Recording: Wrekmeister Harmonies

Artist: Wrekmeister Harmonies

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 3), June 14, 2015.

Wrekmeister Harmonies - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. Vibe-wise, Sunday's final show of the festival came up the middle between Friday's chill drones and Saturday's Big Rock Show, with many in the crowd sitting on the floor of the stage area in front of the bands throughout. Throw in the fab afternoon events and this was a great weekend, showing off what can be done when the community has access to a space like Geary Lane. Hopefully this will indeed only be the first of a new annual local tradition.

With side-long postrock compositions, rotating membership and a general air of mystery, this Chicago-based musical collective (under the leadership of JR Robinson) looks to have evolved along similar lines to Montréal's Godspeed You! Black Emperor. That made it no surprise, then, to see this new (and temporary?) reformulation with three of GY!BE's members (Thierry Amar, Sophie Trudeau, Tim Herzog) in the fold. With Tarr-esque deliberation, in an hour-long set the quintet tackled only three songs (or, possibly, three parts of a larger suite), with long, slow swells building up to slightly-menacing mountainous slabs.

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

Recording: Jessica Moss

Artist: Jessica Moss

Song: unknown [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 3), June 14, 2015.

Jessica Moss - unknown [excerpt]

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. Vibe-wise, Sunday's final show of the festival came up the middle between Friday's chill drones and Saturday's Big Rock Show, with many in the crowd sitting on the floor of the stage area in front of the bands throughout. Throw in the fab afternoon events and this was a great weekend, showing off what can be done when the community has access to a space like Geary Lane. Hopefully this will indeed only be the first of a new annual local tradition.

A long-time member of the floating collective that populates the overlapping projects in the Constellation universe, violinist Jessica Moss is a member of A Silver Mt. Zion and a founder of Black Ox Orkestar. For this set, though, she was on her own, playing a work-in-progress version of a new suite inspired by the ocean. Using a loop pedal, she started with some scratchy/drone-y atmospherics before adding layers of wave-like sounds.

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

Recording: Off World

Artist: Off World

Song: unknown [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 3), June 14, 2015.

Off World - unknown [excerpt]

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. Vibe-wise, Sunday's final show of the festival came up the middle between Friday's chill drones and Saturday's Big Rock Show, with many in the crowd sitting on the floor of the stage area in front of the bands throughout. Throw in the fab afternoon events and this was a great weekend, showing off what can be done when the community has access to a space like Geary Lane. Hopefully this will indeed only be the first of a new annual local tradition.

With an 80's Nova soundtrack vibe, this was a nice follow-up to Carl Didur's set. My understanding is that this exploratory duo between Sandro Perri and Lorenz Peter (Processor, Corpusse) has been an intermittant parnership for quite a while now, dating back to 2008 but surfacing only infrequently for gigs. Whirrs and zworps were the musical equivalent to the Stan Brakhage footage being projected behind the band — vaguely familiar but re-assembled according to some unconventional logic.

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

Recording: Carl Didur

Artist: Carl Didur

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 3), June 14, 2015.

Carl Didur - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. Vibe-wise, Sunday's final show of the festival came up the middle between Friday's chill drones and Saturday's Big Rock Show, with many in the crowd sitting on the floor of the stage area in front of the bands throughout. Throw in the fab afternoon events and this was a great weekend, showing off what can be done when the community has access to a space like Geary Lane. Hopefully this will indeed only be the first of a new annual local tradition.

Local treasure Carl Didur opened the last night of this festival with some beautiful pieces for analog synth. Seated on the floor and crouched over his gear, many in the early crowd sat down and soaked up the lovely echoes from his keyb, which were very meditative until the rhythm machine kicked in to add some clockwork sunshine to the proceedings.

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

Recording: Sound Séance Continuous Drone Ensemble

Artist: Sound Séance Continuous Drone Ensemble

Songs: [two excerpts from an improvisation]

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Day 2), June 14, 2015.

Sound Séance Continuous Drone Ensemble - [excerpt 1]

Sound Séance Continuous Drone Ensemble - [excerpt 2]

Kudos to Invocation TO's Jay Pollard for making the Sound Séance about more than just the trio of big, nightly concerts. Afternoon events are a lot harder to get people out for, but some of the festival's best moments came in the daytimes. Rainy weather caused Sunday's plans to be scaled back (with an upstairs patio party scrapped) but the monumental dronezone in the venue's main area was more than enough.

With an ad hoc ensemble that mixed together members of projects like Knurl, Lorde Awesome, Isles Day, Sexy Merlin and Brigitte Bardon't, this was conceptualized as a five-hour continuous drone. With players deciding when to drop in and out, it actually ended up being closer to three-and-a-quarter hours when everything was said and done (said and droned?), but that was still plenty of time to lay back and zone out for a wide-ranging sonic soak. (The full lineup, which shifted throughout the duration of the piece was: Kristel Jax, Avery Strok, James Beardmore, Steve Benesko, Marcus Beiner, Alan Bloor, William Davison and Sean Dunal.)

Bonus! Here's some footage I shot when I headed outside for some fresh air:

Recording: Suuns + Jerusalem In My Heart

Artist: Suuns + Jerusalem In My Heart

Songs: Koll Lil-Mali7ati Fi Al-Khimar Al-Aswadi + Metal

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 2), June 13, 2015.

Suuns + Jerusalem In My Heart - Koll Lil-Mali7ati Fi Al-Khimar Al-Aswadi

Suuns + Jerusalem In My Heart - Metal

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. The festival's middle night was the Big Rock Show, with the room getting packed early on with a rambunctious crowd. The music was correspondingly more in-your-face than the nights around it, and though that substituted the cool clubhouse vibe for something more akin to a warehouse party, the well-organized night still went off without a hitch.

It'd been a few years since I'd checked in on Montréal's Suuns, so I was a little surprised to see that they've managed to garner quite a room-packing following. But although they were quite clearly the draw (and it's their label that's released the collaboration at hand), in performance it definitely felt that this project was being driven by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, the cosmopolitan Beirut/Montréal sonic explorer behind the Jerusalem in My Heart project. As the set's one-two punch presented here attests, it's the rhythms and textures of the Arabic pop that he explores and deconstructs that drive this, with Suuns then adding some rock'n'roll crunch that aren't foregrounded in Moumneh's solo live performances. When those two things combined, such as in the driving "Metal", this was unbeatable stuff. A couple runs later on at what I assume were Suuns' own tracks didn't quite attain the same lift-off, but on the whole, this hour-long set felt full of an exciting energy.

Recording: Mimico

Artist: Mimico

Song: Man From Japan

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 2), June 13, 2015.

Mimico - Man From Japan

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. The festival's middle night was the Big Rock Show, with the room getting packed early on with a rambunctious crowd. The music was correspondingly more in-your-face than the nights around it, and though that substituted the cool clubhouse vibe for something more akin to a warehouse party, the well-organized night still went off without a hitch.

No longer pushing the superb Incantations as a brand-new release, Mimico's set spent a bit more time reworking material from their first album, closing things out with this tune plus a giant-sized "Astroblade" with a face-melting mid-song noise breakdown.

Recording: Zoë Alexis-Abrams

Artist: Zoë Alexis-Abrams

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Day 1), June 13, 2015.

Zoë Alexis-Abrams - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Celebrating the release of Invocation Vol. I, a compilation of exclusive tracks by some of the artists that had performed at Geary Lane in its first year, this low-key afternoon show combined chill patio vibes with a couple sets inside.

My understanding is that this trio is slowly working its way toward being a band, so at some point the material they performed may have a different name attached to it. For now, however, it was fascinating to watch it being born, with Alexis-Abrams' vocalisms being driven by Kvesche Bijons-Ebacher and Kenneth Boville in a more abstractly-rhythmic direction than in the textured one that emerges in her other projects.

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

Recording: Silver Pools

Artist: Silver Pools

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Day 1), June 13, 2015.

Silver Pools - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Celebrating the release of Invocation Vol. I, a compilation of exclusive tracks by some of the artists that had performed at Geary Lane in its first year, this low-key afternoon show combined chill patio vibes with a couple sets inside.

Todd Macdonald's bedroom pop solo project (formerly known as Norvaiza) has some synth-driven dream pop elements that bring to mind, say, Foxes in Fiction, but there's some underhanded rock signifiers here (hinted at in a mellowed-out Pavement cover) including nice flourishes on mandolin.

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

Recording: M. Mucci

Artist: M. Mucci

Song: unknown [edit]^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Day 1), June 13, 2015.

M. Mucci - unknown [edit]

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Celebrating the release of Invocation Vol. I, a compilation of exclusive tracks by some of the artists that had performed at Geary Lane in its first year, this low-key afternoon show combined chill patio vibes with a couple sets inside.

Guelph's Michael Mucci led off the afternoon with a mellow set of atmospheric solo guitar under the blue sky. Running into some trouble with his pedals, he stripped his sound back but with birdsongs drifting by on the gentle breeze, it felt like just enough to complement the afternoon. [Do note that this is a slightly rough field recording, with the sounds of that breeze rumbling against my microphones a little.]

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

Recording: Expo '70

Artist: Expo '70

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 1), June 12, 2015.

Expo '70 - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. On the vibe front, this first night showcased Geary as an excellent destination for avant-mellow, with the bulk of the crowd quietly lounging around in the room's various corners and crannies.

Kansas City's Justin Wright has been crafting looming chunks of cosmic psych-drone for over a decade now. (His excitingly-crowded bandcamp documents his various paths and diversions.) This set, just under an hour, featured three extended musical ideas, each based around keyboard generated drones and loops that would then be adorned by his guitar playing. This first section tilted the balance furthest into guitar-driven territory, climaxing with Wright rising to his feet to rip off a planet-smashing solo; otherwise, he was mostly content to sit on the floor in front of his gear, concentrating more on increasing the gravitational density of the more keyboard-dominated sections.

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

Recording: Dirty Inputs

Artist: Dirty Inputs

Song: Goodbye Voyager

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 1), June 12, 2015.

Dirty Inputs - Goodbye Voyager

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. On the vibe front, this first night showcased Geary as an excellent destination for avant-mellow, with the bulk of the crowd quietly lounging around in the room's various corners and crannies.

Aaron Dawson's synthscapes rely a bit more on headphone head-nodding than body movin' dynamics — closer to planetarium prog than rave romps. But with the warehouse-like space filling with smoke machine fog as patterns were projected on the giant net he was obscured behind, some of those distinctions were collapsed into a singularity, steaming away towards the Oort cloud at thirty-five thousand miles an hour.

Recording: Olivia Neutron-John

Artist: Olivia Neutron-John

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 1), June 12, 2015.

Olivia Neutron-John - unknown

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. On the vibe front, this first night showcased Geary as an excellent destination for avant-mellow, with the bulk of the crowd quietly lounging around in the room's various corners and crannies.

This set from Washington D.C.'s Anna Nasty came the closest to getting the crowd up and moving, aiming for a dancefloor fusion of postpunk attitude and prefab keyb arpeggiation while climbing onto the table her gear was on for added effect.

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

Recording: BABEL

Artist: BABEL

Song: MAZE [excerpt]

Recorded at Geary Lane ("Sound Séance I": Night 1), June 12, 2015.

BABEL - MAZE

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. On the vibe front, this first night showcased Geary as an excellent destination for avant-mellow, with the bulk of the crowd quietly lounging around in the room's various corners and crannies.

Wearing a hood and crouched over his gear, Jakob Rehlinger (also of Moonwood/Arachnidisc Recordings, etc.) fabricated hazy loops of guitar and synth in his carefully-constructed twenty-minute set. Things built up a bit with some woozy percussive elements, but this extract focuses on the pleasingly-drifty middle of the set.

Recording: Caro Diaro

Artist: Caro Diaro

Song: Father

Recorded at Geary Lane (Sound Séance I: Night 1), June 12, 2015.

Caro Diaro - Father

The culmination of Geary Lane's year-long journey, the inaugural version of this event overcame some bureaucratic hurdles to present a weekend-long showcase of a non-corporate alternative to the city's increasingly-crowded festival calendar. Tucked away in its little pocket on the other side of the tracks, Geary Lane does feel a little off the grid but works well as an conceptual island getaway for sonic adventurers. Partnered with Suoni Per Il Popolo, the "name" draws skewed a bit toward une certaine esthétique de Montréal but each night did include cool local sounds as well. On the vibe front, this first night showcased Geary as an excellent destination for avant-mellow, with the bulk of the crowd quietly lounging around in the room's various corners and crannies.

Montréal slow-gloomers Maicamia have announced they are on the cusp of a "break", but this seems to be pointing to an imminent shift rather than a stop. Proof positive of that came with this set from Maica Armata's new solo project, which takes the same basic musical template and strips things away even further, leaving just her spare guitar and voice.