Recording: Joyshape

Artist: Joyshape

Song: Palimpsest

Recorded The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Ayal Senior & Friends), May 10, 2026.

Joyshape - Palimpsest

Zoë Alexis-Abrams brought cello, voice and laptop for this solo set, which showed off an increased interest in field recordings. (The muffled whumps here are apparently geophone recordings made at the Reference Library.) As someone who likes hearing what recordings sound like when they're slowed down a bunch I found thgis totally on-point, in the sense that the music sounds pre-slowed.

[Ayal Senior & Friends returns to The Tranzac tomorrow (June 14th) with sets from David Sait, Nathan Yell, Nick Flanagan plus Senior & Newman.]

Recording: Swanherds

Artist: Swanherds

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Karen Ng presents), June 25, 2024.

Swanherds - unknown

The last time rebecca bruton was in these parts was to record with her Swanherds band, which also resulted in a solo show. This visit brought with it a full group performance, pulling in vocalists Zoë Alexis-Abrams and Felicity Williams, pianist Ryan Driver, percussionist D. Alex Meeks, guitarist Kurt Newman, and double bassist Pete Johnston. There was, of course, whistling from several of those conspirators as they went on some dreamy journeys down dusty Albertan backroads and headed for stranger destinations.

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

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

Recording: O/Eriksen/Alexis-Abrams

Artist: Victor O/Jamie Eriksen/Zoë Alexis-Abrams

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Cosmic Homeostasis & Audiopollination: Pre-NYE gathering + celebration), December 30, 2023.

Victor O/Jamie Eriksen/Zoë Alexis-Abrams - [excerpt]

Following on some group drones, this Tranzac edition of the Audiopollination series was a nice opportunity was to gather together with friends for some end-of-the-year festivities. Some truly excellent work in this middle set with three performers finding a sympathetic meeting place right off the bat. Jamie Eriksen's sax and Zoë Alexis-Abrams' cello wove together nicely while Victor O's percussion put a bow on things.

You can check out some back-of-the-room footage of this full set over on youtube:

[Audiopollination is back at Array Space on Friday (January 12), with self-curated sets from Kayla Milmine/Daria Morgacheva/Isaiah Farahbakhsh, Max Donaldson & Nate Robertson, Zack Goldstein/Danny Alexander/Kalina Nedelcheva, and Rod Campbell/Nour Symon/%%30%30.]

Recording: Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Victor O

Artist: Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Victor O

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), June 9, 2023.

Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Victor O - [excerpt]

Adding a Casio keyb and a delay pedal to piano and voice, this pair found lots of room to explore.

[You can check out the full set on the archived livestream over at Audiopollination's youtube playlist.]

[Audiopollination is on summer break right now — it'll be back in September, and there are still some open slots in the self-curation sign-up sheet.]

Recording: Victor O and Friends

Artist: Victor O and Friends

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), November 25, 2022.

Victor O and Friends - [excerpt]

The night's closing curated set saw bassist Victor O leaning in and focusing on echos and microloops while being surrounded by plinks and scratches from Marilyn Yogarajah (synth, piano, trumpet) and Zoë Alexis-Abrams (cello).

You can also check out the video from this set over on Audiopollination's youtube page:

[Audiopollination will be back at Array Space on Friday, January 13th, with performances from Mike Barber/Daisy Betlej/Tegan Dietsch / Kousha Nakhaei/Owen Kurtz / Jamie Eriksen/Adrian Russouw/Bri Clarke and Kimberly Ivany/Katheryn Merriam.]

Monday Roundup #90

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Concert announcements:

Portage [George Koller/ Bruce Cassidy/Diane Roblin] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-10-16 (Sunday – early!) [FB event]

Soundstreams: Surface Tension (feat. TorQ Percussion Quartet) / Universal Music 2022-10-22 (Saturday – two performances at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Death to T.O #10 [members of Breeze, Rapport, Nyssa, Praises, Dilettante, C.J Wiley, Shitbats, Theo Vandenhoff, Witchrot, Secret Sign, Blanks, Nutrients, World news performing as Abba, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, Dolly Parton, The Doors, Nancy Sinatra, Orchestral Manouveres in the Dark, The Cramps, Kate Bush, The Cure, The Kinks, The Pixies, Flight of the Conchords] / Lee's Palace + The Cave 2021-10-29 (Saturday). $20 advance, 19+. [FB event]

Aline's étoile magique [Aline Homzy/Thom Gill/Daniel Fortin/Michael Davidson/Marito Marques] / The Rex 2021-10-30 (Sunday) [FB event]

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Shows this week:

Victor Bateman & Reg Schwager / The Rex 2022-10-04 (Tuesday – 5:30-7:30) [FB event]

Track Could Bend #72 (feat. Kayla Milmine/Mike Gennaro / Stranger Still [Mim Adams/Randi Helmers/Rob Clutton/Pete Johnston] / Jonas Olesen) / Wenona Lodge 2022-10-04 (Tuesday). $PWYC. [FB event]

Partner (Rapport / CJ Wiley) / Horseshoe Tavern 2022-10-06 (Thursday). $17.00, 19+ [FB event]

Tania Gill Presents (feat. Jasper Stadhouders/Brodie West/Karen Ng/Blake Howard/Rob Clutton / Tania Gill/Rob Clutton/Nico Dann) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-10-07 (Friday – early!)

Audiopollination (feat. Jessica Houghton/Kathryn Merriam / Patrick O’Reilly/Curtis Whittaker/Saba Saneinejad / Ryan Kinney/Mira Riselli / Bill Gilliam/Eugene Martynec/Bill McBirnie) / Array Space 2022-10-07 (Friday). $10 (cash or card) or PWYC. [FB event]

Status/Non Status / Horseshoe Tavern 2022-10-08 (Saturday). $22.66, 19+. [FB event]

Ayal Senior's monthly (feat. Country Phasers / Nick Flanagan / Electroacoustic Autumn Ensemble [Kieran Miraj/Fuzzy Nibesh/William Davison + special guests!]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-10-09 (Sunday – afternoon show @ 2:30 p.m.!). $PWYC, family-friendly. [FB event]

SynCirSundays (feat. Mike Hansen & Gary Barwin [where the angels once were: live sessions album release!] / Rob Clutton & Nilan Perera) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-10-09 (Sunday – early!) [FB event]

Holy Oak Family Singers / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-10-09 (Sunday)

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Bandcamp corner:

• Reminder that Bandcap Friday happens again this week (October 7th), so get your lists ready! Me, I like to pre-order stuff, while more of the money goes right to the artists — and then you get a delightful surprise in your inbox when the albums drop. Here's a couple things I have my eyes on:

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It happened this week...

• ...on October 4, 2018 at Burdock Music Hall. [and speaking of Bandcamp Friday pre-orders, why not grab Joy Shape, a newer name for Zoë Alexis-Abrams' solo songcraft. It looks like this track will be on there, so it'll be cool to see how it has developed!]

ZOË - The Rock

• ...on October 7, 2018 at Handlebar (Nite Comfort 60).

Memorex - Self-Discipline

[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: S W A N H E R D S

Artist: S W A N H E R D S

Songs: Swanherds + The Turning Larch

Recorded at the Canadian Music Centre (CMC/Riparian Acoustics presents), January 23, 2020.

S W A N H E R D S - Swanherds

S W A N H E R D S - The Turning Larch

This set would have been worth seeing based just on the familiar local faces on stage, including Laura Swankey, Zoë Alexis-Abrams, Ryan Driver, D. Alex Meeks and Pete Johnston — maybe especially so as all were being credited with "whistling" alongside their usual instruments. But all expectations were detourned by the presence of Rebecca Bruton, who had assembled this group as the space-built-in unit S W A N H E R D S. The Banff-based Bruton is a composer, noise-maker and song-singer — all of which were hinted at here, though this set hewed toward the latter. Positing an avant-garde tradition on the same country path k.d. lang once trod down, the songs took in the birds, trees and horses observed in her local environment, brought to life with that aforementioned whistling, as well as singing saws and some occasional yodels.

[This season of CMC Presents concerts will be concluding at the Burdock on Thursday, March 5th with a special co-presentation with the Women From Space Festival featuring Elisa Thorn, Claire Yunjin Lee, Amy Brandon, and Susan Alcorn.]

Recording: ZOË

Artist: ZOË

Song: Tunnel

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), April 18, 2019.

ZOË - Tunnel

Zoë Alexis-Abrams' namesake popsong project has been simmering for awhile, adding songs and testing different lineups and instrumental possibilities, but this was one of those shows that felt like a bold announcement something has arrived. Focusing on vocal performance instead of keybs, Alexis-Abrams instead led a keyboard trio on stage, her gestures conducting Xuan Ye, Kvesche Bijons-Ebacher, and Amelia H. in glorious bursts of circuit-bent soul. The other key change here was the addition of percussionist D. Alex Meeks, powering the tracks with his precision grooves. It was the sort of set where you just wanted to call up 4AD and hold your phone toward the stage until they sent someone down to make the band into international stars.

[A slightly different version of the band will be joining in for a night of "moody tunes from broody heads" alongside Bunny and Hank the Kid (a new project from Henri Fabergé) at Handlebar tonight (Thursday, July 4th). ]

Recording: Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Neal Retke/William Davison

Artist: Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Neal Retke/William Davison

Song:

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Women From Space Festival – Night 2), March 9, 2019.

Zoë Alexis-Abrams/Neal Retke/William Davison - [excerpt]

The first Women From Space Festival saw four excellent concerts take place over the course of the International Women's Day weekend. Organized by Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine, the festival felt like a really savvy gathering, always more than the sum of its parts and showcasing the depth of talent in the city's various creative music streams in a women-centred environment.

This set brought together Zoë Alexis-Abrams and Neal Retke — two distinctive voices — glued together by William Davison's concrète sound-collage. His eerie backdrops held things together like the elastic bands on his contact-mic'd tin can while Retke danced like a soul band backing vocalist on an acid trip and Alexis-Abrams created delay pedal micro-loops.

Recording: ZOË

Artist: ZOË

Song: The Rock

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, October 4, 2018.

ZOË - The Rock

Zoë Alexis-Abrams' "solo" project often sees her joined by Kvesche Bijons-Ebacher and Johnny Spence, but this set was a true solo outing. Relying on a sampler rather than a looper to back her keyboard playing up has opened some space to explore her vast cathedrals of sound (and there was still some rather nifty glitch-looping with Alexis-Abrams latching onto sounds with her DD-7). That helps take her popsongs to some unexpected places, such as this one with its ABA structure that turns itself inside-out in the middle section.

Recording: ZOË

Artist: ZOË

Song: The Future

Recorded at The Baby G, March 3, 2018.

ZOË - The Future

Flanked by Kvesche Bijons-Ebacher (drum machine, effects) and Johnny Spence (synths), Zoë Alexis-Abrams looked as happy as I might have ever seen her on stage. The trio were honed into a distinct avant-pop zone, trailing off into abstraction before snapping back into structured form.

[You can hear a couple other songs from this show over on soundcloud. ZOË will be playing at the Burdock on Tuesday, May 8th with Montréal's Property// and Charise Aragoza.]

Recording: Context, NA

Artist: Context, NA

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Somewhere Else, October 20, 2017.

Context, NA - unknown

So far as I know, this was only the second live appearance from this project, a vehicle for the poetic lyrics of Jonathan Pappo (best known as the beatkeeper in groups such as WHIMM and Hooded Fang). Bringing his guitar and atmospheric samples, he was given additional buoyancy with floating synth textures from Zoë Alexis-Abrams and Daniel Busheikin (of Grounders and also No Frills, a new-ish combo in which Pappo is also playing drums). I asked Pappo if the "NA" was an abbreviation for "North America" making this an address or if it stood for "not applicable" — and he simply said "yes", so that's a good hint of the terrain explored here: nonlinear but not too ungrounded, this mini-suite of four drifting songs promised more dreamy landscapes to come.

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

Recording: Zoë Alexis-Abrams & Johnny Spence

Artist: Zoë Alexis-Abrams & Johnny Spence

Song: The Mountain^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Seven Sonorous Scintillators), July 16, 2017.

Zoë Alexis-Abrams & Johnny Spence - The Mountain

Celebrating the release of her You've Just Become Part of Me album of selected comprovisations, Xuan Ye gathered a collection of friends, collaborators and fellow travellers to celebrate, including a Drone Therapy session from Kristel Jax and some jams from DJ New Chance. Occasionally collaborating ever since last summer's "Abundant Habitat" show, it was no surprise to see Zoë Alexis-Abrams on this bill.

Working through the possibilities of her "solo" material has seen Alexis-Abrams collaborating with some different partners as she explores new textures and sounds. This joint enterprise with synth wizard Johnny Spence saw him creating space for Alexis-Abrams to worry less about setting up loops and so forth. It also included a somewhat-surprising shift that saw her singing mostly in English, changing from relying on her vocal qualities alone to relate her lyrical messages.

[Manticore, Zoë Alexis-Abrams' longstanding duo with David Jones, will be playing at a Burn Down the Capital show alongside Lea Bertucci and Kat Estacio, next Wednesday, August 23rd.]

^* Thanks to Zoë for passing along the title to this one!

Recording: Manticore

Artist: Manticore

Song: Universal Time

Recorded at the basement auditorium of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch (SHHHH! – Year 2, Show 2), May 6, 2017.

Manticore - Universal Time

Kudos to Kyle Knapp (of the band Deliluh and the Raw Materials label/collective) for keeping going the community initiative he started a year ago, bringing strange and wonderful sounds to the library's Parkdale branch. I missed the previous evening's show up in the stacks, but made it down for this Saturday matinée, mixing up a variety of artists to entice patrons and passers-by to join the crowd in the wonderfully-retro basement auditorium. This tune is rather "pop" by Manticore's standards — a relatively concise statement of all the band's best qualities, including David Jones' shimmering guitar and some nifty vocal-loop trickery from Zoë Alexis-Abrams.

^* Thanks to zoeabra for passing along the title to this one!

Recording: Manticore feat. James Beardmore + Xuan Ye

Artist: Manticore feat. James Beardmore + Xuan Ye

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 3), February 25, 2017.

Manticore feat. James Beardmore + Xuan Ye - unknown

For this special festival performance, Manticore doubled in size, with Zoë Alexis-Abrams and David Jones being joined by Xuan Ye (a.k.a. APA) on piano, voice and miscellaneous processed sounds and James Beardmore (a.k.a. Cares) on theremin. The extended sonics let the songs ripple and expand into a sort of abstract haze where time runs forward and backwards simultaneously.

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

Recording: Man Made Hill & Friends

Artist: Man Made Hill & Friends

Song: [excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival – Night 2), November 3, 2016.

Man Made Hill & Friends - [excerpt, part 1]

Man Made Hill & Friends - [excerpt, part 2]

When I was asked to present a night at the 416 festival, I considered it a part of my remit to bring something that might not otherwise be considered for the festival. Randy Gagne, best known for his work as Man Made Hill, puts himself into a lot of inventive situations, but they usually fall outside the "formal" spheres of what gets called creative or improvised music. So I invited him to put himself in that headspace — and to bring along whatever sort of ensemble he wanted.

I couldn't have been more pleased with the collaborators he brought, including Zoë Alexis-Abrams (of Manticore, on keyb and vox), Becky Katz (of Hamilton's Sourpussy, on vox, percussion, clarinet and more) and Jeremy Dennis (on sax and vox). I had no idea how this was going to hash out on stage — musically, it turned out, this was somewhat "outside": sonic dank memes, if you will. Rather than focusing on the formalities of musical exchange, there was a strong sense of play, especially from Katz, who had a whole bevy of tricks on hand, including readings from the Guinness Book of World Records and an occasionally confrontational relationship to her drums, stopping and declaring, "it's not... it's not doing what it's supposed to do!" And in that might be captured the anarchic joy of the whole enterprise.

Recording: Xuan Ye with Zoë Alexis-Abrams

Artist: Xuan Ye with Zoë Alexis-Abrams

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays: Abundant Habitat 1), August 24, 2016.

Xuan Ye with Zoë Alexis-Abrams - [excerpt]

Besides a contact mic and Honeytone amp, Xuan Ye mostly used "found objects" from the Southern Cross in this set — the piano, parts of the house drum kit, some balloons scattered around as decoration. Later on, Zoë Alexis-Abrams (who put this night and its companion a week later together) joined in, flexing her chair for some artful squeaks and joining in on the balloonophonics and vocal abstractions.

Recording: ZOË

Artist: ZOË

Song: difficulty amended with fan^*

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #17), August 2, 2016.

ZOË - difficulty amended with fan

"Experimental music" is a process, not a genre, and it means that the outcome of a set is in question until it happens. Zoë Alexis-Abrams (who plays as half of Manticore, as well as sundry other musical projects) brought a few new solo ideas to this set, including this incredible haunting piece for vocals and piece-of-paper-stuck-in-fanblades. A subsequent piece didn't quite come together, shortening the set — but a return to the stage for a redux version at the end of the night brought things to a satisfactory conclusion.

[Track Could Bend will be back at Dundas Video on September 6th, with Isla Craig, Mark Hundevad & Mike Gennaro and Jesse James Laderoute's Catholic Wilt. Meanwhile, Manticore will be playing The Tranzac (and releasing a tape!) on August 31st, one of two nights with incredible lineups curated by Zoë Alexis-Abrams, and billed as "Abundant Habitat".]

^* Thanks to Zoë for passing along the title to this one!

Recording: Manticore

Artist: Manticore

Song: See Land From Telescope^*

Recorded at Ratio, March 26, 2016.

Manticore - See Land From Telescope

The familiar local support groups at this Burn Down the Capital show did an excellent job of setting the table for the out-of-town headliner — in this case, Manticore's alien arias laid the groundwork for M. Lamar's spiritual opera goth-grooves later in the night. Going in, I assumed I wasn't going to need to post anything from this set, having posted "enough" of Manticore's regular tunes. But to my delight, the set contained not only a sonic reimagining of old chestnut "Hekate", but two new pieces that pushed Zoë Alexis-Abrams and David Jones in some new directions. This one incorporates Alexis-Abrams' SK-1 (also recently seen in her work with The Nick Storring Band), which she used to sample her own voice for a subtle extra layer that you can hear in the earlier part of the song here.

^* if you are reading this in the future when this song has a title and you know what it is, then please leave a comment! Thanks to David-from-the-future for sending the title to this.

Recording: The Nick Storring Band

Artist: The Nick Storring Band

Song: Untitled^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 1), February 26, 2016.

The Nick Storring Band - Untitled [excerpt]

Once again, the Somewhere There Festival filled up the Tranzac with a weekend jam-packed full of locally-based creative music. After an opening speech, the fest's first music was brought via this new delivery system for cellist Nick Storring's compositional and arranging talents. Surrounded by some frequent collaborators (including John Mark Sherlock on clavinet + pianet, Germaine Liu on percussion and Ilana Waniuk on violin), the music explored some zones of quiet drift and occasional clatter familiar in Storring's work. But Manticore's Zoë Alexis-Abrams served as the essential disruptive element here with her vocal interjections keeping the music from settling too easily into place.

^* Nick has commented that this one is, as yet, untitled.

photo by Melissa Goldstein.