Led by Canadian conductor Janna Sailor, this morning’s program highlights the talent, diversity and contribution of women to classical music, with works by Toronto Afro-descendant Rachel McFarlane, Indian-American Reema Esmail and American pioneer Amy Beach. The voices of guest soloists Suzanne Taffot, a soprano of Cameroonian origin, and Anuja Panditrao, an Indian Hindustani singer, will be used to magnify the work of Reema Esmail. As you may have guessed, this program takes place on March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, and is presented this Sunday, March 2, at Salle Pierre-Mercure, 3:30pm. To find out more, Alain Brunet interviewed Allison Migeon, General Manager and co-founder of OBIORA.
Interviews
For almost two decades, Helvetian pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch and Ronin, his futuristic jazz quartet, have been perfecting a solid blend based on the composition of contemporary structures and the assumption of a groove based on rhythmic phase shifts, with less emphasis on long improvisations. His many albums bear witness to this singularity, and the pianist and composer can be described as a visionary for having achieved this perfect fusion. That’s why a visit to this group is an absolute must for fans of small contemporary jazz formations. Sunday evening at the Gesù! For PAN M 360, Alain Brunet asked Nik Bärtsch a few questions while he was on tour on this continent before taking part in the Montreal en lumière Festival.
PAN M 360: Two decades ago, your ensemble emerged as a beautiful hybrid between new jazz and post-minimalism, kind of close to the Steve Reich concept of phase shifts but it would be reductive to qualify it that way. Are you still building on the same foundations?
Nik Bärtsch: Yes, since also already there we matched more ingredients: groove culture and percussive band organism play. We developed our own path by blending these ingredients and we’re constantly evolving – on the one hand me as a curious consequent composer and on the other hand the band an evolutionary organism that has played every week together since 2004. Every Monday we play a concert at my club EXIL in Zuh since 2004.
PAN M 360: Can you remind us of those foundations?
Nik Bärtsch: I started with Boogie-Woogie, Blues and Jazz, shifting into Latin and via Gershwin into modern Classical Music like Bartók, Stravinsky, then Reich, Ligeti, and Feldman and always was interested in rhythmic concepts and group instrumentation. So I developed a view for rhythm strategies through all styles.
PAN M 360: Can you explain briefly the main steps of your musical language evolution through your discography since Ritual Groove Music?
Nik Bärtsch: We started with the acoustic group MOBILE. I wrote a chamber music piece for my final recital at the music university. It was influenced by Bartók, Reich, and Japanese Ritual Music. Earlier I wrote groove cycles inspired by Steve Coleman and Reich. So this led to the first MOBILE record RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC, which we recorded after a 36-hour-long live musical ritual in Zurich, our first performance in that spirit. Important was the combination of clearly composed material and the freedom to work with it modularly during the open minimal parts in that constantly ongoing live music ritual. Thus was the fundamental and fruitful experience for us as a band with the strategies of groove, interlocking rhythms, polymetric cycles, elliptic beats, polar scale fields, and structural harmonies – this sounds a bit intellectual but it was actually a very sensual experience creating a new sound and way of band play. So this led finally to an evolution of 14 main albums till today with SPIN as the newest result. Every album explores a certain phase and every composition touches a new essential musical idea.
PAN M 360 : The notion of improvisation is still included in your music but not that much as we can observe. Where do you see it in your craft?
Nik Bärtsch: Improvisation is very important. I was always present in music as a part of a triangle with composition and interpretation. But improvising does not necessarily mean soloing. So we use a lot of improvisation strategies that do not sound like a solo. For example, we work with freedom of instrumental blending and colouring, ghost note developments – like adding little notes in the dramaturgy of a piece – or with one free voice in the band as a “context spot.” This means that the player has the role of moving in a musically-composed context like an animal who hides itself in the surroundings: when it moves you see it when it doesn’t, you just see the whole picture. Improvisation is also often used in our music laconically, like for example Duke Ellington just played a few notes or lines to give a part a certain flavour.
PAN M 360: Do you see yourself more as a composer than a performer or vice versa? Do you rather aim for a perfect balance between playing and imagining music? Or do you see things in different ways ?
Nik Bärtsch: The performance is the truth. The best composition does not sound if the band or context is not appropriately chosen. So my/our work is a combination of both: I have the ambition to bring a high-quality composition into the band by responding to the quality of the band or performer. That’s why we play so long and every week together. The performance is the composition and vice versa.
PAN M 360: Would you see your colleagues roles closer to classical interpreters or jazz people? Or somewhere between both?
Nik Bärtsch: I was longing for a third way, combining the freedom of jazz world and the precision in interpretation and instrumentation of the classical world. So that’s who my modular way of making music evolved: precise composition in relation to the quality of the interpreting players and bands.
PAN M 360 : Tell us about your team of musicians, their role, their strengths,and what they have to do for your artistic building.
Nik Bärtsch: First of all it is important to know that I have played together with drummer Kaspar Rast since we were kids. We started making music (and playing soccer on the same team) together when I was ten and he was nine years old. So his drumming influenced my way of writing essentially, also because I also played drums as a kid. Reeds player Sha, who is ten years younger, came to the band when he was 19 years old. He had a fresh mind and developed on the bass clarinet a form of percussive beatboxing. He also was a passionate soccer player and therefore his knowledge about team play and team spirit was highly developed compared to all the jazz artists mainly focusing on being a capable soloist. This led to true team in working. This also means that my colleagues give valuable feedback regarding compositions. When the bass player change came six years ago we found in Jeremias Keller a like-minded musician with enormous qualities also as producer. This is a real working band, socially, energetically and aesthetically. Very difficult to put together in these times!
PAN M 360 : We shouldn’t care about where you sit stylistically, only the result matters. But are you mainly reaching out to jazz aficionados because of the instrumentation and its rhythmic proposal?
Nik Bärtsch: We want to listen to the resonance of the audiences. There is interest from very diverse scenes – beautiful! We also have a lot of followers from rock and electronica people or from spiritual music scenes. I never was interested in styles when they were meant as musical ideologies. I find inviting and sharing interesting. I try to create simple music that is complex in the deep when you dive into it. But mainly it should offer you energy and focus.
PAN M 360 : Spin, your last recording, was released last year. For you, what are the main achievements of this specific project?
Nik Bärtsch: The record shows the phase of the band: two completely new pieces, one as a combination of new material with older one, two very early pieces in completely new arrangements. So the record first of all shows the sound and energy of the new quartet with new bass player Jeremias Keller. And then it shows our journey. Forward to the roots, back to the future.
PAN M 360 : Is your band going to perform your recent material in Montreal, next Sunday?
Nik Bärtsch: Yes, we will play almost the whole record and the great piece “A” by reeds player Sha, which was on our last album AWASE. The whole material has already evolved again live…And of course, we have surprises for you!
PAN M 360 : Many composers need a specific band to express their music. When it’s done by others, it doesn’t work so well because they don’t get the real vibe, because they just have an intellectual understanding of your work. What do you think?
Nik Bärtsch: This is an important issue. Actually every new music needs such an understanding. Also in times of Mozart and Haydn, very often the ensembles worked longer together for a certain Duke or King or whatever dude. Capable ensembles with the understanding of a certain music culture are essential to make the music sound. To think, a musical masterpiece is the composition just on paper or in the head is negligent. It’s as if you would live in an architect‘s plan instead if a real house. Of course, a capable composer or architect must be clear and as precise as possible for the context but you name it: without the vibe, the culture, the understanding nothing feels right.
PAN M 360 : About your work for other ensembles or orchestras? I don’t even know if this work exists.
Nik Bärtsch: Yes, I wrote several pieces for external groups for example chamber music works, often for percussion ensembles but also a few full orchestra pieces. Although it is the “same” music, I have to adapt to the circumstances because of the reasons we discussed above. The most known ensembles for which I wrote were for example Third Coast Percussion from Chicago, Bang On A Can from New York, Britten Sinfonia from London or the Basel Sinfonietta in Switzerland.
PAN M 360 : You also have connections with other musicians or bands from all over the world, some of them are releasing stuff on your own label. Can you talk about this aspect of your creative life?
Nik Bärtsch: I find it important to share knowledge-how and to create platforms also for others. If you do nothing for others, nothing changes in a community. Therefore I founded my boutique label Ronin Rhythm Records and I co-founded the music club EXIL in Zurich and the contemporary music festival CURRENTS in Zurich. These initiatives give upcoming artists and colleagues with like-minded ideas chances to perform and to evolve. We for example will release the new album Ce qui tourne dans l‘air by Montreal avant folk band L‘Oumigmag in April on my label.
PAN M 360 : What are your next projects?
Nik Bärtsch: Staying on these projects! Too much work…I also have two beautiful duo projects: a piano duo with pianist Tania Giannouli and one with my daughter Ilva Eigus, who is an extraordinary violinist, already more capable than me with only 17 years!
After a very captivating performance of his piece of La grande accélération: Symphonie no. 12 at the Saint-Joseph Oratory, we at PAN M had the chance to correspond with Tim Brady and ask him about the development of his career, his writing process, his aesthetic preferences, and more.
PANM360: During the artistic explanation you gave at the M/NM concert you mentioned that the inspiration/significance, at least partially, of “La Grande Acceleration” came from historical events and their tendency to unfold very quickly. Did you write the piece with our current era in mind, or rather history more generally?
Tim Brady: When I started writing the piece in 2018 I had just started to really notice that the nature of our society was starting to really change. On one hand, we were becoming more interconnected through the Internet, national identities seemed less important, the climate issue involves every one. On the other hand, right wing forces were starting to gain strength – Brexit happened, the 1st Trump presidency. So my idea was that things are changing – fast. The original title was “Because Everything Will Change” but then I stumbled upon the term The Great Acceleration (often defined as 1950 – 1980 – when there was the huge growth of the middle class in the West). It seemed to me that we are going through a new Great Acceleration – history is moving fast. And, for now, not in the right direction.
PANM360: I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that many of your works contain nods to the shredders and rockers of old. Are there any rock artists that you’ve been enjoying lately? Any that you’ve been revisiting?
Tim Brady: There are so many amazing players on YouTube – that is where the guitar world has migrated, away from radio or streaming. Folks like Gutherie Govan, Matteo Mancuso, Julian Lage – these are great players, and there are hundreds more. And female players are finally starting to have an impact – about time! I am very unsystematic about listening to players – I just see what is on YouTube when I’m in the mood for some guitar shredding. Let the algorithms surprise me.
PANM360: I understand that some formative portions of your career were spent in Montreal, Toronto, Boston, and London. What was it like to pursue an artistic career in those cities during the 70s and 80s? Were there aspects that were harder, or easier, compared to working in music now?
Tim Brady: Things were very different – as you can imagine. Musical aesthetics were much more rigid. There was a right way to compose, and a wrong way to compose. Musical borders were very clearly defined – this was jazz, this was classic, this was blues, etc. Composers were much more dogmatic. When I started doing new chamber music for electric guitar (not jazz or rock or blues) around the early 80s, many people were offended, many did not understand. “It is simply not done!”.
Things are much, much more open, aesthetically. Which is great, but also is challenging. With so many options, how does an artist choose? Making art is never simple, regardless of the era. But maybe it is not meant to be?
The technical changes are also major. Almost every composer / performer now has access to a multi-track studio in their laptop. Samples sound great. You can get stuff out there via the Internet. This afternoon I have a Zoom rehearsal with a group in Baltimore who are giving the US premiere of my piece “This one is broken in pieces: Symphony #11”. Unimaginable in 1980.The specific challenges have changed, and will continue to change. But making music and focusing on creativity will never be the easiest job in the world, I suspect.
PANM360: One-hundred electric guitars is certainly an orchestration choice not often seen. What are some other sound or instrument combinations that you enjoy using in your compositions? Any personal favorites?
Tim Brady: I pretty much enjoy composing for any instrument. Each instrument has its beauty and expressive nature. But if I look at my catalogue, the things that keep coming back are: electric guitar (obviously), bass clarinet, violin/viola, orchestra and vocal music. I have curiously written almost no solo piano music since the early 1980s – it seems to be just not my thing.
PANM360: Is it true that you were largely self taught until your late teens? If so, what factors helped you decide the information or knowledge you would seek during your self taught period? Where would you look for new ideas with respect to the guitar and songwriting?
Tim Brady: Yes, I only learned to read music at 19, when I took my first “Introduction to music theory” class at Vanier College (now CEGEP). But from 16 to 19 I was teaching myself by ear as much as I could about harmony and scales. I was listening to lots of fusion, modern jazz, Debussy and Stravinsky, trying to figure it out. So by the time I started formal music education, I actually had a pretty good ear. So when the teacher said: “This is what Tonic to Flat Submediant sounds like”, I said to myself “Oh, that’s just E major to C major – I know that”. So much of my music theory training was just learning the accepted terms for things that I already had in my ear. I tended to get marks like 98% or 100% on my theory tests, I won’t lie.
PANM360: I imagine that with a catalog of compositions as large as yours, you must also have techniques for dealing with writer’s block, or tricks for productivity. Do you implement anything special when you know you have writing to do?
Tim Brady: I almost never have writer’s block. I’m not sure why. My guess is partially my nature – composing music is just what I do. But most days I also spend at least 15 – 20 minutes improvising on guitar (sometimes more). This keeps the pathways open – it makes the act of making music a daily activity, so you don’t get that fear of “Oh no! What will the next note be???”. I also very recently found a quote from French author André Gide which I think is very powerful: “Yes, It’s all been said before, but nobody was listening. So we have to say it again”. How many Ab or F# notes have been composed in the past thousand years? Literally millions. So why do it again? Because we have to keep listening.
PANM360: And finally: What are some of your favourite venues or spaces? (Could be past or present!)
Tim Brady: For my crazy huge spatial pieces – St. Joseph’s Oratory works really well! And the Complex Desjardins is cool for more “popular” 100 guitar events. Probably the best concert hall I’ve played is in Thunder Bay, Ontario – they have an insanely good 1,200 seat venue there! With electric guitar and effects, you can kind of bring your own “acoustic” with you, so one is a bit less dependent on room sound than, say, with viola. For acoustic music, Salle Bourgie is great – and I have a concert there on June 4th with the Warhol Dervish String Quartet, who are playing my string quartets number 3, 4 and 5. Note: this is a shameless plug for that concert!
The best concert hall is the one where people are really listening, where there is that sense of music as a connection between musician and listener. Good acoustics help, but the quality of the listening is really the goal.
It’s said to be the world’s first music marathon dedicated to vinyl culture and DJing. Since 2011, Lexis has led the destiny of 24H VINYLE, and the event returns to the SAT in the context of MTL’s Nuit Blanche. On the move since 2011, and a steadfast defender of this medium that has survived the test of time. Put forward by Music Is My Sanctuary under the direction of Lexis, this authentic 24-hour non-stop marathon brings together vinyl-savvy DJs, if only for this very special occasion. No less than 17 DJs were invited to spread their science to the delight of night owls, from jazz to hip-hop, disco and the heavy trends of electronic music. To find out more about this free event, PAN M 360 contacted Lexis, who answered our questions.
PAN M 360: 24 heures vinyles would be “the world’s first music marathon dedicated to vinyl culture and DJing”. Wow, bravo! Are there any other comparable events?
Lexis: For several years now, there have been parties all over the world dedicated to vinyl in “vinyl only” mode, but generally they’re parties that last 5 to 7 hours. Certainly, the idea of doing this for a whole day was a strong concept when I launched it in 2011, but what gives the event its richness is the “marathon” aspect, i.e. DJs and musical styles taking turns and collaborating.
PAN M 360: How do you think vinyl culture has changed in recent years?
Lexis: It’s really evolved a lot, both for people who buy and listen to records at home and for DJs who play them in their sets. What’s really inspiring is that the vinyl renaissance has proved that it’s here to stay for stores, labels, DJs, and music lovers.
PAN M 360: How has the formula you developed evolved over time?
Lexis: When I launched this event in my home studio, the emphasis was more on online distribution. Then, slowly, I wanted to bring it to life in public places, to make it travel to different cities to explore their vinyl culture. For the past few years, the focus has been on the live experience and the combination with the record fair, while the streaming portion has become secondary.
PAN M 360: Your wide-ranging musical culture means that you’re always able to come up with new ideas. Can we have a sneak preview of this Saturday-Sunday edition? What styles and types of production do you plan to put forward?
Lexis: I always adapt the program according to the particularities of the venue and the times of each DJ. This edition is divided into two parts: Saturday night in the main hall is obviously more club/dancefloor oriented, ranging from disco to techno and house. Sunday’s portion is ever more eclectic, ranging from jazz to hip-hop, soul, and reggae, and concludes with a natural crescendo for the final hours of the marathon.
PAN M 360: Vinyl is a subculture that has lasted and will last, whatever its detractors think. Why do you think this is the case?
Lexis: I think vinyl has its raison d’être and deserves its place, just as digital platforms do. It shouldn’t necessarily be one or the other. There are sides to vinyl that we love and sides that piss us off too! 🙂 It’s heavy, it takes up space, it’s expensive, and so on.
PAN M 360: Technological advances are making digital recordings more intelligible. Has vinyl also seen advances in this direction? Better cartridges? Better pressings? Tell us about it!
Lexis: Production, listening and performance standards with vinyl have been relatively unchanged since the 80s, which is quite fascinating! The turntable of choice for DJing (Technics SL-1200) has been the same for 40 years now. Sure, there have been small improvements in sound systems, mixers, and cartridges, but in general, the standards have survived.
PAN M 360: What are the advantages for a producer today of relying on vinyl as a distribution medium?
Lexis: Obviously for the quality of the sound, but also for the artistic possibilities of the object and to create a more tangible link.
Saturday, March 1 – Espace SAT – 8pm to 8am
Gene Tellem
Somebody3lse
Kris Guilty, Tazz
Homegrown Harvest label presents:
Doo (Patcool, DJ Frog, DJ Spence)
Moaad BKR
DJ Hermano
Sunday, March 2 – Pavillon & Satosphère – 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
From 8am onwards, the Sunday part of 24H VINYLE will take place on the top floor of the SAT, in the Pavillon restaurant. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., a vinyl fair will be held in the Satosphère in collaboration with Vinyl Caravan.
180g label presents:
Poirier
Icky Magdala
DJ Raven
Cuisse
Joe Toner
G L O W Z I
Aram
Silktits
Loss of identity in 2014. Another journey in 2015. Farewell to the dancefloor in 2016. Working Class Woman in 2018. As a group with L’Oeil nu in 2020 for the Renegade Breakdown album, not to mention the many recordings under the Essaie Pas banner, in tandem with Pierre Guérineau throughout the previous decade. And then… pretty much nothing for the last two years. The pandemic had almost put Marie Davidson out of action until her resurrection, first as a DJ and then back to creation with a new live set underway for less than a year, the new material of which has become an album launched this Friday at the SAT: City of Clowns.
Needless to say, the clowns on this album embody the ultra-rich, authoritarian leadership of the world’s rulers in these dark times for humanity, as well as the atypical resistance fighters in the art world. Marie and her long-time accomplice, who co-produced this new solo opus with colleague Soulwax, graciously agreed to grant PAN M 360 this last-minute interview.
PAN M 360: Why such a long break from original music?
Marie Davidson: In 2022, I stopped making music. I took eight months off. I then enrolled in a naturopathy program because I was interested in health, and so I was embarking on a completely different path. I didn’t pursue these studies, because I wanted to get back to music. I came back to it as a DJ, really by chance. That made me want to make music again. I had several demos in the bank, including those composed in 2021 for choreographer Dana Gingras, and I finally started composing again in the summer of 2022. By then, I had a collection of pieces, but no guideline, no album. I wrote the song “Fun Times,” made a demo, and asked Pierre to co-produce the piece with me. And since he’s an excellent co-director, it went really well, so we decided to make the album together.
PAN M 360: But why exactly did you stop making music after Renegade Breakdown?
Marie Davidson: The pandemic and the post-pandemic period. I found it very hard not to be able to tour with the band (L’Oeil nu), and then I realized that social media had taken off during the pandemic and that it was going to stay for the presentation of music. Which led me to write about it. We could talk for a long time about this cycle, in which I went through all sorts of states, including considering myself a has-been, and believing my career was over. In the end, I got back on my feet and rediscovered myself through DJing, producing, and working with Pierre and Soulwax.
PAN M 360: And you, Pierre, how did you live through this period?
Pierre Guérineau: I released an album during the pandemic, then there was the band, and then doubt. We didn’t know what was going to happen. Marie and I were wondering whether we could go on making music. I also considered going back to school, and enrolling in a program offered by the Quebec government to learn computer programming. And finally, the music world invited us back. We got offers…
Marie Davidson: At first, I refused to play live, because I hadn’t had a career for a year and a half. Instead, I was offered a job as a DJ. Ah, DJ? So I rented some equipment and gave it a try. And I fell in love with the Pioneer CDJ-3000, which had just replaced the CDJ-2000. I loved the technology, the touch screen, the cue points, and so on. It reminded me a little of what I used to do with hardware. I cultivated this interest and started DJing more and more.
Pierre Guérineau: I also continued to produce on the side, and when Marie wanted to do not just one or two pieces, but a real album, we started working on it full-time. Meanwhile, I have plenty of extremely talented friends who were forced to take day jobs in order to continue (or not) to make their art without compromise. Even so, this episode was liberating, in that I realized that something else was possible. But I realized that working in a tech company wasn’t the job for me. But at the same time, this possibility gave me a certain lightness when I returned to music, to the pleasure of creation, and to this feeling of being privileged to be able to do it. Living modestly from my art, but being able to make a living from it.
PAN M 360: Indeed, making a living from your art today is a luxury.
Marie Davidson: I wouldn’t say it’s a privilege, it’s an opportunity, but it’s not a luxury. Our life isn’t luxurious, we have a middle-class lifestyle, and we’re lucky. But we have to make our own luck! Every artist who has survived the pandemic has had to face up to this situation, question himself, and turn around.
Pierre Guérineau: In another era, 20 years ago, it would have been easier and more profitable.
PAN M 360: So let’s get back to the new album. From a production point of view, how did the three of you work together?
Pierre Guérineau: Marie had the basic concept and lyrics, and we just kept going. We made the first version of the album and sent it to a few friends. Dave and Stef, from the Deewee label, really liked it. In fact, the way it works, it’s a house, a place where we meet, everything that comes out of their label goes through their studio. So we had to go there.
Marie Davidson: I didn’t know that when I contacted them!
Pierre Guérineau: So we went to Ghent in Belgium, a little town not far from Bruges. It’s a really great studio with lots of equipment. As a producer, I let go a bit and let them add their own touch. The album was well advanced when we worked with them, but the little touch they brought was the final link.
Marie Davidson: They brought the energy we hadn’t had because we’d been working on the album for a year and a half.
Pierre Guérineau: Yes, they had fresh ears and it was great to be able to finalize over there. It was a great experience for us.
PAN M 360: And so, the current show continues with the new pieces.
Marie Davidson: Yes, that’s the show I’ve been presenting since last summer.
Pierre Guérineau: The only thing we’re adding at the moment is the visual dimension of the show. Sound-wise, we’re really happy with the show at the moment, and we’re currently working on the lighting with a great artist, Nick Verstand, who works with cinema, theater, installations, and music ensembles like string quartets.
PAN M 360: When we listened to the new songs from your current live set to be presented at the SAT, we recognized all the ingredients of your career, but even better channeled, i.e. all the stylistic referents of your art were better welded together than ever before.
Marie Davidson: To tell you the truth, I didn’t think much about that when I was making the new songs. I just wanted to make exciting music. I tried to concentrate on the message and feeling of what we’d done in the studio. I didn’t want to put too much emphasis on the reference game. Of course, we talked about it, it sounds this way or that way… But compared to Renegade Breakdown, where we made precise references, where it was part of the creative process and discussions, it was quite the opposite this time. But the influences are there and will continue to be. As a DJ, I’m constantly exposed to other people’s music too. But for City of Clowns, the message came first and so did the energy. We made an album that wasn’t too introspective, nor too dark… because we’re living in dark times. I preferred humour, excitement,t and social criticism, and reflection on the context.
PAN M 360: Exactly. In fact, all your art is a form of self-reflexivity. You create works based on your own condition and the environment in which you live. So, with that in mind, what justifies the title City of Clowns?
Marie Davidson: The subtext of the album could have been World of Clowns, because we live in a world of clowns, the evil clowns of politics, finance, and economics.
Pierre Guérineau: And also in the world of music…
Marie Davidson: That’s what I was going to say. In culture in general. Influencers are also clowns. But there’s also the other side of the coin, there are other types of clowns, all the misfits of society, the outsiders… I include myself in that and also the people I work with. I can’t speak for them, but there’s a lot of humor in it. They say, anyway, that my texts are pretty funny. I can say that there’s more humour than before. We laughed a lot making this album! As opposed to the bad clown, there’s the one who’s there to challenge the status quo.
Pierre Guérineau: Yes, a bit like the madman in the days of the royal courts, the only one who had the right to mock authority.
Marie Davidson: But if his joke didn’t go down well, however… oops… we got rid of him.
PAN M 360: We have to admit that this hasn’t changed, at least in the current period…
Marie Davidson: That’s right! The idea is to show how unjust and precarious hierarchies still are for people who question them.
Pierre Guérineau: We also like this title because it’s open to interpretation. At the same time, it’s also a nod to Montreal…
Marie Davidson: But that’s a joke, because Montreal is the home of Cirque du Soleil, and Guy Laliberté is a clown himself…
Pierre Guérineau: So there you have it, the title is open to interpretation, even if we have our own ideas behind it.
PAN M 360: Now, why don’t we pick a few songs and try to make sense of them?
Marie Davidson: “Sexy Clown” is about my experience as a female entertainer, i.e. musician, DJ, public figure, night-life entertainer, and also behind-the-scenes character after sets or in studios. That’s why I say entertainer and not just artist. It’s a humourous song about my experience in this world as a woman.
“Demolition” is an allusion to Shoshana Zuboff’s book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. I chose to embody the big tech people who own this industry. I also embody the seductive way in which they achieve their ends. I can also talk about “Unknowing,” the album’s closer, which is a little closer to my songs prior to this project. The text is based on my feelings and on asserting oneself and taking responsibility for one’s own life.
PAN M 360: So it’s all about entertainment, innovation and a critical stance. We think, we rage, but we also want to laugh and dance!
Marie Davidson: I didn’t want to make a heavy album, because we live in heavy times. I wanted to get my message across, and we put a lot of effort into overcoming this heaviness. One of the pieces composed during the process was too heavy. I’ll use it later, but it just didn’t fit into the progression of the album.
Pierre Guérineau: The best humourists are often very good philosophers, and that’s the spirit we wanted to convey. To be critical while illustrating absurdity. Humor is a great force for understanding the darker side of reality, lightening the atmosphere, and encouraging dialogue.
Marie Davidson: Humour is a great way to cultivate critical thinking in an inclusive and universal way.
City of Clowns launches this Friday, February 28 at the SAT: info here
Like all the urban events lighting up Montreal this weekend, the Nuit Blanche at the Centre PHI will be back from Saturday to Sunday, until 3am. Under the theme of Nuit POP, the Centre PHI will be offering a host of activities and performances in real time, for a night that’s bursting at the seams. Concocted in conjunction with Pop Montréal, the line-up of artists promises to be impressive: Raphë, Rosario Caméléon, La FHomme, Jashim, Teikirisi, VIOV visuals and more. To find out more, PAN M 360 spoke to Renelle Desjardins Chiasson, Director of Programming at Centre PHI.
PAN M 360: How have previous Nuits blanches at the PHI Center gone? Has this become an annual tradition, since you’re taking up the collar again in 2025? Do you have a targeted audience, or is it more a case of people stopping by by chance, on the spur of the moment?
Renelle Desjardins Chiasson: Until now, the Nuit blanche at the Centre PHI has been a free cultural experience accessible to a varied clientele, including students, festival-goers, art lovers and tourists. By collaborating with local partners, the event aims to welcome 2,000 unique visitors, and to rank among the top 5 Nuit Blanche events in Montreal 2025.
PAN M 360: What is the route taken by night owls if they decide to drop in at the PHI Center among other nocturnal activities?
Renelle Desjardins Chiasson: Audiences can grab a bite, we’ll have churros, empanadas. Drop by the PHI among other destinations, or stay all evening because the programming is so diverse. It doesn’t have a specific itinerary, but there are 3 offerings from 9pm to 3am: 3 installations with performances in the public square, live music and DJ sets in the space on the 1st and 2nd floors, and the public can see Jean-Marc Vallée’s MIXTAPE exhibition until midnight. The party continues on the first floor until 3am.
PAN M 360: What is the concept of Nuit POP? How is it a POP night?
Renelle Desjardins Chiasson: Every year, the Spectra group launches a theme for the opening of applications – for official participation in this great cultural evening.
Our team rallies around the theme suggested by Spectra. So we explore the term “pop”: pop music, pop culture, pop art, popping, pop of color, pop-up – its ephemeral, off-the-wall side – the sound of a bubble bursting and everything else that this onomatopoeia evokes.We’ve done this in the past: in 2019, for example, it was “The Future” and we presented the An/ demain evening; in 2020 it was “green” and we presented Simulation / Acceleration.
PAN M 360: Did you work in collaboration with POP MTL? What else?
Renelle Desjardins Chiasson: For the musical programming, I worked with Daniel Seligman. For the public space, it’s a team effort with our in-house team specifically, this year with Clara Boulinguez, Hédi Rollet, Raphë, Maxime Lacoue, Émilie Heckmann, Sylvain Dumais and Vincent Lafrenière.
PAN M 360: Can you tell us a bit about each of the artistic performances on the program?
- Raphë + guests: an artist who has become an essential part of our Nuit blanche. Very generous in what he offers, he gives his all. They practice performance art and video art. Not to be missed all evening long!
- Rosario Caméléon: a discovery! The artist describes herself as electroclash, sexy, playful, grotesque, rebellious pop, + very pussy!
- La FHomme: a polyrhythmic, intercultural DJ set experience, demonstrating the great diversity of Montreal’s communities.
- Jashim: an artist from El Choko, Colombia, with an interesting multimedia approach to his music. Jashim concludes his performance live.
- Uñas: DJ set – solo project by Chris Vargas, former singer with the duo PELADA.
- Teikirisi: Honduran DJ and producer — my mom’s country, where I lived and went to school! She has a sure taste and a masterful hand for mixing. She mixes the vibrant and diverse sounds of the Latinx-American diaspora.
- VIOV’s visuals in collaboration with Jaime Salgado: yes Laura and Jaime, both from the Latinx community, show us their visual talents in the spaces and also during the musical performances. Studio VIOV and Jaime were suggested to me by artist JASHIM, who is collaborating with Jaime on the artistic direction of his project. What a discovery!
PAN M 360: The Centre PHI has its own identity. Is this reflected in Nuit Pop?
Renelle Desjardins Chiasson: Absolutely!
The notions of encounter, fraternity and friendship are essential elements in the creation and performance of musical works. Les Violons du Roy and their musical director Jonathan Cohen will be performing under the sign of friendship on Thursday February 27 at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, and on Friday February 28 at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, in a concert featuring works by Mozart and three composers who left a lasting impression on him: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and Michael Haydn. The young Salzburg prodigy’s relationship with clarinettist Anton Stadler will also be highlighted, with one of the composer’s last works, the Clarinet Concerto in A major. Alexandre Villemaire spoke to Jonathan Cohen about this concert, which, like the musical figures it brings together and its underlying theme, will feature soloists who are all great friends of Les Violons du Roy.
PAN M 360 : The theme of the concert is friendship. How did this theme present itself to you, and how did it guide your choice of composers and works for the program?
Jonathan Cohen : We could equally, say family ! – two of the composers are sons of the famous Bach family, and Michael Haydn is the brother of Joseph. Michael Haydn is a very underrated composer. During his time, he was very much appreciated, Joseph thought his brother’s church music was far superior to his own. C.P.E. Bach was a very gifted composer with a very individualistic compositional style whose name is somewhat underappreciated today.
PAN M 360 : The composers featured in this concert – Michael Haydn, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach – are musicians whom Mozart held in high esteem. Are there any stylistic influences from these composers in Mozart’s work?
Jonathan Cohen : Mozart said “Bach is the father; we are the children.” – he was referring to C.P.E. Bach…. C.P.E. Bach developed a unique and personal style called the “sensitive style” [Empfindsamkeit] because his music was very much focused on emotional drama. C.P.E. Bach believed that the role of music was to affect the emotions of the listener, he himself said “A musician cannot move others unless he himself moved” – C.P.E. Bach’s style can be better understood when one understands that he was the son of the most capable J.S. Bach, whose music was steeped in intellectual depth and religious devotion.
PAN M 360 : The relationship between composer and soloist is also evident in the concert, as demonstrate in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto which he wrote for his friend and fellow Freemason Anton Stadler. How did this relationship shape the writing of this concerto?
Jonathan Cohen : Mozart clearly had a jovial and friendly relationship with Stadler. Their work together pushed the boundaries of the clarinet and established it firmly as a regular instrument of the orchestra. Mozart gave the clarinet many exceptional solos in his operas, like “Parto, ma tu ben mio” in La Clemenza di Tito, “Voi che sapete” from The Marriage of Figaro, “Batti, batti o bel Masetto” in Don Giovanni, as only a few examples, and he associates the sound of the instrument with love. Certainly, in this remarkable clarinet concerto, it feels like the music is always good-natured, loving, witty and jovial. Going back even beyond Mozart, composers (who were themselves always performers of their instruments) often collaborated closely with individual artists.
PAN M 360 : Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel are respectively known as the Bach of Hamburg and the Bach of Halle, in reference to the cities where they were active. How did the two Bach brothers differ in their approach to music? Did they influence each other or did they remain in their own separate spheres?
Jonathan Cohen : I don’t know to what extent they influenced each other, although in this program Wilhelm’s sinfonia seems more in the vein of CPE’s “Sturm un Drang” [Storm and Passion] than typical of his style. Clearly, they were both outstanding keyboardists: CPE wrote the famous and influential Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, and Wilhelm was a renowned organist and teacher. Wilhelm was Bach’s eldest son and C.P.E. was Bach’s second eldest son, born of Johann Sebastian’s marriage to his first wife, Maria Barbara.
PAN M 360 : The theme of friendship is also present on stage, particularly between you and the musicians of Les Violons du Roy. As the ensemble celebrates its 40th anniversary, in 2025 you will be celebrating your seventh year as musical director of Les Violons du Roy. What are the memories that you have of the first time you met and conducted the ensemble?
Jonathan Cohen : My first collaboration with Les Violons du Roy was on a European tour where we performed Haydn’s symphonies and concertos with Alexandre Tharaud. I immediately felt a warm musical friendship with this wonderful Québécois ensemble. They have and experience steeped in the baroque and classical repertoire and real chamber music approach to this repertoire which I feel myself is the most important element of performing this music and every concert we do together feels like an adventure or a story which enfolds with new meaning each time.
PAN M 360 : What can we wish you and the musicians of the ensemble for the coming years?
Jonathan Cohen : We can be enormously grateful for this ongoing chance to make music together and I hope we will always continue to find beauty together in great music and amongst willing and capable colleagues.
Afternoon program( Québec, February 27th)
MICHAEL HAYDN (1737-1806)
Concerto pour alto et piano-forte en do majeur, MH 41
• Allegro moderato • Adagio
• Prestissimo
Solistes : Isaac Chalk alto
Mélisande McNabney piano-forte
CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH (1714-1788)
Symphonie en mi bémol majeur, Wq. 179, H. 654
• Prestissimo • Larghetto
• Presto
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Concerto pour clarinette en la majeur, K. 622
• Allegro
• Adagio
• Rondo (Allegro)
Soliste : Stéphane Fontaine clarinette
Evening program (February 27th and Montréal, February 28th)
WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH (1710-1784)
Sinfonia pour cordes en fa majeur, Fk. 67
• Vivace
• Andante
• Allegro
• Menuetto I et II
MICHAEL HAYDN (1737-1806)
Concerto pour alto et piano-forte en do majeur, MH 41
• Allegro moderato • Adagio
• Prestissimo
Solistes : Isaac Chalk alto
Mélisande McNabney piano-forte
• PAUSE •
CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH (1714-1788)
Symphonie en mi bémol majeur, Wq. 179, H. 654
• Prestissimo • Larghetto
• Presto
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Concerto pour clarinette en la majeur, K. 622
• Allegro
• Adagio
• Rondo (Allegro)
Soliste : Stéphane Fontaine clarinette
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut have left their mark on our minds, as have the musical scores that have enhanced the images, particularly those by the great Hungarian composer György Ligeti… most of us don’t even know that his music enhanced this cinematography.
That’s why the SMCQ has made this theme one of its most unifying events, this Friday, February 28, at the Maison symphonique. Organist Jean-Willy Kuntz, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and the SMCQ String Ensemble, conducted by Alexis Hauser, will perform pieces drawn from the soundtracks of these famous film productions.
Also on the program is an orchestral creation by young Canadian composer Liam Ross Gibson, commissioned by the SMCQ. Alexey Shafirov will also play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2. And we won’t miss the performance of Also sprach Zarathoustra, Richard Strauss‘s famous symphonic poem whose theme is the “trailor” from 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Event is presented as part of Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques / 12e édition (2025) — Musique et images.
Participants
- Jean-Willy Kunz, orgue
- Alexey Shafirov, piano
- Ensemble à cordes de la SMCQ
- McGill Symphony Orchestra
- Alexis Hauser, direction musicale
Designers
- Sylvain Marotte, conception visuelle
Program
- Musica ricercata (1951-53)György LigetiExtraitsJean-Willy Kunz, orgue solo
- Lontano (1967)György Ligeti
- Concerto pour piano no 2, op 16 (1912-13, 23)Sergueï Sergueïevitch ProkofievAlexey Shafirov, piano
- Continental Divide (2025)Liam GibsonCréationCommande: SMCQ
- Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra, op 30 (1896)Richard Strauss
Publicité panam
To close Black History Month, Malian blues guitarist Samba Touré will be making a stop in Montreal for an evening to present his latest opus, “Baarakalew”, released in January 2025. In this album, he gives a voice to the voiceless, bringing them out of the shadows. Whether it’s tailors, welders or water vendors, he pays tribute to them through his music, failing to create a foundation in their name. The man who traces the origins of the Blues back to Africa compares it to “Weltaré”, a way of singing one’s pain when words fail to express it. He’ll be at Club Balattou on February 28, in a trio format with himself on guitar, a calabash player and another musician playing either the ngoni, a West African traiditional guitar, or the tamani, a percussion instrument originally from West Africa, depending on the track. A “dangerous trio”, as Samba Touré so aptly puts it. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to him just a few days before the eagerly-awaited Montreal concert.
Live from Germany, Elida Almeida spoke to our journalist Sandra Gasana just a few days before her trip to the USA and then Canada with the Césaria Évora Orchestra. Indeed, it was in 2018 that the Cape Verdean singer was asked by her manager to join this legendary group, an offer she couldn’t refuse. Since then, this adventure has opened the doors to the world’s biggest stages, while she continues to work on her own personal projects in parallel. For the occasion, she will be joined by Ceuzany, Lucibela and Teófilo Chantre and former members of Césaria Évora’s group for an evening at Théâtre Maisonneuve, on February 27. Melancholy guaranteed.
As part of the twelfth edition of Montréal / Nouvelles Musiques, dedicated to the link between music and image, the world of graphic scores offers a world of abundant possibilities for the listener. And that’s precisely why Ensemble SuperMusique will present the DigiScores concert on Sunday, February 23 at the Agora-Hydro-Québec in UQAM’s Cœur des sciences, featuring five contrasting works by Linda Bouchard (Pandémonium), Nick Didkovsky (Zero Waste), Joane Hétu and Mano De Pauw (La vie de l’esprit), Terri Hron (Mouth of a River) and Nour Symon (Tiroirs bonbons pastel).
By fusing musical performance with the exploration of new forms of animated scores, this program aims to offer a glimpse of the eclecticism and range of possibilities offered by this medium. The concert is part of a European-funded research project entitled THE DIGITAL SCORE (DigiScore), led by Craig Vear of the University of Nottingham (UK), to which Quebec researcher and composer Sandheep Bhagwati has invited Productions SuperMusique to participate. For PAN M 360, Alexandre Villemaire spoke with SuperMusique’s Joane Hétu and composer Nour Symon about what promises to be a colourful concert.
Image : Nour Symon
Program
- Pandémonium, alto, flûte et percussions (2022-25) – Linda Bouchard
- Zero Waste, piano, ordinateur, synthétiseur, percussions, flûte et alto (2019) – Nick Didkovsky
- La vie de l’esprit, synthétiseur, percussions, saxophone alto, flûte, voix, piano et alto (2019) – Joane Hétu / Manon De Pauw
- Mouth of a River, synthétiseur, percussions, saxophone, flûte, piano et alto (2021) – Terri Hron
- Tiroirs bonbons pastel (2021) – Nour Symon
Participants
- Ensemble SuperMusique (ESM): Jean Derome, saxophones, flûtes, objets, voix; Corinne René, percussions; Jean René, alto; Olivier St-Pierre, pianos; Vergil Sharkya, synthétiseur
Designers
- Frédéric Lebel, sonorisation
Publicité panam
Having impressed with their 2023 debut album, Montreal’s Cope Land look to keep the momentum going with their second studio release, Expire, set to come out February 14th. I had the chance to talk to Ben Gilbert, who leads this heavy-hitting fusion septet, and ask him about his writing process, and plans for the future.
PAN M 360 – Your debut album was highly praised at PAN M for your ability to mix jazz, metal, and rap. Can listeners expect to hear more of that on your new album?
BEN- For sure. But I think the main difference that you’ll find between our first and second album is that the first one was mostly instrumental. About two-thirds instrumental. Whereas this time around, close to every tune has lyrics. Much more rapping as well. I think I really wanted to explore lyric writing and songs as opposed to pieces, you know? I was also really interested in exploring bilingual lyrics on this album. The lyrics are really half-half English and French.
PAN M 360 – You were previously known as Crossroad Copeland. What’s the story behind the name change?
BEN- Um, well, it’s more for practicality than anything else. Crossroad Copeland, over the years I realized, was quite difficult to say. Especially for francophones. But also the driving point of the band name is that we’re in the land of coping. We’re all living in quite a difficult world right now. This is even more relevant between Trump coming into office and everything that’s going on online too with Meta. Basically, I feel like a lot of people are coping in their lives right now and so I kind of wanted to play that into the band name. [Copeland] also happens to be my middle name. So basically, yeah, I feel like it was just simpler to say but then also made the message of the band name stronger.
PAN M 360 – You’ve released the songs “Shame,” “Breathe,” and “Enfin” as singles and I couldn’t help but notice the recurring themes of psychology and strong emotions. Do you explore that further in the rest of the album?
BEN- Yeah, for sure. I wanted to kind of start and end [the album] with songs that sort of speak about our experience and about society right now. So the first song of the album is called “Attention Span,” the last is called “Real Life Video Game;” and on those I’m especially exploring themes of social media, the internet, AI, and the kind of alienation that’s creating in our society. You mentioned “Shame;” that’s a song about addiction. About someone who’s close to me who was struggling with that. And “Breathe” is about getting whispered in your ear by the powers that be to “just breathe in, breathe out, and everything will be fine.”
PAN M 360 – Like a soothing thing?
BEN – Yeah but a kind of backhanded soothing thing. You know, “get up, go to work, come home, follow the system, and breathe.” So for sure, there’s a lot of emotional content on this album.
PAN M 360 – You play some mean solos on this album. How much of the guitar work is improvised and how much is determined before going into the studio?
BEN – The parts are mostly predetermined except small sections maybe where I’m, you know, “comping,” to use Jazz speech. The guitar solos are the final cuts on the album and are sort of half improvised, half concocted.
PAN M 360 – Same question for your rap sections: Did you freestyle any portion of them or were they predetermined?
BEN- The rap sections were definitely all written in advance. It’s funny; [freestyle] was the thing that I did quite a bit as a teenager. Probably most of it wasn’t any good. But it feels like in more recent years, as I’ve gotten more seriously into rap, [my writing] really is quite conceived. A surprising amount of editing happens after the fact. You write a first version and then you realize, “oh, I could, three months later, change that sentence.” We’re going to be putting out a live session a couple weeks after the album release with an earlier version of the song, “ A Cage.” You’ll be able to hear slightly different lyrics on the live session version versus the studio album version.
PAN M 360 – Have you been experimenting with any genres other than jazz, metal, and rap lately? Any chance we’ll hear them in a song in the near future?
BEN – Well, I mean, I think on the album itself there’s already a few tunes that could be considered other styles than those. There’s a more ballad-like tune on the album, some more acoustic tunes on the album. But the short answer is, I’ve been focused on making this album as good as it can be and on everything that goes with putting it out. As far as what’s next for the band? Um, that’s a good question. Keep things evolving and keep things changing. That’s something that I’ve always valued in a lot of the artists that I listen to. If we were to name a couple, I’d say the Beatles, or Radiohead, and people like Miles Davis. People that have had this capacity to constantly reinvent themselves over the course of their career and, as a result, stay relevant.
PAN M 360- How do you go about writing for a seven piece band? Is it collaborative or do you write everything from ‘A’ to ‘Z’?
BEN- I mostly write everything. What I’ve done these last two albums is that I make a sort of a maquette. Basically, in Ableton Live, I record a kind of passable demo of how the song would go. I’d record on a guitar, program a drum beat, play bass, record MIDI horns, and get a really good idea of how it’s going to sound. And then, at that point, I transcribe it. For rehearsals we put it together and then, for sure, there are changes made. It’s amazing how sometimes you think something is going to sound a certain way, and it really doesn’t sound that way. And vice versa; you have kind of pleasant surprises. It’s fair to mention too, over the course of the process, that Jeanne [Laforest] our singer served as somewhat of an advisor and so I would often bounce ideas off her.
PAN M 360 – As you look to the future, what are some short term and long term goals following the release of this album?
BEN- To become world famous rock stars! No, but seriously, as a musician, I think it’s hard not to have the long-term aspiration of making a living and making meaningful music, you know? And that probably means original music. And that doesn’t have to be my music; it can be other people’s music. But I think that that’s probably the goal for lots of people. And obviously, as is quite well known, it’s not an easy thing to attain in today’s day and age. So, I mean, I would be thrilled if people liked the music. We’re going to be playing our album launch show on March 14th at Petit Campus, in fact. Karneef is going to be doing our first part; this crazy project of progressive Jazz Rock. Come check us out.
PAN M 360 – Perfect! Well thanks a lot for sitting down with us Ben. Best of luck with the launch and all the rest.
BEN – Thanks, Vitta.