Recording: Sweater Vest Bauble Noggin

Artist: Sweater Vest Bauble Noggin

Songs: [three pieces]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 12, 2022.

Sweater Vest Bauble Noggin - [1st set, end of 1st piece]

Sweater Vest Bauble Noggin - [1st set, 2nd piece excerpt]

Sweater Vest Bauble Noggin - [2nd set, 1st section]

A night of avant-Eurovision sounds, assembled to interface visiting Montréal vocalist Sarah Albu (a.k.a. Bauble) with Toronto peer Christine Duncan (Noggin), guitarist Patrick O'Reilly (Vest) and bassist Mike Lynn (Sweater). Over two sets, the music moved from agitated walkie-talkie singalong squelch to psychedelic reverse haze to the #1 disco anthem of 1978.

Recording: Newman-Albu-Lima

Artist: Paul Newman/Sarah Albu/Elizabeth Lima

Song: 2nd piece [edit]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination), March 11, 2022.

Paul Newman/Sarah Albu/Elizabeth Lima - 2nd piece [edit]

Audiopollination's livestreams were a welcome chance to check in with the community throughout the pandemic, but this return to live events was even moreso, an opportunity to run into some familiar faces while seeing "self-curated" musicians encountering unfamiliar ones on stage. Thanks to Array's support and resources, the livestream element is being maintained, extending the series' reach. Montréal guest Sarah Albu was joined here by by Liz Lima (a collaborator in the vocal collective Phth) as well as saxophonist Paul Newman. Albu brought along her collection of walkie-talkies, creating opportunities for small-scale transmissions, blips and other chaos, which Lima augmented with some clarinet and synth whurrbulations. Static-y soundscapes shared space here with some spontaneous song fragments, and, in this piece, a fully-satisfactory shared stop.

You can check out the full set on the event's archived livestream:

Recording: Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó

Artist: Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó

Song: SHIFT [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents I), November 24, 2019.

Sarah Albu & Mári Mákó - SHIFT [excerpt]

Emergents series curator Sara Constant got this season's first edition going with an engaging night of experimental sounds. This pairing's electroacoustic explorations mixed folksong fragments with electronic noise textures, voices rising together to the roofbeams buoyed by static waves.

[The Emergents series continues with a night of sounds from Montréal-based soloists collective Bakarlari, playing in Toronto for the first time on Sunday, March 1st.]