Recording: NAIL

Artist: NAIL

Songs: [two selections]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Josh Cole Presents), September 18, 2019.

NAIL - [excerpt from first piece]

NAIL - [fourth piece]

This project is a cross-Atlantic union between a pair of pre-exisiting pairings, with Canada's Duo Mercury (Nicolas Caloia and Lori Freedman) joining the Dutch Duo Baars Henneman (Ab Baars and Ig Henneman). Winds from Baars (shakuhachi, clarinet) and Freedman (clarinet, bass clarinet) were grounded by Caloia's double bass and Henneman's viola in a shifting series of encounters, moving from squawk-squeal yelpbursts to low-end mutters.

Recording: Mercury

Artist: Mercury

Song: unknown [composer: Rainer Wiens]^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery @ 918 Bathurst, April 29, 2018.

Mercury - unknown

This union of two great Montréal musicians (Lori Freedman, clarinet, and Nicolas Caloia, double bass) has pushed past improvisation into finding a space to explore a series of compositions from friends and collaborators who are attuned to their working methods. The pieces (such as one from Martin Arnold, which consisted solely of a series of numbers) have a lot of "open" elements, giving constraints to the bullfrog rumbles, skronks, string sawing, pitch pipes and so on.

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