DAY 1: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2022
A MORE BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY LAUNCH EVENT
Concerts at select TTC Street Car Loops by A More Beautiful Journey artists
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Neville Park Loop (Queen St. East & Nursewood Rd.)
shn shn(she/they) is a queer Black electronic producer, singer-songwriter, and creator based in Toronto, Canada. Her music is an ever-changing experience, bending genres as she brings experimental elements from electronic, ambient, world music, folk, and pop into her practice. Their work allows exploration, contemplation, reckoning with duality, and the spaces in between.
NICK STORRING & ALLISON CAMERON
Nick Storring is a Toronto-based composer and multi-instrumentalist. His varied and idiosyncratic body of work spans delicate chamber compositions to meticulously constructed pieces consisting solely of his own overdubbed instrumental performances.
Having been featured been by Oxford UK's Audiograft Festival, the Esprit Orchestra, and Quatuor Bozzini, his work has also accompanied films and dance by noted directors (Terrance Odette, Ingrid Veninger) and choreographers including Yvonne Ng, Deepti Gupta, Brandy Leary, and Marie-Josée Chartier. He has been commissioned by the likes of Eve Egoyan, Arraymusic, Soundstreams, and Montréal's AKOUSMA Festival. His music for 'ambient gaming environment' Tentacle travelled worldwide, including to New York's MoMA in 2011. His critically acclaimed recordings have also seen release through several important experimental music imprints including Orange Milk Records, mappa editions, and Entr'acte.
Storring is a past winner of the Canadian Music Centre's Toronto Emerging Composer Award and the Jeux De Temps competition for electroacoustic music.
Allison Cameron is a professional composer, performer and improvising musician in Toronto. She has been commissioned in Europe and North America by many ensembles and festivals. Since 2000, she has also been an improviser performing on electronic keyboards, ukulele, banjo, piano, mini amplifiers, radios, crackle boxes, cassette tapes, miscellaneous objects, and toys.
Allison has been celebrated in Musicworks Magazine, the UK’s The Wire Magazine, I Care if You Listen, and a variety of other online publications. Her reputation for writing compelling compositions for contemporary music ensembles is international. She is also a sought-after improviser with a strong national following. She has completed two national solo tours in the past four years. In 2007 she founded the Allison Cameron Band with fellow musician/composers Eric Chenaux and Stephen Parkinson to explore uncharted territory in her compositions by integrating a variety of musical forms into her work. The result has been a critically acclaimed CD on the Rat-Drifting label of several genre-defying pieces. In 2009 she formed a trio with trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud and drummer Germaine Liu called c_RL (pronounced curl) who released the CD ‘Friends’ to critical acclaim.
Never one to shy away from exploration, Allison went on a residency to Svalbard, Norway in 2013, where she spent time recording underwater sounds from icebergs in the fjords of Spitzbergen. She is also involved in creating sound installations based on her experiences in the High Arctic among others.
Her interest in graphic/instructional notation has resulted in several scores that will soon be published together. Her experimental scores have had performances by Ensemble Supermusique (Montréal), Contact (Toronto), Suddenly Listen (Halifax) and other ad hoc groups in Toronto.
MICHAEL CLAXTON of Absolutely Free
Michael Claxton is a multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, making music on a compulsive level.
For the past two decades he has primarily worked as a founding member of Absolutely Free (2011-present) and DD/MM/YYYY (2003-2011).
With the great pause of the pandemic, Michael found more time to delve deeper into his own compositions. The result is a large collection of songs expressing the mourning of loss, the ups and downs of raising kids in an uncertain world, and gaining the strength to move forward.
Prince Josh, born Josh McIntyre, is a producer, songwriter and DJ based in Toronto, Canada. He is best known as half of the electronic pop duo PRINCE INNOCENCE with singer Talvi Faustmann.
Josh produced a number of songs on Cold Specks 2017 album ‘Fools Paradise’ (Arts & Crafts). He has scored music for documentaries on Virgil Abloh and Tau Lewis and created original music for MAC Cosmetics, Vice and Canon Cameras. His music has been featured in television shows such as “Emily In Paris”, “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Kim’s Convenience”. In 2018 he scored the documentary “A Kid FromSomewhere” and is currently scoring the upcoming feature length film “Verona”.
Prince Innocence released their debut EP ‘Lapse’ in 2013 and ‘Blue Star’ in 2019. They have been featured in Gorilla Vs Bear, V Magazine, i-D, Jalouse Magazine and Exclaim! They have also shared the stage with MØ, Jamie XX, Mac Demarco, How To Dress Well, and Homeshake.
SLOWPITCHSOUND & LAURA BARRETT
SlowPitchSound (Cheldon Paterson) is a Toronto-based composer, mentor, and explorer of sound & visuals. He has collaborated with creators from a wide range of disciplines including opera, jazz, classical, electronic music, theatre and dance. His unique style of music production, self proclaimed as "scifi-turntablism", has graced stages around the world including Canada, Australia, USA, United Kingdom and Sweden. With a passion for depth and detail in his work, Cheldon is heavily inspired by nature, outer space, and dystopian sci-fi. Cheldon’s unique approach to making music includes turntablism, sample manipulation, and field recordings.
Laura Barrett’s music is equally at home in concert halls, cinemas, and playhouses (when they're all open again). She's released two albums and three EPs, scored four feature films, and provided musical underscoring for several live comedy and theatrical productions. She likes to ask questions about what humanity is up to and where we're headed. Using a variety of musical styles (from neoclassical lounge piano to minimalist electropop), Laura grounds her artistic practice in empathy, curiosity, and hope.
Together they visit lesser-travelled areas, gathering sounds and inspirations for their wide-ranging creative projects.
Korea Town Acid is the stage name of Jessica Cho, a South Korean-Canadian electronic musician and DJ based in Toronto, Ontario. She is most noted for her single "Sobriety", which was a Juno Award nominee for Underground Dance Single of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022.
Born in Seoul, she moved to Toronto in childhood.
She released her debut EP, Mahogani Forest, in 2018, and followed up with the full-length album Metamorphosis in April 2021 on URBNET Records. She followed up in October with the album Cosmos.
She produced the track "Play No Games" on Cadence Weapon's Polaris Music Prize-winning album Parallel World.
Humber Loop (The Queensway & Humber River)
Emissive, born in Toronto, Canada started writing and producing music as a young teen on his older cousin's laptop. The Emissive concept was created after a handful of trips to Detroit and living abroad in London, UK being exposed to both city's thriving electronic music scenes.
Having helped bring acts such as the White Material crew, Max McFerren, Funkineven and Octo Octa to Toronto as a promoter, Emissive quickly found himself entrenched in the Toronto dance music community.
After graduating from an audio engineering program and interning at The Hive (Now Secret Door Recording Company) he now spends his time mixing and mastering client's music while simultaneously channeling his expertise into producing his own electronic tracks.
Evan and his good friend Ian make music under the Active Surplus moniker.
Felipe Sena is a Brazilian/Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer based in Toronto.
Bringing influences from São Paulo and Toronto’s underground music scene and Afro-Brazilian rhythms, his body of work revolves around the transcendent nature of music.
Currently composing soundtracks for motion picture, VR, games, brands, and installations including “A More Beautiful Journey”, presented by Intersection Festival and Music Gallery in partnership with the TTC.
Alto saxophonist Brodie West is a key member of Toronto’s vibrant creative music scene. Frequent collaboration with a constellation of like minded musicians spanning two decades culminate in his ensembles Eucalyptus, The Brodie West Quintet and Ways. A prolific composer, 2022 saw the release of both Meadow of Dreams by The Brodie West Quintet (Ansible Editions/Astral Spirits) and Moves by his Octet Eucalyptus (Telephone Explosion). West is an integral member of The Lina Allemano 4 and The Ryan Driver Sextet and has been featured as a guest on numerous albums ranging from Broken Social Scene's seminal You Forgot It in People to more recent appearances with Jennifer Castle, Prince Nifty, Snowblink, Tasseomancy and The Weather Station.
On Sept 1 West will be joined by Naomi McCarroll-Butler saxophone and Patrick O'Reilly guitar to perform a composition inspired by his experimentation in Ways.
Bassist and composer Josh Cole’s band Kind Mind is an improvised chamber ensemble featuring two of Toronto’s finest improvisers - Karen Ng on alto saxophone, and Michael Davidson on vibraphone. Rooted in an approach to improvisation that has been brewing in the Toronto creative music hub “The Tranzac” for decades, the trio explores a fractured, sparse, and timbral approach reinforced by brief compositions and a long history of collective music making.
Driven by a deep commitment to the primacy of sound in creative expression, Debashis Sinha has created numerous audio-centred solo and collaborative projects across Canada and internationally. Sound design and composition credits include works for contemporary dance, video, film, and Dora Award-winning productions with many of Canada’s premiere theatre companies. His speculative mythology-driven sound practice has led to live appearances at MUTEK Japan, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Banff Centre, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and other exhibitions online and in gallery spaces. Sinha is a committed educator and has been researching sound production using machine learning and AI with an ear to uncovering new modes and methods of story creation, releasing recordings on Berlin’s Establishment Records imprint, Gusstaff and elsewhere. He is currently an assistant professor in production in Performance at The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University.
Regent Park Loop (Dundas St. E. & Regent Park Blvd.)
The Red Bear Singers started singing together in circle at Toronto Council Fire in 2018, this was done as a way to continue the personal healing journeys of each individual member in a group setting. The group wrote their first song in 2018, titled, "Away Back". This song honours the children taken from their families and placed into foster care, orphanages, day schools, and Residential Schools. Away Back reflects not only the fact that they were physically taken AWAY, but also what was culturally taken AWAY from them as a result. The lyrics are powerful and emotional. Since then, the group has worked on learning several community songs including the three songs you will hear in the Soundways App.
This year they have performed at various events including TASSC’S (Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council) New Grand Opening Event, Toronto Police Headquarter Indigenous Day Celebrations, as well as several TDSB presentations and Community events. You can catch them at Toronto Council Fire’s Youth Pow Wow on September 3rd.
MEMBERS: Rose Anderson, Winnie Ashkewe, Pamela Carter, Anna Croxen, Bernice Hookimawillillene, Susan Hunter, Clara Louttit, Laurie Okimawinew, Veronica Rice, Wanina Scarlett, Patricia Schuyler, Christine Shawana. Youth Mentor: Danielle Migwans
Links:
Council Fire Website: https://www.councilfire.ca/index.html
Council Fire Spirit Garden https://www.councilfire.ca/spirit-garden.html
COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOLS OF TORONTO
Expanding from Regent Park School of Music, we’ve changed over to our new identity as Community Music Schools of Toronto. This new name acts as an umbrella, better connecting and reflecting all of our sites, celebrating our history in Regent Park and Jane Finch and looking to reach even more communities in the future.
While the name may have changed, the goal has always remained the same: to help kids thrive through music. Thank you, as always, for supporting our students as we do our very best to provide them a safe, exciting learning environment.
Each member of the group has been singing, dancing, and practicing their culture since they were just babies. So, in 2012 when the drum group first met through Toronto Council Fire's youth program, Embers, All Nations Juniors was born. The group has composed many songs, one of which, 'Everyone Welcome' was written by members Dakota Myran and Jayden Wemigwans. This Cree/Ojibwe song was composed in honour of all peoples across Turtle Island and tells a story that all dancers are welcome to come into the arena to dance and showcase their styles and culture.
The group also sings many covers gifted to them by other Drum groups. Some of these songs they have been carrying for eight years, like the inter-tribal dance by the Smoke Trail Singers. This drum group has honored ANJs by gifting them multiple songs to sing on the pow wow trail. As of today, ANJs have not had the opportunity to record any of their original songs, because of this the music you will hear on the Soundways App are covers. That being said, you can look forward to hearing ANJs original songs soon enough as they are in the process of finding a studio to record and distribute their original works.
MEMBERS: Kevin Myran, Dakota Myran, Joey Myran, Kaelin Pelletier, Jayden Wemigwans, Malakai Daybutch, Danielle Migwans, Ariyah Syvret and Kiyana Johnston.
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This event would not have been possible without support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and The SOCAN Foundation.
DAY 2: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022
ANTHONY BRAXTON & JAMES FEI, and NADJA
8:00 pm @ St. Anne's Anglican Church (276 Gladstone Avenue)
Anthony Braxton is widely and critical acclaimed as a seminal figure in the music of the late 20th century. His work, both as a saxophonist and a composer, has broken new conceptual and technical ground in the trans-African and trans-European (a.k.a. “jazz” and “American Experimental”) musical traditions in Northj Anmerica as defined by master improvisers as Warne Marshm John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and he and his own peers in the historic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM founded in Chicago in the late ‘60s); and by composers such as Charles Ives, Harry Partch and John Cage.
He has further worked his own extensions of instrumental technique, timbre, meter and rhythm, voicing and ensemble make-up, harmony and melody, and 20-century European art music as defined by Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Varese and others.
Braxton’s three decades worth of recorded output is kaleidoscopic and prolific, and has won and continues to win prestigious awards and critical praise. Books, anthology chapters, scholarly studies, reviews and interviews and other media and academic attentions to him and his work have also accumulated steadily and increasingly throughout those years and continue to so. His own self published writings about the musical traditions from which he works and their historical and cultural contexts (Tri-Axium Writings 1-3) and his five-volume Compositions Notes A-E are unparalleled by artists from the oral and unmatched by those in the literate tradition.
Braxton is also a tenured professor at Wesleyan University, one of the world’s centres of world music. His teaching career, begum at Mills College in Oakland, California, has become as much a part of his creative life as his own work, and includes training and leading performance ensembles and private tutorials in his own music, computer and electronic music and history courses in the music of his major musical influences, from the Western Medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen to contemporary masters with whom he himself has worked (e.g. Cage, Coleman).
Braxton’s name continues to stand for the broadest integration of such often-conflicting poles as “creative freedom” and “responsibility”, discipline and energy, and vision of the future and respect for tradition in the current cultural debates about the nature and place of the Western and African-American musical traditions in America.
James Fei (b. Taipei, Taiwan) moved to the US in 1992 to study electrical engineering but lost his way in music, becoming a composer, saxophonist and live electronic musician.
Works by Fei have been performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, MATA Micro Orchestra and Noord-Hollands Philharmonisch Orkest.
Recordings can be found on Leo Records, Improvised Music from Japan, CRI, Krabbesholm and Organized Sound.
Compositions for Fei's own ensemble of four alto saxophones focus on physical processes of saliva, fatigue, reeds crippled by cuts and the threshold of audible sound production, while his sound installations and performance on live electronics often focus on electronic and acoustic feedback.
Fei received the Grants for Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2014 and he is president of Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation.
Fei has taught at Mills College in Oakland since 2006, where he is Professor of Electronic Arts and heads the Art and Technology Program.
Nadja is a duo of multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff—active since 2005—and making music which has been described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, or metalgaze, a signature sound which combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial.
Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—including their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions. The duo has toured extensively around the world—including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound—and has shared stages with artists like Earth, OM, Khanate, Neurosis, and Godflesh.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, the duo now resides in Berlin, Germany.
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This event would not be possible without support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and The SOCAN Foundation.
DAY 3: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2022
MARATHON CONCERT AND MARKETPLACE
Yonge Dundas Square (1 Dundas St. East)
2 – 10 pm, FREE, All Ages
Marathon Concert Featuring:
2:30 - 3:00 PM - THE DEAD ARE THOSE WHO HAVE DIED
3:15 - 4:00 PM - KRISTINA GUISON
4:15 - 5:00 PM - NIHILIST SPASM BAND
5:15 - 5:45 PM - MARC EDWARDS & COLIN FISHER
6:00 - 6:45 PM - JOYFULTALK
7:00 - 7:45 PM - BDP TRIO
8:00 - 8:45 PM - JOSEPH SHABASON BAND
9:00 - 10:00 PM - LABYRINTH ENSEMBLE
Marketplace Event Featuring:
A MORE BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY
THE MUSIC GALLERY
CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE
WAVELENGTH FESTIVAL
FUTURE STOPS
LABYRINTH ENSEMBLE
and more...
FEATURED ARTISTS
Formed in 1965 in London, Ontario by a group of artists and friends to make the sound track for a friend’s (band member and artist the late Greg Curnoe) film, the Spasm Band began playing weekly at a local pub. They have played every Monday night since that time, and they have been widely acclaimed “the world’s first noise band”. They have released numerous CDs, vinyls, cassettes and flexidiscs (the first in 1967), and most have been rereleased by Alchemy, Japan. They have performed across Canada, in the United States, in the U.K. and across Europe, and in various cities in Japan, and they have been joined by rock/experimental legends Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo, jazz great Joe McPhee and numerous others in concert and on recordings. Their appearance at Yonge Dundas Square celebrates the launch in Canada of their live-in-concert double vinyl LP on Villa Arson, Nice, France.
Nihilist Spasm Band Personnel;
Greg Curnoe and Hugh McIntyre, deceased
John Boyle, kazoo, drums, ring modulator
John Clement, baritone guitar
Bill Exley, vocals, casserole with marbles
Murray Favro, guitar
Aya Onishi, drums, kazoo
Art Pratten, Pratt-a-various
THE DEAD ARE THOSE WHO HAVE DIED
Kristina Guison is a Manila-born and raised, sculpture/installation, performance and tattoo artist. Her practice is a pursuit of ontological questions that present themselves in the interaction between science and culture. She completed a BFA in Sculpture/Installation at OCAD in 2016 and is currently studying Psychology with a double-minor in Biology & Anthropology at University of Toronto.
Marc Edwards (born July 23, 1949) is a free jazz drummer who has played and recorded with artists such as Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, and David S. Ware. His influences include Charlie Parker and Buddy Rich. He is currently playing with a project with Weasel Walter, and with his own group, Marc Edwards Slipstream Time Travel, an afrofuturistic free jazz ensemble. Many of his solo works have a science fiction theme. He also plays in the band Cellular Chaos, his first foray into rock drumming.
Edwards was raised in New York City, and did not initially take an interest in music. He dabbled with several instruments, but it was during junior high school when he was able to get out of wood shop class by playing drums that he first played the instrument.
In 1994. Edwards returned to music after a lengthy hiatus. He formed Slipstream Time Travel and released their first record, Time and Space Vol. 1. Current members are Ernest Anderson III, Takuma Kanaiwa, Alex Lozupone, Gene Janas, Alexis Marcelo. This line-up's performance at the Dizzy Gillespie Fundraiser of 2012 was described as "a climactic point in the evening’s program ".
Edwards was interviewed on WKCR New York City after the release of Time & Space, Vol. 1 and Red Sprites & Blue Jets. During the 1970s, Apogee performed live on the station two separate occasions. His trio with Sabir Mateen and Hilliard Greene, performed at WKCR again just before playing at the Knitting Factory's sponsored festival, the Texaco Jazz Festival in 1997.
Marc Edwards at the Silent Barn in Brooklyn in 2011
In 2013, Marc Edwards contributed a version of "Amazing Grace" to a benefit album to raise funds for Donovan Drayton's release from prison and trial. He also released a CD with his new group Sonos Gravis, which was described as "freely fused out rock that takes "free jazz" and cranks it." The album was listed as #12 on Steve Holtje's Top Jazz albums of 2013,[9] along with his release with Slipstream Time Travel called Planet X Just Blew Up!, which was #13. The New York City Jazz Record says that "Sonos Gravis could, in fact, be the conceptual merger of the New York Art Quartet, Black Sabbath and Last Exit, though despite signposts reflecting noise and free jazz, this music has little actual precedent".
Grego Applegate Edwards described his 2014 release, Sakura Sakura, as "very vibrant free rock, a sort of Ascension in the metal zone. It is bracing. You will either gravitate towards it by predisposition or not. And that has something to do with your open mind about a free metal blast or the opposite." He says of the 2015 release, Mystic Mountain, “This may be their most anarchically exhilarating album yet!”.
For many years, Edwards played only jazz drums, but recently has started playing rock and punk.
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The ever-curious Colin Fisher has a been a major presence in Canada's music community for more than twenty years—particularly in more experimental and improvisational circles. Nothing short of a guitar virtuoso, he also wields saxophone, drums, and various other instruments with similarly refined musicality, vivid textural imagination, and sometimes feral abandon. On his one-man-bandtape Garden of Unknowning for Manchester's Tombed Visions, one hears all of this as he spars with different iterations of himself on guitar, sax, drum kit, synthesizer and more. The Quietus' cassette critic Tristan Bath extolled it as "miraculous," adding that "it’s a visceral experience soaking up this record, and it’s all down to Fisher’s utterly innate sense of musicality." He subsequently cited it in his 2018 contributor's year-end chart for the Wire.
The diversity of his skill, entwines that of collaborator Brandon Valdivia to lend the high-velocity performances of their polymorphous psych-improv duo Not The Wind, Not The Flag an urgent intrigue. The pair darts between different set-ups, building kaleidoscopic worlds on a foundation of cunningly deployed loops.
The recent Living Midnight (on Astral Spirits), features him leading the all-star Colin Fisher Quartet on sax alongside seasoned free jazz protagonists Marc Edwards, Brandon Lopez, and Daniel Carter. He's also made two duo albums with celebrated Nova Scotian jaw harp innovator chik white for Dylan and Lisa Nyoukis' Chocolate Monk label.
In 2014 his partnership with Nick Millevoi's trio Many Arms on Suspended Definition (Tzadik) prompted Spin's Brad Cohan to remark"Many Arms have dug even deeper into math-metal wizardry, bolstering their already imposing lineup with gale-force blowing guest saxophonist Colin Fisher, thus blasting their outré sonic blitz into a fire-breathing free jazz otherworld." Fisher later engaged the band's bassist, Johnny DeBlase, to team up with him and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever) as Monas. As an ongoing collaborator to introspective dance music auteur Caribou, Fisher first appeared in offshoot project Caribou Vibration Ensemble, and subsequently on acclaimed albums Swim and Suddenly. In addition to performing alongside the likes of Jaime Branch, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Laraaji, Gerry Hemmingway, and Fred Frith, he has contributed to recordings by the Constantines (Sub Pop),Bernice (Arts & Crafts), Rhys Chatham (Table of the Elements), Born Ruffians (Warp), Anthony Braxton and AIMToronto Orchestra (Spool), and many more.
JOYFULTALK is the brainchild of composer, producer, arranger, instrument builder, multi-instrumentalist and multimedia artist Jay Crocker. Since his relocation from Calgary to a rural Nova Scotia homestead a decade ago, Crocker has been broadening the scope and pace of his visual, sculptural and video art practices in tandem with his musical exploration.
JOYFULTALK creates instrumental compositions that straddle analog and electronic sound explorations in uniquely inventive ways. Guided by graphic scores, handmade kinetic sculpture, and junked/recuperated Crocker delicately weaves between human interaction and machine clockworks.
From the widescreen synth-driven works of early albums MUIXXX and Plurality Trip to the electronics and string quartet polyrhythmic Minimalist systems music of A Separation Of Being, to the exuberant harmolodic avant-jazz collages of Familiar Science. JOYFULTALK’s album discography offers up a distinctive and kaleidoscopic world, always combining an ear for melody and noise, always seeking the ghost in the machine.
Crocker is currently at work on two new large-scale score pieces; one for 16-voice choir and one for 30-piece wind ensemble, alongside a large-scale installation sculpture of 1000 mirrors and robotics, video art and a quotidian bric-a-brac tinkering with sonic and kinetic machines.
BDP TRIO
Photo: Jack Zuff
BPD Trio plays visceral free improvised music and original compositions rooted in the traditions of American avant-garde jazz with elements of drone, noise, and textural sonic explorations.
Steve Baczkowski: saxophones/winds
Buffalo-based baritone saxophonist/improviser Steve Baczkowski performs solo, in trio with drummer Ravi Padmanabha & bassist Brian DeJesus (BPD Trio), and in frequent collaborations with guitarist Bill Nace, drummer Chris Corsano & bassist Brandon Lopez. A widely-acclaimed trio LP Mystic Beings (with Corsano & Nace) was released by Open Mouth Records in December 2018 and Old Smoke, a live recording with Corsano and Lopez was released on CD by Relative Pitch Records in April 2019. (https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-smoke) A new LP Open Door highlighting Baczkowski's 20-year duo collaboration with Ravi Padmanabha was recently released on Padmanabha’s Good Karma/Bad Karma Records and the Lopez Trio, with drummer Gerald Cleaver, will have it’s 2nd release on Relative Pitch in 2022.
Baczkowski has organized multiple ensembles over the years including the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra, Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit, Organ Donor and many others and he regularly performs with the BPD Trio, 12/8 Path Band, Buffalo Jazz Octet, Genkin Philharmonic and more. His 2021 performance with Lopez Trio at the 25th annual Vision Festival in NYC was selected as a “concert of the year” by NYC Jazz Record and in Spring 2022 he toured Europe with the renowned Brooklyn Afrobeat group Antibalas. Baczkowski frequently collaborates with improvisers from all over the globe and has performed in basements, clubs, DIY venues and festivals in the US, Canada, Mexico & Europe.
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Ravi Padmanabha: drums/percussion
Ravi Padmanabha is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improvisor and songwriter. He has spent many years studying and playing a wide variety of music including jazz, Indian classical, world music, experimental and improvised music. He has studied with several masters from India including Pandit Samar Saha, Pandit Sharda Sahai and Pankaj Misra.
Padmanabha is on many recordings and has led various musical projects such as My Nada Brahma, Bul-Bul Tarang Gang and Transindental Karmacist, and he frequently performs with Americana Raga, 12/8 Path Band and the Genkin Philharmonic. He has performed in duo with saxophonist Steve Baczkowski for over two decades and released many albums. Ravi has performed with many others including; Robert Dick, Willam Parker, Peter Kowald, Pauline Oliveros, Daniel Carter, Adam Lane, Blaise Siwula, Steve Swell, Bern Nix, Cooper Moore, Wilbert de Joode, Juini Booth, Sabir Mateen, Douglas Ewart, Arrington DeDionysio, Rob Wasserman, Peter Evans, Paul Flaherty, Tomchess, Brandon Terzic, Yang Jin, and Alex Glenfield. More info at: www.ravip.net
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Brian DeJesus: acoustic bass
Brian DeJesus is a musician based in Buffalo, NY who plays electric and upright bass. A versatile musician, Brian has quickly become a ubiquitous presence on the thriving Buffalo music scene and beyond, and can be found playing in groups that span a variety of sounds and styles from around the world. Current groups include Fredtown Stompers, Baczkowski/Padmanabha/DeJesus, and John Victor's Divi Romi. DeJesus has also performed with Cages, Buffalo Jazz Octet, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, El Batey of Buffalo, NY, Carol McLaughlin, and many more.
Joseph Shabason is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and recording artist. After graduating as a saxophone major from the University of Toronto Jazz Performance program in 2006 he went on to play and tour in the bands Destroyer, The War On Drugs, Andre Ethier and DIANA. Two albums that he has recorded on (Kaputt and Poison Season) have been Short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize and the self-titled album from his own band DIANA was long-listed for the Polaris Prize. Kaputt was voted the No. 2 album of the year by Pitchfork Media and Poison Season was nominated for a JUNO Award in 2015.
Alongside touring and playing in original projects Joseph composes for film, television and commercials. He has scored docs for Hot Docs as well as scored Yung Chang’s documentary Omega Man that aired on TSN. Joseph has written the music for the Mirimax feature Silent Retreat as well as the short Melinda’s Wish starring BJ Novak, Amy Okuda and Bobby Moynihan. He also composed all the original music on the popular CBC podcasts Front Burner and Pop Chat.
As a session player and arranger Joseph has recorded saxophone, flute and keyboard for The War On Drugs, Rodney Graham, Austra, Sandro Perri, Andre Ethier, Jill Barber, Hannah Georgas, The Born Ruffians, Allie X, Matt Barber, The Fembots and many more.
Under his own name he has released the albums Aytche, Anne and Anne EP on Western Vinyl. He has released the records Muldrew with Ben Gunning (Seance Center) and Philadelphia with Shabason, Krgovich and Harris (Idee Fixe). Philadelphia was met with critical acclaim, and listed as one of the Top 50 albums of the year by FADER in 2020. His 4th solo album, The Fellowship is due out on Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion in April of 2021.
Labyrinth Ontario was started as a not-for-profit in 2017. Since then we have programmed concerts, organized workshops, and shared video of modal music traditions in the Greater Toronto Area.
Inspired by and in communication with the Labyrinth Musical Workshop in Crete and other Labyrinth groups, we work to connect musicians working in and between distinct traditions with audiences, teachers, and colleagues.
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This event would not be possible without support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and The SOCAN Foundation.
DAY 4: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2022
Virtual ONLY Workshop/Rehearsal for LMNL: "There's No Place Like Home"
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This event would not be possible without support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and The SOCAN Foundation.
DAY 5: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
LMNL: "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME"
Presented by Intersection Music & Arts Festival with the Canadian Music Centre and Arraymusic
A multi-locational interactive in-person/online hybrid concert performance of "Rainbow," created by Jerry Pergolesi and Louise Cambell.
FREE and open to the public at both locations.
2pm @ the Canadian Music Centre (20 St. Joseph St.), Arraymusic (155 Walnut Ave.), and streaming online.
Performance live-stream on:
Toronto performances led by Andrew Noseworthy (CMC) & Yang Chen (Arraymusic)
Toronto in-person performance featuring: Naomi McCarroll-Butler, Mary-Katherine Finch, Sara Constant, Sarah Fraser Raff, Joyce To, Adrian Irvine, and more...
Online performers featuring: Tina Pearson, Yaz Lancaster, Adam Cuthbert, Phong Tran, An Laurence, Priscilla Smith, Paulino Cravens, Bert Power, and more...
Rainbow is a post-modern deconstruction and re-imagining of the classic popular song “Over the Rainbow” sung by actress Judy Garland as the character Dorothy Gale and featured in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” In the queer community, the song “Over the Rainbow,” the actress Judy Garland, and the character Dorothy Gale function as signifiers and enduring symbols of vulnerability and defiance, both of which are deeply entrenched in queer life. “Over the Rainbow,” Garland and Dorothy represent a sense of utopian wonder and longing for a place where one belongs. The song appears in the movie when Dorothy is in conflict, unable to control her own circumstances. Her aunt tells her to “find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble" to which Dorothy muses to her small dog Toto, “Do you suppose there is such a place?” and then proceeds to sing “Over the Rainbow.”
The queer community has forever constructed its own “place” both physical and metaphysical, where “trouble” is a slippery and subjective term; where one creates their own reality on their own terms by re- appropriating contemporary culture for their own purposes. A lasting euphemism derived from the film: the ubiquitous “we're not in Kansas anymore" serves as a commentary on the sense of displacement and belonging in a strange yet familiar place of one’s own making.
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This event would not be possible without support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and The SOCAN Foundation.
© 2023 Intersection Music & Arts
