77 (2020), is the second movement of For Ash (2019-21), a short, three-movement work for solo piano dedicated to my friend, Ash Mistry. In contrast to some of my earlier piano music, there is greater focus on melodic design and variations in harmonic voicing and less on structural symmetry, balancing lyrical and systematic aspects. Each of the three movements explores a melodic line in two parallel voices, mostly in intervals of a third in the first movement and fourths in the other two.

Composed February 2020
Recorded April 2022, unedited take on digital piano

Photo: Forks of the Credit Provincial Park, Caledon, 2020

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

For Ash, II. 77

urfunk etude (1997) is for solo piano with or without electronics.

Composed and recorded December 1996–January 1997
Korg 01/WFD playback to digital November 2022 (newly remastered and reuploaded June 2025)

Image from video by Carsten Knox, Liminal Laboratory, February 1997

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2022

urfunk etude

147 bpm (1994) is the score to the dance “Booted,” which was choreographed by Jennifer Johnson as part of the McMaster Dancers show Gigabit Mansion, directed by Dave Wilson. The show premiered at a dance festival in London, UK in February 1995. My collaborations with this organization resulted in my first trips to the US and Europe for my acousmatic work.

Rave culture had arrived in Toronto several years prior, and its influence is evident in this techno-oriented track. There is a sardonic, whimsical character which is prominent in the overall score for the show, and was typical for my attitude at the time.

https://elmahboob.com/2024/12/27/199430-147-bpm/

Composed and recorded December 1994, Korg 01/WFD

2024 24-bit transfer using the original 3½-inch floppy disks and data only
Unmastered audio

Photo: December 1994

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2024

147 bpm

For Ash (2019-21) is a short, three-movement work for solo piano dedicated to my friend, Ash Mistry. In contrast to some of my earlier piano music, there is greater focus on melodic design and variations in harmonic voicing and less on structural symmetry, balancing lyrical and systematic aspects.

Each of the three movements explores a melodic line in two parallel voices, mostly in intervals of a third in the first movement and fourths in the other two. In the third movement—"78"—a three-note pattern rotates through pairs of notes then is layered upon itself, expanding as the harmony develops.

https://elmahboob.com/2025/03/16/78-for-piano/

Composed March 2021, recorded March 2025, Roland digital piano

Photo: 5:48 a.m., June solstice, 2021, Toronto

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

For Ash, III. 78

"Now or Now" (1990) is a song recorded late at night at York U. It appeared on Home, a cassette that was part-album, part compilation which I shared with a small group of friends.

I played through the song structure on an out of tune acoustic with no click, added sampled instruments, then sang tired, also out of tune vocals. Rough sketches with flubs were fine with me — I was discovering my own playing and composing style, and the next idea was always calling.

It's a weird blend of proggy quirkiness, minimalist melo-rhythm and 80s band roots. The lyrics were sort of absurd, channeling fears of 21st century, authoritarian dystopia and collapse.

Composed, recorded and mixed to cassette March 6, 1990
upright piano, Roland S-50 sampler, Roland DEP-5, TASCAM 8-track 1/2 inch reel-to-reel tape
Cassette first transferred to digital 2017, audio unmastered

Photo: performing at McLaughlin College, April 1990

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

Now or Now

"Dance to the Music" (1988) is an experimental cover of the Sly & The Family Stone song, made at the end of my adolescence. It was my submission for a first-year electronic composition assignment to produce a subversive pop piece. Musical pastiche and parody had already been in my wheelhouse as an artsy, neurodivergent teen.

I was in the process of examining inheritances that had felt hidden, in this case, soul, reggae and beat mixing, while simultaneously moving towards experimentalism. While my musicianship was developing well, some of the vocal shtick and cultural performances were naive or questionable. Such are the impulsive, unvarnished constructions of youth. The song later appeared on my DIY cassette album Circus in a slightly less anarchic mix.

In the late 1980s, the audio revolution of digital sampling was happening in the world. At the same time in the junior studio at York U, I had reel-to-reel tape, an editing bay, splicing tape and a room big enough to wind great lengths of tape around mic stands. This is how I made the loops from "Dance to the Music" and "You Can Make It If You Try," which were especially crunchy, sourced from a cassette (and, by the final mixdown, many generations away from the original performances by the band).

RIP Sly Stone (1943-2025)

Recorded on 4-track cassette, remixed to 1/4" tape, March 1988
Yahama DX-27, Apple II/Soundchaser, Roland DEP-5 fx, 1/4" tape loops and inserts from found and copyrighted tape sources, splice editing
Transferred to DAT September 1990, audio unmastered

Photo: December 1987

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

Dance to the Music

From a live broadcast of Radio Music Gallery on CIUT 89.5 FM, August 29, 1998. Source audio is an aircheck recording on cassette, digitized in July 2025. The release of this interview was authorized by Linda Catlin Smith.

https://elmahboob.com/2025/08/04/interview-with-linda-catlin-smith/

– Bruce A. Russell

Interview with Linda Catlin Smith

Study for Two Pianos and Tape (1990) is a collaboration with Garnet Willis (garnetwillis.com) (@https://soundcloud.com/garnoying). We were electronic music students of Philip Werren and composition/music history students of James Tenney at York University. The piece was recorded live at a student recital, where both Werren and Tenney were in attendance. This is a single mic recording that has survived several stages of media storage.

https://elmahboob.com/2025/08/21/199035-study-for-two-pianos-and-tape/

Garnet is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, audio engineer, composer and instrument builder. I highly recommend exploring his groundbreaking work. He's also one of the first friends I made in Toronto.

Note: this recording is dynamic, beginning quietly and becoming loud in several segments.

Recorded in concert, April 5, 1990, DACARY, York University
Two pianos, reel to reel tape (Yahama DX-27, Roland S-50, DEP-5 effects)
DAT recording transferred to cassette in 1990, transferred to CD-R in 2003

Artwork: sketch for the concert program, artist unknown

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

Study for Two Pianos and Tape

Recorded at The Music Gallery, 179 Richmond Street West, Toronto
May 3, 2000
Paul Hodge, audio engineer
The transcript of this interview is available here: https://elmahboob.com/2020/12/31/interview-with-james-tenney/

The interview was the result of my wish to have a final conversation with Tenney before he and his family left Toronto for California, where he was to resume teaching at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) after an absence of some 25 years. It was aired shortly after recording on the program Radio Music Gallery on CIUT (which I hosted from 1997-2000) and aired again by the late Ron Gaskin on the same program in 2006, after Tenney’s passing. The interview is in places somewhat informal or presumptuous on my part. That said, it also reflects the warm relationship I had developed with my teacher over the years. By that time I was quite well informed about his work and was a big fan. The present audio includes the entire conversation, with some pauses edited out.

— Bruce A. Russell

Interview with James Tenney

See my composer SoundCloud at soundcloud.com/brussell

Interview with James Tenney

Bruce A. Russell

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