Recording: Allison Cameron

Artist: Allison Cameron

Song: Ringing The Door [excerpt]

Recorded at The Dupe Shop (Quiet Bedrooms presents QB3), October 1, 2017.

Allison Cameron - Ringing The Door [excerpt]

Videographer/archivist Brandon Caswell Douglas' efforts to bring quiet listening experiences (complete with a request for quiet applause!) continued at The Dupe Shop, afternoon sunlight streaming in, and sidewalk flâneurs pausing to peer in at the sounds drifting by. Allison Cameron closed out the afternoon with one of those sets where not everything worked the way it was supposed to — but the lacking was felt more strongly by the performer than the audience (who, after all, didn't know what this was supposed to sound like in any case). What it came out as was some churchy Sunday organ music for drone believers, which did totally right by me.

[Quiet Bedrooms' next event — QB5 for those keeping score at home — is this Friday (November 10th) at LP's LPs and features and excellent lineup of Carl Didur, NPNP & Deenzi. Allison Cameron will be playing at the next Piano Party at the Tranzac (Wednesday, November 22nd).]

Recording: Sea Beau

Artist: Sea Beau

Song: Cruelty

Recorded at The Dupe Shop (Quiet Bedrooms presents QB3), October 1, 2017.

Sea Beau - Cruelty

Videographer/archivist Brandon Caswell Douglas' efforts to bring quiet listening experiences (complete with a request for quiet applause!) continued at The Dupe Shop, afternoon sunlight streaming in, and sidewalk flâneurs pausing to peer in at the sounds drifting by. Before playing, Cass Beau confessed this was their first solo acoustic set in about six years — recently in Montréal and now back in T.O., they've been spending more time making sound art than songs. The Sea Beau project is also in the midst of a transformation into a "Math Pop/ElectroWitch" band, so be ready for something different the next time you see the name. At this particular moment, though, there was a quiet pause for some inward-looking reflections with just voice and guitar.

[Quiet Bedrooms' next event — QB5 for those keeping score at home — is this Friday (November 10th) at LP's LPs and features and excellent lineup of Carl Didur, NPNP & Deenzi.]

Recording: Happy Baby

Artist: Happy Baby

Songs: Salty + Lapis Lazuli^*

Recorded at The Dupe Shop (Quiet Bedrooms presents QB3), October 1, 2017.

Happy Baby - Salty

Happy Baby - Lapis Lazuli

Videographer/archivist Brandon Caswell Douglas' efforts to bring quiet listening experiences (complete with a request for quiet applause!) continued at The Dupe Shop, afternoon sunlight streaming in, and sidewalk flâneurs pausing to peer in at the sounds drifting by. It was a delight to discover this self-professed "aggressively earnest soft noise twinkle pop band" (operating at three-quarters of their full capacity) whose m.o. appeared to operate around a will to co-operate and an innovative spirit. Sharing one microphone for the purposes of collaborative looping, they mixed keyb, banjo, clarinet, water bottle slurp-gurgles and more into songs and soundscapes.

[Quiet Bedrooms' next event — QB5 for those keeping score at home — is this Friday (November 10th) at LP's LPs and features and excellent lineup of Carl Didur, NPNP & Deenzi. Happy Baby (or perhaps a different subset thereof) will be playing at Del Stephen's Tranzac Tiki Room show on Tuesday, November 21st alongside Slow Man Tofu and "a variety of grass-themed poetry and art".]

^* Thanks to the band for passing along the titles to these!

Recording: YlangYlang

Artist: YlangYlang

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at 940 Variety (Quiet Bedrooms Launch Show), August 27, 2017.

YlangYlang - unknown

Quiet Bedrooms is a cassette label/live series founded by busy videographer/archivist Brandon Caswell Douglas, formally launching with this ambitions inside/outside east-end show. Since relocating to Hamilton, songwriter and sonic explorer Catherine Debard has been making more frequent forays into T.O., but I hadn't managed to catch any of 'em before this one. Her current set of spectacular introspective drone-popsongs drifted past in a self-assured continuous flow, bringing a satisfying conclusion to the event.

[YlangYlang performs tonight (September 21st) at The Baby G, "a night dedicated to simplicity and unravelling" alongside ANAMAI and Xuan Ye + David Jones. Quiet Bedrooms will be presenting an afternoon show at the Dupe Shop on Saturday, October 1st with Allison Cameron, Sea Beau, and Happy Baby.]

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

Recording: Heraclitus Akimbo

Artist: Heraclitus Akimbo

Song: 222 Hz [edited excerpt]

Recorded at 940 Variety (Quiet Bedrooms Launch Show), August 27, 2017.

Heraclitus Akimbo - 222 Hz [edited excerpt]

Quiet Bedrooms is a cassette label/live series founded by busy videographer/archivist Brandon Caswell Douglas, formally launching with this ambitions inside/outside east-end show. Sadly, I missed the park segment while I was setting up for this, but I enjoyed the low-key vibes at this space.

This set was an attempt to see what I could wring out of a fairly limited set of inputs — just a single tone from my trusty function generator, plus some spring reverb rustles for texture. Presenting this for other people, there's always a certain temptation to "do more" — to add more sounds, to keep things moving — but I felt fairly satisfied with the amount of staying-in-place I mustered here.

[Quiet Bedrooms will be presenting an afternoon show at the Dupe Shop on Saturday, October 1st with Allison Cameron, Sea Beau, and Happy Baby.]

[photo by 940 Variety]