Category: music

music performance and recordings

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pics of DDR Rundfunk

well, i’m back.  still recovering and processing the whole trip.  robert and i recorded @ P4 studio, tracked by the very excellent human christian bader who runs planet roc in the same building.  we got some great music down and generally had a good musical time.  hope to be doing more of this soon.

in the meantime, here, in no particular order and most of them very fuzzy, are some pictures.  also check out the studio websites above—they have some great shots.

best for the holidays.  lots of upcoming things, including a feature in musicworks magazine and an artist talk hosted by vague terrain.

the long threatened CD is on its way as well…..stay tuned.

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The Bell Garden / Berlin

my new solo live performance project, the bell garden, had its debut here in toronto tonight as part of musideum‘s live performance series, terrain.  the bell garden is a new series of performances using harmonium and percussion objects, along some of the archived field recordings with which i often work.  it is an extension of the shruti performances, more “musical” but still exploring a contemplative and personal sound world.

the first performance, rough edges and all, is available here for download.  i would suggest downloading the file for higher quality listening.

i am off to germany to visit family, and finally, finally record with my good friend and colleague robert lippok, in the former east berlin radio studios.  i am tremendously excited to be making music with robert, and even more excited to be doing it in a building so steeped in world history (and intrigue).  watch this space for news on the upcoming release.

happy holidays.

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nuit blanche 2009

a time lapse film of the peggy baker dance project nuit blanche performance is up, thanks to filmmaker midi ondera, here.

many thanks to peggy, the dancers, meredith potter, ben grossman and phil strong for all their hard work.

incidentally, confluence, the triptych of works that i have spoken about earlier, will be premiered in toronto feb 24-28 2010.  the music is coming along nicely and the final show will be about an hour long.

hope to see you there.

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belfast kommt

a few more sleeps until i go to ISEA 2009.  i will, as i have mentioned, be presenting a new video, the white dog, and will be performing my shruti audiovisual project on aug 27 around 9pm.  please drop by if you get a chance—coincidentally my friends from autorickshaw will be in belfast at the same time.  expect a big toronto reunion at the nearest pub afterwards—i haven’t seen any of them in over a year.

soon after returning, i will be doing the harmonium audiovisual project at the toronto portion of the international indian electronica festival.  september 4 is the date, and rolly’s garage is the place.  9pm start, cover tba (check the website).  i look forward to doing this project here in toronto.  some new surprises are in store for this performance, including the excellent reading of text i wrote, courtesy of berlin electronica star robert lippok, who incidentally has a great voice.

sept 19 has my visual work as part of the next bird project concert.  this ensemble of flutes, voice, piano, poetry, electroacoustic sound and video is still going strong, and we are well into our season.  unfortunately i won’t be there to do live visuals, as i will be on a plane to spain to present my new work kailash, the winner of the CDMC/Ars Sonora prize.  the piece will be premiered at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Alicante, and i am really thrilled to be going there to present.

finally, peggy baker and i will be presenting the dance/audiovisual installation project move @ nuit blanche toronto on october 3rd (7pm to sunrise).  24 dancers and a great band—myself, ben grossman, and phil strong.

hope to see you there.  somewhere.

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radio/CD

the spanish radio piece i spoke about in an earlier post is nearing completion.  my liason for the project is miguel alvarez fernandez, who translated the text i wrote into spanish and recorded the fantastic reading of it by radio clasicá personality gregorio parra.  things sound sooooo much better in spanish.

i am also in the happy position of having 2 options for releasing the new CD.  discussions are ongoing, but expect a late 2009 release as CD and on bandcamp.

i will be in residence as peggy baker’s accompanist this summer for various classes at the national ballet school, as well as for her yearly teacher’s seminar.  playing the drums will be nice—it always is with the inimitable ms. baker.

not to mention the little hurricane that is our daughter leena.

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more international: spanish national radio

just found out i am the winner of the XVI radio creation works contest, administered by radio clasica (spanish national radio) and ars sonora.  this is a major prize, and i am really honoured and very flattered to have been chosen.  i will be creating  a new long form radio piece called “kailash”.  the work will be debuted at the international festival of contemporary music of alicante in late sept 2009.

thanks to the jury and to senor miguel alvarez-fernandez for awarding me such a high honour.

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homewreckers and peggy baker

that post title didn’t sound quite right.

i am just finishing work on a new video for german dj trio homewreckers (that’s a still from the video there).  they asked me to do something for “the other side of town”, a track from their new CD, american ruhr.  more info later on where and when you might be able to see it.  a great quote from kodwo eshun on the result: a dialogue for a frame and an edge.

the first of a few scores this year for canada’s national treasure, dancer peggy baker is complete.  earthling will premiere @ the PUSH festival in vancouver, january 22 and 23rd are the performance dates.  more info here if you are in the vancouver area.  i will be making more music and video for peggy later this year for a new full length work.  stay tuned.

work continues on a couple of solo CDs!  slow going but i am really enjoying the minutiae of crafting the sound for these releases.

if you happen to be reading this before january 28th, come down to the tranzac in toronto, where i will be doing my first toronto performance of shruti, the field recording based audio performance i have done in germany, newfoundland, and banff.  each one is different….this performance has been programmed as part of david sait’s and michael keith’s night bazaar series.

…..reading this over i see that the holiday is over.  more to come.

the other side of town video still

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2008/2009

it has been some time since my last post, and things are starting to wrap up here @ old monkey studios.

its been pretty memorable, really (see the post before this one). but there is no point going over a list of what happened, that’s what this blog is for.

i will say that 2009 promises to be full of great projects:

*a new solo CD is in the works, as well as documentation/recording projects with ensemble polaris, evergreen club gamelan maza meze (yes!) and more.

*i will be starting the creative process with the unbelieveable peggy baker, creating audio and video for an upcoming 1/2 hour dance work.  possible CD release is being considered as well.

*robert lippok and i are in the planning stages for some canadian concerts and possibly a CD recording

*work continues on audio and video pieces that will be influenced by the drumming and recording i did in kolkata this past fall

*who the heck knows what else?  that should keep me relatively busy i should think….

all the best to you and yours.

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back in toronto

well, kolkata was more hectic than i had imagined.  all my well meant intentions to keep up blog posts failed in the light of puja dhakis, pollution, sweets, and arguments about shah rukh khan.  there are worse ways to spend a month i think.

lots of video footage, lots of audio has been collected and will be processed over the winter, perhaps into something new.

in the meantime, you can check out the promo video for “when the gods came down to earth”, below.  its pretty impressive, if i do say so myself—i did not get the chance to see it personally as i was in banff at the time.  the music for this video is one of the later pieces—in all there is about 35 minutes of sound.  further info on the project is available on the website.

until next time…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEyQZ6rHAYM]