By Matthew Fava
Bandcamp’s fundraising initiative resumes today! Over the past several weeks I decided to bring together some recommendations I received from various artists whose orbits have overlapped with mine, and I am delighted to say that my Bandcamp wishlist is brimming once more. These contributors are creating, presenting, writing about, and/or broadcasting amazing music through their individual and community-based work. They each share some music and some accompanying thoughts below.
I have always said that my music collection and musical perceptions are greatly defined by the recommendations I receive from friends and colleagues. Neurologically, the memory of the sonic artifact becomes wrapped up with my feelings for the person, making for a particularly profound associative journey when listening. If you’ll forgive me this lofty analogy, music becomes my version of Proust’s madeleine crumbs in tea.
Music allows us to access something of ourselves, our geographies, our communities, our struggles, our joys—something that we encode onto a memory of a recording. I feel so lucky to be making new memories with these friends from a distance right now.
Take a listen, and if you have the capacity I encourage you to purchase music through Bandcamp today as you’ll be making a greater financial impact for those artists. Before we embark on this journey I also want to highlight that various labels will be donating funds today towards the NAACP legal defense fund, and Bandcamp itself is coordinating a separate fundraiser on June 19 during which their share of sales will go to the NAACP fund.
From An-Laurence Higgins | Atropos by Kontraband Kollektif
Atropos is a rough and complex gem with its own distinctive colours. The imagination and lyrics bring the listener to a place of wonder, nostalgia and fear all at once.
From Amahl Arulanandam | Sacred White Noise by Thanktifaxath
Thantifaxath is a Canadian black metal band from Toronto and the brainchild of guitarist Luke Roberts. I’m of the opinion that every project he gets his hands on turns to gold – black gold, in this case – and this record is no exception. There’s something very special about the atmosphere created on this record. It stands as one of my favourite records of all time, and likely one of the top five black metal albums of the last decade.
From Andrew Patterson | ONE by Eulas Pizarro & Eiyn Sof
I’m afraid this slight collection will slip quietly into the darkness of our digital databases, never to resurface. An absolutely arresting duet by Kitchener-Waterloo-based vocalist Eiyn Sof and Brooklyn-based pianist Eulas Pizarro, ONE saunters effortlessly along the canals of jazz, ambient and contemporary classical, billowing with subtle experimentation. It demands to be heard at the last light of day, loudly, when the mind and the heartstrings are equally loose.
From Emilie LeBel | Ramos by Luciane Cardassi, plus a bit more
Luciane Cardassi, an awesome, awesome Canadian pianist, features Brazilian (and some Brazilian-Canadian) composers on this recording! I also want to share music from the Holy Drone Travellers. I saw these folks live last year, and they were amazing. I didn’t realize they had an album out, so showing the local Edmonton scene a little love – so many great things here!
From Jason Doell | gomi ゴミ by Maya Kuroki
I really love Rippleganger, and TEKE::TEKE both groups with Maya Kuroki. I really don’t know much else about this artist except that this album has been in my ears a whole bunch since its release, particularly the track Les mains.
From Laura Stanley | Music for Staying Warm to by Justin Wright
Music For Staying Warm To by Montreal-based cellist and composer Justin Wright will remind you to breathe and, in turn, it will soothe your frazzled thoughts. I turn to Justin’s album a lot, especially when I need a reminder to be present, and it never fails to make me feel good.
From Luca Capone | Legacy by Aquakultre
I would be on board with anything from Aquakultre at this point. Rambunctious, acidic, contagious (in a good way) experimental hip-hop-accented soul-pop that I started diving into just as I began the 3rd chapter of my Canadian community radio adventure. The reason that community radio exists is to support albums like this. Another example of my theory that Halifax is a filthy hot bed of endless creativity.
From Melody McKiver | DNA Activation by Witch Prophet
Always, but especially in the present climate, it is important to elevate queer Black voices working within the Canadian music community. Witch Prophet’s latest release is a compelling listen bridging Ethiojazz with urban production and smooth vocals. Karen Ng’s saxophone feature on Tesfay is a standout performance.
From Mitch Renaud | Utopianism featuring the music of John Mark Sherlock
The meandering resonant swells of John Mark Sherlock’s utopianism mark the tip of a body of unreleased work I’m especially keen to hear.
From Monica Pearce | A Separation of Being by joyfultalk, plus a bit more
Love this new release from Nova Scotia-based joyfultalk! Very fun and vibrant, a lovely listen! Also want to share Harbour: beautiful playing by Cheryl Duvall, exquisite repertoire from Anna Höstman. Absolutely stunning!
From Nick Storring | Higgs Ocean featuring Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan with Quatuor Bozzini
Two of Canada’s most intriguing chamber groups join forces for a recording bursting with vivid sonic bouquets. Contributions from Linda Catlin Smith, Michael Oesterle, Petar-Kresimir Klanac, Ana Sokolovic and Evergreen Club’s own Mark Duggan chart a vast and dynamic array of radiant textures.
Some notes on the contributors | An-Laurence Higgins is an amazing guitarist/organizer and we sometimes exchange Studio-Ghibli-inspired art and giddy reactions to said art. Amahl Arulanandam is an amazing cellist who helps make contemporary music in Toronto blossom, and we often get distracted talking about retro gaming and 90s cartoons. Andrew Patterson is an amazing organizer and Creative Director of EVERYSEEKER and we’ve been emailing recently about parenting, and the moments we share with our kids right now. Emilie LeBel is an amazing composer/educator who is also one of the most gifted listeners I have ever met, and she invited my sister to her wedding and not me but I’m not jealous about that or anything (ʕ ͡• ⍨ ͡•ʔ, (ง•︣ ‿ •᷅)ง). Jason Doell is an amazing composer/educator/organizer and we like to help each other move which is the reason I have his trombone in my closet. Laura Stanley is an amazing journalist/Buffy-rewatch-companion and we haven’t gotten to sing Leonard Cohen songs together for a while. Luca Capone is an amazing drummer/culinary guru/broadcaster (host of the Night Shift) and we both descend from grandparents born in the same mountain village in Molise, and we both mourn the cancellation of the annual Soppressata Festival. Melody McKiver is an amazing composer/violist/writer and we both played in the orchestra at York University when I was too introverted a person to speak to anyone other than my standmate so we ended up meeting years later when Melody crafted a brilliant piece for the CMC Ontario Notations digital magazine. Mitch Renaud is an amazing composer/organizer and we have hard plans to bring our respective live electronics rigs together in a durational improvisation the next time that we are in the same city and able to share space. Monica Pearce is an amazing composer/organizer/all-star-administrator and at some point we are going to resume our scone baking one-upmanship, regardless of whether we are driving to Windsor, Ontario for a band reading session. Nick Storring is an amazing composer/musician/writer who has this way of sending you a life affirming text message in the final hours of one of the most ambitious projects you have ever undertaken which propels you through those last moments.
MF, Toronto, June 2020