SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $5 cover
Ad hoc ensembles evening, featuring:
Jesse Conradson
Jen Crighton
Evan Petkau
Noah Michael
Matt Purdue
Devin Friesen
Ava Wild
Chris Sies
Jairus Sharif
++ between-set music provided by DJ Jeremy Curry
SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
Pigeon Breeders (alone and with guests Waters and Dadge) + Nate Waters solo
PIGEON BREEDERS
We are very excited to have Edmonton's Pigeon Breeders (Myles Bartel and Will Scott) back after too-long of an absence. The last time they graced a Bug Incision stage was back in 2015, but they've been busy ever since. Most recently working as a trio with fellow Edmontonian Matt Belton's Ghost Cars project, they released Stasis last fall on the Pseudo Laboratories label.
This group has been active since the early '10s, and when I say active, I mean active: they've played tons of shows around Alberta (they were in Calgary not too long ago on a juicy double bill with Jung People) and have released an impressive pile of cassettes and CDRs over the years, all documenting their increasingly refined vision of bric-a-brac-laden, electro-acoustic improvised music. As we wrote in an earlier write-up about them, "Edmonton’s kings of drift, this trio has honed in on a compelling mixture of liberally-effected guitars, assorted amplified junk and household objects, and electronics.”
They will perform a set on their own, and then another joined by Nate Waters and Chris Dadge.
NATE WATERS
One of the city's busiest and consistently excellent musicians, Waters spends equal amounts of time in Calgary's jazz and indie rock scenes. He fronts his own angular art-pop project Eye of Newt, plays in Temps, Victrix, Ryan Bourne & The Plant City Band, and Samantha Savage Smith's backing band. In the jazz world, he gets around equally mightily, and can be seen most Tuesday nights at Betty Lou's Jazz Library with his own quartet. Aside from ripping on most members of the woodwind family, he can also handle most rhythm section duties with equal aplomb. His solo set on this night will likely involve saxophones, pedals, and other electronic goodies.
SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
VADIM BUDMAN (EDM) w/ and w/o guests +
V. VECKER (VAN) +
WKO (CGY)
VADIM BUDMAN Vadim Budman is a guitarist from Edmonton, largely known for his work in the field of free improvisation. For those not as deeply tuned into the history of free improv in Alberta over the last few decades, Budman is one of the more accomplished acts in this field, beginning with an dense run of activity in the mid- to late-90s. After leaving the "seminal Edmonton alternative band" The Naked and The Dead, Budman started his own label Volatile Records, and soon struck up a relationship with drummer/percussionist Ron de Jong. Volatile went on to release many interesting discs, such as Budman and de Jong (together known as Vertrek Ensemble) in trios with Derek Bailey and Eugene Chadbourne, Chadbourne's album of Bach's music played on 5-string banjo, countless Budman solo entries, his duo activities with drummer Mike Silverman (as Heavy Early Duo), and archival material from The Naked and The Dead. Budman has played with some titans of the improvising world such as the legendary Derek Bailey, saxophonist extraordinaire John Butcher, violinist Phil Durrant, Luc Houtkamp, and more.
We are pleased to finally have him in Calgary, where he will play a brief solo set, followed by an ad hoc group with saxophonist Jonathon Wilcke, percussionist Eric Hamelin (Cryingsnice, Ghostkeeper, JOYFULTALK) and double bassist Jesse Conradson (Wet Hen, Slut Prophet). Also, please check out
his Bandcamp, which is full of all sorts of interesting music.
V. VECKER
The pseudonym for Keith Wecker, an American musician currently based in Vancover. Wecker got his start in experimental activities while studying art in the city almost 20 years ago, and played host to a series of concerts in an underground parking lot, dubbed The Emergency Room. It was during this time that Wecker became an integral part of the local fabric, and has since gone to present his music in many contexts (which can be checked out on his Bandcamp page), mostly centred around his work on saxophone and electronics. His most recent album, New Works, was released in 2021 on the No Type label. Wecker will be performing solo.
WKO
WKO is the latest moninker for Whitney Ota, a mainstay of the Calgary experimental music community. His contributions have taken the form of running an excellent label, Unit Structure Sound Recordings, with which he issued great albums featuring Mongst, Chris Riggs, Jack Wright, and many of his own projects, and also as an inventive, searching musician with an excellent track record of diverse, well-executed ideas and projects. An early project that ran for some time was Yankee Yankee, which explored various facets of kosmiche and drone-based music; Burro presents an excellent take on freely improvised in the guitar-bass-drums rock band format; and Dada Centauri, a duo with Andrew Hume, presented a weird and woolly electro-acoustic kind of thing. His more recent work as WKO has seen Ota focusing on the modular synth, and his approach (that we've seen thus anyway) is more kinetic than the average knob-turner. He'll be releasing a new album on this night, incorporating synths, guitar, field recordings, and tapes, and it can be previewed here:
AND >>>> DJ Jeremy Curry will be providing between-set music.
SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
AD-HOC ENSEMBLES, featuring:
Rebecca Bruton, guitar (more info)
Chris Dadge, percussion, etc(more info) Holly DeCaigny,saxophones (moreinfo) David Lavoie,trumpet (more info)
Jiajia Li,flutes (more info) Rob Oxoby, double bass (more info)
Chris Sies,percussion (more info)
Nate Waters, reeds, electronics(more info)
AND >>>> DJ Jeremy Curry will be providing between-set music.
SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
AARON LEANEY / ERIC HAMELIN / CHRIS DADGE + IDLEFON
We are pleased to once again present Aaron Leaney on the Bug Incision stage. Leaney is a Montreal based musician, mainly known for his tenor saxophone work, and is fresh off a performance at this year's Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) with the Guy Thouin Ensemble. Leaney has been working closely with Thouin, the legendary drummer and founder of seminal Quebec free jazz group Quatuor du jazz libre du Québec, for the last number of years, and the two just released a killer album Lockdownon the venerable Astral Spirits label.
He will be joined on this evening by Calgary percussionists Eric Hamelin (Ghostkeeper, Cryingsnice, Nomoreshapes) and Bug Incision operator and longtime Leaney collaborator Chris Dadge.
IDLEFON is Hesam Ohadi (b. 1987 in Tehran), an Iranian Canadian computer musician and sound artist based in Calgary, Canada.
They began creating electronic music in 2006 after experimenting with various music styles as a drummer. Idlefon's works can mainly be associated with the broad spectrum of modern visceral ambient, fusing muted elements of IDM and glitch into each work's vastness. Their output has often been influenced by daily existence in the urban center of Tehran and later on by the natural beauty of their home province Alberta. Ohadi has previously released Idlefon's music on Tympanik Audio; as of 2021, Ohadi has found a home for their output with the Oakland-based emotive experimental label n5MD.
They are also one of the co-founders and runners of the experimental art label BITROT and the music festival SET.
AND >>>> DJ Jeremy Curry will be providing between-set music.
SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
Secret Lady Project //// i.o //// The Furnace
Saxophonist Holly DeCaigny has been one of our favourite new additions to the Bug Incision universe this year with her repeat performances at various ad hoc ensemble nights over the last few months, and when we learned that she is also part of an all-female new music ensemble, we knew that it couldn't be too long before their appearance on the Bug Incision stage. Secret Lady Project is a collaborative undertaking by DeCaigny (who rips on a whole bunch of members of the saxophone family) with percussionist extraordinaire Nia Devetzis, flautist Kelsey Noble, and vocalist/guitarist Laura Jones. Last time we witnessed them in action they played a piece called Lady Arcana, a gamecard-driven improvisation incorporating British folk song and highly attuned, empathetic playing between them. Very excited to welcome Secret Lady Project to the series.
The Secret Lady Project throws away the box in favour of exploration. Having spent much of our
lives drenched in European musical traditions that insist on categorizing and confining each
instrument and body, this project emerges defiant. We are interested in making art that ignores
boundaries and centers lived experiences and our audience.
SLiP is a community-centered project based in Mohkinstsis territory and consists of four artists;
Holly DeCaigny, saxophone, Nia Devetzis, percussion, Laura Jones, voice/dramaturgy, and
Kelsey Noble, flute. Our pronouns are she/her. The spaces we inhabit and the art we create will
be inclusive, anti-hierarchy and strive to lift up voices that need hearing.
Individually, members of SLiP are pillars of the Calgary music community, serving as artists,
educators and mentors. Creative presentations such as Ghost Opera (presented in Calgary in
2019, with Calgary Opera and Old Trout Puppet Workshop), Timepoint Ensemble, Proteus
Quartet, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Springboard Performance, Neworks Calgary, the
Instrumental Society, Calgary's Festival of Animated Objects, New Music Edmonton, Stratford
Summer Music. They serve as teachers and mentors on the Committee on the Status of
Women; North American Saxophone Alliance, Mount Royal Conservatory, and the University of
Calgary and are in-demand as clinicians and private music instructors.
In 2022, SLiP was chosen to present at the Northern Lights Festival hosted by Springboard.
SLiP created a 30 minute recording of original music to accompany light installations, snow
sculpture, and live choral music in celebration of Calgary's winter season and its vibrant arts
community. In July of 2022 SLiP performed on CJSW’s ‘That’s Classical’.
++++++
We are pleased to once again feature i.o, the blisteringly intense solo drums w/ backing tracks project from Victoria's Maxwell Patterson. Patterson's drumming exists in the same continuum as beasts like Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt fame), Harry Pussy's Adris Hoyos, Chris Corsano, and Toronto's Jack Vorvis, all tightly coiled phrases, maximum propulsion, and a seemingly overdriven wellspring of energy. He's been on another wild-looking tour across Europe, and will have been traversing the Canadian landscape on his way back west for this show. Not to be missed for fans of the maximal end of avant-garde music.
UPDATE: i.o just released a brand new album, the first in a few years. Please check it here, and consider purchasing to support this seemingly tireless artist:
++++++
Opening up the show, in a reprisal of last year's i.o show at Vern's, is Kaiden Jackman's solo noise project The Furnace. Jackman's approach to the somewhat harsher end of the "noise" spectrum is not as punishing as some other acts in this world, but provides a nuanced and shaded take on the form. Please check out the below link to hear the very set The Furnace performed at last year's show:
PLUS >>> DJ Jeremy Curry will provide between-set music!
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $15 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
CE QUI NOUS TRAVERSE
+
CONRADSON/HAMELIN/REID/WATERS Quartet
+
HOW TO SURVIVE A HIGH RISE HOTEL FIRE
+
JONATHON WILCKE solo
–ce qui nous traverse– is a Montreal ensemble seeking to capture the intensive vibrations that compose the surrounding ambiances. Created in the shock wave of the 2012 strike, the band launched an eponym EP in 2013 and a live improvised album – À l’écart – in 2014. A first studio album, des lignes, was released on Cuchabata Records in 2016, and received some attention in Canada and worldwide. In 2017, –ce qui nous traverse– publish the Volume series, to share some live improvisations as a trio. The new album, Le sacre de Sainte-Barbe, is a concept album focused on the band’s singular relation to a small town in Quebec. The album was released in August 2021 with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. –ce qui nous traverse– proposes a multidisciplinary performance mixing live sonic experimentations with the work of the video artists Guillaume Vallée and Larissa Corriveau. After touring in France, Belgium, United States and many Canadian provinces, the band is eager to go back on the road.
The quartet of double bassist Jesse Conradson (Wet Hen, many others, last year's Eugene Chadbourne collaborator), percussionist Eric Hamelin (Ghostkeeper, Joyfultalk, nomoreshapes, Cryingsnice), violinist Laura Reid (More Than Nothing, Who Cares?), and saxophonist Nate Waters (Eye of Newt, Nate Waters trio/quartet, Samantha Savage Smith, Temps) was put together for this special performance to showcase the world of Conradson before he leaves our fair town for greener pastures. All of these musicians are passionate, creative, deep-listening sorts, and it's mostly people who have not previously played together extensively, or possibly at all.
how to survive a high rise hotel fire is a collective started by bassist Nikko Whitworth and
oboist Haley Bird that strives to create community around co-regulation, meaning-making
and nonsense-making through sound. Their experimental conversations meld elements of
noise and free jazz, accessing trance states and deep listening in performers and listeners.
As a collective of free improvisers, members are invited to collaborate in a variety of
iterations of htsahrhf.
Jonathon Wilcke is one of the city's premier saxophonists working at the outer realms of the instruments. Their recent foray into the world of soprano sax - after a decades-long commitment to the tenor, alto, and clarinet, not to mention sundry soundmakers of great variety - has been fruitful to say the least. The precision that comes with this particular horn is well-suited to Wilcke's nimble, probing style of playing, and it's been a good minute since we've had a chance to witness them perform a solo set. Wilcke is known as one of the primary driving forces behind Bug Incision (along with founder and frequent collaborator Chris Dadge) and also the group alternately known as Not Now, Hamelin or more recently, Eating Speed. Additionally, they've played with Joe Morris, Darren Williams, Dave Chokroun, Shane Krause, Eugene Chadbourne, Jack Wright, Tim Crofts, and many more.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
JIAJIA LI / ISAAC SZETO / NATE WATERS TRIO
+
THE PHANEROZOIC EON
+
SORCERERS +
Lydia Pineau mini-solo set
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Isaac Szeto is primarily known for his deep, evocative solo project Mythmaking, a project which has been known to hush room and immediately divert ears and eyes, with his lush baritone voice, patiently unfurling guitar parts, and beautiful, poignant songs. Szeto is also a fine improvisor, with a readily identifiable instrumental voice, and while working on his newest Mythmaking album at Child Stone Studios, it was decided that one of the songs required a passage of freely improvised music. So recently Szeto invited two of Calgary's finest improvisors to join him in the studio for some explorations of this idea. Jiajia Li is known to many in the city for her highly virtuosic flute playing, and general effervescence as a human being. Her band Ginger Beef is currently wrapping up their first record, and can frequently be seen in action with her role as director of the Calgary Chinese Orchestra. Multi-instrumentalist Nate Watersis one ofthe city's busiest musicians, partially due to his stunning capabilities on a range of instruments, including the entire rhythm section, most of the woodwind family, plus any & all manner of strange noises, which get him in the room, but it's his taste fertile imagination that allow him to stay there. He can be seen playing with the likes of Samantha Savage Smith, Ryan Bourne & The Plant City Band, Temps, Victrix, Bennett Mitchell, his own jazz trios and quartets working at places like Establishment Brewing and The Eden, and also his own art-damaged indie rock quartet Eye of Newt.
Visual artist and musician Matthew Springer has become one of the brighter lights of the Calgary scene over the last few years, both due to his eye-popping work in the work of illustration, photography, and also his ferocious, no-holds-barred music-making activities, notably his project Radioactive Vampire Teeth, with fellow noise-provocateur Pajamas Concrete. To date, his project known as The Phanerozoic Eon has been a recording project, so far yielding one star-studded collective offering, and this will be the first time the ensemble performs live. A few words about the project:
The Phanerozoic Eon is a Calgary based free improvisational collective formed by Matthew Springer in the summer of 2022.
Performing will be Springer, Lydia Pineau, Christina Masha, Jason Philip Wierzba, Pajamas Concrete, Braxton Koshman, Mantis Mei, and Alec Brilling.
It is an interchangeable and diverse group of musicians that explores sonic frequencies and textures through recorded sessions and performances.
We are very excited to be welcoming back the duo of Jesse Locke and Jeremy Curry to the Bug Incision stages. Both longtime supporters of the Bug Incision universe, the last time these played at the series was May of 2011 when they appeared as Garf-Jovi. Exactly what that sounded like may be lost to the sands of time (although the Bug Incision Archives contains extensive documentation), but that's OK, because they're working in a new formation this evening. A few words from Sorcerers:
Bug Incision’s resident DJ Jeremy Curry reunites with Calgary expat music journalist and drummer Jesse Locke (Tough Age, Big Rig, Motorists, Chandra, Simply Saucer, Dirty Beaches, etc) for their debut performance as Sorcerers. Combining instrumental improvisation with electronic soundscaping and general tomfoolery, even Curry and Locke are unsure what to expect. Like a truck transporting dangerous chemicals down a jungle mountain trail, the only wages worth running for are the wages of fear.
And, as an added treat for the evening, Lydia Pineau of the The Phanerozoic Eon will open the night with a short set of solo drumming. Lydia's been making all sorts of excellent, strange music in Calgary for the last little while, she's been a valuable member of local ensembles (including Circular Sparrow with Li, Waters, Jonathon Wilcke, and Chris Dadge), and has tons of interesting music out under her Arts&Crafts moniker.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2023
Contemporary Calgary 'Grotto' (downstairs from main lobby area)
701 11 St SW, Calgary, Alberta T2P 2C4
Doors: 7:30pm // Show: 8:00pm
Tickets available HERE
Presented in conjunction with New Works Calgary and Sound Atlas Festival:
Nakatani Gong Orchestra + SHHH!! Ensemble
Bug Incision is pleased to be working once again with the mighty New Works Calgary (following our last co-presentation of Oren Ambarchi and crys cole last fall) and for the first time with Sound Atlas Festival on this exciting and rare bill. Tatsuya Nakatani is a living legend of free improvisation and new music, and we've been fortunate enough to present him in 2016 and 2018 as a soloist, but here we will finally bear witness to his Nakatani Gong Orchestra, about which more below. And the SHHH!! Ensemble, a piano and percussion duo, sounds right up our (and hopefully your) alley. Read on for a description from Sound Atlas' own Chris Sies:
In many ways, percussion is so simple. When an audience witnesses a drummer, they’re tapping into an intuition that creates a relationship, marrying sound with choreography. The stick (or finger, hand, implement) comes up – and then down to strike the instrument, activating its resonance. This phenomenon makes the music tangible, allowing an audience to not just witness the action but to believe in the results of the sound, perhaps even inviting their ears and mind to open up to an instrument’s rich spectrum of color. This invitation to an instrument’s nature not only makes percussion-artists exceptionally resourceful and collaborative, but more often than not, practitioners of improvisation and creators rooted in the DIY spirit. New Works Calgary, Bug Incision, and Sound Atlas Festival are thrilled to be presenting an evening of stunning percussion performance in an eclectic double bill between the Ottawa-based SHHH!! Ensemble, and the legendary nomadic percussion-sound-artist Tatsuya Nakatani, presenting his traveling Nakatani Gong Orchestra.
Comprised of percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham the SHHH!! Ensemble have carved a space in modern chamber music, fiercely supportive of the growing body of Canadian composers, particularly women writing notated music. Having premiered works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, Noora Nakhaei, Monica Pearce, and the late Jocelyn Morlock, SHHH!! is not showing any sign of delay in their work’s expansion. The duo’s debut album Meanwhile (Analekta) was released in October 2022 to critical acclaim, reaching top positions on Apple Music and Spotify playlists, as well as being nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards. The title track, Meanwhile, was the first piece written for SHHH!! by composer John Beckwith. Currently, SHHH!! Ensemble is preparing to record their second album, a large-scale commissioned work by Frank Horvat entitled An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene, to be released in the fall of 2023 on the Leaf Music label. For their performance in Calgary, the duo will present commissions by Jocelyn Morlock, Monica Pearce, Harry Stafylakis, and Mari Alice Conrad, in addition to an improvised set with Tatsuya Nakatani.
No stranger to the scene in YYC, Tatsuya Nakatani makes his return to Calgary to present his Nakatani Gong Orchestra for the first time in the city. Having been internationally active since the 1990’s, Tatsuya Nakatani has produced over 80 recordings, with extensive tours and over 150 concerts a year. Tatsuya’s work represents the epitome of the Do-It-Yourself artist as he is not only his own record producer and engineer, but auto-mechanic, tour manager, and visual artist, having lived in his built-out van over countless tours where his vast collection of instruments, kitchen, and living quarters travel with him, keeping his work nomadic and fiercely independent.
Nakatani’s sound practice has adopted various instruments of not only struck, but bowed nature, centered around his use of the wind gong as an expressive tool for building layers of complex vibration, ethereal melodies, and dramatic pacing of texture. Made up of sixteen Calgary locals with Nakatani as conductor and sculptor, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra’s performance will be a momentous occasion, featuring Nakatani’s own compositions in a richly immersive sound world rarely experienced. The various players will be using hand-carved Kobo-bows Nakatani crafts himself, commanding the instruments to his intentions as a ground-up independent artist, while rooted in community building and collaboration through this unique sound-art experience.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $15 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
KIND MIND (Josh Cole, Karen Ng, Michael Davidson) +
CRIGHTON/MCPHERSON +
REBECCA BRUTON
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// KIND MIND is a new group from three of Toronto's busiest musicians who also happen to share a long playing history together, cutting across years of different configurations in other people's groups, and often centred around the key Toronto music venue, the Tranzac. Josh Cole, double bassist and main instigator behind the project, is well-known across Canada and beyond for his work with such acts as avant-pop auteur Sandro Perri, the Brodie West Quintet (who appeared at Bug Incision a few years back), the late Ken Aldcroft's Threads project, and many more. Karen Ng is one of Toronto's preeminent alto saxophonists, a voracious improviser, chair of board of directors for Toronto's esteemed Music Gallery, and a member of the indie-folk unit Weather Station. Michael Davidson is one of the more in-demand vibraphonists in Toronto, and keeps an active schedule with his own septet, Pete Johnston's See-Through projects, a duo with bassist Dan Fortin called Clock Radio, and also a recent collaboration with legendary AACM saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell. The group play an intimate an unique flavour of chamber-esque music, adding colour and range to their sound with the subtle use of field recordings, samples, and other electronics. In their own words:
Bassist and composer Josh Cole’s band Kind Mind is an electro-acoustic improvised chamber ensemble featuring two of Toronto’s finest improvisers - Karen Ng on alto saxophone, and Michael Davidson on vibraphone. Rooted in an approach to improvisation that has been brewing in the Toronto creative music hub “The Tranzac” for decades, the trio explores a fractured, sparse, and timbral approach reinforced by brief compositions and a long history of collective music making.
On the October 12, 2023 edition of Paula Fayerman's Noise program on CJSW, Josh Cole joined Bug Incision's Chris Dadge and Jonathon Wilcke, and Sound Atlas' Chris Sies for a conversation about Toronto, Kind Mind, compositional origins, and improvised music. If you missed it, that conversation can be found here.
Harpist Jennifer Crighton (Hermitess, Devonian Gardens) will be joined by drummer Kyra McPherson for an improvised duet. From Jennifer:
These two have been known to build monsters together for film and television. It also happens that they are both musicians who team up to improvise the horror soundtrack of your nightmares.
Witness Jennifer in action in this video from 2021's Bug Incision at The Grand video series:
Opening the night is Rebecca Bruton, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improvisor, known for her recent works under the Swanherds moniker, her steady output of chamber music, and her role as the director of New Works Calgary. Having spent some time in Toronto, Bruton shares a strong kinship with the Tranzac/Rat-Drifting scene from that city, and this will be demonstrated in full flight on this evening, as she undertakes a performance of Martin Arnold's Tam Lin. Bruton has, with Arnold's permission, adapted the piece for this performance, and we couldn't be more excited to see it in action.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
Ad hoc ensembles, featuring:
Brandon Garay, guitar
Jeremy Gignoux, violin Matthew Hicks, cello Ben Longman, guitar Gus Rendell, drums Keith Rodger, double bass Jesse Shire, bass Smash Thompson, demon vocal FX unit and drone pedal Foon Yap, violin
++ between-set music provided by DJ Jeremy Curry
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2023
High Line Brewing: 1318 9 Ave SE, Unit #113
(access via Minh Chau parking lot off 9th Ave SE)
7-10pm, 18+, $10 cover at the door, CASH ONLY
A Night of Drums& featuring:
Dadge/Wilcke +
Hamelin/Waters +
The Yellow House Duo (Fisk/Tufts) +
Pineau/TBC
The "drums + something" duo configuration is a staple of the free improvisation diet, and on this night we are pleased to present four duos covering a wide range of the longevity spectrum; some of these groups have been playing together for well over a decade while others are relatively new and untested.
DADGE/WILCKE
This is another of the longer-running duos presented for your enjoyment on this night, but it has indeed been a minute since they played together. Their first duo recording Three Live Pieces was issued on Bug Incision Records in 2018, alongside a trio recording with US guitar maestro and deep thinker Joe Morris called Rural Optimism. Jonathon Wilcke is known to the city for their highly recognizable and downright arresting saxophone playing primarily on the soprano and tenor varietals and recent recordings with their co-operative group (with Eric Hamelin and bassist Rob Oxoby) Eating Speed were recently completed. Alongside Wilcke, Chris Dadge runs the Bug Incision enterprise. Dadge is a busy musician, producer, and engineer whose primary mode of public expression comes from behind the drums. He plays with a healthy variety of local acts in the songwriting/pop world, and has also collaborated, performed, and/or recorded with the likes of Jason Kahn, Tim Olive, Eric Chenaux, Eugene Chadbourne, and many more. His album with flautist extraordinaire Jiajia Li is being prepared for a 2024 release.
HAMELIN/WATERS
This is not the first time these two have shared the stage (right?) but it may in fact be the first time they've been paired consciously as a duo for a specific performance. On their own, both players run the gamut of styles and approaches, from thorough engagements with the acoustic parts of their instruments, to enhancing their sounds with electronics and dipping toes in other instruments as well. Eric Hamelin is one of the premier percussionists working on the more outside side of the coin, known for his work with Nomoreshapes (with Jay Crocker), Crocker's solo outfit JOYFULTALK, Cryingsince (with Chris Dadge on violin), and Ghostkeeper. Nate Waters is a primarily known as one of the city's go-to saxophonists, playing in his own combos and with whoever else will hire him; he also mans guitar, bass, and/or keyboards for indie rock acts like Samantha Savage Smith, Temps, Victrix, and Ryan Bourne's Plant City Band, and his debut album for his art-rock solo project Eye of Newt and nearing completion.
THE YELLOW HOUSE DUO Robin Tufts (percussion) and Simon Fisk (double bass/cello) are two stalwarts in the world of creative Calgary music. Aside from their together alongside pianist Sheldon Zandboer in the excellent Trio Velocity, Fisk is known for his work with east Canadian jazz legend Jerry Granelli and Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin, as well as collaborations with Josh Zubot, Eric Hamelin, and many others. Tufts has been a member of Calgary's music community for many years, and is most recently known for his involvement in Calgareal, a "musical conversation" between a selection of top-notch talent from Montreal and Calgary (including Foon Yap, Jiajia Li, and Jeremy Gignoux). In their own words:
The Yellow House Duo features Simon Fisk on bass and Robin Tufts on drums. They have been exploring and making music together for almost twenty years. Their set of spontaneous creation is a continuation of their search for space, peace and playful togetherness.
PINEAU/TBC (Rob Oxoby)
Lydia Pineau is one of the most exciting newer additions to the Calgary scene. She can often be seen playing some form of drums and/or percussion, and is a deft manipulator of samples, electronics, and the no-input mixing board. Her prolific project Arts&Crafts covers a huge range of output, and she's also performed with the group Circular Sparrow, featuring Jiajia Li, Waters, Dadge, and Wilcke. Her duo partner will be announced ASAP.
