Recording: Public Library

Artist: Public Library

Songs: To Cut [composer: Patrick O'Reilly] + Look [excerpt] [composer: Liz Anthonisen]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #119), August 4, 2026.

Public Library - To Cut

Public Library with Roa Lee - Look [excerpt]

This special evening at Track Could Bend was co-conspired with bassist Mira Riselli as a special oppurtunity to delve into her love for graphic scores. She brought along her group Public Library (Elisabeth Dorion, voice/clarinet; Liz Anthonisen, voice/keys; Patrick O'Reilly, guitar; Jackson Welchner, bass; Robert Diack, drums) as fellow explorers — and to expand on the idea of different kinds of musicians interacting with the scores, we invited Roa Lee (gayageum) and Alison Melville (bass recorder, baroque flute). Most of the band members brought along a score to investigate, ranging from Riselli's comic strip to Dorion's linoprint to Anthonisen's axial time-loopage to one of O'Reilly's selections from Richard Serra's "Verb List", all leading to a satisfying variety of sonic outcomes.

You can check out all the pieces and collaborations over on youtube:

[Track Could Bend will be back ay Wenona tonight (September 1st with sets from Dave Grenon's Indistinctive Gait w/ Ayesha Lye and Caution Wet Floor Signs.]

Recording: Felicity Williams

Artist: Felicity Williams

Song: Everything in Time

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Rebecca Hennessy's Singer-Songwriter Circle), July 12, 2026.

Felicity Williams - Everything in Time

This iteration of Rebecca Hennessy's singer-songwriter night presented a somewhat oblong circle, with herself and Felicity Williams offering most of the songs — though bassist Michael Herring took a couple turns at the mic while guitarist Patrick O'Reilly offered a couple more compositional-type pieces. The interesting throughline with this grouping was that Hennessey and Williams once performed together (a decade and a half ago!) in Hobson's Choice — Hennessy mentioned afterward that that group's exquisite arrangements were based on the almost telepathic connection the players had from working together. This informal gathering was much more ad hoc in its musical set-up, with lead sheets being passed around and keys negotiated as musicians saw a lot of the pieces for the first time, but there were still plenty evidence of musical savvy as things fell together (with a guitar line, a trumpet solo, or a backing vocal) with grace and ease.

Excitingly, Felicity Williams used the night as a chance to test out some new songs — and also this one, which surfaced on the first album from her You Can Can project.

Recording: Rebecca Hennessy

Artist: Rebecca Hennessy

Song: Mistress of Misery

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Rebecca Hennessy's Singer-Songwriter Circle), July 12, 2026.

Rebecca Hennessy - Mistress of Misery

This iteration of Rebecca Hennessy's singer-songwriter night presented a somewhat oblong circle, with herself and Felicity Williams offering most of the songs — though bassist Michael Herring took a couple turns at the mic while guitarist Patrick O'Reilly offered a couple more compositional-type pieces. The interesting throughline with this grouping was that Hennessey and Williams once performed together (a decade and a half ago!) in Hobson's Choice — Hennessy mentioned afterward that that group's exquisite arrangements were based on the almost telepathic connection the players had from working together. This informal gathering was much more ad hoc in its musical set-up, with lead sheets being passed around and keys negotiated as musicians saw a lot of the pieces for the first time, but there were still plenty evidence of musical savvy as things fell together (with a guitar line, a trumpet solo, or a backing vocal) with grace and ease.

This day was also Hennessey and Herring's wedding anniversary, and each offered some songs in celebration of that fact — though this one was not one of those.

[Rebecca Hennessy's songwriters' circle is off this month, but keep your eye out for its return on Sunday, September 20th.]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XXXII

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XXXII

Song: Stemcell [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Living Room), May 17, 2026.

Cosmic Homeostasis XXXII - Stemcell [excerpt]

Circumstances shifted this gathering from its usual fifth-Sunday-of-the month — and also across the hall into the Living Room. But there was still plenty of room to drift along.

The full ensemble this time out was:

• Broken Pink Umbrella - theremin + effects
• Dan Friedman - EQ feedback, west pest, kastl drum, bamboo flute
• Del Stephen - keyboard synthesizer
• Heraclitus Akimbo - lyre, synth, tapes
• Hilary Martin - pedals
• Ian McPhedran - guitar
• Jim Davis - bass
• Patrick O'Reilly - Pluto
• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Scott M2 - S-1
• Peter G. + Brian G. - namers-of-things

As always, you can listen to the full session over on bandcamp:

Recording: Clutton/Cole/O'Reilly/Howard

Artist: Rob Clutton/Josh Cole/Patrick O'Reilly/Blake Howard

Songs: [set 1 excerpt] + This is what happens inside a room [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Brodie West presents), December 10, 2025.

Rob Clutton/Josh Cole/Patrick O'Reilly/Blake Howard - [set 1 excerpt]

Rob Clutton/Josh Cole/Patrick O'Reilly/Blake Howard - This is what happens inside a room [edited excerpt]

Slated as an evening with Brodie West's Double Basses Quintet, the last-minute absence of the host shifted the terrain somewhat. Without West's saxophone (and the compositions for the group he's been working up), this turned into a chance for the remaining musicians to expand their zones a bit and improvise. There were still two double basses, giving Rob Clutton and Josh Cole a chance to work off each other, and some extra space for Patrick O'Reilly to explore the textures generated by his guitar and pedals. There was also one other substitution, as Blake Howard was sitting in for Nick Fraser and adding his genial chaos to the proceedings. The longer excerpt here contains an impromptu monologue from Howard, giving a darkly-comedic franework for the musicians to work around. (Or it's possible that Howard has indeed been trapped in the Southern Cross for the past forty million years and needs our assistance.)

Recording: O'Reilly/Strutt/Pitt

Artist: Patrick O'Reilly/Joe Strutt/Dan Pitt

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #109), October 7, 2025.

Patrick O'Reilly/Joe Strutt/Dan Pitt - [excerpt]

There's an informal rule at TCB that the host doesn't also perform, but on request of guitarist Dan Pitt, that rule was bent enough to reconvene this trio that had played together informally at Patrick O'Reilly's birthday jam. I brought out the Kaossilator, and the ukulele as well to make it a full-on string band. The results seems quite satisfying, blurps and bloops and some nice textured bits.

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

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis

Songs: Split Infinitive [excerpt] + Urdu Amphitheatre [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), August 31, 2025.

Cosmic Homeostasis - Split Infinitive [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis - Urdu Amphitheatre [excerpt]

A vibrant showing for a long weekend with fifteen homeostasisists joining in. An unusually-robust turnout of guitarists gave a unique flavour to the proceedings and a bit of structure for the drift over two sets.

The homeostasis crew on this occasion included:

• Nilan Perera - guitar + preparations, namer-of-things
• Broken Pink Umbrella - Intellijel Vascadia + effects
• Dan Friedman - Wire Hum, real and imaginary
• Fahmid Nibesh - Tranzac house guitar, ebow, vox
• Hilary Martin - pedals
• Jim Davis - bass
• Leslie Partridge - classical guitar
• Matt Collins - guitar
• Mira Martin-Gray - laptop, voice
• Patrick O'Reilly - piano + SK-1
• Paul Newman - tenor sax
• Rob Cruickshank - synth/electronics
• Scott M2 - Roland S-1
• Zack Berwick - OP-1 + effects
• Heraclitus Akimbo - tape loops, Zoia

And, as always, you can check out the complete proceedings from the afternoon over on bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis will be closing out the year's activities at The Tranzac on Sunday, November 30th at 2:30 p.m.]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XXVII

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XXVII

Song: Helium [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 23, 2025.

Cosmic Homeostasis XXVII - Helium [excerpt]

Returning to the Southern Cross for teh first residency appearance of 2025, Cosmic Homeostasis was shifted from its traditional fifth-Sunday-of-the-month but still had a robust turnout to generate some drifting space-drones.

You can listen to the full session over on Bandcamp:

The ensemble for this performance consisted of:

• Dan Friedman - Sonicware Liven XFM, Korg NTS-1, Hmong mouth organ, namer-of-things
• Philip Hamilton - oscillators
• %%30%30 - percussion
• Jim Davis - bass sans fret, vox
• Jonny Luke - cornet
• Eric Cinnesealach - clarinet, recorders, whistles
• Eliza Cinnesealach - clarinet, recorders, whistles
• Rob Cruickshank - electronics
• Sarah Peebles - shō
• Del Stephen - radios, tapes, synthesizer, whistles
• Scott M2 - Roland S-1
• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Ian McPhedran - kalimba, pedals
• Sterling McPhedran - kalimba, pedals
• Elliott Chapin - flute
• Patrick O'Reilly - piano (set 2 only)
• Heraclitus Akimbo - Roland S-1, effects

Recording: Nolan Hildebrand

Artist: Nolan Hildebrand

Song: portals II

Recorded at University of Toronto – Walter Hall (Nolan Hildebrand’s DMA Recital), March 11, 2015.

Nolan Hildebrand - portals II

You know it's not business as usual when you arrive for a DMA recital at the music school and greet your candidate as he's setting out a big jar of earplugs for the audience. Coordinating the proceedings in a Meshuggah t-shirt, Nolan Hildebrand's afternoon of music presumably had the requisite rigour required by his professors, but kept things wrapped in noise show aesthetics.

With an eight-channel speaker array set up around the auditorium, many of the pieces used spacialization effects quite nicely, moving from the interstitial audio collages to the performaces on stage. There was an inneresting variety to those as well, ranging from Hildebrand's own solo improvisations for modular synth (with some cool sound-triggered visualizations) to pieces for violin and MAX patch, to a percussion ensemble, to the all-star group (Colin Fisher, Patrick O'Reilly, Louis Pino) joining Hildebrand on this piece.

Recording: Carded Ensemble

Artist: Carded Ensemble

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Walter Hall, February 24, 2025.

Carded Ensemble - [excerpt 1]

Carded Ensemble - [excerpt 2]

"Carded", Patrick O'Reilly's ongoing compositional project, has been a work-in-progress for a few years now, taking blank playing cards and turning them into handmade improvisational cues. The cards can be dispatched in various ways, from dealing performers a hand, to (as was the case here) giving each player a full custom deck with the instruction to turn over and interpret a new card every minute.

That, with the addition of timed solo spots for each of the participants, gave enough structure to keep a nine-piece ensemble from tripping into chaos and too-muchness. It also fosters a genuine sense of play, both in the novel interpretations required and in the act of occasionally passing cards around to share a cue. This particular incarnation of Carded was even more deeply collaborative, as the decks of cards used by the nine performers were each made by nine guest "composers".

The ensemble for this performance was:

• Patrick O'Reilly: guitar and pedals
• Samuel Little, double bass
• amiel ang: vibes, gong, music stand
• Samuel Laramee: synths and piano
• Omar Yazaw: saxophone
• Leah Reavster: saxophone
• Brendan Beaton: trumpet
• %%30%30: percussion
• Annie Elgie: balloons, voice

Recording: Trivial Musical Pursuits

Artist: Trivial Musical Pursuits

Songs: Eiffel Tower + 1939

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Friends of Clue Note present) October 29, 2024.

Trivial Musical Pursuits - Eiffel Tower

Trivial Musical Pursuits - 1939

This one requires a brief explanation. Given the opportunity to pull together something as a fill-in for a Tranzac late set, this took inspiration from the show that was immediately before it, namely the debut of the new Clue Note residency for trivia and experimental music. Idea: why not combine them? So: this set offered the musicians a series of trivia questions, and their goal was to "answer" them through brief performances (timed to a five-minute hourglass).

The first set (as heard in these pieces posted here) was performed as a trio with Patrick O'Reilly (circuit-bent Casio), Sara Constant (flute) and Heraclitus Akimbo (Kaossilator mini, tapes), while the second (as seen in the video below) saw them augmented by Marilyn Yogarajah (piano, trumpet) and Raph-o-tron 3000 (keytar).

You can check out that aforementioned set over on youtube:

Recording: Patrick O'Reilly

Artist: Patrick O'Reilly

Song: [first section]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Kurt Newman presents: an evening of cool solos), July 16, 2024.

Patrick O'Reilly - [first section]

It turns out that the use case Patrick O'Reilly has found for his microtonal guitar is slow-moving and swelling, inspired by gnawa music. Coming from another angle, this piece was also inspired by Albert Ayler, whose voice is heard in the repeated interview fragment.

You can check out some more from this set (and the rest of the evening's second half) over on youtube:

Recording: Without a Single Green Feather

Artist: Without a Single Green Feather

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #93), July 2, 2024.

Without a Single Green Feather - [excerpt]

This was another set that came about from me inviting Patrick O'Reilly to bring along some musicians who might not (yet!) be familiar to me, and he obliged by putting together this trio with Sam Laramee and Ezra Schell. Answering the musical question, "what would happen if we attached a fax machine to the rock tumbler?" there was a radiophonic workshop's worth of ingenuity here as the sounds moved from "relaxed drift" to "OS error message".

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

[Track Could Bend will be back on Wenona next week (Tuesday, August 6th), featuring sets from Dangertown (New York's Dafna Naphtali and Hans Tammen, fresh from Electric Eclectics) and Eye_Duh Kho.]

Recording: Knots

Artist:

Songs: #1 [composer: Patrick Booth] + Sunrise [composer: Joe Sorbara]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Furniture Music presents), June 30, 2024.

Knots - #1

Knots - Sunrise

This set was presented under the auspices of the Furniture Music composition workshop, which turned out to be wholly appropriate as it was a space for the musicians to share their pieces and work out some approaches on the fly. The first of a three-show mini-tour, although all the members of this group had played with some of the others, this was their first time convening as a quartet — and, in fact, Michigan-based saxophonist Patrick Booth and drummer Joe Sorbara were meeting for the first time as they set up to play. Guitarist Patrick O'Reilly and double bassist Phil Albert rounded out the unit, and all four contributed pieces to be explored over two sets.

You can check out the full performance over on youtube:

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XXI

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XXI

Song: Low-pressure Supercollider Sounds [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), October 29, 2023.

Cosmic Homeostasis XXI - Low-pressure Supercollider Sounds [excerpt]

A special day for the Cosmic Homeostasis collective, celebrating the release of a pair of recordings as a new album. Both birthed in a period when gathering at The Tranzac was unfeasible, "Broken Telephone" was a lockdown-era initiative where members of the group built layer upon layer of sounds as the recording passed from one person to the next. "Christie's Transmission" emerged from a period of tentative returning to gathering — in this case, outside on a couple occasions in late summer of '21 in Christie Pits. The latter recordings were beautifully collaged together by Jeffrey Sinibaldi, who also released these sounds on a tape from Vacancy Recordings.

Meanwhile, it was business as usual for the musicians who gathered to make some sounds together, with electronic sounds mixing with horns, percussion and even some tap dancing percussion. As usual, the full session is available over on bandcamp:

The participants this time around were:

• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Rob Cruickshank - electronics
• Michelangelo Iaffaldano - voice, guitar, software synthesis
• Eric Kinsella - bass clarinet + percussion
• Scott M2 - Animoog
• James Bailey - Roland SE-02 with radios
• Victor O - Casio
• Christina Muratore - harmonica
• Michael Lynn - tap + clarinet
• Maebh Clark/Dame Cook - hauntological experiments
• Shelodyn - improvidence
• Philip - clip mic + oscillator
• Ian + Sterling McPhedran - radio
• Patrick O'Reilly - circuit bent Casio SK-1
• Heraclitus Akimbo - Kaossilator + Zoia
• Jeffrey Sinibaldi - namer-of-things

[Cosmic Homeostasis will close out the year with a special non-afternoon, non-Sunday event, taking over the Southern Cross on Saturday, December 30th in an evening that will be shared with Audiopollination for a special pre-NYE celebration.]

Recording: Never Was

Artist: Never Was

Songs: [improvisation excerpt] + Dancing Through [composer: Joe Sorbara]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), August 9, 2023.

Never Was - [improvisation excerpt]

Never Was - Dancing Through

"We're the nine-piece band Never Was," said guitarist Patrick O'Reilly with a smile as this set got underway. In fact, though the band has seen some evolutions and expansions lately, due to summertime vagaries he was joined only by double bassist Brandon Davis for this outing. That gave them oodles of space to explore together, with O'Reilly spinning off with his usual array of effects and extended techniques, while Davis did a superb job of keeping things grounded. Staying true to the group's sonic space, they tackled some pieces from its book alongside some improvisations.

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

Recording: Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly

Artist: Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly

Song: Is there any such thing as a waste of time?

Recorded at Bar Orwell (TONE Festival), June 13, 2023.

Laura Swankey & Patrick O'Reilly - Is there any such thing as a waste of time?

The TONE Festival continued to do a nice job of mixing it up this year, presenting larger-scaled shows (including presenting the local return of the Sun Ra Arkestra) alongside smaller, more-experimental affairs such as this one in Bar Orwell's cozy livingroom-like space. The local openers at this one seemingly came prepared to get a little noisier than usual to get the crowd ready for the visiting headliners — Patrick O'Reilly's guitar effects were more spiky and distorted than they might be in this context. At one point I wasn't sure if one sound I was hearing was coming from the stage or if someone's car alarm was going off outside, although there was room for more shimmery, softer zones as well.

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XIX

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XIX

Songs: Disco Whispers [excerpt] + Zero Gravity Bird Ceremony [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), April 30, 2023.

Cosmic Homeostasis XIX - Disco Whispers [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis XIX - Zero Gravity Bird Ceremony [excerpt]

Another fifth-Sunday-of-the-month drone meetup brought out a mid-sized group (a dozen people) for some space-drift, spreading out around the Southern Cross.

The ensemble this time around was:

• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Philip Hamilton - oscillator, contact mic
• fuzzy - guitar, pedals
• Patrick O'Reilly - circuit bent SK-1, piano
• Nilan Perera - prepared guitar + slicer pedal
• Ian McPhedran - guitar + pedals
• Sterling McPhedran - guitar + pedals
• Scott M2 - Animoog
• Ron Blake - iOS apps
• Sheldon - percussion+
• Victor O - toy keyboard + mixer
• Heraclitus Akimbo - synths

And as usual, you can stream/download the full session over on bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis will be back in the Southern Cross on the afternoon of the fifth Sunday of July — that is to say on July 30th, 2023.]

Monday Roundup #116

Concert announcements:

Musica Universalis (feat. SonoRa [Glen Hall/Alan Mackie/Tilman Lewis/Andrew Furlong]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-04-14 (Friday)

%%30%30 presents ["fully acoustic, fully outdoors, all proceeds going to the West Lodge tenant-run food bank"] (feat. Output 1:1:1 / FEURA / Mark Ballyk / Kurt Newman / FuZzy / Psychosics) / Parkdale Provincial Park 2023-04-15 (Saturday). $PWYW, entry by donation, NOTAFLOF.

The Ossingtones [Glen Hall/Diane Roblin/Bruce Cassidy/Andrew Furlong/Lowell Whitty] / La Rev 2023-04-15 (Saturday)

Dan Pitt & Harry Bartlett / Sellers & Newel 2023-04-21 (Friday). Minimum donation $15. [FB event]

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Shows this week:

"We've Got Nothing" live album recording series (feat. Peripheral Vision / Aline's étoile magique) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-04-04 (Tuesday). $PWYC ($10 suggested).

Track Could Bend #78 (feat. Density Creep / Flip Side [Allison Cameron/Fahmid Nibesh] / James Bailey & %%30%30) / Wenona Lodge 2023-04-04 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [FB event]

The Allison Cameron Band [Allison Cameron/Kurt Newman/Thom Gill] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-04-05 (Wednesday)

Cots (Alex Lukashevsky) / Tibet Street Records 2023-04-06 (Thursday). $20. [FB event]

Audiopollination (feat. Martin van de Ven/Grace Scheele/Mira Martin-Gray / James Bailey/Susanne Farkas/Nilan Perera / Daniel Field/Jack Brock/Shanika Maria / Tapocalypse Now [mkl32/fuZzy/Heraclitus Akimbo]) / Array Space 2023-04-07 (Friday). $10 (or PWYC). [FB event]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / David Sait / Nick Flanagan / Jaz Tsui) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-04-09 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Sundays in April Residency (feat. Eucalyptus) / Hirut Cafe and Restaurant 2023-04-09 (Sunday). Suggested $15 per person.

Caleb Klager/Stefan Hegerat/Michael Palumbo / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-04-09 (Sunday)

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Bandcamp corner:

• Good Friday is also Bandcamp Friday, so if you're lucky you'll have the day off to pick through the many, many wonderful artists you can support. Here's a couple things on my list:

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It happened this week...

• ...on April 7, 2017 at The Music Gallery (Emergents III).

Laura Swankey with Patrick O'Reilly - unknown

• ...on April 8, 2017 at Array Space (Audiopollination #53.1).

Abigail Trotsky/Chris Trotter/Mike Spears - [excerpt]

[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: Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII

Songs: The Ways We Unravel [excerpt] + Space [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), January 29, 2023.

Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII - The Ways We Unravel [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII - Space [edited excerpt]

The year's first Cosmic Homeostasis gathering (which happens when there's a fifth Sunday in a month) brought out a robust crowd, with twenty (or so) musicians taking over the perimeter of the Southern Cross and generating some sonic drift zones. A real nice mix of acoutic and electronic sounds, and ranging from some louder zones into quieter interplay.

The participants this time out were:

• Marilyn - various percussion, singing bowls, namer-of-things
• Philip Hamilton - guitar, box w/ a string and llama toenails
• Ron Blake - ipad apps
• Scott M2 - Animoog
• Mira Martin-Gray - mini synth, mini theremin
• Yasmine E - pocket piano, various percussion, rainmaker
• Adrian Russouw - violin
• Del Stephen - keyboard synth + cassettes
• Sophie Jaworski - wooden frog
• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Patrick O'Reilly - Volca FM/effects
• Rod Campbell - trumpet
• Todd Macdonald - mandolin/Mood
• Hilary Martin - singing bowl
• Myfawny Ashmore - singing bowl
• Michael Lynn - bass + stuff
• Sterling + Ian - Atari junk console
• Rob Cruickshank - electronics + resonator
• Heraclitus Akimbo - synths, etc.

It's tough to get that many folks in the frame, but most of them make an appearance in this footage you can see over on youtube:

And, of course, you can also listen to the whole performance over on bandcamp (and, if you'd like, support the collective's future works with a purchase!):