Brodie West Quintet’s Fortress
The interplay here, particularly between West’s saxophone and Tania Gill’s piano, has me seeing a malleable object, a bright children’s toy or heavy paper, folded inside out and back...
Malcolm Sutton
Malcolm Sutton lives in Toronto. His fiction has appeared in Maisonneuve and Joyland, and his writing on art has appeared in C Magazine and Border Crossings. He is the Founding Editor of The Coming Envelope journal of innovative prose, and the Fiction Editor at BookThug Press. Learn more about his novel Job Shadowing and other work at https://malcolmsutton.wordpress.com/writing/.
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson’s Searching for the Disappeared Hour
Halvorson on guitar and Courvoisier on piano work magic together. The timbre of the guitar, so similar at times to the piano, allows Halvorson to almost hide notes inside...
Alister Spence/Joe Williamson/Christopher Cantillo – “Opening”
Bells and bell-like sounds and cymbals, and other metal sounds, a searching piano and everything slowed down to a pace of uncertainty; in the middle the double bass like...
Poor Isa’s “let’s drink the sea and dance”
Poor Isa (Frederik Leroux and Ruben Machtelinckx), “let’s drink the sea and dance”: I sometimes return to a piece of music over and over without knowing why. A return...
Susana Santos Silva Impermanence’s “The Ocean Inside a Stone”
A five-member ensemble, led by trumpet player/composer Susana Santos Silva. Unexpected fusions, often signalled by Hugo Raro’s synthesizer work, take to the listener to places of memory—now Radiohead, now...
Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Ryoko Ono: “001”
Ryoko Ono on saxophone, and Uchihashi Kazuhisa on daxophone, an instrument developed in the 1980s. On this track, wildly assertive playing, competing rhythms, competing repetitions, noisy intrusions that linger...
Karen Ng’s “Day 3 i”
It’s difficult to know what analogy works to describe Karen Ng’s stunning solo saxophone recordings: a thought process, a dialogue with the self, a creator reacting to her moment-by-moment...
Punk Kong’s “Pull Ninja”
Unusual soundscapish jazz takes noisy turns, distorted climbs, and opens to beautiful spaces. Pull Ninja by Punk Kong
Geir Sundstøl’s “Warszawa-Alabama”
Very unexpected coupling of Coltrane and Bowie. Brødløs by Geir Sundstøl
Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi, “Staying Human”
Long tones, voluminous room sound (parking garage!), spare and grand, maybe scary, maybe consoling. Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi by Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi
Kim Myhr’s “You|Me”
Ambient becomes prominent, background to the fore, patterns and unexpected disruptions, in Kim Myhr’s You | Me. You | me by Kim Myhr
Alcorn, Bordreuil, and Laubrock: “Indigo Blue (Wayfarin Stranger)”
Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, and Ingrid Laubrock – pedal steel, cello, and saxophone – create an otherworldly sense of summer. Bird Meets Wire by Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, Ingrid Laubrock
Scott Clark’s “Quiet Friend”
From a solo album by percussionist/composer Scott Clark: “Quiet Friend” begins and continues with long, warm waves of harmonica. Companion drums then quietly enter – a strange combination that...
Bloop’s “Enchantments”
Lina Allemano plays trumpet and Mike Smith does live processing of the sound. The effects are magical: multiplication, sound shadows, parallel instruments. Proof by BLOOP (Lina Allemano / Mike...
Jonas Cambien Trio “Creationism”
Jonas Cambien Trio’s “Creationism” is like residue from “Pump up the Jam” discovered on a log or beside a pond. Sounds like prepared piano and what an unusual effect...