Recording: Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq

Artist: Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents Series), June 14, 2023.

Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq - unknown

This highly-anticipated set from Calgary saxophonist Jairus Sharif (who impressed with last year's Water & Tools album, issued by Telephone Explosion) saw him dive deeper into his sounds, stripping back much of the album's percussive drive in favour of surging spiritual explorations. Huge credit there to guitarist Mustafa Rafiq, who found joy in repetition, underpinning Sharif's sounds, especially in an expansive take on the album's "Humility", where his patient fuzzed-out bassline gave Sharif oodles of space to inhabit. Sharif also occupied physical space, falling to his knees and even laying down to play when not prowling around with bells and other hand percussion. A joyful release of energy, auguring further developments in the healing force of the universe.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Yogarajah/Miraj/Russouw

Artist: Marilyn Yogarajah/Kiran Miraj/Adrian Russouw

Song: [1st piece, excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents Series), June 14, 2023.

Marilyn Yogarajah/Kiran Miraj/Adrian Russouw - [1st piece, excerpt]

It brought me no small measure of joy to see this trio being assembled to open up this night closing out the season of the MG's Emergents shows. Marilyn Yogarajah (trumpet), Kiran Miraj (laptop), and Adrian Russouw (double bass) are all making their presence felt in a variety of settings, but here assembled as improvisers, creating a pleasing electroacoustic mix with Miraj adding tones'n'textures under the acoustic sounds.

Recording: Bakarlari

Artist: Bakarlari

Song: remembrancer [composer: Christina Volpini]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents II), March 1, 2020.

Bakarlari - remembrancer

The second instalment of the season's Emergents series brought Montréal's Bakarlari to town. This three-member group is a collective of soloists, dedicated to pushing the boundaries and extending the solo repertoire for their instruments. Extended techniques (and several bursts of whimsy) were common features in the pieces they presented. After each essaying a couple solo pieces, Émilie Fortin (trumpet), Michael Mansourati (tuba), Charlotte Layec (clarinet) joined together for this new piece from Christina Volpini, incorporating some visually-striking DIY electronics, with glass cylinders acting as mutes over open speaker cones, releasing and entrapping sound-fragments from disembodied voices.

[Owing to the pandemic, the Music Gallery has cancelled or postponed the remaining events in its season. In the interim, keep an eye out for some new methods of art-sharing, plus some glimpses into the MG's audiovisual archives.]

Recording: Michael Mansourati

Artist: Michael Mansourati

Piece: Solo Tuba Music [composer: Cort Lippe]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents II), March 1, 2020.

Michael Mansourati - Solo Tuba Music

The second instalment of the season's Emergents series brought Montréal's Bakarlari to town. This three-member group is a collective of soloists, dedicated to pushing the boundaries and extending the solo repertoire for their instruments. Extended techniques (and several bursts of whimsy) were common features in the pieces they presented. Tubist Michael Mansourati incorporated some palm smacks on his mouthpiece and tinfoil stomping pads underfoot into this selection.

[Owing to the pandemic, the Music Gallery has cancelled or postponed the remaining events in its season. In the interim, keep an eye out for some new methods of art-sharing, plus some glimpses into the MG's audiovisual archives.]

Recording: Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó

Artist: Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó

Song: SHIFT [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 24, 2019.

Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó - SHIFT [excerpt]

Emergents series curator Sara Constant got this season's first edition going with an engaging night of experimental sounds. This pairing's electroacoustic explorations mixed folksong fragments with electronic noise textures, voices rising together to the roofbeams buoyed by static waves.

[The Emergents series continues with a night of sounds from Montréal-based soloists collective Bakarlari, playing in Toronto for the first time on Sunday, March 1st.]

Recording: Anoush Moazzeni

Artist: Anoush Moazzeni

Song: The drops of rain become one with me [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 24, 2019.

Anoush Moazzeni - The drops of rain become one with me [excerpt 1]

Anoush Moazzeni - The drops of rain become one with me [excerpt 2]

Emergents series curator Sara Constant got this season's first edition going with an engaging night of experimental sounds. The night started with the extreme preparations of Anoush Moazzeni's Piano+, featuring the "augmentation of the piano with objects, digital processing, and invented robotic devices" (and using stacks of books music on technology and philosophy as ballast). The resulting soundworld featured both realms of digital glitch and reverb as well as good ol' fashioned analog Rube Goldberg machines.

[The Emergents series continues with a night of sounds from Montréal-based soloists collective Bakarlari, playing in Toronto for the first time on Sunday, March 1st.]

Recording: April Aliermo

Artist: April Aliermo - Artemis of Colour [section 2]

Song: Artemis of Colour [sections 2 + 3]

Recorded at The Music Gallery @ 918 Bathurst (Emergents II), January 19, 2019.

April Aliermo - Artemis of Colour [section 2]

April Aliermo - Artemis of Colour [section 3]

The ever-shifting terrain in which the Emergents series finds performers reached out this time to a pair of graduates of the EQ program, "a space for education, mentorship and community-building for women and non-binary folks who create electronic music". That gave a thread to connect two sets that came from very different sonic angles.

Well-known for her work as a rocker/groover in projects like Hooded Fang and Phèdre, it was exciting to see April Aliermo taking a step in a new direction and presenting a large-scale audio-visual electroacoustic piece. Working with mentor Christina Kubisch, this piece combined Red Light District electromagnetic field recordings with sounds of womxn pleasuring themselves. Those sounds were fragmented and abstracted, sometimes becoming almost percussive elements underneath the rippling, meditative soundscapes. Aliermo, meanwhile, mostly removed herself from the stage performance-wise, setting up on the floor and not upstaging the audio-responsive visuals (created by Sahar Homami and executed live by Kat Estacio) which suggested water ripples and infinite tunnels.

[Aliermo has posted a recording of her full performance over on her soundcloud.]

[The next instalment of the Emergents series, featuring Happenstance and Jana Luksts, is at The Music Gallery on Friday (March 29th).]

Recording: Sun Sun

Artist: Sun Sun

Songs: two unknown beats^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery @ 918 Bathurst (Emergents II), January 19, 2019.

Sun Sun - [beat #5]

Sun Sun - [beat #7]

The Emergents series, which has been drawing recently from an ever-shifting and expanding terrain, presented a pair of graduates of the EQ program, "a space for education, mentorship and community-building for women and non-binary folks who create electronic music". That gave a thread to connect two sets that came from very different sonic angles.

Often seen a bit off to the side behind the decks during sets by Above Top Secret and Witch Prophet, it was a special treat to see DJ Sun Sun (who also works with both of those projects' visuals and clothing designs) take centre stage. She presented some tracks from a few different sources, including the Ethio-groove informed forthcoming Witch Prophet album as well as a nascent experimental solo project.

[The next instalment of the Emergents series, featuring Happenstance and Jana Luksts, is at The Music Gallery on Friday (March 29th).]

^* Does anyone know the titles to these? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Xuan Ye

Artist: Xuan Ye

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), December 2, 2018.

Xuan Ye - [excerpt 1]

Xuan Ye - [excerpt 2]

Known for a steady flow of creative developments — and never playing the same set with the same gear twice — Xuan Ye kept things DIY here, deploying a trio of oscillating fans as sound sources and finding ways to generate sonic changes with interventions like adding a bit of feedback or taping on a garbage bag. There was also some good ol' fashioned interspecies communication, with Notable Local Pug Lana Del Satan adding some taps and jangles while running for treats around the bases of the fans. The coda heard here, with some meditative piano chords, complemented the fans' new take on furniture music.

[The Music Gallery's Emergents Series continues on Saturday (January 19th), with new electronic explorations from April Aliermo (Hooded Fang/Phèdre) and Sun Sun (Above Top Secret/Witch Prophet) — two sound-creators this blog has been a fan of for ages.]

Recording: Grace Scheele

Artist: Grace Scheele

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), December 2, 2018.

Grace Scheele - [excerpt 1]

Grace Scheele - [excerpt 2]

This night of "wired sound experiments" began with Kitchener-Waterloo's Grace Scheele pushing her harp into some intriguing electroacoustic spaces. Her set was both visually interactive (thanks to some projection art seemingly being beamed upward from her instrument) and sonically experimental with the use of prepared/extended techniques, field recordings and effects pedals.

[The Music Gallery's Emergents Series continues on Saturday (January 19th), with new electronic explorations from April Aliermo (Hooded Fang/Phèdre) and Sun Sun (Above Top Secret/Witch Prophet) — two sound-creators this blog has been a fan of for ages.]

Recording: Ken Aldcroft Emergents Ensembles

Artist: Ensembles containing Karen Ng/Emily Denison/Andrew Furlong/Mark Zurawinski/Daniel Kruger

Songs: East of Baghdad + A Country Mile + Threads III [composer: Ken Aldcroft]

Recorded at The Music Gallery @ 918 Bathurst (Emergents III:The Music of Ken Aldcroft), April 6, 2018.

Karen Ng/Andrew Furlong/Mark Zurawinski - East of Baghdad

Daniel Kruger + Emily Denison - A Country Mile

Karen Ng/Emily Denison/Andrew Furlong/Mark Zurawinski/Daniel Kruger - Threads III

This evening in the MG's Emergents series was dedicated to the music of the much-missed Ken Aldcroft, presented by a group of musicians who were Aldcroft's bandmates and students. The first half split the group into two smaller sub-units before bringing everyone on stage to tackle music from several sections of Ken's diverse songbook, all of which explore different ways to combine an improvisatory spark with structured composition. So, here we have a piece written for rebetiko rockers Alaniaris, as well an acoustic re-interpretation from his Threadgill-inspired Threads unit. There was also some Convergence-style sign-flashing as well as a new composition offered in remembrance by saxophonist Karen Ng.

Recording: Stereoscope Duo

Artist: Stereoscope Duo

Song: Fragments Noirs, mvt 1-5 [composer: Robert Lemay]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Emergents IV), May 5, 2017.

Stereoscope Duo - Fragments Noirs [mvt 1-5]

In the face of crisitunity, the Music Gallery was able to move this show on the fly, ending up at The Burdock (a frequent venue for the MG's offsite Departures shows) which has a slightly different vibe than the sanctuary, but is still a good listening room. This joint effort from Olivia Shortt and Jacob Armstrong is dedicated to presenting new works for saxophone duo, and the repertoire they've accumulated so far includes this piece, which was premiered in a neutrino lab two kilometres underground in a mine in Sudbury. Though written for that giant underground dome, cranking up the reverb up on the surface gives a reasonable taste of what they might have experienced, though no neutrino sightings were reported at this outing.

Recording: Toronto Harp Society

Artists: Myriam Blardone + Clara Wang

Songs: J'ai tant rêvé de toi [composer: Robert Desnos] + Pièce Symphonique en trois épisodes [composer: Henriette Renié]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Emergents IV), May 5, 2017.

Myriam Blardone - J'ai tant rêvé de toi

Clara Wang - Pièce Symphonique en trois épisodes

In the face of crisitunity, the Music Gallery was able to move this show on the fly, ending up at The Burdock (a frequent venue for the MG's offsite Departures shows) which has a slightly different vibe than the sanctuary, but is still a good listening room. This night's first half was given over to a trio of players from the Toronto Harp Society, each playing selections for unaccompanied harp. Given the paucity of chances one gets to hear this beautiful instrument, this was a real treat. It was also a chance to see the players dip into the weirdly-romantic demimonde of harp repertoire, including Clara Wang's study of Henriette Renié (whose life-story makes for some interesting reading), and Myriam Blardone's descent into Robert Desnos' super-gothy ghost-world.

Recording: Castle If

Artist: Castle If

Songs: Polypodium Aureum [edit] + Voyage

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents III), April 7, 2017.

Castle If - Polypodium Aureum [edit]

Castle If - Voyage

It was an honour and a thrill to be asked to curate a show in the Music Gallery's Emergents program, giving on-the-cusp artists from different disciplines a chance to put on a "proper show" in the Music Gallery's beautiful church sanctuary environment.^† Not only does this give artists access to the full technical support that the Music Gallery's team brings, but it also creates its own sense of occasion. Both artists that I asked to play really took advantage of all those things, elevating their performance and really shining.

Not content to play a "regular" set at this show, Jess Forrest brought a whole new album's worth of music. Inspired by some of the houseplants in her studio space, the wonderful Plant Material draws from 70's synth and library music — and feels right at home in a world where the Syrinx reissues arrived like some sort of misdirected time-traveller landing in these parts and deciding to stick around. Bringing several of those same plants to share the stage, Forrest catered to the sonic resonances of the sanctuary's space in leading off with an extended meditative drone before picking up the tempo.

^† It was shortly after this show that it was learned that the Music Gallery is being forced to temporarily re-locate from its home at St. George The Martyr — showing us another way that unfettered condofication impacts the city's cultural life. The MG is a resilient institution that has survived displacement before, but this is still an excellent time to show your support — and to talk to your representatives about what the city and senior governments should be doing to support culture in T.O.

Recording: Laura Swankey with Patrick O'Reilly

Artist: Laura Swankey with Patrick O'Reilly

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents III), April 7, 2017.

Laura Swankey with Patrick O'Reilly - unknown

It was an honour and a thrill to be asked to curate a show in the Music Gallery's Emergents program, giving on-the-cusp artists from different disciplines a chance to put on a "proper show" in the Music Gallery's beautiful church sanctuary environment.^† Not only does this give artists access to the full technical support that the Music Gallery's team brings, but it also creates its own sense of occasion. Both artists that I asked to play really took advantage of all those things, elevating their performance and really shining.

A flexible vocalist whose curiosity spirals into many experimental zones, Laura Swankey pushed forward and outward in several directions in this set. Instrumental textures were provided by Patrick O'Reilly (mostly on guitar, but on an oscillator/sequencer box for this track) adding haze and needles under the vocals, which were themselves inventively layered and looped.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

^† It was shortly after this show that it was learned that the Music Gallery is being forced to temporarily re-locate from its home at St. George The Martyr — showing us another way that unfettered condofication impacts the city's cultural life. The MG is a resilient institution that has survived displacement before, but this is still an excellent time to show your support — and to talk to your representatives about what the city and senior governments should be doing to support culture in T.O.

Recording: Völur

Artist: Völur

Songs: Idisemorgen (reduction)^* + Es wächst aus seinem Grab

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 17, 2016.

Völur - Idisemorgen (reduction)

Völur - Es wächst aus seinem Grab

A slightly audacious pick to headline the season's first Emergents show, this demonstrated some out-of-the-box thinking from curator Chelsea Shanoff. As loud as openers Wapiti were quiet, this cowled trio's doom-ish metal rumbled the sanctuary's walls a little. This trio sees Lucas Gadke (bass) and Laura C. Bates (violin) — who I also recently saw as part of Gates — joined by Do Make Say Think drummer Jimmy P. Lightning.

Giving a sense of occasion to what they called their "first and last sit-down show", they lead off with the acoustic drone/chamber piece heard here before cranking things up with songs from their recent tape (google translate helpfully tells me that "Es wächst aus seinem Grab" can be rendered as something like "it grows out of its grave") plus some new material. Far more "metal" than a typical night at The Music Gallery, this brought out a somewhat atypical crowd for the venue — hopefully a few of them will be inspired to come back and experience some other unlikely music there.

^* Thanks to the band for passing along the proper title to this piece!

Recording: Wapiti

Artist: Wapiti

Song: Spring of Chosroes [composer: Morton Feldman]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 17, 2016.

Wapiti - Spring of Chosroes

An evening of contrasts at the season's first Emergents show saw things open with this Montréal duo who specialize in quiet sounds, mixing Daniel Áñez's prepared piano plucks and Geneviève Liboiron's violin. Graciela Paraskevaídis' Viva Voce for solo piano included immense pregnant pauses to let clanged low chords reverberate in the room for as long as possible, while Nicolaus A. Huber's With Ego Amplitudes added slow-screech violin scrapes and some other extended techniques. This closing Feldman piece was inspired by the delicate details of a Persian rug, carrying over the source's careful construction and methodical weaving.

Recording: Sarah Fraser-Raff

Artist: Sarah Fraser-Raff

Song: The Beginning Of Infinity, 3rd movement [composer: Jeremy Bellaviti]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents III), April 8, 2016.

Sarah Fraser-Raff - The Beginning Of Infinity [3rd mvt]

The second half of this Alex Samaras-curated showcase saw violinist Sarah Fraser-Raff play this brand new piece, composed by Jeremy Bellaviti especially for the event. The music was inspired and shaped by the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in the David Deutsch book from which the piece has taken its title. Over five movements, Fraser-Raff managed to explore a lot of terrain without the piece getting showy or concerned with merely technical aspects. A sole musical voice in the darkened and hushed space of the Music Gallery's santuary, this was quite entrancing.

[This year's Emergents series concludes on Thursday, May 26th. Curated by Ben Dietschi, the night will match the Kiri Koto Ensemble with a set of music performed on Boomwhackers (yes, those plastic tubed people band together at sporting events).]

Recording: The Science of What?

Artist: The Science of What?

Song: Who Am I [composer: Leonard Bernstein]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents III), April 8, 2016.

The Science of What? - Who Am I

Alex Samaras has one of the city's most beautiful singing voices, so anyone he chose to spotlight for that talent at a show he was curating is definitely worth taking note of. In fact, it turned out that I had heard Jessica Chen sing a couple months back as a standout member of the Humber Composers Collective at the Somewhere There Festival. But when joined only by guitarist Justin Orok, there was even more room for her voice to shine. The pair tackled an intriguing range of material, from standards to Messiaen to the showtune heard here from the stage version of Peter Pan with music by Leonard Bernstein (Chen noted her rendition owed a heavy debt to Nine Simone's interpretation). Orok's contributions ranged from unnderstated accompaniment to some noisier abstracted textures on an "out" interpretation of "Someone To Watch Over Me". Technically accomplished but not too precious about their material (they've tackled Elliot Smith and Thom Yorke on stage alongside their own original material), this is recommended to local fans of, say, Thom Gill and Felicity Williams-styled sophisto-pop.

[This year's Emergents series concludes on Thursday, May 26th. Curated by Ben Dietschi, the night will match the Kiri Koto Ensemble with a set of music performed on Boomwhackers (yes, those plastic tubed people band together at sporting events).]

Recording: Jonathan Adjemian

Artist: Jonathan Adjemian

Song: Dry Reciprocity [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery ("Emergents III"), March 19, 2015.

Jonathan Adjemian - Dry Reciprocity [excerpt]

The opening half of this Christopher Willes-curated "Emergents" night once again saw the idea of traditional composition being pushed against with Geoff Mullen's site-specific work hovering over the borderlands between composition and sound art. Footsteps on the creaky floor and distorted, ghostly music one room away gave the audience an opportunity to confront sound in a different way within the sanctuary (although there was no break for snacks this time 'round).

In the night's second half, Jonathan Adjemian brought what might be his most formally rigourous work to date with "Dry Reciprocity", a forty-minute piece arranged for drones and human breath. The latter was provided by narration, singing voice and wind instruments by Bojana Stancic, Isla Craig, Heather Segger and Kyle Brenders. There was definite room for improvisation by the performers, but situated in a framework of dronepulse and narration for them to work within. With the performers gathered to face each other in a small circle in front of the audience, the piece felt like a pulse generator of some half-hidden message, hope being broadcast in the sinewaves' subcarrier frequency.