Thursday, November 9, 2017

Recording: Nur Michael Keith

Artist: Nur Michael Keith

Songs: [two excerpts from first piece]

Recorded at The Steady Café (Track Could Bend #31), October 3, 2017.

Nur Michael Keith - [first piece, excerpt 1]

Nur Michael Keith - [first piece, excerpt 2]

This was, as usual, a joyful night of acoustic and electronic sounds that was rendered a little bittersweet in retrospect with news of The Steady's closing. A close relative of local bluesman Michael Keith, Nur Michael Keith is continuing his spiritual exploration of simple string instruments. Streamlining things further from the three-stringed baritone ukulele journeys he's been making for the past couple years, he's now playing a custom two-stringed dotar, which allows a similar palette of drones and note-bursts as he unfurls ancient-sounding melodies in continuous explorations. A real gem of Toronto's creative music scene (there are some excellent recordings over on his bandcamp), this brought the intense stillness of focused listening to the room, and I was glad to have another set from someone who appeared all the way back at the very first TCB.

[You'll be able to find Track Could Bend at The Belljar Café on Tuesday, December the 5th.]

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