Andrés Vial is a well established pianist, multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Montréal. A staple of the creative scene here, Andrés is a regular performer at the L’OFF Festival de Jazz. This year finds him returning with what will no doubt be two remarkable shows, one with his own quintet and one as part of a special collaboration with drummer Joe Chambers.
PAN M 360 : Andrés, many thanks for taking the time. It seems you have quite an exciting L’OFF this year. It must be nice to return to the festival circuit. Would you say there is something special about L’OFF this year in light of all that has happened since 2019 or not really?
ANDRÉS VIAL : Thanks for asking me! The last few editions of l’OFF Festival were hybrid and/or virtual, so I think this year is special for everyone involved. It definitely is for me, because I haven’t played the festival since October 2019, and this year I get to perform with my mentor, Joe Chambers.
PAN M 360 : The music you are presenting with your quintet this year explores folkloric and rhythmic idioms from West Africa and South America. Is this a new direction for you or something that has always been a part of your musical voice?
ANDRÉS VIAL : It’s not entirely a new direction for me. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with renowned musicians from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America for decades now – people like Bassekou Kouyate from Mali, Malika Tirolien from Guadeloupe, and Janet Valdés and Obsesión from Cuba. And my family is from Argentina and Chile, so I heard a lot of South American music growing up. Since about 2015, I’ve been consistently incorporating elements of South American folklore into my original compositions, as well as adding pieces by South American composers to my jazz piano (solo and trio) repertoire.
The original music I’m presenting at l’OFF Fest this year was definitely written and arranged with specific musicians in mind, who come from West and Central Africa, South America, the Caribbean, the US and Canada: Mamadou Koita, Elli Miller Maboungou, Vovo Saramanda, Michael Davidson, Tommy Crane, Ira Coleman, Martin Heslop, Caoilainn Power and Joe Chambers.
PAN M 360 : Do you find that the ‘jazz’ idiom is easily assimilated with music from other cultures?
ANDRÉS VIAL : Jazz is essentially hybrid music to begin with. Like many other New World musical traditions originating in the African diaspora, jazz has always incorporated elements of African, European, and Indigenous music. Of course, depending on the era, geographic location, and specific circumstances, the extent of these different influences can vary greatly.
PAN M 360 : Did you come to any new epiphanies or discoveries in working on this project, perhaps about the unity of all sound and things?
ANDRÉS VIAL : Definitely. I felt a unified sense of purpose being expressed by the group immediately. They’re all such sensitive musicians that I could really hear how much everyone was listening and adapting to each other and the flow of the music. I think it always comes down to how musicians relate to each other, personally and musically. Because we’re all operating within the greater sphere of Black music, it’s been pretty easy to get on the ‘same page’ quickly. There are alot of commonalities in terms of how we approach ensemble playing, improvisation, polyrhythms, etc., but there are also some noticeable differences that have required us all to adapt to best serve the music. Each of us has been pulled out of our comfort zone at times, and each of us has also been able to share aspects of our own culture and musical knowledge with the others. It’s really been a gift.
PAN M 360 : I would love to know more about your work with Joe Chambers. How did it come to be and what exactly is the nature of your ensemble ?
ANDRÉS VIAL : I saw Joe perform at Upstairs and give a masterclass at McGill around 1999 or 2000. It was such a heavy experience that I decided to audition for the New School in NYC, so I could study with him. ( I was playing a lot of drums at the time.) I played vibraphone in his Jazz Percussion Ensemble there for a year, which was great, and we played a lot of the compositions that Joe contributed to Max Roach’s M’BOOM percussion ensemble, of which he was a core member.
Fast forward about 20 years to 2022. This past May, I was preparing to record an album of my own original percussion ensemble music, and I emailed him to ask if he’d like to play on it. He said yes! He came up to Montreal for 3 days and we cut the record – it was an amazing experience. About a month later, he called me and asked if I’d like to work with him on his new Blue Note album! I ended up playing piano on 3 tracks, contributing two of my originals (Dance Kobina and City of Saints), and co-producing.
Our co-led ensemble features musicians who appear on both of our upcoming records. For our OFF Jazz Fest show we’ll be playing mostly originals, as well as a few standards.
PAN M 360 : How has it been working with someone directly connected to the jazz lineage?
ANDRÉS VIAL : It’s been a dream come true, on so many levels. I’ve learned so much from playing with him. He is absolutely one of the finest ensemble players of all time. His level of groove and swing, his dynamic range, his touch, his telepathic ability to connect with everyone in the band…and he’s such a great composer. Joe turned 80 this year – what a profound contribution he has made to this music over the last 7 decades! It has felt surreal at times, especially for me and the other jazz cats in the band. Personally, there is nothing more rewarding than having a mentor say they dig your piano playing and your compositions, and they want you to join their band. It’s truly been an honor to work with him.
PAN M 360 : Can we expect an album release any time soon? Anything exciting on the horizon we ought to be on the lookout for?
ANDRÉS VIAL : Joe’s album Dance Kobina will be out on Blue Note Records on February 3rd. My album Spirit Takes Form, featuring Joe and many of the aforementioned musicians, will likely be out by Fall 2023.
PAN M 360 : Thanks again for your time, wishing you all the best Andrés.
Conceived by American saxophonist Steve Lehman and composer Frédéric Maurin, artistic director of the Orchestre National de Jazz, in close collaboration with the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM) in Paris, the “Ex Machina” project “explores new musical directions” by developing a game of real-time interactions between the soloists and a form of artificial intelligence in the context of a large jazz ensemble.
Resulting from a collaboration with the Musical Representations team of Ircam directed by Gérard Assayag, the Ex Machina project integrates devices created from the DYCI2 environment by Jérôme Nikapour in the composition process and in the soloists’ improvisations in real time. Thus, the computer and its software become in turn “a generator of electronic orchestrations for the composers and an improvisation partner for the musicians”.
A most singular project, its presentation at Off Jazz, this Friday at the Théâtre Plaza, deserves our full attention. This justifies this conversation with its conceptors !
PAN M 360: What “machine” are we talking about here?
STEVE LEHMAN : In this context, the “machine” refers to the DYCI2 Software but also all of the other tools we often use as part of our compositional process: ableton live, max/msp, spear, open music, etc.
PAN M 360: What is the DYC12 environment?
STEVE LEHMAN : DYCI2 (not DYC12) is a computer-driven musical environment capable of responding intelligently to live and pre-recorded audio signals from acoustic instruments and other sources.
PAN M 360: Then, is artificial intelligence involved ?
STEVE LEHMAN : Yes, DYCI2, is meant to demonstrate a kind of (artificially) intelligent musical behavior.
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN : But it seems to me that the term AI is sometimes overused, at least in the kind of music we make, because it’s still a system that needs human ideas to work.
PAN M 360: How were the triggers designed to generate this dialogue?
STEVE LEHMAN: Triggers are used in this context more for work with pre-recorded audio and synthesizers. The real-time interaction doesn’t involve triggers.
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: In this context, triggers are used more for working with pre-recorded audio and synthesizers. Real-time interaction doesn’t involve triggers, other than sending a signal to the DYCI2 system that says “now listen to this instrument”.
PAN M 360: What was the commitment of IRCAM, generally dedicated to contemporary electroacoustic music, in this creative process?
STEVE LEHMAN : Fred and I worked in close collaboration with researcher, Jerome Nikapour, to explore and in some cases expand the capacity of DYCI2 and its integration into our written and improvised music for acoustic instruments.
PAN M 360: How did this collaboration with IRCAM come about?
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: On my side, I had been in contact with IRCAM for some time and I had taken several of their courses.
STEVE LEHMAN : When Fred became director of the ONJ, he opened up a dialogue with IRCAM which led to this collaboration and co-commission of the piece “Ex Machina.” Personally, I have also been involved in various projects with IRCAM and a guest researcher and artist-in-residence since 2011.
PAN M 360: What is the part of the collective performance beyond its interaction with DYCI2 ?
STEVE LEHMAN : There is a great deal of notated music for the ensemble. And the formal design of the music is structured in great detail as well.
PAN M 360: How much of this is improvisation? Individual performances?
STEVE LEHMAN : Yes. Individual solos and then individual solos that happen in the context/structure of a given composition.
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: There are both individual solos and a duet that form a kind of “cadenza” and individual solos that occur within the context/structure of a given composition with sometimes the whole orchestra playing.
PAN M 360 : Why “39”? Why “Ex Machina”?
STEVE LEHMAN : For “39”, you’ll have to ask Fred. For ‘“Ex Machina”, it’s away to evoke the idea that certain aspects of the music come “from the machine” And maybe also a subtle reference to Gérard Grisey’s “Tempus ex Machina.”
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: For “39”, it’s very simple: it was the provisional working title of this piece because it was the 39th piece I was writing for a large ensemble and then in the middle of a rehearsal, a musician from the orchestra said to me “keep this title, because at the moment many people are at 39°C because of the illness”. So I kept it.
PAN M 360: You can see some excerpts of the performance of this work by the NYO on YouTube… Will an album be recorded?
STEVE LEHMAN : Yes, we will record in late-January with a release anticipated in Fall 2023.
PAN M 369: Can you explain how your paths (Steve and Frédéric) crossed and what your common interests were in carrying out this project?
STEVE LEHMAN : Fred and I met in Paris after a concert I presented there with my octet in 2016. We quickly discovered that we had a great deal of musical interests in common, including a deep interest in the French Spectral school of composition (Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey) and it’s potential integration into improvised music.
PAN M 360: Do you know of any other projects of that kind, i.e., an interaction between contemporary jazz and electronic devices favoring an interaction, or even a work put together in real time?
STEVE LEHMAN : Not so many. But I think George Lewis and his development of the Voyager software for real-time interaction is an important precedent that one should note.
PAN M 360: How was this approach received by audiences?
STEVE LEHMAN : Extremely enthusiastic! We have received standing ovations at all of our first 5 concerts in Paris, Amsterdam, NYC, Washington DC, and Brown University. It’s a good feeling. I think audiences see and hear that the entire ensemble is 100% invested in the music. And I think there is a sense that this project involves a good deal of risk and exploration. And it seems that listeners connect and appreciate that a great deal.
PAN M 360: What will be the instrumentation in Montreal? Is this the line-up?
Steve Lehman – Compositions, alto saxophone
Frédéric Maurin – Compositions, direction
Fanny Ménégoz – Flute, alto flute, piccolo
Catherine Delaunay – Clarinet, basset horn
Steve Lehman – Alto saxophone
Julien Soro – Tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet
STEVE LEHMAN: Yes, that’s right. You should also include Dionysios Papanikolaou – Live Electronics.
PAN M 360: How do you situate this approach in a context where “serious” jazz has every interest in renewing itself?
STEVE LEHMAN: I’m not sure I understand the question. But as a student of both Jackie McLean and Tristan Murail, I can say that this projects feel very personal to this group but also 100% consistent with the never-ending evolution of the traditions of both jazz and spectral music.
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: I believe that jazz is precisely a music that is always reinventing itself since its beginnings. It has never stopped and it continues today ! The problem today comes rather from a part of the critics and from certain places or festivals that believe that this music should be the one that was played 70, 60 or 50 years ago. But it is the history of jazz to evolve. In 1947, some critics and programmers said that bebop was not jazz. History repeats itself.
PAN M 360: Sorry, the wording of this question may be reductive and confusing. The intention was rather to underline that your approach is extremely relevant in a context that is more difficult and less favorable to jazz than it was, which has little to do with its real creativity.
FRÉDÉRIC MAURIN: No problem. Indeed, we agree that times are not very conducive to risk-taking despite the incredible vivacity of artists.
In contact with electronic music (Drum N Bass, Jungle, House) since her teenage years, Denise Rabe has followed a creative path marked by stages and encounters that have, as a DJ and producer, gradually led her to find her place in the techno world. Since then, the German has played in the most famous clubs in her country and has collaborated with figures of atmospheric industrial and abstract techno like producer Rrose and Shxcxchcxsh. The uniqueness of Denise Rabe’s work is illustrated through the subtle blurring of the boundaries between experimental and pure dancefloor-oriented techno, as evidenced by her latest EP Blame Me—featuring remixes of The Advent, TWR72, and Cri Du Coeur.
DJ set hör
PAN M 360: Can you introduce yourself through two/three events or encounters during your career that shaped you into the artist you are today?
Denise Rabe: The most important encounters were when I was 16. My friend Exzeme taught me turntablism. I loved it and bought my first Technics turntable. My first little experience on stage scared me so much that I never wanted to do it again in public. 10 years later (2011) when I moved to Berlin [which has another whole universe in it, why and so on, but we wanna keep it short] I changed my mind and wanted to go for it and recorded my first Soundcloud set. Here I met the boys from Legotek and played shows in About Blank, Sisyphos, GoldenGate, Tresor … 2014 I met Emmanuel from ARTS through a Tresor gig, we hung out afterward and I showed him my first productions, he liked it and this is how my first EP with the incredible Rrose Remix was born.
PAN M 360: What can you tell me about the creative process and inspiration for the Blame Me EP?
Denise Rabe: This is always the hardest question for me to answer. It starts with a recording and then takes me to a place I had no idea I would end up. But I remember I wanted to work with some ACID sounds. It turned out sounding definitely not like the usual ACID tracks, not even close I would say. But that’s completely normal for my process I start with an inspiration and in the end, even I can’t hear the connection anymore. But I like that it’s so surprising and that’s important for me in a creative process. Find your way and sound. If I wanna do something specific I end up frustrated most of the time. I need to go with the flow.
PAN M 360: About the art of remix in general, is this something you like to do? What’s your approach to this specific exercise?
Denise Rabe: It depends, if the sounds are interesting it is easier to work with and it’s more inspiring. It is definitely more challenging when the track has a hi-hat, a clap, a kick, and one or two sounds only. The last one is tougher for sure but also a good challenge and practice to work on your skills. Making a good track with not so many elements is not so easy. But yes most of the time I enjoy doing it.
PAN M 360: When I listen to your music, I feel there is an interesting balance between dancefloor-oriented and more contemplative/experimental musical elements, does one side influence the other, and if so, how?
Denise Rabe: I am always in the middle of you must do some dance floor stuff and the other half is more on the artsy side of things. I want it to be danceable cause every (Techno) producer wants to hear their tracks played by others. I try to find the balance between artsy and what works for the people in the clubs. Music should come naturally because it is something very personal and I would say my music is and mostly I have the best flow on breakbeats, it comes more naturally. No idea why. So I would say the experimental one is influencing the dance floor music.
PAN M 360: How do you organize your working time between production and DJing? How do you manage your pace that I suppose goes crazy quick in Berlin?
Denise Rabe: Usually I do my DJ stuff the week before the gig but then I can’t do anything else. Depends also on how many gigs I have and how much time is in between, if I play more regularly—the prep for the shows is quicker. When there is a bigger gap it needs more time again, to recall the music and my organization of it. It helps to do podcasts so you have some stuff to go through as well. The digital is a blessing and a curse at the same time. You don’t have to carry all the records anymore but the amount of music to choose from is too much. That is what overwhelms me sometimes. And I do sit in the studio when it feels right. Not every day is a day to be creative. I recently figured I am not a machine, and I have to respect that. The more pressure I put on myself—the less music comes out. “No pressure” is my new mantra.
Photo by Katja Ruge
PAN M 360: How did the collaboration with Arkham Audio happen? Do you have ties with the Belgian techno scene?
Denise Rabe: I met Jerome (Cri Du Coeur) through my good friend Sammy one of the CYRK guys who is from Belgium and manages the label.
PAN M 360: You are also managing your own label, Rabe. From your experience, what are the biggest challenges in distributing music nowadays?
Denise Rabe: Definitely in Germany, Deutsche Post became the biggest enemy for Bandcamp sales. They changed the size and price of the packaging worldwide. On the other hand Triple Vision is doing the job of distributing. Of course, the environmental aspect, the time it takes and the costs make you think twice to press and what to press. That’s also why I started the digital-only series now Rabexxx.
PAN M 360: Will you be featuring other artists’ work on Rabe in the future?
Denise Rabe: For now I am focusing on the digital side of the label to work with other artists in collaborations. The first one was with Ricardo Garduno. I am definitely open to opening up the Label in the future, but not yet. We will see I want that it happens naturally.
You could walk outside your door right now, pick up a small pebble, and toss it across the street, and the chances you hit the dwelling of a Montreal musician are pretty high. Many of them make Lo-Fi music; music that sounds a bit “dusty” due to production restrictions—or in the case of the duo project Tinkertoy Fog Machine from Kai Thorpe and Tyrin Kelly—on purpose.
Living up to their name, Thorpe and Kelly are meticulous ‘tinkerers,’ using DIY recording techniques until their music sounds like a beat-up and forgotten cassette that has been manipulated and warbled from playing it too many times. It’s psychedelia that kind of sounds different with every play. Just check out their 2021 release Fingers Crossed.
The two bandmates are definitely on the same wavelength as longtime friends, roommates, and members of the local dance-punk group, Crasher, and backing musicians for Boyhood, an alt-rock group from Ontario.
This past summer, Thorpe, and Kelly have been refining the Tinkertoy live show and are planning on going back into the studio with hopes to record more material, meshing with their DIY aesthetics.
We chatted with both Thorpe and Kelly before their performance at Pop Montreal on Oct 1.
PAN M 360: How did Tinkertoy Fog Machine get its start?
Kai Thorpe: We’ve been playing music together since we were like 15. We met in high school so this is kind of just like a continuation of like all these projects that like kind of ended up changing their names over the years so yeah. I guess we’ve been Tinkertoy since 2017. That’s when we moved here from Ottawa.
PAN M 360: And is the music created through jamming or made on a computer program? I can never tell with Lo-Fi stuff like this.
Kai Thorpe: This is like computer song music, but not completely. I feel like that’s kind of discrediting it in a way in my books because I don’t personally find that very glamorous, but the songs were definitely not thought up on the spot. I think maybe we like we jam at the beginning of it to get the first idea, but then it’s all totally layered in Ableton. But then for recording, we have like an eight-track reel to reel that we end up re-recording into.
Tyrin Kelly: Yeah I think the initial ideas come from Ableton demos and loops but then we try to recreate it with more live-off-the-floor energy. Our roots are analog things. We like analog.
PAN M 360: Ah you use reel-to-reel. The recordings sound very vintage too, like finding a dusty cassette under a bed. Not dated, but Lo-Fi and washed out for a purpose.
Tyrin Kelly: We actually spent like a month just like re-amping … like this was kind of our like experimental recording stage, but we’re trying to like teach ourselves like, how to record ourselves. So we’d like to be re-amped like every single instrument 10 times without thinking about getting it done in any way. So we would send vocals and like drums through guitar amps. And then if it sounds bad we discard it, or if it sounds kind of good, we’ll save it. So we can kind of just do that over everything. Just to give a kind of a more like, like you said, ‘dusty vintagey’ vibe.
Kai Thorpe: I feel like it paid off in the end (laughs).
PAN M 360: It kind of reminds me of really, really old Tame Impala demos. Before, he was huge. So do you have a lot of l older vintage equipment? I guess you have the reel-to-reel but any other analog kind of stuff that you play around with?
Kai Thorpe: We have like outboard gear like preamps and some mics. I built some of the preamps and compressors too. Also for like our instruments, I think I have the same guitar the Tame Impala guy has. It’s a Hagstrom 1970 I think? I got it for like 600 bucks from a guy in Longueuil, like an old rocker guy. Now they cost so much.
PAN M 360: Do you guys handle the lyrics together as well?
Kai Thorpe: I’d say everything is like a 50/50 split. Like everything is shared between Tyrin and I. It’s definitely a joint effort.
Tyrin Kelly: And I just wanted to say that the two singles we have out right now, we spent a lot of time on them and maybe overthought them a bit too much? But it was a good process of kind of reinventing our sound so it’s cool to hear that it sounds a bit unique because it was a lot of tinkering around with it.
PAN M 360: Well I’d say the name Tinkertoy Fog Machine makes sense then if you’re constantly tinkering with your sound. And you guys have a silkscreen printing project together as well? Is it linked to Tinkertoy or do you do it on the side?
Kai Thorpe: Aesthetically it is, but this is mainly Tyrin’s project [Trap Door Printing] but it’s all one thing if that makes sense?
Tyrin Kelly: Yeah I feel especially with screen printing specifically, there’s so much correlation between it and like, DIY music. So yeah, I guess we did we printed the cover art. A lot of show posters on street poles voters. And, like just references to the early Montreal scene … there were a lot of like silkscreen posters. I just like the idea of like keeping that alive.
Crasher EP cover via Trap Door Printing
PAN M 360: So would you say you’re going to take the Fall and Winter to keep playing live and then look at recording some new material? Another two singles or a full-length LP?
Kai Thorpe: The next step is a record. We want to do a full length, but it’s kind of daunting, you know? Making a cohesive body of work. I feel like it’s kind of daunting, but I think that’s the next step.
Tyrin Kelly: And if we recorded with someone else, it would be with someone we’re close with and still that sort of DIY mentality. We like to have creative control and we know what we like. The reason why you do DIY is that every step of it is creative. Like you do the mixing stage and it’s creative. Mastering is creative. All of it is creative.
PAN M 360: For sure. What’s the live show at POP Montreal going to be like?
Kai Thorpe: When people see us now they always say ‘Wow I was expecting something totally different.’ It’s more of a psych rock vibe with lots of tweaks that need to be sorted out. We have a four-piece live band. So we have like a keyboard player and a guitarist, and then I play bass and sing and Tyrin plays drums.
Tyrin Kelly: I feel like we play Fingers Crossed and then everything else is pretty much unreleased. Like work to try them out live recording them, I guess. And yeah, I guess we spent the summer just trying to be better by playing live a lot. That’s kind of been our main focus for now.
Haruna Kimishima is known in Japan as Haru Nemuri. Without claiming to know much about the current Japanese musical spectrum, it is easy to acknowledge the talent of this artist who will probably make a big splash at Pop Montreal this Saturday.
Typhoon of punk poetry and rap, hardcore aesthetics with virtuoso components, the music of this brilliant artist also involves J-Pop, noise or electro referents.
We owe him 3 albums and an EP since 2018: “Harutosyura” (2018), “Kick in the World” (EP, 2018), “Lovetheism” (2020), “Shounka Ryougen” (2022). Already, we can talk about consistency and depth across the board.
PAN M 360 just jumped on the bandwagon, we really insisted on making the following conversation with Haru Nemuri possible.
PAN M 360: How do you see the progression of your craft since the beginning? HARU NEMURI: I’ve been making music by wanting to become stronger, more beautiful, and more dignified.
PAN M 360 : What would have been the main steps ? HARU NEMURI: I think that progress is made by never stopping to question both society and myself.
PAN M 360 : Are you self-taught or also have you been trained in music?
HARU NEMURI: I am self-taught.
PAN M 360 : How did you build this language of sounds?
HARU NEMURI: I don’t know, to be honest (laugh). I actively use things that feel sacred, things that have a destructive feel, and things that have a compelling atmosphere.
PAN M 360 : Of course, different crucial influences are observed : hardcore punk, avant rock, rap, avant pop, noize, synthpop, post-minimalism, nujazz, to name a few. What would be your own description of styles and influences from Japan, Occident and other parts of the world ?
HARU NEMURI: When it comes to Japanese music, I first fell in love with bands that are categorized as “ROCKIN’ON-kei (style)”. As for western music I like alternative and hardcore bands and in Russian punk and hip-hop.
PAN M 360 : There seems to be no separation between experimental culture and popular forms in your approach. How do you see it yourself?
HARU NEMURI: To me I think it’s interesting to have both coexisting and I’m consciously creating that state.
PAN M 360 : So you are « closer to the ideal », better in composition and playing. How do you work in your studio?
HARU NEMURI: I can’t really see the destination of where the ideal is as of yet, but I think so. Basically, I make all the songs at home and then in the studio I’m often taking time recording and spending time mixing.
PAN M 350 : For you, what are the main differences between « LOVETHEISM » album and « SHUNKA RYOUGEN »?
HARU NEMURI: I think “SHUNKA RYOUGEN” has a blank space where there are more existences of others.
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PAN M 360 : The musicianship seems to be excellent! Can you tell us how you have built your band?
HARU NEMURI: Depending on the situation, the case, and the piece of music, I decide each time who I want to have them join the performance. I decide who to play with based on if they are not discriminatory and cool.
PAN M 360 :Who is playing what in the studio?
HARU NEMURI: Depending on the song, guitar, bass, and drums are often performed by musicians who specialize in each.
PAN M 360 : How is it translated on stage? What is the gear? Who is playing with you? What is the visual aspect of your show? What is the performing aspect? Are there a lot of electronics involved?
HARU NEMURI: I often hear my own sound through a monitor. From the computer through an interface the sound is outputted from two guitar amps, one bass amp, and speakers. The mic is passed through a vocal effector. My manager is operating the computer and controlling the sound to come out.
PAN M 360: Most of your international fans do not understand the Japanese language. They feel the poetic intentions and they love the music. Is it okay with you?
HARU NEMURI: Of course. It gives a lot of meaning to my choice of using music as an expression.
PAN M 360 : Do you see your craft as songwriting or music composition including words and melodies through a musical proposal?
HARU NEMURI: I think it would be the second one. (music composition including words and melodies through a musical proposal).
PAN M 360 : You can play in many kinds of festivals. What are your favorite events ? Where do you mainly perform in Asia and in the rest of the world ?
HARU NEMURI: Every event I’ve attended so far has been great. I don’t actually have a specific venue that I always perform at but in Asia it would be in Tokyo and Taiwan. For the rest of the world, I go to Europe and America. I’d love to go anywhere.
PAN M 360: So this is it! Thank you for your answers and have a safe flight to Montreal!
Clearly, Niineta is one of the most significant recordings from contemporary Aboriginal culture. The slow, dramatically heavy rhythms and organic linearity of this cohesive ten-piece journey represent a milestone of the sonic landscape portrayed by artists from North America’s first peoples.
Vocalist and producer Joe Rainey has taken a major step forward: his native values of meditation and contemplative connection with the universe are matched by an uncommon electronic language. Ambient, dub, industrial, techno and post-minimalist music all merge into a another kind of pow wow.
The traditional song of this Ojibwe artist is thus inscribed in a new context, at the same time concerned with the oral tradition and a dizzying leap into the present and the future. The digital world becomes a perfect complement to the expression of this artist who is concerned with updating the musical legacy of his ancestors.
Since Joe Rainey is on the same program as Tortoise this Saturday, in the context of Pop Montreal, PAN M 360 reaches the artist at his home in the Green Bay area, Wisconsin.
We’ll be talking mainly about the excellent Niineta, co-produced with his colleague Andrew Broder, electronic musician and producer from Minneapolis. Let’s remember that the album was released last May under the 37d03d label.
PAN M 360: So you’re based in an urban area, right?
JOE RAINEY: I’m an Ojibwe from the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. However, I was born and raised in Minneapolis. I’ve never lived on the Red Lake Reservation for any length of time, but I’ve visited there a lot. So I am an urban native.
PAN M 360: This is indeed evident in your deep interest in electronic music and other experimental forms. At the same time, it’s impossible to say that you are not close to your roots. Wow!
JOE RAINEY: People might reduce my work to pow wow music singing with electro beats but… it’s actually something I’m very proud of. The musical fusion that took place with my friend Andrew Broder is original compositions on my part. They were done by listening to what Andrew Broder sent me as he went along. So I sat down in the same place I’m talking to you from, and created each song you hear, molded into the beatmaking that Andrew suggested.
PAN M 360: The result is very special, no doubt.
JOE RAINEY: Thank you! But at first, you know, I didn’t intend to make it public. What you heard was going to be a personal project. But towards the end of that process, I started thinking about who I was as a contemporary Aboriginal artist. And if I had something to say, it would be exactly that. So I wanted to go towards that, with everything that was behind me, everything that I knew about my musical culture and that had come before me.
PAN M 360: You mean your personal life and culture are the foundation of your music.
JOE RAINEY: Yeah, I didn’t do that on my own, it’s just the idea I had in my head that you hear. So I wanted to express that idea somehow and I had a friend who helped me.
PAN M 360: There are now some indigenous artists involved in new forms of music, instrumental or electronic, but we don’t really know of any other ambient music like that! Also, music with refined harmonization as you suggest is rare.
JOE RAINEY: Well, some church music in the indigenous culture has harmonies, so it’s not that new. However, I was not inspired by this music…I can also point to some pow wow songs as being harmonies. And when Broder said to me “Hey, do you know you have any?”, I said “No, I didn’t know”. And some of my takes ended up harmonizing naturally, with the help of my colleague.
PAN M 360:How would you describe what came to mind in doing this important work?
JOE RAINEY: Collaborating over the last five or six years with different artists that have been sampled, it kind of created a space in my mind for that creativity to flourish. During that creative time, I was also listening to indigenous experiments in electronic music, A Tribe Called Red for example. So I think that all of that just kind of clumped together in my mind. And then it all came out in my 40s, just with the ability to have that time to really internalize. Everything I did on this album was done during the quarantine, in this room, with these instruments and computers.
PAN M 360: Before the pandemic, what were you doing? We didn’t say it was totally different, or that you were electronic producers who sang.
JOE RAINEY: I’ve been a pow wow singer for quite some time. I’m also an archivist. I harvest, I compose, I record, I sing. Plus, I have a day job because I have a family to support. But I’ve been lucky enough to meet people through music, it’s really opened up my musical side which has always been there my whole life. So this album is the culmination of all these years of work, research and meetings, I may have created my own thing.
PAN M 360: What kind of archivist are you?
JOE RAINEY: I use archives from all periods from the 1940s on. I know someone who has them all, so I can work with that material.
PAN M 360: Like Jeremy Dutcher in Canada?
JOE RAINEY: You know, I’ve had a few conversations where he’s been introduced to me. The album that he did, it’s very beautiful, very well done. But until recently, I didn’t know that. And it’s right up my alley.
PAN M 360: How do you play this music live?
JOE RAINEY: Andrew Broder and I perform as a duo. We’ve known each other for a number of years, we’ve done things together before this album. And he left the door open for me to ask him for help. So I asked him to help and he was involved in the whole process. He’s the other half, he’s more responsible for the production, and I’m responsible for the vocal side.
PAN M 360: Are you also involved in the production?
JOE RAINEY: Oh yeah! A lot of the samples you hear are my samples, so I co-produced it, exchanging information and music throughout the quarantine and it was never a difficult process, never a difficult process to work with Broder, just because it was so natural. Broder sent me a long series of beats and sounds. I had to think about what I wanted to sing and what I wanted to convey. It was like each of us defining the other’s phrase.
PAN M 360: Is there an audiovisual proposition to your concert?
JOE RAINEY: Not exactly. We try to let everyone experience the music, determine the meaning. Just through sound, we wanted people to go through a lot of emotions, whether it’s happy, sad, scared, soft or loud. We just wanted people to be completely immersed, to really feel what they hear, more than what they see.
PAN M 360: Would you agree that your work can also be trance-like or meditative?
JOE RAINEY: That’s the way I’ve thought about it too.
Since the beginning of his very young career, he has accumulated more than 35 million listens online, the apathy song being his most listened to song on the listening platforms.
But who is this guy, famous to some and unknown to others?
Born in Ottawa, Maxime Trippenbach, aka Maxime., recently moved to Montreal. At the age of 13, he was charmed by Deadmau5’s music during a car ride with his father. “When I got home, I discovered that the Canadian DJ was using FL studio software. I immediately downloaded the software and learned how to use it,” he says.
The 24-year-old singer-songwriter and producer navigates between indie pop, bedroom pop, and indietronica. Last August, Maxime. launched Rubber Checks, a five-track EP. Through this project, he addresses the loneliness of a young artist. “I wrote most of my EP shortly after I moved to Montreal,” he says.
Maxime. wants to “create something different that draws listeners in from the first moments of his songs.”
At his POP Montreal show at the Diving Bell Social Club on Wednesday, Maxime. plans to play his most popular songs as well as a few unreleased tracks. “In concert, I like to modify my songs and offer a different version than the one available on online listening platforms. Otherwise, what’s the point of coming to my shows,” he says with a laugh.
On stage, he is accompanied by James Clayton on guitar and Lucas Kuhl on drums, two long-time friends.
Pan M 360 spoke with him to find out more about his music, his creative process, and his presence at Pop Montreal.
PAN M 360: How and why did you start making music?
MAXIME.: I started making music when I was 13 years old. When I was young, I took guitar lessons. My father always had compilations on CD in the player of the family car. One day he played a Deadmau5 song and I thought it was really good. When I got home, I discovered that the Canadian DJ was using FL studio software. Immediately, I downloaded the software and learned how to use it. When I was about 20 years old, I decided to leave electronic music behind, pick up my guitar and start singing. That’s when the musical universe of Maxime. started.
PAN M 360: What are your musical influences?
MAXIME.: I grew up listening to a lot of electronic music, from Cage the Elephant to Radiohead. Today, I listen to mostly alternative and indie music. When I create, I incorporate elements of EDM, because I still produce on the same software since my childhood. All my drums are electronic, I modify my voice a lot and use a lot of synthesizers.
PAN M 360: What is your creative vision?
MAXIME.: I want to create something different that attracts the listeners from the first moments of my songs. Also, I want my music to be a real earworm. Melodies are very important to me and I like when my music is close to pop. Also, I like to make unpredictable songs.
PAN M 360: You recently released your EP Rubber Checks. Tell us about the creation of this project?
MAXIME.: I wrote most of my EP shortly after I moved to Montreal. I didn’t know many people and I didn’t go out much. I stayed in my room a lot and wrote songs. I write about my life and my moods at that time. My lyrics are vague to let my listeners interpret them in their own way.
PAN M 360: You are performing on Wednesday at the POP Montreal festival. What does this experience mean to you?
MAXIME.: I didn’t expect to be accepted to be part of the festival, I just started doing shows. In fact, my performance at Pop Montreal will be my fourth ever. On stage, I am accompanied by Clay (guitar) and Lucas (drums). They are two of my friends and we have a lot of fun playing together. What I like about Pop Montreal is that the different events are not all in the same place. There are a lot of artists to discover. Also, I love Montreal so it’s a good excuse to be there!
PAN M 360: How did your first shows go?
MAXIME.: So far, I’m having a lot of fun. However, I’m starting to understand how difficult it is from a technical point of view to do a show without pitfalls. I recently did a show in Montreal and the power went out halfway through my last song. I wasn’t sure what to do, it was a very strange ending. I hope everything will be fine on Wednesday.
PAN M 360: What should we expect from you on Wednesday night?
MAXIME.: I’m going to play my most popular songs and some new ones. When I play live, I like to change my songs and offer a different version than the one available on online listening platforms. Otherwise, what’s the point of coming to my shows?
Originally from Morocco, YouYou was born in Montreal. After listening to Vince Staples’ Summertime ’06 album in 2015, he got into music. In his most recent creations, the producer draws heavily from Afro house and Carioca funk. YouYou describes his music as “diverse and enchanting. When he creates, his main goal “is for people to be able to forget about everyday life for a few minutes and be transported into his world.”
Early in his career, YouYou was part of the Montreal beatmaking collective Jeune et Ambitieux. In fact, the group opened for rapper YBN Nahmir at Club Soda in 2018. During the pandemic, it began releasing its own songs. In early October, YouYou plans to release an Afro house-tinged EP. His latest track, Soweto, is part of that project. “This is the result of many hours of hard work. I couldn’t be more proud of the result,” he says.
On a daily basis, the young artist listens to many artists of different musical styles such as Citizen Deep, Kaytranada, Hubert Lenoir and Lydia Képinski. “I like many different musical styles and I think that allows me not to lock myself into a musical style when I create,” he says.
On Wednesday night, YouYou will be on stage at Casa del Popolo as part of the POP Montreal festival, which is just beginning: “I feel like this is one more step towards my ultimate goal. I want to popularize Afro house in Montreal and be an important figure in Montreal DJing,” he says, smiling.
Pan M 360 chats with YouYou about his musical career and his participation in the Pop Montreal festival.
PAN M 360: When did you start and why?
YOUYOU: I started making music in 2015 after listening to Vince Staples’ Summertime ’06 album. I loved it, especially the percussion. At the time, I was a boy who was easily bored and didn’t do much. In the beginning, I was part of a collective called Jeune et Ambitieux (J&A) with two good friends. We did several shows and we opened for YBN Nahmir at Club Soda. My experience with J&A taught me a lot. So I’ve been in the music business for a while. During the pandemic, I started to release more solo tracks.
PAN M 360: What are your musical inspirations?
YOUYOU: I am very inspired by world music. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of carioca funk. It’s a very rhythmic and catchy musical genre. Also, I really like afro house. I’m going to release an EP at the beginning of October and it sounds very much like afro house. Then I really like to work with samples from North Africa. On a daily basis, I listen a lot to the music of the South African producer Citizen Deep. He is one of the biggest figures in afro house right now. I also listen to Kaytranada, High Klassified, Hubert Lenoir and Lydia Képinski. I like a lot of different styles of music and I think that allows me to not lock myself into one musical style when I create.
PAN M 360: What is your goal when you create?
YOUYOU: When I create, I imagine the reaction of my listeners. When someone listens to my sounds, I want them to focus on what they are feeling. I want people who are going through a rough patch to be able to channel themselves and find themselves in my songs. On other songs, I want my listeners to get caught up in the beat and dance. My main goal is for people to be able to forget about everyday life for a few minutes and to be transported into my world.
PAN M 360: Would you like to have artists to put their voices on your next productions?
YOUYOU: Certainly, I would love to collaborate with artists in the future. I have tried in the past, but it was a bit complicated. Artists like Kaytranada and High Klassified started out as solo beatmakers and were eventually able to invite artists onto their music. I’d like to get to that point too. Most of the songs I’m creating right now are made for someone to sing on. As soon as I get an opportunity like that, I will take it.
PAN M 360: Do you think the Montreal DJing scene will continue to grow in the next few years?
YOUYOU: I believe that the Montreal DJing scene is capable of going even further. It may be hard to believe, but no one thought that one day a Montreal DJ would win two Grammys (Kaytranada). When I see artists from here doing such things, I tell myself that anything is possible. Of course, we have to work very hard and we need the music industry to support electronic music. This summer, CRi made history with his set at the International Jazz Festival. We’re on the right track and I’d like to be part of that growth.
PAN M 360: You released your track “Soweto” in early September. How did this track come about?
YOUYOU: At the beginning of the pandemic, I started listening to a lot of Afro house and I dove into that world. I was impressed by the African chants, the percussion and the electronic influence. I started creating Soweto in March 2022. The more I discovered the world of Afro house, the more I wanted to add elements to my song. So, the creation of Soweto was spread out over several months. I am very happy with the result.
PAN M 360: You are participating in the POP Montreal festival. What does this occasion represent for you?
YOUYOU: This festival means a lot to me. I’ve been interested in this event for several years and I want to participate. This year was the first time I suggested I apply. When I received the confirmation of my selection, I was in Morocco with my family. I was extremely happy to be able to be part of POP. I feel like this is one step closer to my ultimate goal. I want to popularize Afro house in Montreal and be an important figure in this movement.
PAN M 360: What kind of show will you be playing on Wednesday night?
YOUYOU: I’m going to play some songs that I’ve been working on for a very long time. Some of them are already online, others are new. In fact, I’ll be previewing my next EP. The show is the result of a lot of hard work over the last few years. This will be the first time I will be able to show the public the extent of my art. People will be able to feel different emotions and hear different musical styles. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to it!
One artist from Alberta, Sister Ray, might be finally getting the recognition they deserve. The debut album, Communion, was released this past May on Royal Mountain Records and is still a shining stalwart example of the intricacies and simplicity you can achieve in the indie/ alternative folk genre.
Behind Sister Ray is the songwriter, Ella Coyes, a musician who cut their teeth in Edmonton and beyond by touring with a mostly improvised set of solo guitar music. The lyrics of Coyes are deadpan but visceral, pulling back layer after layer of personal history and reconciling with the past.
We had a great chat with Coyes about songwriting and finding a funny side to otherwise, existential, powerfully dark, and personal lyrics, before their set at this year’s POP Montreal on Sept 30.
PAN M 360: Hey Ella. It’s pouring here in Montreal. How’s Toronto?
Ella Coyes: Hey, we have an overcast day here and I’ve been enjoying it a lot.
PAN M 360: Yeah you’re from Edmonton too. So am I. You don’t really get Fall there at all.
Ella Coyes: Oh my God, when I first moved here it was in the pandemic. I moved in 2020, which was funny, but Fall came and I was like, ‘I’m fine. This was a great choice. I have a long fall.’ And I love it so much.
PAN M 360: What prompted the move? I’m guessing music?
Ella Coyes: Well, I was supposed to move in March of 2020. To make a record and play music. Like I got a Canada Council Grant. And I was ‘OK ‘I’ll move. I’ll make this record.’ And then it just got delayed for a little bit.
PAN M 360: You used to play improvised guitar sets back in Edmonton and toured them a bit. Is that kind of like how some of the songs on Communion were written? Just like you playing them differently and improvising them over the years?
Ella Coyes: Yeah, it was the beginning of a few of them. It’s like, two-thirds of “Crucified” was written that way. And then, a few other tracks, kind of started at those shows. I’ve had a couple of them for quite a few years, a couple of them I wrote between, March and September of 2020. I think just out of not having, you know, really anything else to do? I was writing so much. So they come from a pretty long, long period of time.
PAN M 360: Would you say you learn more about yourself from writing these songs about your past?
Ella Coyes: I think something that I’ve really felt from playing the shows again, and touring a bit is I have learned from them over such a long period of time. I think I’ve got it sometimes. And then now that I’ve been on the road a bit more, I am realizing maybe even how little I knew about them when I wrote them, which is really exciting for me. The song “Justice” has really changed drastically for me from the time I wrote it.
PAN M 360: Lyrically?
Ella Coyes: I think lyrically … I love making music, but so much of it for me is about the lyrics. Because it’s an opportunity to communicate in a way where there’s phrasing involved. It’s like we’re talking in a different way. And for me, it really sits in a different place. And I think I’m asking myself different questions now when, when I play that song. I think some of my favourite songs are the ones that kind of give me an avenue, to be honest with myself. And sometimes when I write them, I’m not quite ready to be as honest with myself as I am once I’ve been able to kind of look at it for a while and observe it and experience it with different people and in different places.
PAN M 360: And Communion is a very vulnerable record and it seems like much of the lyrical content is derived from your personal experiences. Having said that, have you ever thought ‘maybe I’m being too personal?’ Or on the flip side, not personal enough?
Ella Coyes: Yeah, I think about that all the time. Sometimes, I really will listen to myself play the songs, like when I’m practicing at home. And I really think about what they’re about. And I’m like, ‘Jesus, I could have dialed it back a little bit.’ But not actually I don’t think that’s the true path. But yeah it’s very personal. And I hadn’t put out a record before, so it was I was kind of stunned at this point. When it came out I was like, ‘Oh my God. I did say that.’ I put that on a record’ (laughs).
PAN M 360: Did you grow up religious at all? Because there’s a bit of religious imagery within the album. Especially in “Crucified” to Communion you know, just those words. How did those kinds of things make their way into the lyrics?
Ella Coyes: So I definitely grew up Catholic. And like, more specifically, I grew up Metis-Catholic which is like the intersection for me that I find always very interesting. There just seems to be a lot of conflicts there for me a lot of the time; about being both of those things, but then really going together. When I was a kid, I loved being Catholic. I felt really close to God when I was a kid and when I was a teenager, it was a huge part of my life. And kind of later in my teens, I went pretty late in my teens until I started to not have had that in my life as much anymore, and at this point, kind of not at all, but I think it was just like I was going through some feelings of loss with it.
And those words, in particular, I find those words to be really full in my mouth. I really liked those words a lot. In a lot of songs, I’ll start with one word that I really like and grow them into a small phrase that … I don’t know any other way to say it, but that just fills up my whole mouth. And a lot of those words really feel really whole and complete to me when I am saying them but especially when I’m singing.
PAN M 360: The language and just the cadences you sing in are very conversational. As if you’re speaking to the listener like they’re a long-lost friend over the phone. There’s that one line in “I Wanna Be Your Man” that always sticks with me. The apostle line.
Ella Coyes: Yeah where I talk about tonsils? [Full Line is: I wanna be your man/ Be a very good apostle / Reach in deep inside for your tonsils / Maybe there then I would find only you]
PAN M 360: Yeah the first time I heard it I was like ‘Woah. This is very vivid and I have no idea what to make of it.‘
Ella Coyes: That’s so funny that you say that because when I went to SXSW by this year, and I played that song, someone laughed very loudly in the audience, which is really funny because that’s not really something that happens. I’m playing solo guitar music, so I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of laughing.
For me, my favourite shows are the ones where I feel like someone is kind of talking to me and having a conversation with me. And that’s what I like about music; is that it’s obvious we’re not having a conversation. But when I feel like someone is kind of just chatting with me, I really like that a lot. But yeah, the lyrics are like the thing I spend the most time on when I’m writing and I really enjoy them and kind of the like, the intricacies of them.
PAN M 360: They’re also very deadpan, the lyrics, but also very mystical and light-hearted which is refreshing because you’re singing about some pretty heavy topics.
Ella Coyes: Yeah if it’s too serious, it doesn’t feel right. And I don’t think that is the best way for me to communicate to be super on the nose serious all the time, even though I’m talking about quote-on-quote “serious shit.” Because I feel like I need room to breathe a little bit being in it and not just have like a feeling of I don’t know constant dread or something like that. It just doesn’t sit right. I like the lyrics to have little moments. Like when that person laughed. I was like, ‘That’s right. That’s how I feel about it.’ Also, I am laughing a little bit when I sing some of those lines. On the inside.
“Nunami nipiit” (Echoes of the Earth) for voice, throat singing, choir and orchestra, orchestrated by François Vallières assisted by Jean-Sébastien Williams.
This is the very first work in the very first program of the season of the Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
This Sunday afternoon at the Maison symphonique, the three-part symphonic version of Maurice Ravel’s ballet “Daphnis et Chloé” will be preceded by a dialogue between the orchestra and Inuit culture, embodied here by singer and percussionist Sylvia Cloutier as well as Elisapie, to whom the proposal was first made.
That’s why she lends herself to PAN M’s questions, a few days before fully experiencing these orchestral auroras with the OM and its audience.
PAN M 360: How did this project come about?
ELISAPIE: It’s crazy! The desire of the Metropolitan Orchestra is there, to go and meet the diversity, the communities. I felt it during the first edition of the Grand Solstice in 2021, for the National Aboriginal Day on June 21. I was perhaps stubborn about wanting to have the Orchestre Métropolitain with us for a TV show that was not in Montreal. Finally we managed to get the OM to collaborate with Jeremy Dutcher, to create a meeting. I demanded that Yannick (Nézet-Séguin) be there, I bit like a symbolic meeting between conductors to make peace. In my opinion, the conductor had to come because it was to him that we asked for the invitation to our celebration. Then a small group from OM, about ten musicians, came to Jeremy Dutcher’s side, and it was a magical moment. Beyond that, Yannick had a problem with the customs because he had changed his date of entry into the country and the formalities of the COVID held him back. He was on the verge of tears when he had to face the facts, he felt so bad! So we had to present him in a video conference so that he could talk. He was very generous and his band was magical.
PAN M 360: Did the invitation to a concert of the OM follow or was it already planned?
ELISAPIE: There was already an interest of the OM to invite me, Yannick wanted to collaborate with me and also with other native artists, he deplored that we did not have enough space in the public space and he agreed on the necessity of a real work of exchanges. It wasn’t clear at the time, but around the holidays, I received the invitation. I was working on my new album at the time, I didn’t think I could do it and … I finally decided that everything could be done and that we would work on this invitation from OM in the spring. Great conversation starter!
PAN M 360: Is this sequence presented next Sunday with OM the result of a commissioned work?
ELISAPIE: I didn’t have a commission… I was just told that OM would like to open (this Sunday) their season in the period coinciding with the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (September 30th). It was a real wish and they suggested a 20-minute carte blanche. I could do what I wanted and they would entrust me to François Vallières for the orchestra arrangements.
PAN M 360: So how did you arrange these 20 minutes?
ELISAPIE: Obviously, I didn’t want to improvise this sequence, I wanted to create a mood to make people in the room shiver. So I opted for a mix of original music and songs from my culture of origin, starting with throat singing, drums from home, evocation of sounds from home… I wanted the audience to go on an adventure. And there is also my work, my proposals, my voice. So OM encouraged me to include two songs from my repertoire, this time in Inuktitut, without imposing anything – Qanniuguma, which is about the lightness and the crazy freedom of snowflakes, and Una another one more personal, more emotional, dedicated to my biological mother.
So this sequence will include songs from my repertoire linked with other sounds and symphonic arrangements to create a mood with François’ arrangements.
PAN M 360: So the idea of an adventure is important.
ELISAPIE: Yes, people have to feel in vast territories where there are not many humans, where the sounds are different, where people from the South are destabilized and moved by the real North and not by the North that we visit in an organized trip. The inspiration is to invite people from the South to the North. And it’s not just a little snow that falls gently. It can also be steep, tough, and you have to have faith in life (laughs).
PAN M 360: More specifically, did you connect your two songs with new orchestral bridges?
ELISAPIE: Yeah, kind of. I don’t want to go into too much detail but the songs are part of the soundscape. Let’s imagine ourselves in the Great North, there is the extreme softness, the intimacy between humans, but also the hard side of life there. All of this is addressed and what lies beyond the songs brings us back to the purity of the people of the North, of who we are. We are also people who are prone to hypnotic behavior or trances. The ayaya for example, are very slow songs or tales that tell a story that puts us in a particular mood.
PAN M 360: Will you have other colleagues at your side?
ELISAPIE: Sylvia Cloutier will be there, on percussions and throat singing. She is originally from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. We will also be able to count on a choir that lends itself very well to certain sequences of our creation. I don’t want people to understand the words in Inuktitut, but to feel the emotions and intentions. I think we have an amazing window!
PAN M 360: What will the orchestra be doing, roughly speaking, according to the arrangements of François Vallières and his colleague Jean-Sébastien Williams?
ELISAPIE: I asked to support the rhythm of the drums, all the evocations of nature, also the chaos.
PAN M 360: Will there be pre-recorded sounds? Sounds of nature for example?
ELISAPIE: No, everything is live. We are the nature! (laughs)
PAN M 360: And you will be at the center of it all?
ELISAPIE: Not really in my perception. I don’t like to say at the center, I see myself more as an accompanist who comes with my songs, my voice and my emotions. I am not in the center but with the herd.
PROGRAMME
ELISAPIE : “Nunami nipiit” (Echoes of the Earth) for voice, throat singing, choir and orchestra (orch. and arrangements F. Vallières, coarrangements and co-writing J.-S. Williams)
RAVEL : “Daphnis et Chloé”, ballet in three parts
ARTISTS
conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ORCHESTRE MÉTROPOLITAIN
SINGER : Elisapie
SINGER AND PERCUSSIONIST: Sylvia Cloutier
CHORUS: Chœur Métropolitain
CHORUS LEADER: François A. Ouimet
CHORUS LEADER: Pierre Tourville
CHORUS: Senior Choir of the Vincent-d’Indy School of Music
With Le Vivier, Chants Libres and Bradyworks present Backstage at Carnegie Hall, a chamber opera about “racism and the electric guitar” on Friday and Saturday. Premiered at the Centaur Theatre, the work is the first in a series of four by composer and guitarist Tim Brady, founder of Bradyworks and leader of various groups including the electric guitar ensemble Instruments of Happiness.
Socially engaged, this upcoming tetralogy is entitled Hope (and the Dark Matter of History) and intends to explore the themes of racism, de-formation, abortion rights, space colonization, artificial intelligence and climate change.
But first things first: in addition to performing in Backstage at Carnegie Hall, Tim Brady has written the music, while actress and author Audrey Dwyer has written the libretto.
Tenor Ruben Brutus plays the lead role of Charlie Christian, a guitarist who pioneered modern jazz like Django Reinhardt. Sopranos Alicia Ault and Frédéricka Petit-Homme as well as baritones Clayton Kennedy and Justin Welsh will give him the lead.
Musical direction is by Véronique Lussier and staging is by Cherissa Richards. Apart from Tim Brady, the instrumentalists involved in the performance of the work will be Pamela Reimer, keyboards, Ryan Truby, violin and Charlotte Layec, bass clarinet.
With the composer and lead singer of Backstage at Carnegie Hall, let’s see how it all came together.
PAN M 360: “Meet Charlie Christian, a jazz guitar pioneer, backstage at his now legendary December 24, 1939 concert at Carnegie Hall, as a panic attack takes hold of the 23-year-old” says the synopsis.Why this particular event?
TIM BRADY: This imaginary opera based on real historical figures and events allows me and my librettist to explore the depth of human experience with a certain liberty that, we hope, might get us to a deeper truth than “just the facts”. But, to be clear – most of the story is fiction – Time Travellers do not exist, Charlie Christian ever met Rufus Rockhead or Orville Gibson, for example. Call it artistic licence.
In concert with Le Vivier, Chants Libres and Bradyworks present Backstage at Carnegie Hall, a chamber opera about “racism and the electric guitar” on Friday and Saturday. Premiered at the Centaur Theatre, the work is the first in a series of four by composer and guitarist Tim Brady, founder of Bradyworks and leader of various groups including the electric guitar ensemble Instruments of Happiness.
Socially engaged, this upcoming tetralogy is entitled Hope (and the Dark Matter of History) and intends to explore the themes of racism, de-formation, abortion rights, space colonization, artificial intelligence and climate change.
But first things first: in addition to performing in Backstage at Carnegie Hall, Tim Brady has written the music, while actress and author Audrey Dwyer has written the libretto.
Tenor Ruben Brutus plays the lead role of Charlie Christian, a guitarist who pioneered modern jazz like Django Reinhardt. Sopranos Alicia Ault and Frédéricka Petit-Homme as well as baritones Clayton Kennedy and Justin Welsh will give him the lead.
Musical direction is by Véronique Lussier and staging is by Cherissa Richards. Apart from Tim Brady, the instrumentalists involved in the performance of the work will be Pamela Reimer, keyboards, Ryan Truby, violin and Charlotte Layec, bass clarinet.
With the composer and lead singer of Backstage at Carnegie Hall, let’s see how it all came together.
PAN M 360: “In his delirium, he is projected in time and space, between dream and reality.” Where is the reality in the opera ? Where is the fiction?
TIM BRADY : In addition to Charlie Christian, the other main character is a Time Traveller. So this is clearly fiction! So the Time Traveller helps Charlie move among several different times – 1939, 1932, 1926, 1902, 2014 – each scene being rooted in the reality of that era. But Time Travel is pure fiction – a theatrical device, which my librettist Audrey Dwyer uses to great effect.
PAN M 360: Why this theme “racism and electric guitar” ?
TIM BRADY: The electric guitar has a history of moving across the race line: Charlie Christian/Django Reinhardt, Chuck Berry/Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix/Eric Clapton, to mention 3 historical pairs of players who developed jazz, rock‘n roll, and modern rock. So the electric guitar is a potentially powerful metaphor for the evolution of race relations in Western civilisation.
Racism is an ongoing major problem in the world, and I am interested in writing operas that touch on complex social and historical issues. This might not be easy, but I and my librettist are interested in the challenge. “Opéra engage” – we might call it.
The opera is also very much built around my use of the guitar in chamber music. So, from a purely musical perspective, it is an opera “about the electric guitar”.
PAN M 360: “His journey takes him from the slaveholding United States to Little Burgundy in Montreal. A gallery of characters crosses his path, including his ancestors, his father, the founder of the Montreal jazz club Rockhead’s Paradise, Rufus Rockhead, the luthier Orville Gibson, the clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman, and the singer Marian Anderson, emblematic figure of the American civil rights movement of the 1930s.”
Here we have a mixture of historical references between the United States and Montreal. Was this the will of the librettist or the composer or a common agreement between the librettist and the composer?
TIM BRADY : I (as composer) had a basic idea of what the opera should be about – I had the basic characters in mind when I approached Audrey about this collaboration. But Audrey (Dwyer) developed this very simple outline into a full-fledged, powerful story with characters with deep, complex interior lives. It was a real collaboration.
PAN M 360: What is your relationship with opera? What are your favorite operas?
TIM BRADY: I like contemporary opera because of the theatrical and musical ideas that are explored – a real linking of music, text and theatre. It is a big challenge for a composer, but working with a great libretto like “Backstage” makes me find other ways to use and expand my musical language.
I am not that interested in traditional 19th century “grand opera” – the stories are often quite simplistic, the characters are often more like caricatures, and the singing style generally obscures the words. So my interest in opera is much more linked to a contemporary approach.
PAN M 360: What are you trying to exploit in this opera as a composer?
TIM BRADY: This libretto has made me explore the full range of my musical experience. There are pretty melodies, dramatic arias, chaotic noise improvisations, minimalist grooves, with different kinds of harmonic and contrapuntal variations. The music follows the story, and the story goes to so many fascinating places that I found all sorts of musical inspiration in the libretto.
PAN M 360: If this is a chamber opera, what is the instrumentation of this Bradyworks version?
TIM BRADY: The band is electric guitar (with some pedals), digital keyboard, violin and bass clarinet. We can sound very calm and transparent like chamber music, or almost like a rock band, or anything in between. The electric guitar references Charlie Christian, the bass clarinet references (in a slightly more oblique manner) Benny Goodman, the piano comes from both jazz and classical, and the violon references the “classical” world that is Carnegie Hall. It also is just a great sound with great players. It’s really fun being in the band.
PAN M 360: What is the composer’s intention here to support the theatrical narrative ?
TIM BRADY: It is very important for me to accomplish two things when writing opera: first – to express the interior life, the psychological and emotional depth, of the character and – second – to make sure the listener can actually hear the words and understand them (at least most of the time). So I have to understand the motivation of each character, and of each scene, and find a music that sustains and builds on that perspective.The I have to find note and rhythms that convey these experiences in a way that the singers have something great to sing, and that makes the text as clear as possible. A challenge.
PAN M 360: How were the soloists chosen and involved in this multidisciplinary production?
TIM BRADY: We have been doing workshops for the opera since 2019, working with a range of partners from Montréal, Toronto and Winnipeg. This process helps the production slowly build a strong team. We’ve also collaborated with other companies – Tapestry Opera in Toronto and Black Theatre Workshop in Montréal, as two examples – to find the best artists for each role in the project. Opera is a very demanding art form – you are basically mounting a very complex piece of theatre on top of a very complex piece of music. So it requires folks who are very talented, experienced, focussed and have a generous spirit. We have a great cast, a great director – on all levels, a great team.
PAN M 360: Where were you trained as a classical tenor?
RUBEN BRUTUS: I was trained in classical singing at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal. I have done a little bit of contemporary music, I have worked with Chants libres then led by Pauline Vaillancourt but that is not exactly my bag. I usually stick to the classical repertoire but also to the popular or jazz repertoire when I sing in corporate events or private parties – weddings, etc. So I sing with both techniques and it has helped me a lot with Tim’s music. Before I seriously studied voice, by the way, I did a B.A. in jazz at Concordia University – with Jeri Brown.
PAN M 360: Because your Haitian roots and culture, you probably did some choral singing, right?
RUBEN BRUTUS: Totally. I grew up singing gospel music in church, that was my first musical experience and then I participated in the Jireh Gospel Choir under the direction of Carol Bernard and then I realized that I would really like to go further in music and become professional.
PAN M 360: You have had several roles in operas since your professional debut?
RUBEN BRUTUS: Yes, several roles, including the title role in The Gypsy Baron in 2017, I’ve often found myself in the choirs of the Montreal Opera, the OSM.
PAN M 360: You find yourself in a contemporary context, how do you feel about it?
RUBEN BRUTUS: It’s a far cry from A Midsummer Night’s Dream! (laughs). What’s great about Tim’s (Brady) work is that he’s been able to incorporate spoken word into his music, it’s more than just sprechgesang or recitative. I also like his stylistic evocations on the guitar, he can reproduce Charlie Christian’s playing very well for example. The rhythm is not regular like in opera, it moves a lot. I told Tim that playing his music is like memorizing Modus Novus (study of atonal melodies) or singing to Steve Reich’s music (laughs). We are in another language, in another universe where words have a beautiful place, a real importance. I like the composition of the ensemble, the original use of the bass clarinet and the violin… It is sure that it makes the workload and the learning almost impossible but we can count on an extraordinary team. Seriously we have a great team of artists, the director managed to do a very good job.
PAN M 360: How do you see your character evolving in the dramatic framework?
RUBEN BRUTUS: Throughout the opera, the character is in reality. Charlie had both feet on the ground and he’s capering. We are in his head during several scenes, but we don’t have to overact because we are in realism, a panic attack is quite common in humans especially in a context of racism and also of obligation of performance of a young black man. It is therefore close to me this role, I love this role. And I will tell you that anxiety attacks do not really exist in Haitian culture, we are told to go calm down and have a tea… The performing arts can be anxiety-provoking and it must be remembered that kindness was not omnipresent in Charlie Christian’s time. Today, we admit the reality of stress and anxiety, fortunately, we work with the friendly people rather than the unpleasant ones regardless of their talent.
PAN M 360: As an Afro-descendant and classical musician, how do you see an opera about a jazz guitarist?
RUBEN BRUTUS: I’ve asked Tim before, “Why an opera? We’re into jazz and black music, we’re into electric guitar, so why opera? I don’t remember exactly what his answer was (laughs), but I think opera is an elitist art form, you never hear about racism or electric guitar in opera. Opera was not originally accessible to the disadvantaged or marginalized. Of course, it has evolved and such an opera can have a social impact and Tim is doing the right thing in that sense, especially since he allows us to go outside the operatic voice sometimes, we can also sing in a musical way. Tim prioritizes sharing the story. I regularly tell him that his music is really messed up but that I am committed to telling the story to the best of my ability.
MAIN PHOTO CREDIT (RUBEN BRUTUS AND JUSTIN WELSH): PIERRE-ÉTIENNE BERGERON
The Burning Hell, one of Canada’s most singular DIY indie art-folk/rock projects, has been making music for over a decade, always striving for quick-witted imagery and easy-to-latch enjoy instrumentation. They’ve always been a band that makes music for themselves, dipping their toes in almost every genre in the book, but never settling. Simply, every album by The Burning Hell is quite different from the last.
This notion rings true with their latest effort, Garbage Island, a concept album somewhat inspired by the real-life Trash Vortex circling our seas. Though the album does touch on the very real environmental implications plaguing our world, Garbage Island imagines what a distant future may look like for birds and humans.
Stuck between provinces due to the pandemic, the band had oodles of time to record, mix, and produce Garbage Island themselves, honing in on the DIY aesthetic and artistic style of the band.
We spoke with The Burning Hell’s founder/multi-instrumentalist, Mathias Kom, about the concept of Garbage Island, not taking yourself too seriously, and the choice to make fictional narratives over personal ones.
PAN M 360: The Burning Hell has always been a DIY band, but Garbage Island has to be your most DIY project yet. You recorded, produced, engineered, and mixed the album yourself. Was that out of necessity because of the pandemic or was it in the cards for The Burning Hell anyways?
Mathias Kom: It was partly out of necessity—we were stuck in three different provinces for most of the first year of the pandemic and knew that we’d have to get creative if we wanted to make a record together. At the same time, we’ve been heading in this direction for a while now. We all have varying levels of experience recording and mixing, but more importantly, I think we all appreciate being able to take our time and bounce ideas off one another without the pressure of the studio clock. PAN M 360: There are those couple of phrases in “Fuck the Government, I Love You” from 2014 or so that really stuck with me since the first time hearing it. “I told you I was in a band/ I asked what the band was called, I said it’s called The Burning Hell/ I said I’ve never heard of you, I said that’s probably just as well.” After hearing that I was like, ‘Holy shit, you can really do anything with music and not take yourself so seriously.’ So with that lead-up, do you take yourself seriously as a DIY indie band?
Mathias Kom: That’s a complicated question! I think I’ve always taken what I do seriously. But I try not to take myself too seriously if that makes sense. It’s important to maintain a sense of humour and perspective about everything, and maybe especially playing music.
PAN M 360: Was that really Ariel’s first crack at animation with “Nigel the Gannet?” You could have fooled me!
Mathias Kom: Yes! She spent months doing that and I think she’s found her new passion.
PAN M 360: Do you find it’s easier to write these fantastical narratives with made-up characters and names as opposed to writing a more personal narrative?
Mathias Kom: I’m not so good at writing personal songs, though we did release a whole album—Flux Capacitor—of songs that are more or less autobiographical. Still, I always find it more fun to create brand-new worlds in songs than in mine or my own past for material.
PAN M 360: Musically and instrumentation-wise, every song is so different on this album. Were there basically no rules when composing Garbage Island? Find a cool sound and run with it kind of thing?
Mathias Kom: More than any other album we’ve released, Garbage Island is the product of all of our different influences, and I think that’s why it’s so wide-ranging in terms of sounds and genres. We didn’t sit down and decide that this or that song should follow a certain style; because of the back-and-forth way that we produced it, sending parts to each other in different provinces, the songs evolved kind of organically into what they finally became. The relatively epic amount of time we had to make the record also allowed us to try whatever ideas came to us, including building a glass harmonica and a hammered dulcimer, especially for the album.
PAN M 360: I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but the world, from an environmental perspective, is at its worst right now. Is this where the idea for the narrative of Garbage Island comes from?
Mathias Kom: Exactly. Garbage Island is a colloquial name for the Pacific Trash Vortex, which is one of many trash vortices currently swirling around the world. But the album isn’t so much about contemporary environmental concerns as about what the distant future might look like long after we’ve finally wrecked the planet for good. It’s bleak, but it does end on a note of hope.
PAN M 360: Yes. We have an actual garbage island floating somewhere in the Pacific, that grows every day. I’m sure birds land there all the time, but in the album, they reign supreme?
Mathias Kom: Although the Pacific Trash Vortex (and similar phenomena in other parts of the world) is a constantly shifting thing, in the world of the album, I imagined that it had eventually congealed into a solid land mass, or at least solid enough for certain creatures to make a home there. Many of the world’s birds are in extreme danger from climate change, habitat loss, and other forms of environmental catastrophe, but at the same time, I have a feeling that at the end of the world, there will be a handful of feathered survivors.
PAN M 360: How important is the context for a Burning Hell song? Do you believe fans follow the stories or are they just pieces of pleasurable, quirky/surrealist alt-indie rock to them? And does that really matter to you, the songwriters?
Mathias Kom: That’s a great question. I think when you write and release a song you have to kind of let it go, and recognize that people will engage with it in whatever way they will, or not at all, and there’s not much you can do. In a live situation, I occasionally set a song up to give it context, but typically I just let them stand on their own. Some fans definitely love the dense narratives, and I appreciate that, but if people are enjoying something I’ve made I’m just happy that they’ve connected to it, even if they don’t hear a word of the lyrics.
PAN M 360: You actually became faux-ornithologists by making this companion book, The Illustrated Field Guide to Birds of Garbage island. What was that experience like? It must have been stupid fun.
Mathias Kom: I actually got into birding just before the pandemic, and then being stuck on P.E.I. for two years allowed me to dive deeper. And the book kind of emerged from that, really. I had a lot of fun imagining what a post-apocalyptic bird guide might look like, and partly it was an excuse to work with some of my favourite illustrators. I basically gave everyone the same prompt—create a real or imaginary bird you think might live on Garbage Island—and I had so much fun creating the fictional narratives that went along with each one.
PAN M 360:I’ve never seen you guys live, so with this album, is there any sort of imagery associated with the live performance? Visuals, costumes? Or are you basically taking the role of the narrators?
Mathias Kom: If we ever had the sort of budget that would allow us to do it I’m sure we’d leap at the chance to have an elaborate stage show with costumes and sets and a touring lighting engineer and so on. But for this tour, we’ll just have a simple hanging backdrop made of garbage, and we’ll try our hardest to be diligent narrators.
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