Recording: Naomi McCarroll-Butler

Artist: Naomi McCarroll-Butler

Song: [first section]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection – Day 2), September 2, 2023.

Naomi McCarroll-Butler - [first section]

That particular Labour Day tradition returned once more this year — the Intersection Festival filling up the concrete plains of Yonge-Dundas Square with creative and adventurous music. As with last year's return from the pandemic pause, this was more stripped-back than in the "old days", with all of the music constrained to the big stage, which itself was a bit more cut off from the square by metal barricades. The square as a whole felt a little less, ah, pulsating than in the past — while there's still all sorts of random passers-by and carryings-on, the space felt a little more restrained overall. But on a mostly-beautiful day for standing around outside (with just one minor cloudburst to take the edge off the heat) the programming was mostly on-point, distracting a few people, chasing some away, and calling in a few in to take in the sounds.

Fully half of this year's performances were solo sets — but in one sense, you can never play a solo set at Yonge-Dundas Square, as there's just too much environment filling in the edges. Beyond the sirens and shouts, the most sympathetic supplemental sound in Naomi McCarroll-Butler's set for bass clarinet and electronics was a lone bird, chirping away in one of the scraggly trees at the Square's perimeter.