Recording: NO HAY BANDA

Artist: NO HAY BANDA

Song: Three Unisons for Four Voices [excerpt] [composer: Sarah Davachi]

Recorded at The Music Gallery, June 5, 2025.

NO HAY BANDA - Three Unisons for Four Voices [excerpt]

On a day with a smoke cloud settling over the city, menacing campfire smell in the air, the Music Gallery closed out their season with a couple groups bringing some amorphous and wafting sonic plumes. This Montréal chamber ensemble brought along Sarah Davachi's "canon of variable durations", presenting a constrained set of relatively simple material, stretched out and shared between shifting subsets of the larger group (violin and cello for strings, bass clarinet and trombone for winds, percussion and a rare ondes martenot sighting), slowly accreting into a fairly monumental swell. The piece's most daring formal element was then to climb back down from the peak with as much patience as it deployed in the buildup — elegant if slightly anticlimactic, but at its best this was an exercise in durational listening where the audience could really settle into and zone out.

Monday Roundup #134

Community notes:

• The Music Gallery is currently running a Community Survey. If you attend MG shows and/or have an opinion on the sort of community they are fostering, you should take a few minutes to express your feelings. "This survey is the first of several upcoming opportunities to reflect on the past and present, and dream about the future of the Music Gallery. Help us decide what the next 50 years will look like!"

• As we head out of the dog days (see below!) and slip into that summer interzone between the Civic Holiday and Labour Day, this might be a good time to reach out to friends. Meet on a patio, or hang in a park or go for a walk while you can!

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Concert announcements:

Mike DeiCont Trio [Mike DeiCont/Eric West/Leland Whitty] / The Rex 2023-08-19 (Saturday – 5:30 p.m.). $10. [FB event]

Departures Series (feat. Ale Hop / Robin Hatch / You Can Can) / The Music Gallery 2023-08-23 (Wednesday). $13.92, all ages. [FB event]

Keelie (Caveman & The Banshee / Enchanters / Bambies) / The Dock Ellis 2023-09-16 (Saturday). $15. [FB event]

Sean Nicholas Savage (Koza / WEBB) / Nineteen Seventy Eight 2023-10-07 (Saturday). $17, 19+. [FB event]

The Nilan Perera Trio [Alex Fournier/Rick Sacks/Nilan Perera] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-08 (Sunday) [FB event]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Dun-Dun Land, Night 10 (feat. Dun-Dun Man / Super My Own Band) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-08 (Tuesday – early)

Josh Cole Presents (feat. Josh Cole/Rob Clutton/Ryan Driver/Blake Howard) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-08 (Tuesday)

Brodie West Sextet [Brodie West/Michael Davidson/Chris Pruden/Josh Cole/Nick Fraser/Evan Cartwright] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-09 (Wednesday – early)

Never Was / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-09 (Wednesday) [more info]

Batuki Music Society presents Habari Africa Festival (feat. Adama Daou / Kizaba / Chimurenga Revival featuring Mary Anibal) / Harbourfront Centre 2023-08-11 (Friday). $free, outdoors, family friendly. [more info]

Musica Universalis (feat. C'est la fête [Adrian Russouw/William Hunt/Mateos Labbé Phelan] / Mark Hundevad & Colin Fisher) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-11 (Friday) [FB event]

Batuki Music Society presents Habari Africa Festival (feat. Njacko Backo & Kalimbas at Work / Haiba / Kady Diaby / Cheikh Ibra Fam / Rumba: Soul of Congo) / Harbourfront Centre 2023-08-12 (Saturday). $free, outdoors, family friendly. [more info]

Mike DeiCont Trio [Mike DeiCont/Eric West/Brodie West] / The Rex 2023-08-12 (Saturday – 5:30 p.m.). $10. [FB event]

Cindy Lee (Freak Heat Waves) / The Garrison 2023-08-12 (Saturday). $23.17, 19+. [FB event]

Nora Kelly Band (Hobby) / Bar Orwell 2023-08-12 (Saturday). $22.47 advance, 19+. [FB event]

A Visual Music Exquisite Corpse (feat. Michael Palumbo / Quasimodo) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-12 (Saturday) [more info]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / Jonathan Adjemian / Patrick Joseph Grant / Nick Flanagan / Digital Gulag) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-13 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Summer Music in the Garden (feat. Waleed Abdulhamid) / Toronto Music Garden 2023-08-13 (Sunday – 4 p.m.). $free, outdoors. [more info]

Batuki Music Society presents Habari Africa Festival (feat. La Kora du Griot avec Sadio Sissokho / Alpha Rhythm Roots / DzePasi with Mary Anibal & Tich Maredza / Lorraine Klaasen / Sadaka) / Harbourfront Centre 2023-08-13 (Sunday). $free, outdoors, family friendly. [more info]

Portage [George Koller/Bruce Cassidy/Diane Roblin] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-13 (Sunday – early) [FB event]

Burn Down The Capital Presents (feat. Sir Richard Bishop / Hieronymus Harry) / Standard Time 2023-08-13 (Sunday). $20 Adv / $25 Door, All Ages. [FB event]

C’est la fête [Adrian Russouw/William Hunt/Mateos Labbé Phelan/Max Donaldson] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-08-13 (Sunday) [more info]

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It happened this week...

• ...on August 9, 2018 at The Baby G

Sarah Davachi - unknown [excerpt]

• ...on August 10, 2018 at Array Space.

Dog Days of Summer - [excerpt]

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Recording: Sarah Davachi

Artist: Sarah Davachi

Song: unknown^* [excerpt]

Recorded at Metropolitan United Church (FutureStops Festival), October 1, 2022.

Sarah Davachi - unknown [excerpt]

The FutureStops Festival was undoubtedly an ambitious undertaking, bringing a series of high-profile international guests to town to celebrate new directions in pipe organ music. And if, in practice, that fairly niche mandate made it difficult to connect with a wider audience, the programming was generally well spoken of. This final show was the only one I was able to make it out to, but featured two names I was most eager to see.

Under the pulpit's imposing arch, it was a treat to see Sarah Davachi in more impressive surroundings than I had caught her in previously. Clearly working to a plan (with some scored material at hand), I'm not sure if this was "new work" or treatments of some previously-recorded material, but it was most impressive both in its stately build and in the manner that the overlapping sound-waves and phase-cancellations recreated all of the effects that one might attribute to the electronic manipulation of sound.

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

Preview/Contest: FutureStops Festival

Thursday September 29 — Saturday, October 1, 2022

An unexpected blending of traditional instrumentation and contemporary composition, the FutureStops Festival is bringing some avant approaches to the pipe organ to town next week. With five concerts as well as several spin-off interviews and ancillary events, it's a chance to see some legends (like Amina Claudine Myers) plus musicians who have been covered in these pages (including Raven Chacon, Charlemagne Palestine, and Sarah Davachi) performing — quite literally! — on some bigger stages. It's also a chance to hear music in some impressive spaces, including at the Cathedral of St. James and Metropolitan United Church.

Here's what's gonna be happening at the festival:

• Kali Malone, Thomas Mellan, Kara-Lis Coverdale @ Cathedral of St James, Thursday September 29th, 7:30 p.m. Entitled "Dark Matter", thai night features works from three emerging and vital composers.
• Raven Chacon, Amina Claudine Myers, Sarah Svendsen, Rashaan Allwood @ Roy Thomson Hall, Friday, September 30th, 7:30 p.m. The centrepiece presentation of the festival, this ambitious and large-scale program features the Canadian premieres of Chacon's "Voiceless Mass" and Myers' "Improvisational Suite".
• FUJI||||||||||TA, Sandra Boss @ Roy Thomson Hall Lobby, Saturday, October 1st, 1:00 p.m. This Saturday matinée (concert and talk) has the intriguing title of "Hacking the Organ", with "two performers who built their own instruments to offer a unique sonic interpretation of the organ which can be activated in any space."
• Charlemagne Palestine, Matthew Larkin, Sarah Davachi @ Metropolitan United Church, Saturday, October 1st, 7:30 p.m. "Forces of Nature" is dedicated to exploring "new directions and possibilities for the organ" from a trio of eclectic and unique artists.

TICKETS + MORE INFO

You can find everything you'd want to know about the festival on their website, and ticket info is right here. (there's also a "virtual pass" for those who'd like to experience nearly all of the festival in the comfort of their own space.)

CONTEST

Thanks to the festival organizers, I have a pair of tickets to give away to the big Friday night show (that is, of course, the one with Raven Chacon, Amina Claudine Myers, Sarah Svendsen, Rashaan Allwood at Roy Thomson Hall).

To enter, shoot me an email to mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com, with "contest" in the title and your name in the body. (The winner will need to provide me with their first & last name, phone number and address.) I'll randomly draw a winner at noon on Tuesday, September 27th.

Recording: Sarah Davachi

Artist: Sarah Davachi

Song: unknown [excerpt]^*

Recorded at The Baby G, August 9, 2018.

Sarah Davachi - unknown [excerpt]

Nominally a "punk" presenter, Not Dead Yet is best known for its namesake festival, but its year-round programming is also noted for fostering positive community vibes. As this drone dream of a show indicated, they're also willing to stretch out, musically, and it was a thrill to see a healthy and mixed crowd out for a night of zero-bpm hovering. Although recent recordings have featured mellotron, harpsichord and pipe organ, this touring show from the Canadian-born/LA-based drone superstar was a minimalist, synth-based affair. Eschewing banter or any stage dramatics, Davaci simply let her music slowly unfold and embrace the audience, delicious soundscapes slowly shifting and morphing before evaporating into the air.

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