Monday Roundup #37

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• In case you missed it, here's a peek inside the rebuilt Silver Dollar Room at College and Spadina, which may cause feelings of dislocation and/or ambiguity in anyone who spent some time there soaking in the rock'n'roll.

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Livestream nation:

• This month's Exit Points (Thursday, September 30) is a special collaboration with the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts; Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology; and the School for Arts, Media, Performance, and Design and will feature two improvising electroacoustic ensembles: Brigitte Bardon't/Kavi/thispatcher plus Esin Gunduz/Megan Kyle/Ninja Riot.

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Concert listings:

• Holy Oak Family Singers + Surprise Guest / Island Cafe 2021-09-30 (Thursday). $pwyc. [FB event]

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Bandcamp corner:

• It's Bandcamp Friday again this week! Stock up on music for your fall walks + support the artists you dig! Here's a couple things I'll be buying/pre-ordering:

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It happened this week...

• ...on September 27, 2014 at June Records (Cassette Store Day).

Pneuma Ensemble - Stella Splendens

• ...on October 2, 2015 at the Jam Factory (Feast in the East 53).

Jerusalem in My Heart - 7ebr El 3oyoun

[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: Pneuma Ensemble

Artist: Pneuma Ensemble

Song: Stella Splendens [traditional]

Recorded at June Records (Cassette Store Day), September 27, 2014.

Pneuma Ensemble - Stella Splendens

Full review to follow. Kudos to June Records for taking up the cause of Cassette Store Day, getting some local tapes up on their walls and hosting a day-long in-store celebration. I was only able to make the first set, but I was quite blown away by something quite unexpected.

Pneuma Ensemble is "a Toronto-based early music group focused on 11th-14th C. medieval monophony (such as troubadour song and minnesang) using historically informed performance and medieval instruments". We tend to think of medieval music and culture in monochromatic terms, so it's quite exciting to see it brought to life. The trio of Eleanor Verrette (vielle), Gaven Dianda (also of psych-rockers The Saffron Sect, gittern) and Tricia Postle (psaltery) were joined for this set by Andrew Zukerman and Ian Cheung on analog synths, adding an extra layer of drone and burble behind the sounds of this tune, which was taken from a 14th-century manuscript, that had originally been compiled "because the pilgrims wish to sing and dance while they keep their watch at night in the church of the Blessed Mary of Montserrat".