Recording: Kamancello

Artist: Kamancello

Song: [set 2, 2nd piece]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, January 17, 2018.

Kamancello - [set 2, 2nd piece, part 1]

Kamancello - [set 2, 2nd piece, part 2]

Having been following this duo from before they had a name, it's been rather pleasing to see the partnership of Shahriyar Jamshidi and Raphael Weinroth-Browne flourish, now with an album to their credit. Mixing Jamshidi's kamanche (an Iranian bowed spike fiddle) with Weinroth-Browne's cello, there's a tangible chemistry here, leaving audience members shocked that all of this music was spontaneously composed, with Jamshidi finding plenty of nooks and crannies to explore while Weinroth-Browne moves from heavy metal shredding to lush romanticism.

[Shahriyar Jamshidi will be playing a set of solo kamanche at the Canadian Music Centre on Saturday, February 17th — an early show starting at 5 o'clock!]

Recording: The Visit

Artist: The Visit

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection – Day 3), September 2, 2017.

The Visit - unknown

In recent years, the Intersection Festival would normally consist of a paid concert, usually the night before the day-long extravaganza in Yonge-Dundas Square. This year, however, under the continued guidance of Burn Down The Capital's Tad Michalak the festival expanded to four events, including a pair of concerts at The Jam Factory. The day-long marathon in the concrete canyon of commerce remains at the festival's heart, though, exploring the frissons of experiencing strange and occasionally abrasive sounds competing with the city's mersh heartbeat.

Moving from the big stage to the loosely-delineated side stages, where passers-by could pretty much wander up and investigate the musicians at close range, Raphael Weinroth-Browne (cello) and Heather Sita Black (vox) continued to explore their elaborately-constructed, sprawling gothic song-castles.

[You can see some footage from this set over at Brandon Caswell Douglas' Intersection playlist.]

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

Recording: Gates

Artist: Gates

Songs: Lacunae + Woven Into Parchments [chamber mix]

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

Gates - Lacunae [chamber mix]

Gates - Woven Into Parchments [chamber mix]

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.

Experimental metallists Gates have fluctuated in size in the past, but this festival appearance gave the none-more-black crew a chance to double its size from its currently-customary quartet, seeing core members Bryan W. Bray (guitar), Joel Beauchamp (percussion & synth), Lucas Gadke (bass) and Laura C. Bates (violin) augmented with Raphael Weinroth-Browne (cello), James Beardmore (synth & electronics) Karen Ng (tenor sax & clarinet) & Nick Buligan (trumpet). That gave the crew a chance to present some of the pieces from their forthcoming Vas album in a sort of musical widescreen, embroidering the underlying doom drones with rich ambient builds and freeform freakouts. Like a batsignal shining in the sky, the first rumbling notes sent out some sort of metal alarm, and suddenly a small horde of jean-jacketed, fist-pumping enthusiasts materialized in front of the stage. As "composerly" as anything you might have ever seen at Intersection, this comes from somewhere entirely different than New Music orthodoxy, but it's heading to the same destination. (Via Hell, of course.) [Do note that my recording here, with the guitar and bass not present in the soundboard feed, is gonna have a whole bunch less menacing rumble than what's going to eventually emerge — let's call this alternative consideration of these pieces a "chamber mix" in honour of all those extra elements that really get to stand out here.]

Recording: Raphael Weinroth-Browne

Artist: Raphael Weinroth-Browne

Song: [third piece]

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

Raphael Weinroth-Browne - [third piece]

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.

Cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne was definitely in the former camp, drawing a crowd as he lead off the day. Originally slated as an appearance by The Visit, this solo turn actually turned out to be a tasty overture for the festivities, with Weinroth-Browne's inventive riffing (with enough volume to invoke some of those cool echoes from the opposing buildings) causing a crowd of passers-by to pause and gather.

Recording: The Visit

Artist: The Visit

Song: Without This Flesh [part 1]

Recorded at Ratio, December 11, 2014.

The Visit - Without This Flesh [part 1]

This duo of Raphael Weinroth-Browne (cello) and Heather Sita Black (vox) brushes against several genres — as much art-song as pop-song, as close to chamber music as prog. Songs stretch out and become more of an enveloping experience than something you'll find yourself humming after. With pieces heading toward the quarter-hour mark, The Visit are unencumbered by any rockband constraints — but the closest thing that came to mind might be Kate Bush in a one-woman opera, or maybe locals Tasseomancy.

[Cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne will be playing in an altogether different context on Sunday (January 11th), joining kamanche player Shahriyar Jamshidi for a set of improvised music at Somewhere There's Second Sunday series at Array Space. Highly recommended!]

Recording: Shahriyar Jamshidi + Raphael Weinroth-Browne

Artist: Shahriyar Jamshidi + Raphael Weinroth-Browne

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Array Space ("Audiopollination #22.1"), September 9, 2014.

Shahriyar Jamshidi + Raphael Weinroth-Browne - [excerpt from first piece]

Full review to follow. Local "improvised bonanza" Audiopollination likes to mix and match musicians who have never played together, an idea that might have found its apotheosis in its "self-curation" project, where musicians program themselves into new, recombinant performance units. Joining together on cello and kamanche (an Iranian bowed spike fiddle), Jamshidi and Raphael Weinroth-Browne spun out a wonderful performance, negotiating the meshing of scales and timbres on the fly — all the more surprising on hearing them explain afterwards that they had only played together once before in a practice setting. Totally entrancing and a wonderfully unexpected delight.

[As always, you can listen to the whole night over at Audiopollination's bandcamp. The next Audiopollination, another night of self-curation, takes place Tuesday (October 14th) at Array Space.]