio / Joseph Shabason Band / Labyrinth Ensemble) / Yonge-Dundas Square 2022-09-03 (Saturday). $free, all ages. [more info]

Splendid Industries/$™ presents / (feat. JazzTobacco / Astrolope) 2022-09-03 (Saturday) [FB event]

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Bandcamp corner:

• Reminder that Bandcamp Fridays are starting back up this week — the platform is foregoing their cut so you have a chance to pass some extra money along to the artists you dig. Here's some local content on my list:

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It happened this week...

Just a reminder that the Intersection Festival is back up and running this weekend, bringing strange sounds to canny audiences and unsuspecting passers-by. Here's a couple tastes from 2019, both in Yonge-Dundas Square and touring the TTC.

• ... on August 29, 2019 at Highway 407 Station (Intersection Day 1: Music For Subways).

Mika Posen String Quartet - Pathways [excerpt]

• ...on August 31, 2019 at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Day 3).

Evan Ziporyn and Contact - Warszawa

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Recording: Mika Posen String Quartet

Artist: Mika Posen String Quartet

Song: Pathways [excerpt]

Recorded at Highway 407 Station (Intersection Day 1: Music For Subways), August 29, 2019.

Mika Posen String Quartet - Pathways [excerpt]

A couple years back, Intersection made its first step into presenting creative sounds in unconventional environments. This sequel moved from the core to the end of the line, exchanging a jam-packed greenhouse for plenty elbow room in the city's newest subway stations. Mika Posen (playing viola and joined by Aline Homzy and Jessica Hana Deutsch on violin and Beth Silver on cello) brought the most on-point and musically-pleasing of the night's sets to Highway 407 Station, whose very name evokes a sort of grim, romanceless utilitarianism — and where the click-clack of the fare gate behind the audience added small waves of percussion as each arriving trainload of passengers departed the station.

Her "Pathways" uses a graphic score in the shape of the subway map, the various stations marked with one of five different colours. The musicians pick their own starting station on the map and play the associated musical instruction, coming to a common held note when a train pulls in to the platform below the players and each then moving on to the next station on their score when the train departs. As such, the piece will never quite unfold the same way twice, although the various parts of the score are designed to stay in pleasing consonance in any combination.

[Mika Posen's electronic project Merganzer will be celebrating the release of its new Montage album at a Venus fest-presented show at The Drake Hotel on Saturday, October 26th, alongside Leucrocuta and Blue Light.]

Recording: Nakatani/Posen/Fernandes

Artist: Tatsuya Nakatani with Mika Posen & Danielle Fernandes

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (TONE Festival – Show #1), June 14, 2017.

Tatsuya Nakatani with Mika Posen & Danielle Fernandes - [excerpt]

Although the local "jazz" festival is anticipated in some quarters, it seemed that too often there was no home there for adventurous and experimental creators. Thus, out of necessity, the TONE Festival was born to give these touring musicians a chance to connect with local audiences and artists. A collaboration between Burn Down the Capital's Tad Michalak, Ron Gaskin (a.k.a. Rough Idea) and Karen Ng and Daniel Pencer, the goal was to create shows that were rewarding for players and listeners alike. Tatsuya Nakatani's third annual-ish Canadian excursion saw him bringing his Gong Orchestra north of the border for the first time for a performance in Peterborough. Word on the street is that T.O. might be getting an opportunity to hear it next time 'round, but for now, this trip found him in a similar solo + group combination to his previous visit to these parts. But unlike last year, when the ad hoc ensemble seemed to be a bit too busy for Nakatani's taste, this trio seemed designed to leave some open spaces, pitting his percussive forays against Mika Posen's violin and pedals and Danielle Fernandes' alto sax. The latter, up from Guelph, was new to many in the room, but made a favourable impression with her looping, curling licks, combining with Posen's drone skritches to give Nakatani plenty elbow room in which to work.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: Terms Of Venery

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 5), February 26, 2017.

The Mike Smith Company - Terms Of Venery

After a couple special events, this set saw the Mike Smith Co. back in its "working" alignment, mostly playing skewed pop material that's newer than the stuff on last year's Famous Wildlife Movies and with plenty elaborately-layered vocals over the band's precision noodling.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: Famous Wildlife Movies

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (All-Set! Autumn Release Show), October 28, 2016.

The Mike Smith Company - Famous Wildlife Movies [part 1]

The Mike Smith Company - Famous Wildlife Movies [part 2]

This second release spectacular from All-Set! Editions added three new albums to their catalogue, and all three of the recombinant groupings played to celebrate. The highlight of the night was seeing the tunes from Mike Smith's new album presented by what was, by his own admission, "a large band".¹ That added to a history of Smith treating his compositions with a certain malleability — besides its "fixed" iteration as a recording, I've seen the album's title track take on a few different manifestations. These large group arrangements were quite lovely, going as often to smaller, quieter shadings with different subsets of instruments as veering into full-on big band wallops.

[A less-expanded version of the Mike Smith Company will be playing at the Music Gallery's Moondog 100 concert this Saturday (December 3rd), playing songs from their own book as well as some new arrangements of Moondog's pieces.]

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¹ If my notes are correct, the ensemble at this show was:

• Mike Smith – composition, conductor, flute
• Pete Johnston – bass
• Blake Howard – percussion
• Jamie Drake – percussion
• Jake Oelrichs – percussion
• Jonathan Adjemian – synth
• Ali Berkok – piano, clavinet
• Heather Saumer – trombone
• Tom Richards – trombone
• Rebecca Hennessy – trumpet
• Mika Posen – violin
• Jay Hay – Tenor sax, flute
• Karen Ng – alto sax, flute
• Jeremy Strachan – guitar, sax, flute

Recording: Merganzer

Artist: Merganzer

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (X Avant XI – Night 2), October 14, 2016.

Merganzer - unknown

Opening in the round for Pauline Oliveros' surround-sound improvised explorations, Mike Posen had the benefit of an audience that was out for some Deep Listening. Surrounded by the audience on all sides, she obliged with an instrumental set that, instead of drawing from her popcraft skills, explored textures and swooning musical drifts. (That said, it wasn't all complicated Advanced Listening as there was one section that had a Dark Side of The Moon vibe to it.) Segueing seamlessly between different ideas that would be looped and stretched out, this showed a keenly-organized musical mind at work.

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

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: Forced False Setting^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), June 28, 2016.

The Mike Smith Company - Forced False Setting

This group name has hitherto represented more of a concept than a "band", so it was perhaps no surprise to see a rather different cast of supporting musicians bringing some of Mike Smith's recent material to life. Recent co-transcombobulator Jonathan Adjemian was joined here by Bernice's Robin Dann as well as Mike Posen on violin. More pop that previous (in a bubblegum-prog sort of way), the band was bravely achieving some manner of fusion of Henry Cow and Young Marble Giants. After a couple new tunes (including this opening burst of false falsetti with backing vox from Posen and Mike Smith himself) there were some new group arrangements of the Transcombobulation material as well as the poppification of the previously-essayed "Dark Sequin".

^* Thanks to Mike for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Merganzer

Artist: Merganzer

Song: Songs Without Words

Recorded at Markham House: City Building Lab (Wavelength Music Festival 16 – Day 2), February 13, 2016.

Merganzer - Songs Without Words

Wavelength's sixteenth anniversary festival was a little less adventurous than last year's sesquidecade spectacular. For the first time in recent memory, the festival settled into one home base for three nights and the programming eschewed retrospective turns for a future-focused weekend, daring audiences to invest in the musical here-and-now. The lone excursion away from The Garrison came with this afternoon all-ages show in Markham Village — a cozy up-close-and-personal affair that offered a chance to sit on the floor and listen. The field trip vibe was completed with a school bus ride that shuttled attendees away to the evening show. Since the last time I saw Mika Posen presenting her solo songs she has been joined by Katie Hurdon on keyb and vox. A key addition as their voices blended effortlessly and beautifully, adding even more depth to Posen's chamber-pop pieces, occasionally held together by ghostly fragments of looped violin. (And also, since the last time I saw Posen playing, these songs have been released as an album.)

Recording: Steven Lambke

Artist: Steven Lambke

Song: Hummingbird

Recorded at Markham House: City Building Lab (Wavelength Music Festival 16 – Day 2), February 13, 2016.

Steven Lambke - Hummingbird

Wavelength's sixteenth anniversary festival was a little less adventurous than last year's sesquidecade spectacular. For the first time in recent memory, the festival settled into one home base for three nights and the programming eschewed retrospective turns for a future-focused weekend, daring audiences to invest in the musical here-and-now. The lone excursion away from The Garrison came with this afternoon all-ages show in Markham Village — a cozy up-close-and-personal affair that offered a chance to sit on the floor and listen. The field trip vibe was completed with a school bus ride that shuttled attendees away to the evening show. Like a Baby Eagle leaving the nest, Steven Lambke's recent album manifested under his given name. The delicately-hushed approach is the same, however, leading to the afternoon's quietest set, played to an attentive audience that settled in on the floor. For a good chunk of the set Lambke was joined by The Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman, giving them a chance to re-visit some of their duets. And on this one, Mika Posen (who'd play her own set right after) adds some violin as well.