Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Recording: Labyrinth Ensemble

Artist: Labyrinth Ensemble (I) [Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Pedram Khavarzamini/Scott Peterson]

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (X Avant XVI – Night 3), October 16, 2021.

Labyrinth Ensemble (I) - [excerpt]

The Music Gallery's annual X Avant Festival felt like a return and a renewal in all the right ways. Although these weren't the first events presented by new-ish Artistic Director Sanjeet Takhar, they were the first ones in person, with performers and audience sharing space — a long-awaited return from all sides. Each of the nights played off the festival theme "You in Mind", looking for ways to amplify and support the overlapping communities being drawn together. Day Three ("Process") was "dedicated to the global thread of sustained tone as a healing modality" — by way of an eight-hour drone zone, letting the audience lay back on 918 Bathurst's sanctuary floor and watch projections planetarium-style on the high-arched ceiling.

The day was bookended by a pair of trios drawn from the larger Labyrinth Ensemble, joining musicians of different backgrounds together in deepening their understanding of modal traditions. This first grouping saw Naomi McCarroll-Butler (reeds), Pedram Khavarzamini (tombak) and Scott Peterson (double bass) ease the crowd into the dronespace, taking a steady pulse and slowing it down in smaller solo/duo explorations.

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