Volume 30 Issue 4 | December 2024 & January 2025

Imagine Many GuitarsTim

Imagine Many GuitarsTim Brady; Instruments of Happiness;Bronwyn Thies-Thompson; Janelle Lucyk;Sarah Albu; Marie-Annick BeliveauRedshift Records TK550(redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/imagine-many-guitars)! Imagine ManyGuitars is real; awell-thought outand brilliantlyperformed electricguitar recordingby Montreal-basedTim Brady, whocomposed, playedand recorded all the guitar lines, which hemulti-tracks in the four compositions here.The opening 25-minuteThis one is brokenin pieces: Symphony #11 (2019-2024) is heldtogether by Brady’s eight electric guitars(with effects pedals), and overdubbedsopranos Bronwyn Thies-Thompson, JanelleLucyk, Sarah Albu and Marie-Annick Béliveausinging texts taken from the late Ian Ferrier’sbook Coming & Going (2015). This verysymphonic music with classical and contemporaryovertones features guitar effect backdropsto guitar grooves alternating withvocals – suspenseful a cappella singing andmoving spoken lines. Guitar strums and heldnotes add an echo effect to high sung notes.Slow, Simple (2022) for 20 electric guitarsis not really simple sonically but is easylistening!The tempo is slow, with Brady’s lowheld chords opening and the guitars build asthe chords slowing change with simultaneousdescending lead lines, held notes, strumming,single note atonal lines and held note effects.Five Times: four guitars (2022), a shorterfive-movement change of pace, features amore open and playful style and a rockinglead guitar in Everywhere, and more atonalexperimental lines resembling playing athome sounds in Alone.The earlier four-part work (very) ShortPieces for (jazz) Guitar (1979) shows off ajazzier side of Brady’s playing with cleanlines, rhythmic strums and accents.Brady is amazing and inspirationalthroughout Imagine Many Guitars.Tiina KiikRebecca Bruton – a roof or mirror,blossom, madder, cracks; Jason Doell -togetherQuatuor Bozzini; junctQin keyboardcollectiveCollection Quatuor Bozzini CQB 2433-2(collectionqb.bandcamp.com/album/rebecca-bruton-jason-doell-a-root-ormirror-blossom-madder-cracks-together)! Montreal’sinternationallyrenowned contemporarystringquartet QuatuorBozzini is knownfor championingcomposers. Onthis album of twonew works, theyjoin forces with Toronto’s junctQín keyboardcollective, a trio of expert advocates of therare art of six-hand piano playing.Toronto composer Jason Doell in hisperformance notes reflects on his worktogether in poetic terms. It’s “a work bornof strange conversation caught in websthat cling to beliefs still continuously beingspun….” Early in together a mysterious pppdrone appears. Unlike most drones however,it continuously and very slowly, drifts downin pitch by a disciplined half-tone. While thestring quartet skilfully tunes to the shiftingdrone, the piano cannot. For much of thework’s 20 minutes therefore Doell createsthe perception of a transient out-of-tunenessin the slowly flowing texture as the twosonic components drift apart. The consequenttension is finally relieved by a complex tonalquasi-resolution at the work’s close.Alberta composer Rebecca Bruton’s eightpartThe Faerie Ribbon consists of fourinitial movements each with its own magicalsubtitle, each mirrored by its own alterversion.The string quartet textures are punctuatedby deep sustained piano chords,contrasted in two sections by voices singingconsonant harmonies. What to make ofthe title? Faeries in folklore are anthropomorphicliminal creatures associated withnature and magic. In some myths they hauntspecific locations and dangerously lead travelersastray. Could Bruton - and Doell - beevoking the power of music to catch usunaware, acting as a transformative agent ofthe musical medium and listeners alike?Andrew TimarButterfly Lightning Shakes the EarthIndia Gailey; Symphony Nova Scotia; KarlHerzerRedshift Records TK552(redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/butterfly-lightning-shakes-theearth)! Cellist IndiaGailey’s latestalbum continuesher dedication tothe fusion of naturaland supernaturalworlds, depictingpowerful imagesof our changingenvironment while revealing early influencesof her Buddhist lineage.Opening with three miniatures,Mountainweeps (originally written for cellistArlen Hluska for Instagram posts needing tobe around 1 min each), Gailey uses her vastrange of minimalist colours to paint the sceneof melting glaciers and the migration of creaturesfollowing the disappearing ice. Withthe use of fleeting harmonics, the composersets the scene for frigid temperatures, and theflowing arpeggiated passages describe fleeingplants and animals.This short set aptly sets the stage forGailey’s first symphonic compositionButterfly Lightening Shakes the Earth, aconcerto for cello and orchestra composedduring a Banff Residency and premiered withSymphony Nova Scotia under the baton ofKarl Hirzer. The first movement, SKY, beginningwith heavenly high notes on the cellopaired with fluttering harmonics and hightriangle chimes throughout the orchestra,is textural while supporting the melody ofthe cello. The second movement, GOLDEN,blends the double basses and lowest reeds tobring a dark and mysterious element behindthe gorgeous melody in the cello, morphinginto tonal shifts and scattered drums likeoncoming rain and a sudden storm, leading tothe third movement, JOINING, where we heara rainstorm beautifully rendered throughoutthe orchestra. The heavens seem to breakopen with a string quartet of almost plaintivechant which quickly grows throughoutthe ensemble, when the cello bursts into thegroup with a storm of its own. The soundof birds ebbs and swells again to end in amajestic firestorm of cello pyrotechnics anda mountain of sound. It’s worth a trip over toYouTube to see the capture of this performanceas the storm effects are wonderous towatch, and Gailey’s playing is exact and clearwhile maintaining a natural and relaxeddelivery. The future looks very bright for thisexceptional artist.Cheryl Ockrant60 | February & March 2025 thewholenote.com

Awake and Dreaming – Music of Alice PingYee HoKatherine DowlingIndependent (katherinedowling.com)! In her first soloalbum, pianistKatherine Dowlingpresents music byChinese-Canadiancomposer Alice PingYee Ho. Colourfuland dynamic, Ho’swriting makesimpressive use of the piano’s resources,including some imaginative strumming andplucking of strings, and Dowling relishesthe significant technical and interpretivedemands of these works with assurance.Dowling has a keen ear for texture and colour,but also an impassioned – even impulsive –sense of forward momentum and line.Inspired by Dali, the album’s openingwork, Aeon (2012), provides a good senseof Ho’s piano writing as a dramatic andresonant slow introduction leads into a brilliantand driving toccata. Dowling’s characterizationof the non-stop passageworkis impressive. The most recent work on thealbum, There is no night without a dawning(2023) was commissioned by Dowlingherself for this recording. An elegiac, meditativebeginning works up to an agitatedclimax featuring ringing chords and trills.The album’s emotional high point is TheWeeping Woman (2022), inspired by a seriesof portraits by Picasso. Dowling movinglycaptures the work’s depiction of the sufferingof war, ranging from hushed mystery tosearing intensity. Lighter, more playful moodsare explored in shorter works such as thescherzo-like Fire of Imagination (1991) andCyclone (1994), a repeated-note toccata.Recorded at the Polaris Centre in Calgaryin a resonant but detailed acoustic, KatherineDowling’s portrait of Ho is an impressiveachievement. Her extensive experience withand commitment to contemporary musicresults in authoritative interpretations, underliningboth the drama and the atmosphereof Ho’s piano writing. Highly recommendedfor anyone interested in contemporary pianomusic, and the chance to hear music by oneof Canada’s most acclaimed composers incompelling and virtuosic performances.Stephen Rungelandscapes of memory – solo piano musicby Emilie Cecilia LeBelWesley Shen; Luciane CardassiRedshift Records TK551(redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/landscapes-of-memory)! Alberta-basedCanadian composerEmilie CeciliaLeBel’s landscapesof memory featuresher subtle, delicatecompositional stylein two solo pianoworks with extensions.Both are over 30 minutes in length,inspired by nature, and each is performed bythe work’s commissioner. A distinct highlightis LeBel’s use of EBows, electromagneticexciters which are commonly used on electricguitars. The E-Bow is placed inside the pianocausing the strings it is put on to create acontinuous vibrating drone effect dependenton the pianist’s articulation, volumeand tempo.Toronto pianist Wesley Shen performsghost geography (2022) which is inspiredby the North Saskatchewan River. This isslow, very hypnotic and reflective, usinga wide piano range with a repeated heldchord, higher interspersed notes, ascendingsingle notes and low tones blending withone continuous quasi-background drone.Especially moving is how the ends of thepiano held notes blend with the drone sound.Brazilian-Canadian pianist LucianeCardassi performs the five-movement paleforms in uncommon light (2023) which isinspired by the Montane ecoregion in Albertaand its filtering light patterns through trees.The middle register positioned EBow droneis louder throughout, moving string positionwith each movement. Alternating low, midrangeand high piano notes against the midpitcheddrone creates a shimmer effect.Both pianists perform brilliantly, effortlesslycombining each composition’s inherenttexture, resonance and tone colour with thedrone. The unique hypnotic slower tempos,chromatic harmonics, held notes and dronesare worth the possibly challenging listen.Tiina KiikKaleidoscope – Contemporary Piano Musicby Female Composers from Around theWorldIsabel DobarroGrand Piano GP944 (naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=GP944)! The Spanishpianist IsabelDobarro has longchampioned musicby contemporaryfemale composers.Born in Santiago deCompostela in 1992,she studied at the Madrid Royal Conservatoryand has been a prize-winner in severalcompetitions. While she has frequentlytaken part in premieres, this recording, titledKaleidoscope and featuring the music of 12female composers all born between 1943 and1996 is even further proof of her commitmentto modern music. The names areperhaps unfamiliar to the average listener andcome from different backgrounds, but all arecomposersDobarro particularly admires fortheir individualism.These compositions may have been writtenduring the last 25 years, but there is littleof the avant-garde here; instead, a decidedlyneo-Romantic flavour pervades theprogram, which is marked by contrasts. Thedisc opens with the languorous Nocturne bythe Grammy-nominated Bulgarian composerDobrinka Tabakova – do I hear echoes ofRachmaninov? Very different in style isthe Estudio 3 by Gabriela Ortiz, an angularperpetuum mobile composed in 2007. WhileNkeiru Okoye’s Dusk and Suad Bushnak’sImprovisation are quietly introspective, TaniaLéon’s Tumbao is all frenetic energy.Clearly, Dobarro has a deep love for thisrepertoire. She truly makes these workscome alive, combining a sense of tonalwarmth with a fine resonance, while demonstratinga flawless technique in the moredemanding compositions. At almost 14minutes, the lengthiest piece on the programis Gustav le Grey by the American Grammyand Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.Just as Tabakova’s Nocturne harkens back toRachmaninov, this piece is more than a nodto Chopin in its quasi-extemporary style anduse of mazurka-type rhythms.Kaleidoscope is aptly titled - a fineperformance of engaging music by 12 livingfemale composers whose works deservegreater recognition.Richard HaskellPassagesBlackwoodSanctuary Concerts (jeffreilly.bandcamp.com/album/passages)! For over 25years, the Canadianinstrumental duoBlackwood hasperformed theirlyrical musictouching on jazz,classical, improvisation,minimalismand contemporary soundscapes. Talentedmusicians/improvisors/composers Peter-Anthony Togni (pipe organ/piano) and JeffReilly (bass clarinet) work closely together“inspired by plainchant, improvisation andholy minimalism.” Passages features Togni onthree different Atlantic Canada pipe organs,and Reilly on bass clarinet in three Togni, andtwo Togni and Reilly compositions. They arejoined by special guest cellist India Gailey onthewholenote.com February & March 2025 | 61