Dan Fortin is a regular fixture on Toronto’s indie and avant-garde scene, thanks to frequent appearances with the Queer Songbook Orchestra, with Aline Homzy and her Aline’s étoile magique, or his own MYRIAD3 ensemble with Chris Donnelly and Ernesto Cervini. The bassist offers a fine panorama of his musical aesthetic on Cannon, accompanied by David Occhipinti (guitar), Philippe Melanson (percussion), the excellent Karen Ng (alto sax), Michael Davidson (synths), Chris Donnelly (piano), Fabio Ragnelli (drums), Madeleine Ertel (superb trumpet on Question Song) and a few others in furtive but heartfelt appearances. We hear a spontaneous mix of free but peacefully restrained improvisations, lo-fi sonorities, almost melodic random phrases, a bit of noisy fuzz adorned with electri- or electroni-fied textural waves stretching over a passing bass that quickly falls victim to entropy, and lots of guitar tickling peppering the canvas with delicate droplets of sound.
The result is a stripped-back decor, scattered with partly melodic swirls and sparse, generally soothing colours. There are occasional dynamic bursts that raise the blood pressure a little (Allium Tower), not in speed but in intensity, but the whole is woven like a fine abstract lace, in a sort of contemplative, mysterious zenitude.
Extremely delicate music-making that brings the best out of creative sound abstraction.
