Recording: Cameron/Liu/Swankey

Artist: Allison Cameron/Germaine Liu/Laura Swankey

Song: [edited excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Octopus Presents), February 19, 2020.

Allison Cameron/Germaine Liu/Laura Swankey - [edited excerpt from first piece]

This instalment in the regular third-Wednesday-of-the-month Octopus Presents series saw Allison Cameron playing with two different trios. The second grouping saw her joined by vocalist Laura Swankey and percussionist Germaine Liu, the latter also making a rare synth outing. The output situated them as an off-kilter electro-pop combo, dream-drifting along before getting sidetracked by sputtering warbles.

Recording: Cameron/Martin-Gray/Zurawinski

Artist: Allison Cameron/Mira Martin-Gray/Mark Zurawinski

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Octopus Presents), February 19, 2020.

Allison Cameron/Mira Martin-Gray/Mark Zurawinski - [excerpt from first piece]

This instalment in the regular third-Wednesday-of-the-month Octopus Presents series saw Allison Cameron playing with two different trios. The first set saw her joined by Mira Martin-Grey and Mark Zurawinski for some quiet amplified sounds, mixing weird glitchy pirps and modest bleepbloops with the background buzz-layers.

Recording: Microtonal Gong Sho

Artist: Microtonal Gong Sho

Songs: [excerpts from two improvisations]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Octopus Presents), January 15, 2020.

Microtonal Gong Sho - [excerpt from 1st piece]

Microtonal Gong Sho - [excerpt from 3rd piece]

The group name for this ad hoc ensemble was both whimsical and an on-point description. Field-testing a recently-acquired set of homemade gongs (spread out in front of them like a picnic blanket), Germaine Liu and Mark Zurawinski sounded out some traditional gong-bongs but also just as many unorthodox rubbings and clankings. They were flanked on one side by Brian Abbott (adding feedback swoops and phase shifter tickbursts on his microtonal guitar) and Sarah Peebles (on shō and cracklebox) on the other.

[Coming up on Wednesday (February 19th), Octopus will be presenting two different trios, each with Allison Cameron — the first set will see her being joined by Mira Martin-Gray and Mark Zurawinski while Germaine Liu and Laura Swankey will be featured in the second.]

Recording: Nilan Perera & Mira Martin-Gray

Artist: Nilan Perera & Mira Martin-Gray

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Octopus Presents), January 15, 2020.

Nilan Perera & Mira Martin-Gray - [excerpt from first piece]

A savvy pairing at this Octopus-curated evening at The Tranzac saw prepared guitarist Nilan Perera and no-input feedback mixist Mira Martin-Grey joining forces. A top talent at subtle looping on his Boomerang, Perera's bow-drones and plucks fit right in with Martin-Grey's noise swells. Her drone-tones and strong sense of pitch allowed the feedback sounds to blend in quite satisfactorily with the e-bow tincan rattles and other delicate chime-sounds — the dual output often sounding like one signal buzzing with sympathetic interference.

[Coming up on Wednesday (February 19th), Octopus will be presenting two different trios, each with Allison Cameron — the first set will see her being joined by Mira Martin-Gray and Mark Zurawinski while Germaine Liu and Laura Swankey will be featured in the second.]