Harmonic Breath - The
Harmonic Breath - The Music of Palestrina Mysterium Duo Canadian Classical Records Inc. (canadianclassical.ca/collections/ mysterium-duo-harmonic-breath-themusic-of-palestrina) ! Calgary-based Mysterium Duo is two brilliant “classical” accordionists. Internationally renowned performer Sir N. Antonio Peruch currently teaches classical accordion at the University of Calgary. Penny Sanborn is a University of Calgary PhD graduate student with a Master of Music in Performance on accordion who has also performed internationally. They each play on the chromatic free-bass accordion. The left-hand buttons are single tones arranged in ascending semitones from lower pitched at the top of the accordion to higher pitches lower. Both play button keyboard right hand instruments, with a wide pitch range, which accommodate the duo’s fascinating adaptations of nine Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina sacred compositions. The opening Ricercar del Primo Tuomo, originally scored for brass quartet, has each accordionist playing in a strict tempo and pulse together, and in separate contrapuntal lines. Their detached notes are very clear and attention grabbing. Sicut Cervus is Palestrina’s most famous and often performed four-voice motet, a setting to Psalm 42. After a held note start, the accordions play in twopart individual lines. Love the clear phrasing, controlled accordion bellows breathing, and lower pitched held note lines. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a church motet. The short melodic phrases translate well to the accordion, especially the lower pitch and higher pitch lines together. A very positive and uplifting performance to closing held note. Mysterium’s sheet music adaptations for two free-bass accordions are available. The release is only 25 minutes in length, yet timeless in Mysterium’s colour, beauty, and respectful adaptations of Palestrina’s sacred works, played perfectly by Peruch and Sanborn. Tiina Kiik MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY Alice Ping Yee Ho - The Imagined Christina Petrowska-Quilico Navona Records nv6857 (navonarecords. com/catalog/nv6857) ! There are, of course, composers who are also world class instrumentalists and vice versa. But in the storied tradition of classical piano, there are meaningful creative relationships formed when a composer writes specifically for a particular performer, or (such as with Hewitt and Bach, Lipatti with Mozart, or Rubenstein with Chopin) when a pianist becomes associated with the work of a particular composer, their recordings dubbed seminal and definitive. I am not sure what will come of the musical relationship between the Hong Kong-born Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho and renowned pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico—who brings tremendous expressivity and nuance to each of Ho’s four terrific compositions here— but it has been a great one so far. `Released in 2026 on Navona Records, The Imagined is a shortening of Ho’s four-part evocative composition Pictures from An Imagined Exhibition which draws inspiration from the paintings of both the late Hong Kong-based artist Wesley Tongson and, believe it or not, Petrowska Quilico herself, who is also an accomplished artist (for reference, she painted the album’s cover). Attempting to highlight the differences seen in these artistic approaches (the album’s notes point to contrasting Eastern and Western aesthetics), Ho and Petrowska Quilico effectively co-create an intricate musical landscape of geographic and artistic cross-pollination, which they mine effectively over this beautiful album’s first 18 or so minutes. Recorded last year at Imagine Sound Studio in Toronto, the sonic capture of Petrowska Quilico’s piano is rich and clean, enabling revelatory further elegances to be appreciated in both the playing, and in Ho’s compositional work. Andrew Scott Christopher Mayo - Walk the Darkness Down Andrew Noseworthy; Grace Scheele people | places | records (peopleplacesrecords.bandcamp.com/ album/walk-the-darkness-down) ! Torontobased composer Christopher Mayo has created amazing, unforgettable, experimental music here in three compositions written between 2019 and 2023.The electric guitars are performed by Andrew Noseworthy, harp by Grace Scheele, and other effects by Mayo himself. Mayo says Townes Van Zandt’s 1965 track Lungs was his reference point for the opening guitar track Walk the Darkness Down. Noseworthy plays and records ten electric guitars with open tunings that have been slightly ‘detuned’ to match the guitar on Van Zandt’s album, as a layered background, with a solo electric lead over top. Percussive mallets create more “noisy” effects. The ten guitars are unified yet sound separate too. Accented intervals and chords, ascending and descending slides, low held notes and strums become more frequent. The noise is gradually eliminated as the loud chords, held notes and accents are separated by silent spaces leading to a vibrating single note ending. Composed for this release, A Sick, Sly Age for harp and electric guitar is transfixing. It opens with prepared harp rattling and slow electric guitar, then a single repeated hypnotic note through to close, its almost toetapping quality making the harp and electric guitar lines more interesting. The closing harp solo It Could Be You or You or You has Scheele play quietly while pushing the composition’s written lines from soft start to attention grabbing high harp pitches ending. This perfectly composed/performed/ recorded release is for all listeners regardless of musical tastes, ranging from tonal to atonal, comforting soft sounds to loud pseudo crashes. Love it!! Tiina Kiik Meredith Bates - The Observer Effect Meredith Bates; Various Artists Phonometrograph (phonometrograph. bandcamp.com/album/the-observereffect) ! The size and scope of this latest album by Canadian violist/violinist and composer Meredith Bates is nearly overwhelming in its length and it conjures much 46 | July & August 2026 thewholenote.com
powerful imagery. I have listened in its 140 minutes more than a few times and The Observer Effect is a stunning commitment. While Bates is known for her ambient style and textural expansions, this is not an album of “mush” music. The entire project was created live in the studio, with few overdubs or edits, and the multiple collaborations keep each track fresh and original while remaining a cohesive whole. I could not get enough of this gorgeous work, and each listen peeled open another layer of goodness. Track lengths vary from under two minutes to almost 46, and no two are alike. Similar to Bates’ JUNO-nominated double-CD release Tesseract, The Observer Effect is presented in two “books”: Book 1 - Casting and Book 2 - Evocation. The title Observer Effect comes from the notion that “observing alters that which is being observed.” Each track of both books is titled Incantation, with a corresponding subtitle: protection, disillusionment, love, and memory constituting Book 1, and infatuation, silencing, and binding completing Book 2. Constructed with Bates’ core viola/violin material, the evolutions from one space to another remain at the heart throughout while explorations interweave and build. Adding to this album’s uniqueness is that, being constructed live, the layers remain interactive, rather than major edits or effects added afterwards. Bates plays violin and viola as well as adding additional field recordings which keep the music grounded, and Scott Morgan’s electronics add edge without spilling into noise. Chris Gestrin’s editing and mastering become another highlight of the album. Track 3 love of Book 1 was the slowest, most patient evolution of beauty, with Gestrin’s additional synths adding layers of bloom and colour, melting into track 4’s memory. Book 2’s closer binding begins with Bates’ viola arpeggios, somehow blossoming into a sparseness that elongates into rich delays, exquisitely developing into my favourite track on the album, when percussionist Curtis Andrews seamlessly blows into town taking the roof off this piece. At 11 minutes, it was over far too soon. Cheryl Ockrant James Harley - Wild Fruits James Harley Centrediscs CMCCD 34726 (cmccanada. org/shop/wild-fruits/) ! Canadian composer and retired University of Guelph professor James Harley was always fascinated by natural sounds, but he did not know how to translate them into music. This project’s idea arose in1982 while studying composition in London UK, after reading Annie Dillard’s book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Years later Harley read Henry David Thoreau’s Wild Fruits which highlighted Thoreau’s nature-based philosophy. In 2002, after purchasing some appropriate equipment, Harley began processing field recordings and selected spoken text excerpts to “compose” these immersive eight-channel electroacoustic soundscapes. Layered Wild Fruits: I. Prologue (2004) begins with a sound wash. Two book excerpts are spoken and recorded by Jim Bartruff and Theresa A. Carson. One stretched underlying layer is a granulated Thoreau text fragment. Layered signal processed overlapping and solo winds, wildlife sounds like birds, footsteps, and washes varying in volumes and pitches, successfully introduce the listener to Harley’s “spatial” soundscapes. Wild Fruits: II. Like a ragged flock, like pulverized jade (2006) is inspired by two Dillard fragments. In the first part layers of processed water are reminiscent of splashing natural sources. The second part features processed bird sounds. Its texture allows for optional alto flute, recorded here by Ellen Waterman. Wild Fruits: III. Chestnuts (2008) has longer soundscapes with independent soundings of Thoreau’s Chestnuts chapter, percussion banging, rain, leaves etc. Wild Fruits: IV. Winter (2016), has Dillard overlapping spoken texts read by Anne-Marie Donovan. Highly processed independent soundscape recordings include wintry winds, ice and birds. Wild Fruits: V. Epilogue (2023) has previous movements’ sounds, new thunderstorm recording, Donovan spoken Thoreau and Dillard texts, and some granular spatialization layers. Wild Fruits is unforgettable whether listened to in high definition 8-channel surround sound, or as here on the Dolby Atmos format. The spatialized soundscapes are realistic - at times I thought there was a bird in my apartment, or that I was hearing wind from my open windows. Tiina Kiik Dream of Heat Toninato & Thiessen ambiances magnetiques AM 285 LP (ambiances-magnetiques.bandcamp.com/ album/dream-of-heat) ! In the depths of winter and the icy isolation of the pandemic lockdown “sonic postcards” were exchan ged between comp osers Ida Toninato, on baritone saxophone, and Jennifer Thiessen, on viola and viola d’amore. These instruments share many acoustic ranges and qualities, enabling the duo to enjoy and expand their balanced intersecting relationship. Continuing the musical collaboration begun in their JUNO-nominated The Space Between Us, Dream of Heat continues their close conversational style to create a meditation on death and rebirth through allusions of ice and warmth. Beginning with a spare, acoustic What we're listening to this month: thewholenote.com/listening The Lively Air Aubrey Johnson The vocalist and composer crafts an experience of raw emotion and boundless artistry with her latest album, out now on Greenleaf Music. Zaytoun Haitham Haidar Tenor Haitham Haidar’s JUNO Award-nominated debut solo album, Zaytoun, is a captivating exploration of the intersection between Baroque and Arabic music. Al-hambra Ahmed Mukhtar, Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde Oud and flamenco guitar intertwine through intricate melodies and rhythms, celebrating centuries of cultural exchange while bridging tradition and innovation. Forgotten Stories Suite Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra Blending vocals, poetry, and instrumentals to tell five stories of 2SLGBTQ+ individuals — amplifying the voices of a community that meets each day with resilience. thewholenote.com July & August 2026 | 47
