Interviews
-
Jerusalem in my Heart
Article originally published May 15, 2014 at Cult MTL For their 30th edition, the organizers of the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville reached back throughout their archives to assemble an all-star program, but rather than just bring in big name performers who have been on the world stage since the ’60s, they made sure to balance the…
-
John Butcher keeps jazz dangerous
John Butcher The last several years have seen a renewed interest in the saxophone, with a resurgence of sax ensembles, a reissue of Dickie Landry’s excellent 1977 LP Fifteen Saxophones and the great success of Montreal’s Colin Stetson. The popularity of Stetson’s approach to solo performance and composition has shone some much deserved light…
-
Meet the lo-fi, high-end sounds of Africa
A shorter version of this interview was originally published by Cult MTL on Jun 7, 2013 in Nightlife | Cassette tapes may be disdained by many for their low fidelity and inability to shuffle, but a new generation of tape lovers has embraced the medium for those very reasons. Brian Shimkovitz isn’t one of…
-
UN PAESE VUOL DIRE Mix by (Gianmarco del Re)
Originally posted at A CLOSER LISTEN Un Paese Vuol Dire Mix by Lostchildrennetlabel on Mixcloud I’ve been really pleased with the mixes that have been produced for this series, as they often break the mold by doing something more creative than just throwing together a bunch of tracks. “Un Paese Vuol Dire…” is this special…
-
Sound Propositions 06: Giuseppe Ielasi
[Originally published at acloserlisten.com] Our friends at Experimedia are currently doing a Spotlight feature on Giuseppe Ielasi. Head over to their site to check out 28 Ielasi-related albums, and check out this playlist highlighting the many sides of this very singular talent. I know this will appear very simplistic, but I think that choosing to…
-
Interview: Sparkle in Grey
This interview was conducted in late 2008, and first published by the now defunct The Silent Ballet on February 7, 2009. Since then I’ve gone on to interview many Italian artists, curate 2 compilations of contemporary Italian music, and inaugurate a research project exploring the links between Mail Art and Cassette Culture. It also introduced…
-
Interview with composer Rhys Chatham
First published at A CLOSER LISTENCome summer Montreal becomes a parade of constant festivals. Suoni per il Popolo (Sounds for the People) remains my favorite festival because it’s really an anti-festival; it’s a well-curated concert series that rewards attention and reflection. The way that the taste of a good scotch unfolds on your palette, the…
-
Montreal Band Esmerine Talk Turkey
Interview with Rebecca Foon of Esmerine This article was commissioned by CultMTL to run the day of the Dalmak record release concert, however it was published the next week due to problems with the web host the day of the show. The version below is a slightly more in depth version. Esmerine released a pair…
-
What Montreal Can Learn from Cairo
Originally published by Cult Mtl. Sam Shalabi and Stefan Christoff Rodina is a series of piano and oud duets between Stefan Christoff and Sam Shalabi that draw on free-form jazz and the makam tradition of Arabic music. (Listen to the record’s opening track here.) Though the title refers to a Slavic concept of motherland, it’s not…
-
Cult Mtl
Over the last few months I’ve published a number of pieces for Cult Mtl, a website and print paper that replace Montreal’s beloved free alt weekly the Mirror after it was rather unceremoniously shut down by parent company Quebecor (Quebec’s very own disgusting media giant). You can read Quebec’s Other Other Monumental Music Fest and…
-
Interview: Aspec(t)
Originally posted as part of my mix/interview series at http://www.acloserlisten.com Sec_ part 1 Sec_ part 2 Mario Gabola LCNL 010: SEC_ Mix Last year while in Napoli I met Mario Gabola (A spirale, Aspec(t)) at Perditempo, an incredible music venue in Piazza Dante with a sister-store nearby, both of which act as bars that sell…
-
Interview: Francisco Lopez
Originally published at www.acloserlisten.com This short interview took place just before the start of the 2012 edition of the AKOUSMA festival of electroacoustic music in Montreal. I hoped it would give added context to the performance, and indeed it did. My review of that festival, which included performances by Martin Tétreault‘s turntable quartet and…
Sound Propositions 