Recording: Gayle Young

Artist: Gayle Young

Song: Citrina Lichen

Recorded at the Canadian Music Centre (Riparian Acoustics/CMC Presents), November 21, 2019.

Gayle Young - Citrina Lichen

This edition of the CMC's Nick Storring-curated concert series presented two musicians drawing inspiration from nature and applying that to very different sonic realms. Gayle Yong's microtonally-scaled stringed instruments shared space with some field recordings — on two of the pieces with water sounds recorded through tuned resonators, and here on a 96-tone octave piano — her bows, mallets and sticks on stings creating enveloping, aqueous zones.

This webstream of this full concert is still available to peruse in the CMC's archive:

[The Riparian Acoustics/CMC Presents season continues on Thursday, January 23rd, featuring Rebecca Bruton & the return of Brodie West and Evan Cartwright's duo Ways.]

Recording: Gayle Young & Phil Melanson

Artist: Gayle Young & Phil Melanson

Song: [two excerpts]

Recorded at at Array Space (Musicworks at 40), November 15, 2018.

Gayle Young & Phil Melanson - [excerpt 1]

Gayle Young & Phil Melanson - [excerpt 2]

Though celebrating its fortieth anniversary, Musicworks Magazine's resolute focus on the here-and-now means there's not much time for nostalgia. Given that, I was glad that I was able to cajole my way into a small part in making sure that the occasion didn't go unmarked. After co-hosting some talkin' history back in September, I also helped curate the music for this fundraising event alongside Nick Storring (whose Riparian Acoustics is currently presenting plenty imaginative sounds).

One of the key ideas for this show was to match some performers from Musicworks' past with those who are just now making their marks. This set brought together Gayle Young (a former longtime editor of the magazine as well as sound-art pioneer and instrument inventor) with Phil Melanson, who provides the pulse to pop combo Bernice as well as many other (often quiet) improvised recombinations. Young not only brought her Alium to bow and scrape, but also a set of flat rocks, each with its pitch when struck painted on its side. Melanson borrowed several of those to place on his rotating drumhead. This turned out to be an inspired pairing between a pair of sonic itch-scratchers, sharing quiet sounds through string scratches and drum scratches. (Do note: there's a bit of hiss in this field recording, but I think it would sound just fine on one of the many Musicworks companion cassettes overseen by Gayle Young.)