Recording: o/Wiernik/Stephen

Artist: cheryl o/Neil Wiernik/Del Stephen

Song:

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), June 13, 2025.

cheryl o/Neil Wiernik/Del Stephen - [excerpt]

A poignant but celebratory chapter-closing season-ender at Audiopollination, with the community coming out to celebrate founding host Mike Lynn's last night at the helm. Playing acoustically and without pedals this time out, cellist cheryl o was flanked by a pair of synthesists, even picking up her instrument to speak into the sound chamber.

You can also check out the archived livestream from the night over on youtube:

[It's important to note that Audiopollination will continue, under enterprising new hands! In fact, the sign-up sheet for the fall run of shows (September through December) is already posted and starting to fill up, so now's the time to add yourself to the musical conversation!]

Recording: Wiernik/Corbett/Cook

Artist: Neil Wiernik/Erin Corbett/Dame Cook

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Karen Ng Presents: The Boxing Day Special), December 26, 2019.

Neil Wiernik/Erin Corbett/Dame Cook - [excerpt]

Karen Ng (away for her regular night at The Tranzac) left things to guest curator Victor O, who assembled a fine night of electroacoustic sounds. The night started with this trio offering three flavours of electronics, mashing together into 8-bit victory fanfares, bitcrushed surfscapes and touch-type chimes.

Recording: Neil Wiernik & Cayce Fischer

Artist: Neil Wiernik & Cayce Fischer

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 78), December 14, 2019.

Neil Wiernik & Cayce Fischer - [excerpt]

With winter weather and bugs going around, this night of self-curated trios became a series of duos — giving the performers in each set a bit more room to stretch out. This pairing matched drones and modular synth sounds from Neil Wiernik (who records as naw) & Cayce Fischer (whose solo project is Autotectonic) with cameo appearances from bells and birds.

You can also watch visual documentation of this full set over at Audiopollination's youtube channel:

[Audiopollination will be back at Array Space on Saturday, February 8th, with some more fabulous/spontaneous sounds.]

Recording: naw

Artist: naw

Song: ...and the rain receded

Recorded at Handlebar, January 31, 2019.

naw - ...and the rain receded

Neil Wiernik offered up an integrated audiovisual set, with colour-streaked sonifications equally prominent to his audio manipulations. The 3-D animations hinted at relationships that remained tantalizingly just out of grasp — as well as a vision of a future foretold, as this sort of abstract zworping bleepbloop with shifting visuals is exactly what someone in 1973 might have predicted music in 2019 would be like.

Recording: Whisper Room

Artist: Whisper Room

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Handlebar (THE AMBiENT PiNG's 19TH ANNiVERSARY), August 15, 2018.

Whisper Room - unknown

Congratulations to the Ping, which celebrated its 19th Anniversary with some out-of-town guests. While back in town from Berlin for a couple weeks, Aidan Baker got a chance to perform with several of his projects, including an outing for this minimalist kosmische trio with Neil Wiernik (a.k.a. NAW) on bass and Rich Baker sitting in on drums. Finding some joy in repetition, the set basically settled into a couple long grooves and explored the effects of small variations within each of them.

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

Recording: Wiernik-O'Reilly-Levine-Smith

Artist: Neil Wiernik/Patrick O'Reilly/Jesse Levine/Mike Smith

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Steady Café (Track Could Bend #25), April 4, 2017.

Neil Wiernik/Patrick O'Reilly/Jesse Levine/Mike Smith - [excerpt]

Continuing the tradition started a year ago, Track Could Bend celebrated its second anniversary by inviting back all of the previous year's performers for a celebration. There ended up being nineteen players on this night, all of whom put their names in a hat to be drawn to create spontaneous ensembles for a series of quick sets. This set of early arrivers was bumped along by Jesse Levine's funky keyboard stylings, anchored down by Mike Smith's basslines and destabilized by Neil Wiernik's electronics and Patrick O'Reilly's guitar scratchings.

[Track Could Bend #27 will be at The Steady on Tuesday, June 6th, with sets from Processor, Steve Sladkowski & Joe Sorbara and Diane Roblin & Katie Jensen.]

Recording: Clara Engel & Neil Wiernik

Artist: Clara Engel & Neil Wiernik

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #22), January 3, 2017.

Clara Engel & Neil Wiernik - [excerpt]

Singer-songwriter Clara Engel and sound manipulationist Neil Wiernik had crossed paths previously at Audiopollination, so there was a certain degree of trust in this musical process that saw Engel plugging her guitar into Wiernik's laptop to allow him to manipulate and live-process her playing. He also provided live visual mixing to accompany the sounds' mellow drift. Very nicely executed throughout, this is a nice perpendicular path to Engel's songcraft and a direction that will hopefully be explored further.

[Track Could Bend returns once more to Dundas Video on February 7th, with sets from Bachelard, Upanishads and organballoon.]

Recording: Neil Wiernik & Darlene Cuevas

Artist: Neil Wiernik & Darlene Cuevas

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #48.2), November 12, 2016.

Neil Wiernik & Darlene Cuevas - [excerpt]

Audiopollination's fourth anniversary was celebrated in typical fashion — that's to say with an eclectic mix of musicians playing together in ad hoc small combos. Neil Wiernik provided both sonic and visual drift here, via his laptop. The visuals consisted of a series of images that would be subject to realtime manipulations, while the sounds provided a slowly-evolving dronescape to be adorned by Cuevas' vocals and occasional guitar.

[There are two Audiopollination events left before the end of the year: a special event on Sunday (December 18th) featuring electro-acousticians Sound of the Mountain, and an improv session with cellist Rémy Bélanger de Beauport on December 22nd.]

Recording: Michael Lynn/Neil Wiernik/Lara Solnicki

Artist: Michael Lynn/Neil Wiernik/Lara Solnicki

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at Array Space ("Audiopollination 32.2"), July 14, 2015.

Michael Lynn/Neil Wiernik/Lara Solnicki - [excerpt from an improvisation]

This was the first night in this year's series of Audiopollination's "self-curation" project, where musicians are welcomed to sign up and improvise in a trio for a short set with... well, whoever else signs up. The format encourages wacky and counter-intuitive combinations, and a chance for musicians to experiment in directions they might not have otherwise explored. The series continues monthly until December.

The night's opening set saw Lara Solnicki (improvised vocals + prepared text) being backed by Michael Lynn (double bass) and Neil Wiernik (sonic manipulations via ipad), with the latter two following Solnicki's vocal cadences before she joined them in some more abstract excursions.

[As always, you can hear full recordings from the night over at Audiopollination's bandcamp. The self-curation project continues at Array on Tuesday, August 11th, and Audiopollination also has a couple other gigs coming up: this Thursday (July 30th) at The Tranzac, as well as on Sunday, August 30th, with Montréal visitors Geraldine Eguiluz and Stéphane Diamantakiou.]