Recording: an action committee

Artist: an action committee

Songs: Organ [in two versions] [composer: Max Stover]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 18, 2025.

an action committee - Organ [version 1]

an action committee - Organ [version 2]

I feel like it's a very Toronto thing to gather large groups together and have everyone play at once. ("Everyone playing loudly and at once," is, in fact, how I've heard the "Toronto style" of improvisation described by some of its detractors.) Whether it's a consequence of the social situations performers in Toronto's creative music scenes find themselves in or some sort of atavistic impulse towards maximalism, it warms the ol' heart to see the younger cadres rediscovering these sonic scenarios.

How large groups find ways to work together and navigate structure and freedom is, of course, a key question — and Maxwell Stover's new-ish Tranzac residency is an attempt to negotiate some of these queries. For this instalment, with a dozen musicians on stage, that was achieved through Stover's conduction and distribution of some fragments of material for the musicians to share space in. That this was a relatively unprecise approach could be seen from how the same three pieces were essayed twice with rather different results — quietly and spaciously in the first set, and with shades, feedback and fuzz pedals in the second.

The musicians for this performance were:

• guitars: Bjorn Kriel, Ben Rositsan, Josh Sparks, Jesse White
• keys: Max Donaldson, Will Hunt, Ben Mike, Steven Noronha
• bass: Adrian Russouw
• drums: Keith Barstow, Colin Cudmore, Mateos Labbe-Phelan
• conduction + compositions: Maxwell Stover

Apologies for the fact that this whole ensemble was too large to fit in its entirety in the frame, but you can check out the evening's full performance over on youtube:

[an action committee take on a different form of musical organization — three trios — at its next performance on Sunday (June 15th), with performances from Steven Noronha/Keon Narinesingh/Harry Vetro, Ben Rositsan/Adrian Russouw/Cal James Adam, and Jesse White/Maxwell Stover/Keith Barstow.]