Rebecca Bruton's recent visits hereabouts have revolved around her Swanherds project, but this mini-tour with Darren Williams instead saw her tackling a "transparent tracing" of Martin Arnold's retelling of the old Scottish ballad "Tam Lin". Martin's reworking of the piece was crafted for The Reveries and the Array Ensemble, so it exudes a wobbly maximalism, making Bruton's version an interesting flip into unadorned minimalism. Although given that it runs over forty minutes, there's a sense of spacial expansion at play here as well — time to really lean back and dig into the sounds in a setting where the context of listening to something this spare for so long actually creates the conditions to slow the mind down enough to hear what's creeping in between the notes.
Besides brushing up against that endlessly ambling "Boring Formless Nonsense" that much of Arnold's work is associated with, Bruton's refolkification also brought to mind Picastro's sleepy drift as well as Wyrd Visions' stretched-out-like-toffee balladry. The similarly-spare retelling of her own "Nora, Listening" that started the set shows that there's space for these techniques to echo more broadly within her work.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
This former Torontonian (now based out west in Kelowna) was making his first local appearance in over a decade, giving an opportunity for folks in these parts to get acquainted with his solo saxophone work. Playing many of the compositions from his recent Musical Idiot album, and offering a flow of snappy, cutting banter, the music moved from intense arguments to reflective, circular reflections.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
To set the stage for a couple touring visitors, this night began with some new sounds from some locals. Eschewing their regular instruments, this pair are relative newbies at saxophone, allowing them to approach things with true beginner's mind. It's a bit of a cliché (and one I'm fond of) to compare improvisation to conversation, but this felt very much like hanging out with a couple friends and hearing chatter pass back and forth — sometimes leading to monosyllabic rebuttals, sometimes to dense clusters of ideas, and sometimes just breaking down in laughter.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
Second Fridays (feat. Chiquitamagic / Brodie West / Stones, Breeze, and Tinder) / Canadian Music Centre 2024-12-13 (Friday). $15; $10 for students. [morfe info]
Roasted Chestnuts IX (feat. Queer Songbook Orchestra) / Hart House Theatre 2024-12-20 (Friday). $32. [more info]
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Way Bad Stone) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-08 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]
Lostworldsounds [Heartbroken Yesterdays Fleeting Tomorrows album release celebration!] (Man Meets Bear / guests from Ghostlight) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-12-08 (Sunday). $15/PWYC (no one turned away for lack of funds). [FB event]
Video hits:
If I tell you that Parade (the band) is made up of Parade: Laura Swankey, Patrick O'Reilly, Chris Pruden and Stefan Hegerat and I tell you that the animation in this video was done by Bea Labikova you're just gonna click right on it, right?
Bandcamp corner:
After taking November off, there's one last Bandcamp Friday coming up to close out the year. A good time to pick up some digital stocking stuffers! I've got lots of stuff on my list, but here's a couple picks:
It happened this week...
...on December 4, 2014 at The Music Gallery (Emergents I).
Founded as a blog about one curmudgeon's love affair with the em dash, Mechanical Forest Sound has grown to become a community-based archive of local musical culture. Assuming that "independent music" isn't just boys with guitars and "culture" isn't just some sort of pageant, MFS is an investigation of a wide range of artists, reflecting on concerts as shared experiences, acts of citizenship and a chance to get down — fuzzy photographs and clear-sounding original live recordings a specialty.
Current manifestations of this project include Track Could Bend, a monthly concert series featuring "improvised music and weird rock offshoots", presented in a casual environment.
At one point I wrote full-on concert reviews, and for longer I thought I would catch up and write about shows in the past. But these days, because of, y'know, life, do not expect much in the way of full show reviews — but live recordings with blurbs will be posted as quickly after the fact as is feasible.
You can also check out full sets uploaded to the Live Music Archive. [not currently active]
N.B.: All recordings should be available & playable. If you come across any broken links, invisible or non-functioning players, etc, please leave a comment and I will tend to it ASAP.
ALSO N.B.: I'm perpetually on the lookout for a new place to stash my MP3's online. If you know of any place that allows a couple gigs of stuff to be openly linked to for streaming, drop me a line!
All MP3's on this blog are audience recordings shared as a reminder of the excitement of seeing live music. If you are an artist who doesn't want their music shared in this way, please contact me and I shall remove it forthwith.
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Way Bad Stone) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-08 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]
Lostworldsounds [Heartbroken Yesterdays Fleeting Tomorrows album release celebration!] (Man Meets Bear / guests from Ghostlight) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-12-08 (Sunday). $15/PWYC (no one turned away for lack of funds). [FB event]
fuzZfest 2.0 (feat. Ben Bennett/Raphaël Foisy/Karen Ng / Eric Laska / Battle Milk) ["home-cooked vegetarian meal included"] / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15 (cash/card) or pwyc. [FB event]
Not a Band [Secrets EP Release Party!] (feat. Wilderness Adventure Ride / Triage Eclair) / Collective Arts 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15/PWYC. [FB event]
Second Fridays (feat. Chiquitamagic / Brodie West / Stones, Breeze, and Tinder) / Canadian Music Centre 2024-12-13 (Friday). $15; $10 for students. [morfe info]
Playscape Emporium: Of dances and dreams (feat. Angela Blumberg Dance / Teething / Adrian Berry) / Array Space 2024-12-19 (Thursday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Henri Fabergé Crashes The Creskins Ball ["A festive night of comedy,music & mayhem"] (feat. Gwynne Phillips / Briana Templeton / Kayla Lorette / Roger Bainbridge / Miguel Rivas / Alex Tindal / Clare McConnell / Adam Niebergall / Sharjil Rasool / Johnny Spence / Steve Foster / Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll / Sarah Bennett / Juliann Wilding / Nicole Passmore / Jackie Pirico / Sarah Ruba / New Chance / Anh Phung) / 918 Bathurst 2024-12-19 (Thursday – early show @ 6 p.m., late show @ 8:30). $27.96. [FB event]
Okavango African Orchestra [with special guests Lorraine Klaasen, Diely Mori Tounkara, Pape Ndiaye, Mis Blandine and Dally Dominic] / Redwood Theatre 2024-12-20 (Friday). $20 (advance tickets), $25 (door). [more info + tickets]
Roasted Chestnuts IX (feat. Queer Songbook Orchestra) / Hart House Theatre 2024-12-20 (Friday). $32. [more info]
Tibbs Eve Rager (feat. BA Johnston / Marty Topps / Whyte Wine / Young Rielsing) / Bovine Sex Club 2024-12-23 (Monday). $10 (early Bird) / $15 / $20 (door). [FB event]
New Encounters ["new works and arrangements by Maria-Eduarda Mendez Martins, Pouya Hamidi, Morgan-Paige Melbourne, and Eldritch Priest"] (feat. Array Ensemble) / Array Space 2025-02-01 (Saturday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Behaviours: Data (feat. Anando Gabo / Marelena Pellegrino / Technology of Creative Consciousness) / Array Space 2025-03-13 (Thursday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Freesound Presents: Music for Solo Instruments (feat. Michael Murphy / Amahl Arulanandam / Matti Pulkki) / Array Space 2025-03-20 (Thursday). $22.63. [more info]
Playscape Emporium: Arcade-palooza (feat. Render File / Jason Leaver PuzzSoft) / Array Space 2024-05-15 (Saturday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Freesound Presents: Violin // Trumpet // Melodica [featuring new work by Martin Arnold] (feat. Aysel Taghi-Zada/Émilie Fortin/Martin Arnold) / Array Space 2025-06-28 (Saturday). $22.63. [more info]
Track Could Bend #87 (feat. SOUP/ Panties / battle milk) / Wenona Lodge 2024-01-02 (Tuesday)
Swanherds [rebecca bruton solo] (Kurt Newman) / 918 Bathurst – The Sun Room 2024-01-23 (Tuesday)
Track Could Bend #88 (feat. Écureuil / Garden of Magic) / Wenona Lodge 2024-02-06 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / Eiyn Sof / Colin Fisher / Nick Flanagan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-02-11 (Sunday)
Track Could Bend #89 (feat. mutepack / Piers Oolvai) / Wenona Lodge 2022-03-05 (Tuesday)
Women From Space Festival: Night 2 (feat. Grace Scheele / MOCH / Mali Obomsawin) / 918 Bathurst 2024-03-09 (Saturday)
Women From Space Festival: Night 3 (feat. Anh Phung/chiquitamagic/Emjay Wright / Val Jeanty & Nickeshia Garrick / Matana Roberts/Germaine Liu/Nicole Rampersaud) / 918 Bathurst 2024-03-10 (Sunday)
Faster Presents: Juice?$#%* (feat. Happy Apple / Brian Abbott & Ryan Kinney / Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani / Liz Lima/Brodie West/Andrew Kay/Paul Newman) / Gerrard Art Space 2024-03-23 (Saturday)
Ryan Driver’s Big 5-0 (feat. The Ryan Driver Sextet + guests) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-03-30 (Saturday)
Josh Cole Presents (feat. Rob Clutton/Josh Cole/Nick Fraser/John Oswald wsg Colin Fisher) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-04-09 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Tzevi Sherman / Marilyn Yogarajah & Co. / Nick Flanagan / Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-04-14 (Sunday)
Poncili Creacion with Karen Ng and Philippe Melanson (Nubuo Kubota) / The Music Gallery 2024-04-19 (Friday)
Tranzac Fundraiser I (feat. Sandro Perri & Friends / Masahiro Takahashi / Anne Bourne) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-04-20 (Saturday)
Wenderly Park (Friends of Wenderly Park feat. Marilyn Yogarajah/Bea Labikova/Allison Cameron/Mike Lynn/Jason Doell) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-04-23 (Tuesday)
Joe's 50th Birthday (feat. Eucalyptus / Isla Craig + band / Colin Fisher) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-04-25 (Thursday)
Track Could Bend #91 (feat. TH6Ø / Olivia Shortt / Brian Abbott) / Wenona Lodge 2024-05-07 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / William Davison / Karsten Stryker / Nick Flanagan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-12 (Sunday)
Ghostgirl residency (feat. Aline Homzy/Allan Mackie/Michael Davidson / Michael Davidson [solo]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-14 (Tuesday)
Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip 2024 (feat. Brian Ruryk & %%30%30 / Louis Pino / Em Wright / Owen Kurtz) / Bickford Park "Stadium" 2024-09-19 (Thursday)
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