Featuring interviews and new works by local sound artists. Hosted by Oskar Zybart
Episode Ten - The Last One Until the Next One (August 23, 2021)Online / On Air CJSR 88.5 FM
THE NO NORMAL PODCAST
What was normal won’t be again, and the only “new normal” is no normal at all.
This year, we’re anchoring our 2020-21 season with a monthly podcast. Hosted by local radio veteran, Oskar Zybart, each episode features an hour of newly commissioned works, discussions between the commissioned artists and a roster of guest interviewers. The podcast will also include feature stories, conversations with friends in other organizations, and much more. Scroll down for details about each episode.
We’re excited to announce a new partnership with CJSR 88.5 FM! The No Normal will broadcast the second Thursday of each month, from 10-11 AM, with an encore presentation the fourth Thursday of each month.
All of our digital events are free, but please consider donating the price of a ticket or a season pass to help support contemporary sound art in Edmonton! You can make a secure one-time or monthly donation through Canada Helps.
Episode Nine – Into the Heat Dome (July 26, 2021) is the penultimate episode of the season, and features the premiere of To the Ends of the Earth by Catherine Bevan, performed by pianist Sahil Chugh, as well as interviews with Catherine Bevan and Instant Places (Ian Birse and Laura Kavanaugh) with guest interviewers Suzette Chan and Caitlin Sian Richards. To the Ends of the Earth was commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council.
Episode Seven – Craning to See the Cranes (May 20, 2021) will feature Duo I, for Soprano and Loudspeaker byNicolás Arnáez performed by Jessica Wagner. Also in this episode, an interview with former Edmonton oboist and composer Catherine Lee who has just released a new CD, Alone Together. Duo I was commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council, and is also available as a video!
Episode Six – Spring Sprang (March 23, 2021), features interviews and new works by Xuan Ye 叶轩 and Cole Dorchester. Cole’s new work, Petrichor, is performed by guitarist Marek Orszulik, and was commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council. You can watch XENOYOGA(((TROLL THE SCROLL)))here.
Episode Four – A New Year (released January 23, 2021, features interviews and works by Rebecca Bruton and Lesley Hinger, co-artistic directors of New Works Calgary, as well as music and an interview with Edmonton’s Gary James Joynes. Gary’s new audio-visual work Sonic Suns (((GENESIS))), commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council, can be viewed on our Vimeo channel.
Episode Two – Solstice (released December 18, 2020) features lots of conversation and new music. We have new releases by The Giovanni, bracing/ light pirate and Diana Tayler, all commissioned with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council. Also – don’t miss our first NME Commissions Redux, as we listen to The Break, composed by Jane Berry for UltraViolet in 2019. This episode includes those works, and interviews with each of the artists by Ian Crutchley and our new interview team members, Caitlin Sian Richards and Ainsley Hillyard.
Ian also spoke with New Music Edmonton’s outgoing President, Allison Balcetis about her ten years of dedication to building New Music Edmonton, issues in the new music world, and her own work as one of the key figures in the Edmonton new music scene.
Pot – A sequel to Benjamin Britten’s Pan* by George Andrix, performed by Beth Levia, oboe
Siren Opus* by Raylene Campbell
Interview with Allison Balcetis
alone time* by Rio Houle, performed by Chenoa Anderson, bass flute
*commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
Llyn Deifiwr: When the pandemic first arrived in Edmonton, I sat up every night drawing landscapes from my balcony as lit by street lights. As I began to notice sounds I hadn’t previously registered, in particular the distant train sounds from the Yellowhead and a loud unfamiliar hum that seemed to emerge from the sky on particular nights, I soon turned to producing sound drawings. The usually busy intersection within earshot was quiet and the occasional intrusion of a car sounded out of place. The long trail running by my place soon became a sound corridor for the trainyard. Later, staying with family in a quiet village, the train echoing through the basin of the mountains woke me up at 5:00 AM, resulting in a recording that I used for this sound piece. Being along highway 16 where recent protests along the train route and the Highway of Tears reminded me of the history of the territories the train crossed through.
When I was little, my second cousin visited us from a village near Newport in Southern Wales. He was disappointed that my immigrant Grandfather never passed on the Welsh language to his children and grandkids. He wanted to know what my favourite bird was so he could teach me to translate it into Welsh, hence the title of this piece. For years I remembered the translation of loon sounding like swoon differ. Memory of language itself is a sound corridor and the animation accompanying the train song draws from the strange, graceful motion of my favourite bird, Llyn Deifiwr.
Of a Vexed Soul, is a twelve-plus minute piece consisting of three movements (the submission includes only the 1st movement.) that is being originally written for New Music Edmonton’s Series 2020-21 ‘New Normal’. Of a Vexed Soul was fabricated by processing a series of samples sourced from my field recordings. In this case, the recordings had to be from the inside and around the apartment. The samples were acquired by mic-ing & recording the interactions with everyday objects around the apartment. There are three movements in the piece. Personally, I was so surprised and shocked listening to nearly 57 musical acts I had done within span of 2 hours.
Throughout the piece, I have tried weaving together multiple phrases (of course in different time signatures) and as well as layer unanticipated polyrhythms in a solo section to confuse my audience (I hope they don’t). At the latter half, I might end employing those rhythms and tones to build organically to the climax of the piece.
Why the title. “Of a Vexed Soul”? It was my communal attempt at expressing a musician’s heart and state of mind, and the way the ongoing pandemic crisis has affected all of us. As an artist, we take inspiration from everything that happens around us in our day to day life, but never while being stuck inside the four walls of our house. A house ain’t a home! Do I need to dig into the depth of explaining the fact that for us performers, the stage is our home. Of course, we still create music while home and keep ourselves occupied learning new music materials but we all surely do miss our home! Lets just try and understand the fact that with this piece I am trying to lament my confusions, irritation and hopelessness, but still music is music. And to listen back to my expressions, it feels good. Maybe for us performers, the next few years and the different aspects of performances it brings will be the New Normal! And we will have to grow our art that way.
Pot is a sequel to Benjamin Britten’s piece for solo oboe entitled Pan. Although it does contain a few notes of Britten’s work it is not musically based upon it but simply a tribute thereto. A pierce for solo English horn called Kettle, grew out of the solo oboe project.
Siren Opus is a study in domestic isolation, inspired by Campbell’s Deep Listening and acoustic ecology practices. The piece is a Musique concrète composition, using audio recordings sourced from Campbell’s apartment in Chinatown during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The piece juxtaposes the intimate, internal sounds of the living space with harsh external sounds of people, traffic, and sirens. The listener senses the body, the building, and the comings and goings of first responders during a time of vulnerability and change.
alone time: “Liminal space” was a term popular on the Internet circa 2019/2020 used to describe images or memes that depict familiar or capitalistic spaces in states of dilapidation or failure which have been seemingly abandoned by people. The experience of seeing these images can be described as lonely, oddly nostalgic or off-putting.
The Artists
Caitlin Richards has a BFA in Art and Design from the UofA and a Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management with a focus on Museum/Gallery Management from MacEwan University. Her recent direction in hand-drawn animation and sound art stems from her interest in the relationship between the shadows and light of an environment. The process of using automatic mark making in her stop motion animations to convey the transformative cycle of decay and regeneration brings her back to her painterly background in expressionist semi-figurative abstraction. Her audio/video pieces have been recently shown at Mile Zero Dance, Metro Cinema, New Music Edmonton, Gotta Minute Film Festival, Fava Fest, and Found Festival. In 2017, Caitlin was the artist in residence at the Ortona Armoury, resulting in an installation inspired by Kafka’s Odradek. In 2019, she was commissioned by the Edmonton Arts Council to create a series of short video animations to play in LRT station TVs across Edmonton. Caitlin performs in the violin/viola duo The Olm and hosts the weekly radio show Imaginary Landscapes on CJSR.
Bhuyash Neupaneis a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and rhythmic ensemble composer hailing from Nepal. As a performer of eastern classical music and a student of nepalese folk music, his attempt has always been to have music lovers witness cross-pollination of pure traditional performance art with electronica and ambient music, which he believes will help in popularizing electro-folk experimentation. Bhuyash has performed at numerous music venues in India, Nepal and abroad with various musical groups. He has been involved in experimental music collaborations with international artists as well as with local artists in Edmonton, and also around the province of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
George Andrix is a composer, violinist, violist, conductor, orchestral, and chamber musician who was a finalist in the Naumberg Competition (New York) in 1965 as a member of the Ithaca String Quartet. He has received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Illinois where he had the opportunity to work with such notable musicians as George Enesco, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Paul Rolland, Sir Thomas Beecham, John Cage, Max Rostal, Benjamin Britten, and Harry Partch. He also studied at the Trinity College of Music (London) where he as awarded the Ricordi Prize for Conducting. He has held the position of Assistant Professor of Music at Ithaca College (New York) and Morehead State University (Kentucky). He has also been on the faculty of Lakeland College and Grant MacEwan College in Alberta George currently resides in Edmonton where he spends his time composing, shooting flintlock rifles, hunting and fishing.
Beth Leviahas played third oboe and substitute Principal Oboe with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and has played with several Edmonton based ensembles including the Alberta Baroque Ensemble and the Citadel Theatre Orchestra. A founding member of WindRose Trio, Ms. Levia can be heard on their debut recording “Path of Contact”, the 2009 winner of the Western Canadian Music Award for best classical recording. In 2015 WindRose trio performed a recital of Canadian music for reed trio at the International Double Reed Society conference in Tokyo, Japan, and in August 2016 they were the first Canadian ensemble to play at the Harbin Summer Music Festival in Harbin, China. She is a teaching artist at the Conservatory of Music at MacEwan University, maintains a private studio, and is an in demand Clinician and Adjudicator.
Raylene Campbell is a sound artist who has embraced various creative practices including improvisation, composition, performance art, sound and image, public intervention, and Deep Listening. She studied/worked as a freelance artist in New York and Montreal from 2000 to 2009, has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, and taught in the Department of Music at Concordia University. The focus of Raylene’s creative process involves explorations of acoustic ecology, psychogeography, computer interactive technology, and audience interactivity in both performance and installation environments. Raylene is currently based in Edmonton.
Allison Balcetisis an internationally-recognized saxophonist and former NME president who has studied and collaborated with artists from around the world. Her international performance career includes concerts throughout North America, Europe, Brazil, Thailand, and Taiwan. Recent projects include partnering with André Mestre to create Curto-Circuito, a yearly workshop for young Brazilian composers, which has seen the creation of over 30 new pieces for saxophone and piano since 2014. Other creative partnerships include Colin Labadie, Ian Crutchley, Nicolás Arnáez, Thierry Alla, Rodrigo Bussad, and André Ribeiro. Her work as a soloist and chamber musician has produced over 70 world premieres.
Rio Houle, who will be debuting “Alone Time” on the No Normal Podcast, is a student and a composer, born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He spends a lot of time in the basement, has a fondness for small mammals and reptiles, and always likes to share his weird dreams. Check out some of Houle’s work over on SoundCloud.
Chenoa Anderson is one of Canada’s leading interpreters of new music. Anderson is always seeking exciting new composers and repertoire, and has commissioned and premiered dozens of solo and ensemble pieces. Current collaborations include UltraViolet, a mixed quartet specializing in new repertoire; Mixtur with composer Ian Crutchley, performing experimental repertoire for flutes, electronics, video and found instruments; and damn magpies, a free improvisation sextet.
She received her early musical training in her home city of Edmonton, later pursuing performance studies at the University of Toronto (B.Mus.) and the University of British Columbia (M.Mus.). She is also the General Manager of New Music Edmonton.
George Andrix. Credit Glen Eilers.
Allison Balcetis, Credit Dhakshboo Photography.
Raylene Campbell. Credit Steve Bates.
Rio Houle. Credit Rio Houle.
Bhuyash Neupane
Caitlin Richards. Credit Svitlana Kravchuk.
Beth Levia
Chenoa Anderson. Credit Levi Manchak.
Episode Two: Solstice - Artist and program information
Episode Two: Solstice - Artist and program information
The Break (2019)** by Jane Berry. Performed by Jane Berry and UltraViolet (Chenoa Anderson, flute; Allison Balcetis, saxophone; Amy Nicholson, cello; Roger Admiral, piano)
Hello* by The Giovanni
Metacine2020* by bracing featuring lightpirate (Evelyn Delgado and Jeff Read)
*commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
**commissioned by New Music Edmonton for UltraViolet Ensemble
Program Notes
Soft with Sleep depicts the moment when a dreamer awakens and looks into the eyes of their beloved, evoking images of the dawn of a new day and the transition from a peaceful dreamlike state to awakening. In creating this piece my desire was to offer a soothing respite from any troubles or worries the listener may hold, and to bring something infused with joy and beauty into the world. Soft with Sleep was commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council. Poetry by Christi Retson-Spalding; produced and engineered by Keith Retson-Spalding; harp, whispering, glockenspiel – Diana Tayler; singing bowls – Charlotte Lusson
The Break is a work inspired by a young woman and her experiences with Bipolar I. It specifically examines the period in time when she had her first manic episode and utilizes poetry that she created during this time. Additional elements of the text incorporate various phrases and thoughts that frequently punctuated her experience while the music itself traces numerous highs and lows, and contains within it various elements of internal conflict represented through dichotomous rhythmic and melodic figures that push and pull against one another throughout the work.
Hello: Everyone is so far away now during Covid and so I used an old recording of my son’s disembodied voice to create an awkward moment that lasts exactly two and a half minutes
Metacine2020: As people who are generally anxious, once the pandemic hit, anxiety spiked. This piece offers a journey past another world flying in an expanse far from the germs, through the germs? Definitely away from the germs. We remember surfaces all so smooth that nothing can land, surfaces that never truly existed in the landscape that was waiting to unfold. We have been anxiously reading study after study, noting first how the virus can live on surfaces and how it can be suspended in the air and enter the body through the eyes. With an acute awareness of the particles swirling around us, will we lose focus on the waves crashing nearer and nearer.
The Artists
Diana Tayler is a harpist, composer, and choral singer. Her music is inspired both by nature and the challenges and beauty of humanity, and she strives to use her compositions as a form of storytelling. Her travels across the country and abroad have afforded her many opportunities to perform both as a soloist and as a member of musical ensembles, spanning from playing keyboards at music festivals and night clubs to premiering pieces written for solo classical harp. Diana studied harp with Caroline Leonardelli and holds a Master of Arts from the University of Alberta in Linguistics and is in the first year of a Master of Music specialising in composition at the University of Alberta. Diana sings alto with i Coristi Chamber Choir and participates in other choral projects as they arise.
Jane Berry moved to Edmonton to start her PhD of Philosophy in Music Theory in the fall of 2011 and holds a Masters of Arts in Music Theory from the University of Ottawa (2011), a Bachelors of Music in Composition from Acadia University (2005), and an After Degree in Education from the University of Alberta (2020). Since arriving in Edmonton she has become a prominent member of the local music scene and choral community, working in a range of capacities from professional singer and conductor to project manager, musical director, collaborator, educator and more. In her spare time Berry serves as a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta, sings with a number of professional ensembles, volunteers with local youth, and works as an avid composer and visual artist. Her compositions have been described as making an “impact that went far beyond the music-making” (Mark Morris, 2017) and she is quickly gaining a reputation for both developing and performing works motivated by a desire to use her voice as a composer, vocalist, and visual artist to increase visibility amongst underrepresented populations.
The Giovanni is an Edmonton-based artist who expresses in various art forms. In the past year, he has worked with Mile Zero Dance on Second Hand Dances for the Crude, Crude City and March of the Magpies. He has been involved in underground DJing, drum and bass music, experimental, and avant-garde soundscapes. He is also involved in abstract and graffiti based visual art, photography, and fashion design. The Giovanni’s focus in all media is authentic REALness and a unique expression. He is driven by adventurous curiosity and constant change.
bracing works with digital systems, loves exploration and the slowness found in the remaining wilds. This has influenced his compositions to focus on their own passage of time like an unfolding path, searching around the next bend. Documenting the obstacles that we face, modulations of the speed with which we can traverse. Grown out of selected musical historical narratives, applied through varied compositional and sonic strategies.
Diana Tayler. Credit Dana Cole Photography.
Jane Berry. Credit Nanc Price
The Giovanni. Credit Mat Simpson
bracing/lightpirate performance. Credit Aran Wilkinson-Blanc and EMMEDIA
Episode Three: Solstice Special - Artist and program information
Episode Three: Solstice Special - Artist and program information
From Foreign* by Dwennimmen (Shima Robinson) and Mustafa Rafiq
Hunger, Prayer, Rot* by Brandon Wint and Adam Saikaley
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
The Artists
Nisha Patel is an award-winning queer poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion. She is a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award. She is also the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her debut collection COCONUT is forthcoming with Newest Press in 2021.
Ru Manyonga is a singer-songwriter from Edmonton who looks for inspiration from every aspect of life to bring soulful tones to the stories of her own life and the ones of those around her. Ru’s music takes on inspiration from Indie, Neo-soul, Folk-Pop and R&B music to give her the sound that she has today. At the start of this year Ru stood out in CBCs searchlight competition and was recognized as one of 10 soulful female artists in Canada. To keep up to date with her next performances and new music you can find her on all social media platforms @rumanyonga!
Dwennimmen aka Shima Robinson: Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton – Treaty 6) born poet and spoken word artist Shima Robinson embodies, with every poem, the ancient meaning of her chosen pen name. Dwennimmen is the name of an ancient African Adinkra symbol, which means strength, humility, learning and wisdom. It is no surprise, then, that this veteran of the Alberta poetry community uses a searing intellect and dynamic precision-of-language to create poetry which ushers her readers and listeners toward greater understanding and poignant reflection.
Mustafa Rafiq is a sound artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. Their primary focus recently has been in exploring feelings connected with diaspora, gender expression and alienation. For this project, sound is pulled from bowed guitar, saxophone and voice improvisations recorded at home and sounds of endemic species & nature on the island of Jamaica. This opportunity to work with Dwennimmen finds Rafiq at the helm of production for the first time, providing a chance to flesh out the feedback heavy meditational spaces Rafiq craves to bask in.
Brandon Wint is an Ontario born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joy and devastation and inequity associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world making, world altering and world breaking.
For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violence futures for himself and the world he has inherited. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after, touring performer, and has presented his work in the United States, Australia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Jamaica. His poems and essays have been published in national anthologies, including The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry (Frontenac House, 2013) and Black Writers Matter (University of Regina Press, 2019). Divine Animal is his debut book of poetry.
Adam Saikaley is a Canadian musician, born in Ottawa, Ontario. His musical practice involves improvisation, experimentation, and composition. He’s a pianist, guitarist, and harpist. He has used dvd players, no-input mixers, and speaker cones as instruments. He works in both acoustic and electronic music, solo and collaboratively. He received his B. Music in Piano Performance and Sonic Design from Carleton University.
Nisha Patel. Photo credit Dwayne Martineau
Ru Manyonga. Photo credit Kia Marcinyk @kiis.art
Dwennimmen, aka Shima Robinson
Mustafa Rafiq. Photo credit Keeton Chrapko
Brandon Wint. Photo credit: Abdul Malik
Adam Saikaley. Photo credit Gary Franks
Episode Four: A New Year - Artist and program information
Episode Four: A New Year - Artist and program information
The Turning Larch by Rebecca Bruton. Performed by Rebecca Bruton and Swanherds (Rebecca Bruton – voice, epiphone; Zoë Alexis-Abrams – voice; Laura Swankey – voice; Ryan Driver – keys, voice; D Alex Meeks – saw, voice; Pete Johnston – Double Bass)
All I dreamt; twice as much by Rebecca Bruton. Performed by Quatuor Bozzini.
cute, meaningless(2019, excerpt)for violin, piano, and 2 melodicas by Lesley Hinger. Performed by Stephanie Chua and Veronique Mathieu
Improvisation by Gary James Joynes – Modular Synthesizer and Voice Dr. Deepak Paramashivan – Sarangi and Voice
Sonic Suns (((GENESIS)))* by Gary James Joynes (please note that this piece will not be heard on the podcast but can be viewed on Vimeo.)
Warning: This video may not be suitable for viewers suffering from epilepsy or other photosensitive conditions. Viewer discretion is advised.
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
The Turning Larch No program note.
All I dreamt; twice as much This piece is fixed in intimacy, and the exquisite fragility of human contact.
Small intervals become a kind of touching between two or more players; close listening cherishes presence while time slips, continuously and unremittingly felt as loss.
cute, meaningless(2019, excerpt) No program note.
Improvisation this is brand new work from my studio just recorded on December 15th. I have chosen to share an improvisational excerpt which is a muscial study for a new commission by the Brian Webb Dance Company, which will premiere in the Fall /Winter of 2021. As part of his next ensemble Brian has also enlisted the talents of Dr. Deepak Paramashivan from Bangalore, India. He is an amazing musician, master of the Indian Sarangi and an expert in an ancient form of Karnatica chanting.
Sonic Suns (((GENESIS))) was created, composed & edited by Gary James Joynes. All sound visualizations created in studio by analog modular synthesizer programming amplified through a custom-built cymatics water tank. Thank you: aAron Munson, Larry Kelly, New Music Edmonton & Edmonton Arts Council. Note – this piece will not be heard on the podcast, but can be viewed on Vimeo.
The Artists
Rebecca Bruton is a Western Canadian composer, songmaker, and vocalist living and working in the Rocky Mountains. Her music deals with subjects of land, loss, and desire. As one half of the vocal performance duo Moss Moss Not Moss (with angela rawlings), Rebecca has also presented original work at Tectonics Festival Glasgow. Rebecca co-founded (with Alexandra Spence) Tidal ~ Signal, a Vancouver-based festival dedicated to women and trans-identifying artists working in experimental music. Her song work can be found under the pseudonym F L O O D.
Lesley Hingeris a Calgary-based composer, arts administrator, and educator. She holds a Doctorate of Music in Composition from Boston University, as well as a Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary, and Masters of Music from the University of British Columbia. Lesley’s works have been performed across North America and Europe by various ensembles, and showcased in numerous festivals and events. From 2011 to 2014, she co-directed the Acoustic Uproar concert series with fellow composer Heather Stebbins in Boston.
Gary James Joynes (aka Clinker)is an award-winning visual and sound artist that has been active in the international live audio-visual and experimental music performance community for many years. He blends the beauty and physicality of sounds auditory and visual elements in Live Cinema AV performances and in rigorous and emotional photo and video installation works. Joynes is currently developing his next large-scale immersive audio + visual installation and film series entitled The Crepuscular Sound Ray Reflecting Pool ((( Sonic Suns, Sonar Winds, Wings & Sound Beams ))) which will premiere in 2021. This new work will expand on his cymatic-based works revealing a new artistic vocabulary revealing the visualization of sound through liquids and projected light.
The most recent chapter in Joynes’ audio-visual catalog presented the award winning large-scale solo installation work entitled Broken Sound in May of 2015. Broken Sound was awarded the 2016 Eldon & Ann Foote Edmonton Visual Arts prize for best solo art show of 2015. His previous solo show entitled Topographic Sound in early 2013 showed his critically acclaimed work Ouroboros which had its large-scale premiere as a featured work in City Hall at the inaugural Nuit Blanche Edmonton Festival in September 2015.
Recent Live Cinema performances include MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP (New York), DAT CONFERENCE (Missoula), ELEKTRA16 (Montreal), INDUSTRY BRUNCH (Detroit / Chicago), CMKY (Boulder, USA), New Forms 14 (Vancouver), MUTEK_IMG (Montreal), NME Now Hear This Festival of New Music 2016 & 2017 (Edmonton), SoundsLike (Saskatoon), Koffler Centre (Toronto), Electric Fields (Ottawa), Roulette Mixology Festival (New York), Soundasaurus (Calgary), and MUTEK_10 (Montreal).
Previous years have seen Clinker’s sound and video work performed and exhibited in Canada and internationally in festivals and events including the The Banff Centre, Electric Fields (Ottawa), Mountain Computer Music Festival(Montana),Roulette Mixology Festival (New York), Soundasaurus 1 & 2 (Calgary), Soundfjord re/flux Sublimated Landscape / Sonic Topology @ ICA London (London, UK), Emmedia Sonic Boom 2009(Calgary), The Banff Centre – Interactive Screen (2008 & 2007 editions), 2008 Leonard Cohen International Festival, Tanzstartklar Festival 2008(Graz, Austria), New Forms Festival 2007 & 2003 (Vancouver), Sprawl – Interplay_4 Festival 2007(Amsterdam, Dublin, London, Bristol), Sea Of Sound Festival 2005(The Works – Edmonton), MUTEK Le Placard Festival 2005 (Montreal), and Standart 2003 (Madrid, Spain).
Rebecca Bruton. Credit Sarah Lianne Westmore.
Lesley Hinger. Credit Marcel Vollet.
Gary James Joynes. Credit Gary James Joynes.
Episode Five: Out of the Polar Vortex - Artist and program information
Episode Five: Out of the Polar Vortex - Artist and program information
Nice and Clean* by Cris Derksen. Performed by Cris Derksen and Darren Creech
Once upon a time in Kobé, Japan** by Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D.
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton
** commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
Nice and Clean “With this I wanted to create a piece of music that showcases white folks talking about Indigenous folks. The audio comes from a 1967 Documentary called Elliot Lake talking about relocation of “indians” from reserves to the town of Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario.” -Cris Derksen
Once upon a time in Kobé, Japan This piece is a surreal sound walk across streets of Kobé, Japan based on the author’s travels as a Music Faculty, Semester at Sea, Spring 2020 voyage. Based on recordings of the street sounds collected over four to five days in Kobé and sounds of the ship, this imaginary soundwalk is situated in a dream and introduces to the listener the sounds of modern Japan from street entertainment at the Chinese New Year’s festival in Kobé in February 2020 to more upscale sounds of American Jazz. The narration in Japanese and English in Kobé communication services is juxtaposed with communication in English by the American faculty within a Japanese environment. This highlights the composer’s simultaneous experience of two foreign cultures: American and Japanese and a longing to return to Japan and to the ship: MV World Odyssey.
The Artists
Juno nominated Cris Derksen, originally from Northern Alberta, Canada, is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Derksen braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music. As a composer she has her foot in many worlds working in choral, symphonic, film, theatre and dance, with a new commission from the Calgary Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra premiering in 2020. As a performer Derksen performs nationally and internationally. Recent destinations include Hong Kong, Australia, Mongolia, Europe, Mexico and a whole lot of Canada: the place Derksen refers to as home. She is represented by Latitude 45 arts.
An innovative artist, queer classical pianist Darren Creech “shows his belief in a new potential for the classical concert stage” (CBC Music). “Carving a niche as the only queer classical pianist to fiercely highlight his identify on stage” (National Sawdust Log), Darren has performed across Canada, and recent highlights include Luminato Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. You can follow his glittery adventures on Instagram at @queerpianist.
Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. is an Ethnomusicologist, former Music Faculty at the Semester at Sea, Spring 2020 voyage, and a Canada-based Sufi singer-songwriter and acousmatic composer. Her research expertise in sounds of religion has been awarded first Prize at the Society for Ethnomusicology meeting (2017) and Frank Henderson Prize in the study of Women and Religion.
As a performer, Shumaila crosses gender boundaries while singing Pakistani songs of Muslim heritage. She has performed at the World Odyssey (2020), Femme Wave Festival (2019), Canada’s Music Incubator (2019) the University of Alberta (2016), and the Banff Arts Centre (2015). Calgary Herald described her music as “mesmerizing,” and “emotionally nerve-striking,” and carrying “vocal virtuosity,” “expressing radically different inner existential visions,”(2015) and Edmonton Journal recognized Hemani’s music for “enriching” the city’s cultural life.”
Shumaila’s acousmatic compositions: Supplication and Sarang: Perils of Heavy Rainfall were premiered at Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)’s 2020 Virtual Conference, and Perils of Heavy Rainfall received Second Prize at Listening to COVID Contest by the Canadian Association for Acoustic Ecology.
Her song Anticipating was featured in the Cross-Canada tour on Suicide Prevention Awareness and Hope (2020) and and curated by many mental health and wellness playlists on Spotify. Radio Airplay’s John Wright considered Anticipating as “prophetic” expressing “a visceral emotionality and a deep musicality expertly ushering listeners into a place of contemplation and consideration.
Supported by the Edmonton Arts Council’s Cultural Diversity Award, Hemani will release her debut album Mannat (A prayer, A Wish) in March 2021 based on traditional Sufi repertoire learned from two master-musicians in Pakistan.
Cris Derksen. Credit Tanja Tiziana.
Darren Creech. Credit Daniel Lastres-Rodriguez.
Shumaila Hemani.
Episode Six: Spring Sprang - Artist and program information
Episode Six: Spring Sprang - Artist and program information
Petrichor** by Cole Dorchester. Performed by Marek Orszulik, guitar.
XENOYOGA ((I REALLY WANT SOME)) by Xuan Ye 叶轩
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton
** commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
@djxenoyoga (2017 ongoing) performs live and also exists as automated performance systems. Derived from common techniques of DJ as a trope, @djxenoyoga samples and mixes textual, sonic, and visual internet readymades into cyborgian spells and entropic chants of discursive mashups. The audiovisual performances attempt to remediate/alienate the mis/disinformative realities of post-truth mediascape as a hacking ritual that works as and against ideological hypnosis. XENOYOGA(((TROLL THE SCROLL))) in part translates tweets of CNN breaking news into melodies and speech voices as samples, in part remixes and hinges on the first single XENOYOGA((I REALLY WANT SOME)).
Toronto based DJ xenoyoga presents a live audiovisual remix of their audiovisual live improvisation set,XENOYOGA((I REALLY WANT SOME)). Employing the common techniques of DJ as a trope, utilizing web installations, roombas, and sampling and assembling audio and visual from found materials online, the artist aims to alienate political discourses and popular culture into the cyborgian spell of machine and human.
As the artist states: “(━+ ﾟ｡☆*｡｡ meet asian-pop-mannequin-vocaloid *:♪･ﾟ’☆ when xenofeminist-alienation meets trumpian-shock-and-awe :･ﾟ｡･’★,｡･,An entropic chant of discursive mashup. Get in the groove .o｡*｡ .｡<)ﾉ :｡･:*:*XENOYOGA((I REALLY WANT SOME)).
The Artists
Cole Dorchester is a composer, vocalist, and electronic musician currently pursuing studies in composition at the University of Alberta. Their work runs a wide gamut of styles – focusing on timbre, and delicate interwoven textures. They have studied composition with Scott Smallwood and Nicolás Arnáez, and singing with Lary Benson.
Dorchester’s new work, Petrichor was recently commissioned by New Music Edmonton for guitarist Marek Orszulik, and is being presented on this program for the first time.
Xuan Ye 叶轩 is a Chinese artist, musician and engineer, currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto as an uninvited guest.
As a musician, X is techne agnostic and genre eclectic, and has been lauded as “one of Canada’s most exciting voices in textural soma” by EVERYSEEKER. X has performed at Send + Receive (CA), Open Waters Festival (CA), Silence Guelph (CA), Music Gallery (CA), Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center (US), Suoni Per Il Popolo (CA), OBEY Convention (CA), Kazoo! Fest (CA), Electric Eclectics Festival (CA), Downtown Music Gallery (US), Zoomin’ Night (CN), Le Festival Croisements (CN), etc. X’s live performances and releases have also received critical accolades from Bandcamp, Musicworks and Exclaim!
X’s installation works have been featured and exhibited internationally, including Fonderie Darling (CA), CONTACT Photography Festival, Varley Art Gallery of Markham (CA), Canadian Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario (CA), Vivid Projects (UK), Supermarket Art Fair (SE), InterAccess (CA), Inside-out Art Museum (CN), Goethe-Institut (Beijing & Montreal), ArtAsiaPacific, KUNSTFORUM (GE), Trinity Square Video (CA), among others. X has received supports from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and is a finalist of 2018 EQ Bank Digital Artists Award.
Classical guitarist Marek Orszulik completed a dual honours degree in Biological & Medicinal Chemistry and Music at Keele University. Continuing his studies on the with renowned guitarist Mark Ashford at the Birmingham Conservatoire, he gained his Master of Music degree at the Birmingham Conservatoire. He has performed as a soloist in numerous arts festivals and events in Europe and Canada. Recent engagements include recitals for New Music Edmonton, and the Edmonton Classical Guitar Society, as well as a performance in the presence of His Highness, Aga Khan IV. Lately he has worked closely with British composer Andrew Glover-Whitley in the realization of his guitar works, giving the world premiere performance of his epic Sonata for Guitar (written in 2006) at the 2016 Edmonton Fringe Festival. He has since received several dedications from this composer including Two Pieces for Guitar, which he premiered at the Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions (Wilfrid Laurier University, ON) in 2017, and Jackdaw, Interplays and Codas: A Fantasy for Solo Guitar.
Xuan Ye. Credit Mary Chen
Marek Orszulik. Credit David Grainger-Brown.
Episode Seven: Craning to See the Cranes - Artist and program information
Episode Seven: Craning to See the Cranes - Artist and program information
Duo I, for Soprano and Loudspeaker* by Nicolás Arnáez. Performed by Jessica Wagner, soprano.
Silkys (2020) for oboe and manipulated field recordings. Composed and performed by Catherine Lee, oboe
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
Duo I starts a series of compositions for solo instrument and live interactive electronics. Each piece of the series will be dedicated to the performer who premiers the work, since its composition is developed following the instrumentalist’s musicality, preferences, most enjoyed techniqes, and such. It has been a real honour to work with soprano Jessica Wagner on this adventure.
On this collaboration, human and computer play a crucial role when working together to build their own interpretation of the written work. The piece’s soul is based on the given artistic capability of the computer, a software that listens, waits, and interprets musical lines in conjunction with the performer, as normally is done in a duo.
Silkys (2020) for oboe and manipulated field recordings is a collaboration between Catherine Lee and Juniana Lanning. In Silkys, a blended sound world is created by exploring sounds and movements of the bombyx mori (domestic silk moth) that highlights the beautiful, unexpected and often overlooked aspects of the organism through its developmental stages and eventual metamorphosis into an adult silkworm moth. Originally conceived as a live performance, Silkys evolved into a fixed media work from Lee and Lanning’s respective isolations during Covid-19. Just as the bombyx mori cocoons and transforms, so too has our existence and work changed during this time of seclusion.
The Artists
Originally from Godoy Cruz Mendoza Argentina, Nicolás Arnáez is now based in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. His music compositions use as a root the concept of interactivity in music, which applies in electroacoustic pieces with real-time sound processing, the creation of interactive sound installations as well as into acoustic ensembles. These pieces have the characteristic of using the space of reproduction as an expressive music parameter; sounds are carefully spread on the space with specific trajectories and locations, carefully loaded with constructive characteristics, this is technically accomplished in a multichannel speakers distribution by the use of different spatialization tools like intensity panning, two or three dimensional ambisonics and VBAP, this is normally combined by performers’ specific positioning, movement in space indications, among others. Nicolás’ works and contribution to the cultural scene have been awarded in Argentina and Canada; his pieces have been performed also in Brazil and the United States. He is an active and experienced sound technician and sound projectionist on both, the popular and new music scenes. He holds a Doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Alberta.
Jessica Wagner is a soprano currently residing in Edmonton, Canada. She holds a Master’s degree in Voice Performance from the University of Victoria, having studied under Benjamin Butterfield. As a performer, Jessica has a diverse repertoire and performance interest, having pursued further studies at both baroque academies and contemporary music labs. She is an active performer, singing many Canadian and world premieres, as well as joining choirs, orchestras and ensembles as a guest soloist. Jessica also regularly joins ensembles, such as Pro Coro Canada and St. Joseph’s Basilica Schola Cantorum in Edmonton.
Considered a “new breed of instrumental specialist,” (New Music Buff) Dr. Catherine Lee offers “immaculate, masterful oboe playing” (The Double Reed) in combination with inspired and discerning musicality across an impressive range of genres and styles. Her “deep understanding of the expressive possibilities of her instruments in both traditional and extended techniques” (New Music Buff) leads to the flow of “fresh, unencumbered musical ideas” (The Double Reed) that characterizes her dynamic performance. Naturally inquisitive and eager to push the boundaries of oboe performance technique, Lee actively commissions evocative new music that showcases her “ravishing, declamatory tone and absolute control over her instrument.” (Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review) An expert performer of oboe, English horn, and oboe d’amore, Lee has extensive experience in classical, contemporary, interdisciplinary collaborations, and free improvisation settings. A founding member of the Lee+Hannafin Duo alongside Matt Hannafin, Lee is also part of the Re:Soundings trio which performed Roscoe Mitchell’s seminal work Nonaah at the Park Ave Armory (NYC, 2019) and whose recording of the piece is available on “Roscoe Mitchell and Ostravaska Banda” (WideHive Records, 2020). A former member of Orchestre Symphonique de Longueuil, Catherine has also appeared with the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Portland Opera Orchestra, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal among others. Lee’s solo cd social sounds, released in 2013 on Teal Creek Music and featuring worksby Canadian composers received wide acclaim, having been deemed “a CD as compelling as it is eminently listenable.” (The WholeNote) A well known researcher and dedicated teacher, Lee is on faculty at Willamette University and holds a Doctor of Music in Oboe Performance from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec), and certification from the Deep Listening Institute (New York).
Nicolás Arnáez
Jessica Wagner. Credit L Photography.
Catherine Lee. Credit Rene Grosso.
Episode Eight: Solstices and Snoring Dogs - Artist and program information
Episode Eight: Solstices and Snoring Dogs - Artist and program information
monograph of bird’s eye views – performed by the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Michael Francis conductor
Tincture performed by Quatour Bozzini
You Moving Stars – For Voices of the Pearl – performed by Steven Thachuk guitar, Anne Harley, soprano
Program Notes
monograph of bird’s eye views for orchestra
Commissioned by the National Youth Orchestra of Canada
“…And outside the narrow window’s bars, the morning fluttered, sang softly to itself.” – Michael Prior, from Condolences, Sparrows
Monograph: a learned treatise on a small area of learning; also: a written account of a single thing.
Bird’s-eye view: an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird.
Tincture for string quartet
This music has been commissioned by the Quatuor Bozzini, and has been made possible with the support of Liselyn Adams, who dedicates this music to Elise Williams, Eve Egoyan, Claudine Ferron, Mr. & Mrs. Sam Sarick, Jacques Drouin, who dedicates this music to “ma douce moiti ”
You Moving Stars for soprano and electric guitar
Written for: Anne Harley, Voices of the Pearl, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. With special thanks to: Steven Thachuk, Andrew Nguy, and Bryan Levman
This work sets female voices from the Therīgāthāin in Pali, and the Golden Light Sūtra in early Chinese from the Dunhuang scroll. It is the seventh scroll of the Sūtra on the Supreme King of Golden Light, more commonly known as the Golden Light Sūtra. There were three translations of this text from Sanskrit to Chinese, with this edition completed in the seventh century by the Tang Dynasty monk Yijing (義淨). The Therīgāthā is the earliest collection of women’s literature known in the world, and it collects spiritual poems by and about early female disciples of the historical Buddha (from approximately 5th century BCE).
Voices of the Pearl traces, in newly commissioned song cycles, the tenuous lineage of women who dared to encounter the unmediated divine; their efforts span time, religion, nation and culture. The project commissions, performs and records musical works from composers across the globe, setting text by and about female esoterics from world traditions throughout history, reclaiming these lost voices and the tradition of female spirituality. The female esoteric practitioner is twice marginalized in the world’s traditions: 1) the mystics’ direct contact with the divine threatens the hierarchical structures of organized religion and so they are, because of this, sometimes labeled heretical 2) women are often considered by religious traditions incapable, due to their female bodies, to attain an authentic direct mystical contact with the divine.
The Artists
Kate Stashko is a dance artist currently based in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan / Edmonton. She
works both independently and with Good Women Dance Collective and has danced with artists
including Peggy Baker, Justine A. Chambers, Mélanie Demers, Helen Husak, Mile Zero Dance,
Lin Snelling and Heidi Strauss. Kate has performed throughout Canada, including collaborations
with musicians, poets and spoken word artists, and (in non-pandemic times), loves travelling to
train around the world. She studied at the School of Alberta Ballet before graduating from the
School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Kate teaches dance and Pilates, and is completing a degree
in Psychology and Political Science at Athabasca University. She is an avid cyclist, climate
activist, gardener and coffee drinker. Right now she is working with KO Dance Projects,
collaborating with Heidi Strauss and Krista Lin on a new duet, and making a solo dance
for/about her pelvis.
Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel specializes in concert music composition, the creation of mixed works that employ digital technologies, and intermedia concert works. Described as “writing music that reflects her intelligence and audaciousness” (Sir Andrew Davis); “restrained and beautifully coherent from beginning to end” (barczablog); and “impressively subtle and sensuous” (ConcertoNet), her work inhabits sonic worlds that are primarily concerned with textural landscapes, resonance, and variances in colour.
Emilie’s compositions have been performed/recorded across North and South America, Europe, and the UK, by Mark Takeshi McGregor, Continuum, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Women on the Verge, Duo Nyans, Voices of the Pearl, Cecilia String Quartet, Plumes Ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini, Arditti Quartet, Land’s End Ensemble, Luciane Cardassi, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Onyx Trio and junctQín keyboard collective, among others.
Emilie’s artistic practice has been recognized through several significant awards, including the Land’s End Ensemble Composer Competition (2016), Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award (2015), Canadian Music Centre Toronto Emerging Composer Award (2012), and the Canadian Federation of University Women Elizabeth Massey Award (2012). Her work has received support through the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Banff Centre, Canadian Music Centre, University of Toronto, University of Montana, and the SOCAN Foundation.
Based in Edmonton, Emilie currently teaches composition at MacEwan University, and she is Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Emilie completed her Doctorate in Composition at the University of Toronto in 2013, under the guidance of Gary Kulesha and Robin Elliott.
Kate Stashko. Credits Marc J Chalifoux & Ian Jackson
Emilie LeBel. Credit Phillipa C Photography.
Episode Nine: Into the Heat Dome - Artist and program information
Episode Nine: Into the Heat Dome - Artist and program information
To the Ends of the Earth (2021)* by Catherine Bevan. Performed by Sahil Chugh, piano.
Steps Six Through Seven of Many Stars by Instant Places (Ian Birse and Laura Kavanaugh)
* commissioned by New Music Edmonton with funds from the Edmonton Arts Council
Program Notes
To the Ends of the Earth is a meditation for solo piano consisting entirely of controlled improvisation. Accompanied by a simple poem, it presents its performer with a personal and modular journey through their needs and wants; ranging from the sensory experiences of a gentle breeze or the smell of rain, to the emotional needs of forgiveness and acceptance, to complete surrender and ego death.
The Artists
Catherine Bevan (b. 1996) is an emerging composer based in Edmonton, writing primarily in the acoustic medium. Her works often take their form from research in music psychology, and she successfully defended her Masters of Music thesis on “Text and Controlled Improvisation as Vehicles for Musical Development”.
Her works have been workshopped and performed by the likes of the Land’s End Ensemble, the
Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, the Association of Canadian Women Composers, and the Winds of the Scarborough Philharmonic. Academically, she holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music from York University, graduating summa cum laude, and a Masters of Music in Composition from the University of Alberta, graduating with honours of the highest distinction. She is the recipient of over a dozen awards and scholarships, including a SSHRC research grant, the Violet Archer Graduate Scholarship in Composition, and the Dr. Peter Zaparinuk Memorial Scholarship in Composition.
Sahil Chugh is a pianist/composer who has performed with Edmonton-based bands such as the Denim Daddies and K-Riz. He also leads his own group, the Sahil Chugh Trio; their debut album will be released in 2022. A long-time student of the piano and with an intuitive and proficient technical ability, Sahil brings a wide range of influence and a mature understanding of rhythm and melody to all the music he plays.
For online performances Instant Places are developing an audiovisual capture and encoding system that combines live action with altered reality visual interventions in a multi-camera switching matrix. Under the collaborative name Instant Places Laura Kavanaugh and Ian Birse use performances, generative installations, and telematic networks to create instant places of imagination and connection, using hardware/software systems they custom-build for each project. They have created artworks on location throughout Japan, Australia, the Americas, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Most recently they live-streamed a performance from the Österreichischer Rundfunk studio to the EBU Ars Acustica satellite broadcaster during a self-directed residency in Vienna, and were commissioned by Kunstradio to create an audio work on location they mastered at ORF in February 2020, performed in collaboration with improvising dancers Charlotte Zerbey and Alessandro Certini in Florence, and created a generative visual score for their streaming performance with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra during GIOFest XIII.
Suzette Chan writes about the arts and pop culture.
Caitlin Richards has a BFA in Art and Design from the UofA and a Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management with a focus on Museum/Gallery Management from MacEwan University. Her recent direction in hand-drawn animation and sound art stems from her interest in the relationship between the shadows and light of an environment. The process of using automatic mark making in her stop motion animations to convey the transformative cycle of decay and regeneration brings her back to her painterly background in expressionist semi-figurative abstraction. Her audio/video pieces have been recently shown at Mile Zero Dance, Metro Cinema, New Music Edmonton, Gotta Minute Film Festival, Fava Fest, and Found Festival. In 2017, Caitlin was the artist in residence at the Ortona Armoury, resulting in an installation inspired by Kafka’s Odradek. In 2019, she was commissioned by the Edmonton Arts Council to create a series of short video animations to play in LRT station TVs across Edmonton. Caitlin performs in the violin/viola duo The Olm and hosts the weekly radio show Imaginary Landscapes on CJSR.
Caffeine, Listen To What You Consume by Abram Hindle
nul terminated by Abram Hindle
Feb 21st by Matthew Cardinal
it’s not weak to ask for help by Matthew Cardinal
Program Notes
Feb 21st – Just a simple song with electric piano through my modular synthesizer and some moog. Some rhythm at the end. A little cold, a little warm
It’s not weak to ask for help is a piece from my score for the documentary Digging in the Dirt. The documentary is about mental health on the oil patch. It’s a simple theme for the film based around rhodes piano and electric guitar.
The Artists
Abram Hindle, sometimes known musically as SkruntSkrunt, is a software sound artist and university professor. Research has lead Abram down a mad scientist’s path to music. By offering a unique and varied combination of audio, noise, ambience and visuals. Abram explores the soundscapes of physical simulation and synthesis. Abram leverages a wide range of custom software and stolen software ranging from office applications, physics sims, video-games and custom-built user interfaces, in order to produce jarring synthesis.
Matthew Cardinal is an amiskwaciy (Edmonton, Alberta) based musician, composer, and sound designer, known for his work with Polaris Short List nominee group nêhiyawak. Cardinal’s solo full-length album “Asterisms” was released in October 2020 on Arts & Crafts. Cardinal’s music moves from delicate, minimalist pieces to vast drones and sparkling, modular synthesizer beats. He has been performing music across the country for the last few years in various groups, as well as doing soundtrack work in film and sound for museum installations.
