Langdon talks to Ian Cory, former editor-in-chief of the almighty Invisible Oranges blog and now lead of genre-agnostic (but generally heavy) band Lamniforms.

Ian Cory of Lamniforms interview

Premiere performance of piece in collaboration with Nunatsiavut Inuk Artist and Activist Delilah Saunders.

Performed by:

Dylan Maddix, conductor
Anita Krause, mezzo-soprano
Anne Thompson, flute
Marie Johnson, clarinet
Erika Raum, violin
Adrian Wright, cello

Commissioned by Western University's School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and premiered during the school's International Week Canada 150 Art Installation and Music Premiere.

Text:
In prison, we were ten again.
I climbed onto her bunk while she put on her face.
A MacGyver beauty queen, trading in our sister' makeup for an old copy of the Globe and
Mail to add colour to her high cheekbones.
Another murdered Indigenous sister's story worn on her already worn-down face.
Vicious I entered her territory, she pulled my hair and laid into me.
I no longer saw my sister's face, but a system.
Possessing our women, men and children.
The sick, twisted wolf growled, "I'm here, I have you where I want you, you're still in my chains, you so-called warrior woman"
Foster homes chewed her up as a child, spit her out at 18, just to lick her back up.
I reminded her that she came from there.
"Look where you came from, my girl"
My home was her only save haven.
I reminded her that she came from there, too.
I reminded her that she may have been beaten into survival mode,
but she had that love within her too.
I reminded her how one arrow, when bent, will snap and break.
But together, the way we were in that moment, the same way we were when we were kids, we are strong, unbending, unbreaking.
One stalk of corn cannot withstand the elements, it cannot stand alone,
but corn in rows, side by side,
They weather storms together,
They move together,
allowing each other to grow.
Together we are strong, unbending, unbreaking.
-Delilah Saunders (2017)


Read more about Delilah's work, the piece and future collaborations here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/delilah-loretta-saunders-chamber-opera-andrew-noseworthy-mmiwg-1.4414857

One Stalk, One Arrow, No Stalk, No Arrow.

For Flute(=picc.), Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Violin, Cello, and five-channel playback
Performed by Arraymusic

I. Prologue (Silence, errance)
II. A Thin Layer of a Hard Shadow
III. That Particular Gaze
IV. Stide Stroll Roam Patrol
V. Sounds Difficult to Repeat
VI. Un mauvais présage, une mauvaise augure
VII. Purgatory
VIII. Parallel to the Picture Plane
IX. Epilogue (Come Back, Stay Longer)

John Max (1936-2011) was a Canadian photographer from Montreal best known for his 1972 exhibition Open Passport.

His work, celebrated at the time, has been somewhat forgotten, perhaps as a result of Max’s reluctance in later life to develop his film or to show new work. Some of his close friends estimated that at the time of his death he had upwards of 2000 rolls of undeveloped film, others suggested that for several years he had been taking photographs without any film in his camera.

To Discard All Images presents new recordings of forty-six Canadian photographers each describing one image from Open Passport.  Many of these recordings are of close personal friends of Max, but just as many are of photographers who were not previously aware of his work.

The title is taken from a poem by Max which he wrote as an epigraph for Open Passport:

To discard all images
Leaving their impressions behind
Of burning hearts
And tortured souls
And soft silent tears

Smouldering . . . 

Without name
Without country
Without passport . . . . . . 

To Discard All Images features the voices of Raymonde April, Benoit Aquin, Robert Bean, Sylvia Grace Borda, Dianne Bos, Jim Breukelman, Annie Briard, Chris Buck, Robert Burley, Michel Campeau, Bertrand Carrière, Serge Clément, Burt Covit, Marlene Creates, Donigan Cumming, Sally Davies, William Eakin & Lulu Akhanamoya, David Evans, Evergon, Fausta Facciponte, Michael Flomen, Will Gill, Elisa Julia Gilmour, Rafael Goldchain, Terence Gower, Angela Grauerholz, Naomi Harris, Joseph Hartman, April Hickox, Clive Holden, Joshua Jensen-Nagle, Ruth Kaplan, Shelagh Keeley, Rita Leistner, Laura Letinsky, John Lucas, Shelley Niro, Deanna Pizzitelli, Normand Rajotte, Guillaume Simoneau, Edward Singer, Shin Sugino, Althea Thauberger, Christopher Wahl, Robert Walker and Carl Zimmerman.

To Discard All Images

C53b [cl]

April 13th 2019 - Winnipeg MB. Performed and Commissioned by Amanda Forest, at Solus: an Unaccompanied Clarinet Recital

Amanda associates each pitch of the chromatic scale with a specific color. For example, she visualizes G as a vibrant shade of Magenta.
I can't thank her enough for bringing my work to life.

www.amandaforestclarinet.com
www.willynwhiting.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbEdxhHz2XrbGmjPekh0rAg

Magenta Variations

Recorded live at my NYU junior composition recital on April 26, 2019.

Flora Hollifield, violin
Yaz Lancaster, violin
Harper Randolph, viola
Dorothy Carlos, cello
Kyle Brenn, conductor/fixed electronics

My grandfather took the songs he loved (mostly from the 40s and 50s) and wrote his own words to the tunes. Many of these were performed over the phone and recorded onto my home answering machine, along with spoken messages to me and my family. As the messages move forward in time, the decline in his health is evident, making singing a belabored process. The players in this piece interact temporally and dramatically with one specific song, one that my grandfather claimed was based on a tune it sounds nothing like. In all my research, I was unable to source was tune he was referencing, so I attempted to fully realize it for myself. 

This is a provisional version of the piece that will be expanded upon in the future, with a studio recording planned for release later in 2019.

Recorded by Aron Kobayashi Ritch.
Photo by Kabi Kariuki.

Blossoming Like Crazy (world premiere)

among Verticals (2018)
for solo alto saxophone

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written for & performed by keaton garrett

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František Kupka: Mme. Kupka among Verticals (1910-11), oil on canvas, 53 3/8 x 33 5/8”

among Verticals

forget me (not)

When my season passes, forget me not.
When my periwinkle presence is quiet and shaded,
forget me not.

Forget me not when her vibrance challenges the sun and blossoms;
a daffodil beneath your soiled hands.

Forget me not when she lies in sheets that still hold my scent, 
lingering and pastel presence.

And while another seasons passes, and colours fade, 
roots will remain grounded.
So please-
forget me not. 


Thank-you so much to the Toronto Creative Music Lab (www.tcml.ca) for giving me the opportunity to write this piece and attempt poetry which was both fun and stressful 😅 

Also thank-you to the talents of Paul Talbott for the recording and musicians Joanna Chen (kalimba/ rice bowls/ voice), Nikki Joshi (marimba), Salina Kuo (singing glasses, rice bowls, wood block, voice), Markéta Ornova (keyboard) and Camille Rogers (voice) for interpreting this beautifully.

TCML // 2019

forget me (not)

Andrew Noseworthy - I'm Sure You Will

Arches in the Undercurrent is a piece for solo piano.  It explores harmonics, stillness and is shaped by a simple harmonic language.  It has the feeling of soft rocking waves, and alludes to the natural movement of water.  Arches in the Undercurrent was performed January 17th 2020 and written for the Piano Lunaire's Inaugural Composer's Symposium.  Performed by Stephanie Chua and audio by Varey Sound.

Arches in the Undercurrent

Tim Brady, electric guitar (right channel)
Sergio Sorrentino, electric guitar (left channel)

recorded during the lockdown (Canada/Italy)

Intersperse - Tim Brady & Sergio Sorrentino

Andrew Noseworthy (he/him/his) is a multidisciplinary artist whose music reflects upon the acceptance/rejection of “locality,” while addressing ideas of post-regional spaces and questions of accessibility for the musical voices within them. His genre-fluid projects coalesce wide-ranging styles and distinct artistic practices, while building sustainable relationships through communal collaboration. Recent collaborators include The Metropolis Ensemble, The 21C Guitar Conference, Angie Moon Dance Theatre, Saman Shahi, India Gailey, Yang Chen, Tim Brady/Bradyworks, Phong Tran, Adam Cuthbért, SlowPitchSound, Greg Bruce, The St John’s International Sound Symposium, Bekah Simms, Tanea Hynes and Andrea Lodge. He is a member of the experimental hardcore duo this place is actually the worst (with Aeryn Jade Santillan), post-genre duo laydøwn (with Yaz Lancaster), Toronto-based contemporary ensemble ContaQt, and co-runs people | places | records.