Recording: Trevor Turple

Artist: Trevor Turple

Song: [first piece, edited excerpt]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), September 17, 2019.

Trevor Turple - [first piece, edited excerpt]

When I had previously seen Trevor Turple playing solo guitar, it involved bird samples and Chenaux-esque bends; this set, on the other hand, just used an acoustic guitar and an OCD pedal — "Devil guitar", in Turple's words. At first riding out small feedback swells before exploring more delicately-picked terrain, Turple headed down some dusty backroads as his unclipped string-ends quivered from their pegs like inquisitive insect antennae.

[You can expect Karen Ng to be presenting more music at Wenona on Tuesday, November 19th.]

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis IX

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis IX

Songs: Where No Bird Has Gone Before [excerpt] + Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor! [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 30, 2018.

Cosmic Homeostasis IX - Where No Bird Has Gone Before [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis IX - Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor! [excerpt]

One last drone session to close out the year, Cosmic Homeostasis convened to celebrate Voyager 2 exiting the heliosphere as well as the Ultima Thule flyby – distant encounters that feel close to home to the whispers-from-space crowd. The crew this time comprised of Del Stephen, Trevor Turple, Mike Lynn, Liz Lima, Patrick O'Reilly, Ron Blake, Paul Newman and Heraclitus Akimbo. The whole session is available over bandcamp:

[Cosmic Homeostasis X will be taking place in the Southern Cross on the afternoon of Sunday, March 31st.]

Recording: Trevor Turple

Artist: Trevor Turple

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Owl's Club (basement), May 17, 2018.

Trevor Turple - [excerpt]

Responsible for assisting in the untangling of the loops of Nikki Lyttle's songs so they could be recorded cleanly to tape, Trevor Turple also closed out the release party for that same tape with some drifting ambient abstractions. After building a little nest of cables (appropriate, perhaps, for the looped birdcalls that would soon ring out) he deployed synth, sampler and guitar to unfurl some atmospheric samplescapes and backmasked lullabies to wrap up the evening.

Recording: act tbh

Artist: act tbh

Song: [first piece, in two parts]

Recorded at The Steady Café (Track Could Bend #24), March 7, 2017.

act tbh - [first piece, part 1]

act tbh - [first piece, part 2]

This trio provided some purifying sounds to sanctify Track Could Bend's new home in the back room of The Steady Café. I'm sure there are other facts connecting the dots but I do know that Connor Bennett and Aaron Hutchinson (of Hamilton's rather excellent collective/label HAVN) provided musical support on Trevor Truple's After Ever tape, and that the three have been playing together some. That's now been formalized under the banner of this project, and there's signs of a deepening musical mind-meld at hand.

Rather than the lo-fi synth textures that coloured the set I saw at The Tranzac, things were more acoustically-based this time around, even if the instruments were all being treated. There was also a really patient and well-considered build-up here, with the opening sparseness slowing giving itself over to increasing density. I haven't heard any word that there's a HAVN tape forthcoming from this trio, but I'm starting that rumour anyway just to make sure there's pressure on them to make it happen.

[Track Could Bend will be back at The Steady on Tuesday, May 2nd.]

Recording: Bennett/Hutchinson/Turple

Artist: Connor Bennett/Aaron Hutchinson/Trevor Turple

Songs: [two excerpts from an improvisation]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 23, 2016.

Bennett-Hutchinson-Turple - [first piece, excerpt 1]

Bennett-Hutchinson-Turple - [first piece, excerpt 2]

I was eager to check out this set of electroacoustic improvisation after really digging Trevor Turple's After Ever tape, which was issued by Hamilton's excellent HAVN label/collective. On that tape, as with this set, Turple (on acoustic guitar) was joined by HAVN's Connor Bennett (on alto sax and briefcase synth) and Aaron Hutchinson, who was sitting astride the piano bench, playing with amp knobs plus a mini-synth that looked not unlike a Pong controller (and sometimes made dimilar noises). There were pleasing zones throughout their set, with effected saxblurts and atmospheric ahhhhhhhh walked along by Turple's guitar.

[Keep an eye out for this trio — now formally known as "act tbh" — at March's Track Could Bend!]