new solo set

update:  a very nice review is here.

as you may know if you are a facebook connection, i will be opening for colin stetson at the perimeter institute for theoretical physics on march 31.  in honour of that occasion, i have been working on finally making a live set for anudrutam, something i have been wanting to do for a long time.

i am happy with what is happening so far—a re-visiting of the works on the cd in a way that keeps to the ideas and intent behind the original tracks but also refreshes them for live performance.  have a listen, and see you in kitchener on the 31 of march.

http://soundcloud.com/debsinha/perimeter-institute-preview

http://soundcloud.com/debsinha/perimeter-institute-preview-1

nuukoono in wire magazine

very happy to have learned that knuckleduster received a great review in wire magazine in the upcoming april 2012 issue by none other than clive bellrobert and i are thrilled to have this going out to the world.  hit us up on twitter to stay on top of news from the duo, including info on a show at berlin’s haus der kulturen der welt in june and our upcoming european tour.

don’t forget to visit the knuckleduster website for video, links to purchase the cd, and other news.

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upcoming DEB: here and elsewhere

Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year. After many months, it is time for an upcoming DEB, the first of 2012.

Some very excellent new projects in the pipeline, and a lot of outside-of-Toronto things happening that I thought I would like to let you all know about. If you find yourself somewhere, look for me.

Good tidings to you and your kin for 2012. I hope we see each other soon.

Deb

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1. Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Manitoba Theatre Centre Warehouse
Opens January 20
Tickets available here

I’m pleased to be the associate sound designer (with John Gzowski) for the MTC Warehouse production of the Shaw play. Directed by Alisa Palmer.

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2. Peggy Baker Dance Projects at NYC’s 92nd St Y
Feb 24-27
More information here

Peggy Baker Dance Projects is taking 3 works to the Harkness Dance Festival in NYC, 2 of which I have composed the music for: Coalesce, a 35 min trio, and Armour, a duet choreographed by NYC’s Doug Varone. I will be accompanying the, er, company to participate in the performances’ first half, where the creative genesis for the full works is presented to the audience. The 2nd half of the show is the full production.

I’d like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for helping with the travel costs of this trip through the Travel Grants to Musicians program.

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3. Knuckleduster CD’s coming very, very soon

I am super thrilled to announce that Nuukoono, the CD of my new duo Knuckleduster (with Berlin based Robert Lippok) now actually exists in the real world. We are getting ready for an early February online release, and you will be able to buy physical copies from our Warsaw based label Gustaff. Coinciding with the release will be the release of some live video from our show in Toronto last November, shot by Jeremy Mimnagh, and some other bonus material.

You can read about the genesis of the project and listen to an interview about the recording process in the fantastic GDR Radio studios in Berlin at our website.

I’ll let you all know when the CD is available online. It’s a really gorgeous object with a giant cover designed by Berlin design house AEIOU.

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4. The Light nears completion

After many months of work, my (almost) one hour Höerspiel (radio work) is nearly complete. I will be meeting with the inimitable surround sound master engineer Phil Strong to create a 5.1 mix in the next while, and the AV performance version is now nearly complete. You can preview this project at my vimeo page, here
and here.

Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council’s Grants to Media Artists (Mid Career and Established) program.

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5. ds in residence at the Koffler Centre with Yair Dalal and Frank London
March 28, with workshops the week preceding the concert. More information here.

I am thrilled to be part of a great group of Toronto musicians with NYC based Yair Dalal and Frank London. These 2 musicians are at the top of their game and we expect a lively week of rehearsals and composing preceding the concert at the Jane Mallet Theatre on March 28.

Details are still being set, but set aside the date for some very special music (and possibly some visuals programmed by yours truly).

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More is coming, including a play written by and starring my sister Pamela at Theatre Passe Muraille, opening in May and directed by Alan Dilworth. I’ll be sending out another missive in mid March detailing these and other projects.

Best of the year to you! Make sure you say hi if you are at any of these shows.

the sound of one sample peaking

i have had the good luck to expand my collection of raster noton music.  listening to the fantastic kangding ray just now, a mid 2000 release, stabil.

this sound of electricity in all its forms (kangding ray with his overtones of r and b, alva noto with his precise, detailed, relentless and beautiful clicks, shimmers, and breaths) is, i find, more and more fascinating every time i encounter it.

i think it will drive my work for some time to come.  the light is a door.

http://soundcloud.com/debsinha/electricity

guelph jazz festival video installation

work on the light, which you have been reading excerpts of over the summer, continues apace.  now getting into the nuances of mixing spoken text with music, thanks to the help of the inimitable phil strong.

heading to the guelph jazz festival tomorrow to install skin, a single channel video which, like many of my projects, has many forms.  this time i’ll be installing it as a kind of immersive experience in the VIA rail station.

it will be part of the nuit blanche program, and many fantastic acts will be playing over the course of the night.  i will update this post next week with pictures and video from the installation.  if you are in the neighborhood, do come and say hi.

until next time.

 

the light (excerpt)

another excerpt from my upcoming sound piece the light:

Full open bodies of air that shimmer with smog, reflecting the city light into the night sky, indigo, orange, red, violet.  Particles of dust, ash, hanging over the ocean, stopping planes from flying, the whole what-we-think-is-the-world paralyzed by a small hiccup deep below.  Halls with glass ceilings crosshatched by steel struts, designed by German engineers and Finnish architects, full of stranded people, sharing food.  Buildings crashing down, giant sinkholes opening in the middle of cities with no warning.  Grainy video posted on the internet of tidal waves coming over land, looking gentle but not stopping, never stopping, creeping forward in a slow breath when seen from the news helicopter, but raw chaos and white noise that will deafen you if that is you on the ground in the lower part of the frame.  Children buried in mudslides, cars floating upside down in the centre of the sea.

We are all particles if you look from high enough.

Project music

soundcloud is the new place i will be hosting music for various projects that are not available elsewhere.  These include soundtracks, dance scores, and other small snippets of projects and compositions, as well as full works.

all of it is here: http://soundcloud.com/debsinha/sets

check back often, and stay tuned.

Goodbye, Are You OK / Peggy Baker @ the AGO

aaaaaaaaaaand……i’m not done.

i am honoured to be providing music for 2 works in peggy baker dance projects’ 2011 season at the art gallery of ontario: a new one hour score for move, with 16 dancers (or thereabouts), and a remount of the duo Armour, (choreographed by doug varone), which premiered in the 2010 show confluence, which was, if you recall, a full evening show of works that i had the honour to score (in 6 channels!) as well.

it promises to be a special event.  to quote from her site: Peggy Baker Dance Projects invites to you a special performance of “interior with moving figures” at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Four works from the company’s repertoire will be simultaneously and continuously performed in four different galleries throughout the AGO for 70 minutes, allowing patrons to wander between the galleries to discover the next dance.

Showtimes are irregular, so be sure to double check the links above:
Wednesday May 11, 7:00pm
Saturday May 14, 2:00pm
Sunday May 15, 2:00pm
Wednesday May 18, 7:00pm

Wednesday night shows are free admission, and the other shows are free with ticketed admission.

are you ok, with michael healey, peggy baker, and daniel brooks has closed, and it was a great ride.  the audience reaction was palpable, every night, and national post critic robert cushman called it a “perfect jewel”.  i am honoured to have shared the stage with such great artists.

stay tuned, as always, for more…

Ahmed Hassan, rest in peace.

A great friend and musician died recently: Ahmed Hassan, percussionist and composer.

I met Ahmed soon after moving to Toronto, after seeing a performance of Sable/Sand by Dancemakers (this was the shorter piece that he worked on with Maryem Tollar, Colin Couch and another musician whose name escapes me)).  The full evening work  of Sable/Sand was one that we (Ahmed, Ernie Tollar, Colin Couch, myself and Maryem Tollar) did a few years later.  Anyhow, he invited me over to his house, where I met Maryem and his wife and now colleague Peggy Baker, and soon after I met everyone who I would end up playing music with for the next 8 years or so at Arabic music classes at his house.  It was he and Peggy that told me about how drummers accompany dance classes, and Ahmed and I went around to various classes in Toronto to sit in.  That was the start of a very important practice for me, playing for dance, and it continues today.

I spent a lot of time around Ahmed helping him (I was doing home care work at the time) and started to become more familiar with the work he and Peggy did together.  Sanctum in particular held a certain fascination for me, but I was unable to articulate why.  I realize now that that score and performance, which I have had the great fortune to perform with Peggy and with Helen Jones, was an actualization of everything that I try to bring to my creative practice in music, composition, and new media.  The score, and the piece itself, is a beautiful and nuanced play with sound, silence, space, and (if I may) the humming of the universe.  To perform it, one must become it—there is no simple “execution” of it, and the integration of the music and the performance in that piece is something that I think just came naturally to Ahmed.  His music is a total abandoning of ego and self—he was someone who really gave himself over when he made music.

I remember learning this score with him and from him, and performing it with Peggy was one of the greatest experiences of my life.   I know that he saw himself a little bit in me, and he always encouraged me to let go and just play, in every sense of the word.  He was so generous with his time and his equipment, never once saying “no”.   I sensed that, as his ability to play and motor control decreased, he found it difficult to sometimes be with me as my ability developed.  But even so, he never, ever once put that burden on me, and chose instead to remain engaged to the moment and put his energies where he could, be it advocacy, seeking out new possibilities to deal with his health, or simply enjoying a cup of coffee or slice of pizza (and I mean really enjoying it!).

I learned much from my years with Ahmed, and it all resonates still.

Rest in peace, Ahmed, my friend, and I welcome the light you continue to shine on us.