Recording: Homzy/Storring/Oswald/Kurtz/Cole

Artist: Aline Homzy/Nick Storring/John Oswald/Owen Kurtz/Josh Cole

Song: [1st set excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Josh Cole presents: new works for improvising musicians), March 14, 2026.

Aline Homzy/Nick Storring/John Oswald/Owen Kurtz/Josh Cole - [1st set excerpt]

The current cycle of Josh Cole's Tranzac residency is entitled "new works for improvising musicians", and this first outing was a variation on the "trio plus strings" format, keeping string players Nick Storring (cello) and Aline Homzy (violin) as well as saxophonist John Oswald, while adding Owen Kurtz's electronic manipulations in the wildcard slot. (He was definitely showing off his skills in using his Kaoss Pad as an instrument in this encounter.) With the strings sawing and tapping, the players have done this together enough to have a strong sense of when evryone else was about to flip from chaotic rambling to imploding drones, leading to some really satisfying dynamics.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[New works for improvising musicians is back at The Tranzac tomorrow (Monday, May 11th), presenting Nick Fraser’s Special Topics.]

Recording: Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz

Artist: Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz

Song: [last section]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #115), April 7, 2026.

Ben Mike & Owen Kurtz - [last section]

The origins of this set reach back a year to TCB #103, which was co-presented with the Ministry of Phonic Services, and where Owen Kurtz was originally slated to perform before having to reschedule. The fullness of time has allowed this presentation of a first-ever performance from this pair of friends, with keyboardist Ben Mike abutting Kurtz's electronics. A bit like listening to Debussy while sending a fax, the pair evoked a saturated soundworld with strange hums, buzzings, and tapes alongside the pianistic sounds.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, May 5th) with sets from the rest (Joe Sorbara & Jonathan Kay), Wobbly + John Oswald, and Red Trillium. Ben Mike will be convening an appearance of his must-see large ensemble The Beatles at Dina's Tavern on Thursday, May 14th. Owen Kurtz will be performing as a member of Del Stephen's Furtherances (alongside Ghost Variables and Woolworm, Ontario) in the Tranzac's Living Room on Friday, May 15th.]

Recording: Owen Kurtz

Artist: Owen Kurtz

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Bickford Park "Stadium" (Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip 2024), September 19, 2024.

Owen Kurtz - [excerpt]

Metaphor alert. Somewhere, out behind an urban schoolhouse abutting a park, there's a paved-over concrete pit with a mouldering, ancient basketball hoop against one wall. Back a bit, making it into a courtyard of sorts, there's a tree in a planter — a full grown, mature shade tree, a true miracle and rarity, given how much more often one sees planters with scraggly, barely-surviving sticks. Twenty feet below the surrounding "ground" level, with concrete walls on two sides and a tree up the embankment growing over it on the third, this tree has somehow managed to thrive in this weird, desolate corner.

Meanwhile, in various somewheres — in public spaces being taken over by corporate interests or in pocket forests or in little concrete valleys like these — the Ministry of Phonic Services has been putting down roots and building community with weird sonic experiments and placemaking celebrations. Somehow, in the dire context of this moment in the gyre of toxic unaffordability, erosion of common cause/common reason and the general enshittification of everything, younger folks are still refusing to take things as given and are using art and community to counter with a better vision of what our city could be. It's enough to make the sclerotic hearts of the formerly young and optimistic pump with a little more vitality.

This gig was one of a series of DIY public space takeovers from the MPS crew, the sites thoroughly scouted (and lovingly tidied up!) to create unique environments for some one-off gatherings. Friendly and embracing environments, even if the music hewed toward the discordant.

MPS organizer Owen Kurtz opened the evening with some tape-based sonic collages, patiently willing to let the pauses stretch out between beat-locked syllaburusts.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube: