Recording: Allison Cameron & Mani Mazinani

Artist: Allison Cameron & Mani Mazinani

Songs: [two excerpts from first piece]

Recorded at Array Space, September 25, 2018.

Allison Cameron & Mani Mazinani - [first piece, edited excerpt 1]

Allison Cameron & Mani Mazinani - [first piece, excerpt 2]

Mixing together Allison Cameron's sonic bricolage with Mani Mazinani's CAT synthesizer sounded something like listening to the opera on the shortwave — ornate and tuneful behind the fuzz and interfering signals. After that excursion, a second piece offered a rare opportunity to hear a cracklebox duo in action.

[Allison Cameron will be at the centre of a " mini-festival" taking place at Array Space on November 23rd and 24th. The first night will feature "a major new work by Cameron commissioned by Array, written for our ensemble combined with... Germaine Liu and Nicole Rampersaud" while the second night will have some AC solo and c_RL trio action.]

Recording: Chan/Mazinani/Kuplowsky

Artist: Heidi Chan/Mani Mazinani/Luke Kuplowsky

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space (Track Could Bend #37), April 3, 2018.

Heidi Chan/Mani Mazinani/Luke Kuplowsky - [excerpt]

Continuing a series tradition, Track Could Bend marked its third anniversary by inviting back all of the previous year's performers for a celebration. That's enough of a crowd to warrant a larger stage, so for one rainy night, the action shifted over to Array Space. There ended up being sixteen players, all of whom put their names in a hat to be drawn to create spontaneous ensembles for a series of quick sets. A trio that might never be attempted through logical means of organization, this alchemical combination of acoustic guitar, modular synth, harmonica and cracklebox unexpectedly melded into a beautifully-genteel sort of electroacoustic folk. In an alternate universe where Eric Chenaux and Martin Arnold are co-headlining arena shows, this could be the opening act.

[TCB will be having a special extra-early show at The Baby G on Tuesday, June 5th, with sets from Barry Prophet, Nicole Rampersaud and Lisbon's Sal Grosso.]

Recording: Circuits Bending Frames Ensembles

Artists: Circuits Bending Frames Ensembles (Christine Duncan/Paul Dutton/Laura Swankey + Jonathan Adjemian/Ryan Driver/Tiina Kiik/Laura Swankey + Christine Duncan/John Oswald/SlowPitchSound + Paul Dutton/Tiina Kiik/Wes Neal + Ryan Driver/Jonathan Adjemian/Mani Mazinani/Tiina Kiik/John Oswald)

Songs: [various improvisations]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 3: Circuits Bending Frames), February 24, 2018.

Christine Duncan/Paul Dutton/Laura Swankey - [improvisation]

Jonathan Adjemian/Ryan Driver/Tiina Kiik/Laura Swankey - [improvisation]

Christine Duncan/John Oswald/SlowPitchSound - [improvisation]

Paul Dutton/Tiina Kiik/Wes Neal - [improvisation]

Ryan Driver/Jonathan Adjemian/Mani Mazinani/Tiina Kiik/John Oswald - [improvisation]

The Somewhere There Festival's Saturday night show was an ambitious multimedia undertaking, with live performances responding to the films of Laurie Kwasnik. Kwasnik is a familiar face at improvised music shows, especially anything in the orbit of Michael Snow (she's been collecting footage for her documentary Fields of Snow for many years now). It was a treat to get a glimpse into her archives, especially to see some of her artfully-arranged works responding to the music with their own visual improvisations. In between filmed snippets (and some visual mashups mixing together music from a wide range of performances) a group of improvisers recombined into a series of small ensembles for miniature performances.

The second half turned to cymatic visualisations, driven by a trio of synth players (Jonathan Adjemian, Ryan Driver, and Mani Mazinani), whose oscillations set pans of water and salt wiggling — which was then live-mixed on the big screen. There were a few technical difficulties along the way, but it was on the whole a pleasing and unique evening.

Recording: Haynes-Oswald-Mazinani

Artist: Justin Haynes/John Oswald/Mani Mazinani

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Belljar Café (Track Could Bend #33), December 5, 2017.

Justin Haynes/John Oswald/Mani Mazinani - [excerpt from first piece]

After an anticipated duo set with Brian Ruryk had to be postponed (look for it in March!) Justin Haynes made some lemonade by putting together this noteworthy trio. With John Oswald's sax and Mani Mazinani's Octave Cat synth, Haynes (with keys and guitar on hand) took things on an unexpected post-apocalyptic trip to Funkytown, throwing some janky beats on a cassette into the mix and cranking up the volume for a mutoid dance party.

[Track Could Bend is back at The Belljar on Tuesday (January 2nd) in an especially-tantalizing night mixing Bachelard's modular synths, LUKA's poetic examinations and tendencyitis' no-input mixer feedback sounds. What a superb way to start your concert-going year for 2018!]

Recording: Michael Snow + Mani Mazinani

Artist: Michael Snow + Mani Mazinani

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Festival – Day 2), September 3, 2016.

Michael Snow + Mani Mazinani - [excerpt]

A lovely day, warm in the sun with a cool breeze, the Intersection Festival once again filled Dundas Square with music of all kinds, offering a counterpoint to business at usual in the ad-basked concrete canyon. With Tad Michalak (of Burn Down the Capital/Feast in the East) again taking a leading role in curating the day, the music had nods to the festival's more chamber music-intensive past while upping the noise and weirdness reverberating off the surrounding walls. That had a sort of push-pull effect on the passers-by, sometimes drawing them in, sometimes causing evident confusion and moving along.

A rare outing from "the only Octave Cat Synthesizer duo in the world", there was whoop-zworping aplenty sawtoothing across the square in a set that sounded like a soundtrack to a UFO landing. Michael Snow, who's been playing his CAT for several decades in CCMC had an able foil in Mani Mazinani, who's also known for his visual art and his work in shredcore duo Gravitons. The set closed out in the most delightful way imaginable with Mazinani's toddler showing off her own burgeoning musical chops as she climbed up on his lap at set's end to take a few stabs at the keyboard.

Recording: Gravitons + Not The Wind, Not The Flag

Artist: Gravitons + Not The Wind, Not The Flag

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space, November 16, 2015.

Gravitons + Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [excerpt]

Just as they went into their mini-hiatus with a special guest collaboration, shredcore duo Gravitons returned with a special event, celebrating the band's tenth anniversary by joining forces with Not The Wind, Not the Flag. The result was a set of continuously-shifting collaborations that went all the way from Brandon Valdivia's genteel vibraphone caresses to abrasive noise crunch-offs. This section from the middle catches the foursome in full attack mode.

Recording: Snow/Dutton/Hall/Mazinani

Artist: Michael Snow/Paul Dutton/Glen Hall/Mani Mazinani

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #29.3), April 19, 2015.

Michael Snow/Paul Dutton/Glen Hall/Mani Mazinani - [first piece]

This night at Audiopollination saw the first full-on CCMC gig in nearly a year came after the band was first split in half to play with some guests. Michael Snow (piano) and Paul Dutton (vocalizations) were flanked by Glen Hall (sax/Kyma X) and Mani Mazinani (analog synth/turntable). The latter played his two instruments DJ style, cutting back and forth between them with a crossfader and adding a sublimated hint of boom-bap to the proceedings.

[As always, you can listen a recording of this whole show over at the Audiopollination bandcamp. The next Audiopollination is Tuesday, May 12th at Array and features KGB (Karen Ng, Germaine Liu and Bea Labikova) together and in various recombinations.]

Recording: Gravitons with Brodie West

Artist: Gravitons with Brodie West

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space, December 2, 2014.

Gravitons with Brodie West - [excerpt]

This long-running partnership between Mani Mazinani (drums) and Jill Aston (guitar) has two basic modes: "off" and "TOTAL FUCKING SHREDDING". Although their sets are far from undifferentiated noise, there's a feeling that they're channelling some sort of infinite pure cosmic energy, causing a sonic leakage into higher-dimensional space. On the cusp of a mini-hiatus, the pair joined forces with saxophone player Brodie West — someone who is well-capable of the most beautiful balladic tones, but who also turned his own dial up a few notches. Bracing stuff.

Recording: Steve Kado with Ensemble

Artist: Steve Kado with Ensemble

Song: 2003 [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space, December 2, 2014.

Steve Kado with Ensemble - 2003 [excerpt]

Being played in a more acoustically-refined setting (than at, say, a lakeside grandstand or rock hall stage) and with a more robust instrumentation (than, say, with a guitar army, keyboardklatch or, um, solo drum machine) pushed this composition a little further towards Terry Riley's "In C", which is one of its points of inspiration. But the music surrounding the thubthubthubthub of the drum machine was lovely on its own merits, and rather entrancing as the composition eased from cell to cell. [The ensemble, on this occasion, was: Steve Kado, vibes; Adam Litovitz, piano; Colin Fisher, banjo; Charlie Murray, bass; Ian Russell, guitar; Val Uher, guitar; Isla Craig, piano; Mani Mazinani, vibes]