Recording: Furlong/Newman/Ng/Hundevad

Artist: Andrew Furlong/Kurt Newman/Karen Ng/Mark Hundevad

Song: [excerpt from set 1, first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong), August 24, 2022.

Andrew Furlong/Kurt Newman/Karen Ng/Mark Hundevad - [excerpt from set 1, first piece]

Originally pitched as a quieter, acoustic encounter between Andrew Furlong (double bass), Kurt Newman (acoustic guitar) and Karen Ng (reeds), this became somewhat less conceptually quiet with the late addition of Mark Hundevad (drumkit). The latter launched things with more of a gallop than this might've otherwise had, but the most inneresting interplay probably still came in the more sedate sections.

Recording: Furlong/Pruden/Chen

Artist: Andrew Furlong/Chris Pruden/Yang Chen

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong), March 23, 2022.

Andrew Furlong/Chris Pruden/Yang Chen - [excerpt 1]

Andrew Furlong/Chris Pruden/Yang Chen - [excerpt 2]

The revival of this co-hosted series went ahead without Harry Vetro, but bassist Andrew Furlong admirably held down the fort in an exploratory trio alongside Chris Pruden (Prophet 6) and Yang Chen (percussion). The latter (spotted recently among some Labyrinth Ensembles) had a table of small percussive objects to tap and rattle, embroidering Pruden's synthsounds ranging from sci-fi soundscapes to the receding dreamzone that closes out the second selection here.

Recording: Fahmid Nibesh

Artist: Fahmid Nibesh

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong), March 23, 2022.

Fahmid Nibesh - [second piece]

Fahmid Nibesh brought two distinct flavours to this mini-set, first playing a meditation for dronebox and pedals, then shifting to this improvised acoustic guitar exploration.

[Details are as yet "fuzzy", but expect Nibesh to be hosting a night of improvised sounds alongside Jonathan Adjemian at The Trazac in the early slot on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.]

Recording: Colin Fisher

Artist: Colin Fisher

Song: [last section]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong), March 23, 2022.

Colin Fisher - [last section]

'Twas a miserable night outside, with a cold rain pelting down, but as it pattered against the windowpanes it added some pleasingly percussive background taps to Colin Fisher's solo sax mini-set. There's not much of that on the recording, nor much of the ghostly room reverberances that he was incorporating — that's why you wanna get down to the Tranzac and hear this stuff in person.

Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong Season 2 Spectacular!), September 25, 2019.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 7 - [excerpt]

This self-declared spectacle — which came complete with celebratory cupcakes — was an anniversary party for Andrew Furlong and Harry Vetro's Tranzac residency. As usual, each of them put together an ensemble to play a set. Vetro's shifting ensembles are regularly dubbed a part of his "Search For Eternal Happiness", and this large group brought together most of the players who came together at the series' first outing. This part of the search was less "composed" than some, but there was still the strong shared sense of a game plan, with the crew managing to hold onto a reasonably-layered structure and not just pile sounds on top of other sounds, raising up to a swell worthy of a birthday party.

The full ensemble was:

• Harrison Argatoff (sax)
• Madeleine Ertel (trumpet)
• Ben Frost (flugelhorn)
• Kaelin Murphy (bass trumpet)
• Patrick Smith (sax)
• Meghan Gilhespy (vocals)
• Nick Donovan (drums)
• Patrick O'Reilly (guit)
• Harry Bartlett (guit)
• Caleb Klager (double bass)
• Harrison Vetro (drums)

[Music By Harry and Furlong will continue at The Tranzac on Wednesday, November 27th, with sets from Harry Vetro's Drum Trio (Harry Vetro, Nick Donovan, and Miles Fuller) as well as a duo of Andrew Furlong and Kurt Newman.]

Recording: Furlong/Milmine/Newman

Artist: Andrew Furlong/Kayla Milmine/Kurt Newman

Songs: [three excerpts from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong Season 2 Spectacular!), September 25, 2019.

Andrew Furlong/Kayla Milmine/Kurt Newman - [excerpt #1 from first piece]

Andrew Furlong/Kayla Milmine/Kurt Newman - [excerpt #2 from first piece]

Andrew Furlong/Kayla Milmine/Kurt Newman - [excerpt #3 from first piece]

This self-declared spectacle — which came complete with celebratory cupcakes — was an anniversary party for Andrew Furlong and Harry Vetro's Tranzac residency. As usual, each of them put together an ensemble to play a set. Leading off the evening, bassist Andrew Furlong was joined by Kayla Milmine on soprano sax and Kurt Newman on guitar. There were some quiet and considered zones here as well as some stranger sounds with sax-generated ducksquawks and guitar-generated syntax errors creeping in.

[Music By Harry and Furlong will continue at The Tranzac on Wednesday, November 27th, with sets from Harry Vetro's Drum Trio (Harry Vetro, Nick Donovan, and Miles Fuller) as well as a duo of Andrew Furlong and Kurt Newman.]

Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4

Song: [excerpt from first piece, in two parts]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong S1E5), February 27, 2019.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4 - [excerpt from first piece, part 1]

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4 - [excerpt from first piece, part 2]

"The Search For Eternal Happiness" seems to be drummer Harry Vetro's catch-all for ad hoc ensembles brought together to explore new works or new sounds. This iteration brought together Kristian Fourier (piano/electronics), Nelson Moneo (viola) and Cheryl O (cello) to mix some sweepingly romantic sounds (flowing strings'll do that) with occasional jagged edges (delay pedals and feedback'll do that). Really lovely stuff — at set's end, I booked the band to play another one.

[That reprise will see the group — now re-christened "Kerhachne" — play Track Could Bend at Wenona on Tuesday, May 7th. Meanwhile, the next manifestation of Vetro's Search For Eternal Happiness will unfold tonight (April 24th) at The Tranzac, where he'll be joined by Ben Frost, Karen Ng, and Patrick O'Reilly.]

Recording: Andrew Furlong

Artist: Andrew Furlong

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music by Harry and Furlong S1E5), February 27, 2019.

Andrew Furlong - [first piece]

Originally planned as a duo set with Glen Hall, a robust storm forced a late change of plans. Apparently with some aggression to release (wearing a suit'll do that) Andrew Furlong leapt into this suddenly-solo set with vigour and volume, sawing and thumping away with his bow. Things'd ease back after that, with a study of Ornette Coleman's "The Face of the Bass" before Furlong pulled out his grooved drumstick for another noisy round.

[That planned-for duo with Glen Hall has been rescheduled to tonight (April 24th) at The Tranzac.]

Recording: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2

Artist: The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2

Song: Dog Pound [composer: Caleb Klager]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong, S1E3), November 28, 2018.

The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 2 - Dog Pound

This "episode" of this new-ish Tranzac residency delivered exactly what its title promised: music curated and performed by Harry Vetro and Andrew Furlong. As a musical unit, Vetro's Search For Eternal Happiness seems to be as conceptual as the titular metaphysical pursuit, with different iterations bringing a rotating series of musicians to join him.

This set saw him on drums backing a sort of double trio that included Dan Pitt and Harry Bartlett on guitar plus Jill McKenna and Caleb Klager on double bass. It's possible that it's an expanded version of a trio containing Bartlett, Klager, and Vetro that recorded some tunes together — including the ode to the Alberta village heard here. Carefully-arranged countrypolitan twang, this was "jazz" as filtered through the influence of Bill Frisell, whose work was also tackled during the set.

[Music By Harry and Furlong continues at The Tranzac on Wednesday, January 23rd, with a new The Search For Eternal Happiness configuration (with Harry Vetro plus saxophonist Harrison Argatoff as well as dancers Alison Keery and Mateo Gilando) plus a duo set from Patrick Smith and Mike Gennaro.]

Recording: Nelson Moneo & Andrew Furlong

Artist: Nelson Moneo & Andrew Furlong

Song: [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Music By Harry and Furlong, S1E3), November 28, 2018.

Nelson Moneo & Andrew Furlong - [edited excerpt]

This "episode" of this new-ish Tranzac residency delivered exactly what its title promised: music curated and performed by Harry Vetro and Andrew Furlong. After a day's work at a jobbing gig playing christmas music, it looked like the latter was in the mood to throw away tonality and just tear at his bass strings a little. Violist Nelson Moneo jumped right into the same headspace for some bow-shredding skronk as the pair flipped between quieter explorations and drumstick-jamming noisebursts.

[Music By Harry and Furlong continues at The Tranzac on Wednesday, January 23rd, with a new The Search For Eternal Happiness configuration (with Harry Vetro plus saxophonist Harrison Argatoff as well as dancers Alison Keery and Mateo Gilando) plus a duo set from Patrick Smith and Mike Gennaro.]