Summer 2026 issue of Musicworks, featuring Anju Singh on sound art and bodily listening, [MONRHEA] on technology and ancestral knowledge, guitarist Arthur Bull's six decades of improvisation, drummer-composer John Hollenbeck and Mili Hong, plus Panayiotis Kokoras on his prize-winning Viper Snake, Toronto's Ministry of Phonic Services, reviews, and an accompanying compilation of works by featured artists.

CD reissue of the 1990 concept LP based on themes of man and machine, programming and intuition. A strange synthesis of freedom and imagination.

Joelle Leandre on double bass and Remy Belanger de Beauport on violoncello engage in eight finely attuned live improvisations, moving between visceral arco attacks, percussive pizzicato, string scrape, fragile micro-gestures, resonant drones, and sudden silences, dissolving conventional instrumental roles through an alert, risk-taking dialog that balances raw intensity with spaciousness, textural detail, and quietly unfolding form.

Montreal composer Virginie Reid layers piano, synthesizers, samples, voice, Jeremi Roy's resonant double bass, and Erika Angell's spectral vocals into five patient electroacoustic works, moving from fragile melodic gestures through cavernous drones and luminous choral textures in an intimate, nocturnal meditation on grief, vulnerability, memory, and the persistent search for light.

Formed from the evolving duo of electric guitarist Pawel Doskocz and drummer Vasco Trilla and expanded in 2023 with flutist Zofia Ilnicka, Hajstra creates a responsive trio language of free improvisation, drones, ambient collage, extended instrumental technique, and richly shifting soundscapes, where each gesture is transformed into fluid, abstract narrative.

Quebec trio Dionee creates an expansive, cinematic sound from Clarisse Beriault's oboe, acoustic bass and effects, Eric Normand's electric bass, beatbox and oscillators, and Robin Servant's diatonic accordion and synthesizers, layering chamber lyricism, heavy pulses, post-rock clarity and fragmented electroacoustic textures across two extended works of orchestral scope.

Composer Alexandre David brings together Quatuor Bozzini, Plaisirs du clavecin, Orchestre de l'Agora, conductor Nicolas Ellis, and Innu poet and vocalist Natasha Kanape Fontaine in 3 works that balance concentrated string writing, voice & text, and vivid orchestral color, reflecting David's fascination with sonority, collaborative creation, and the transformation of personal musical memories.

Toronto percussionist Ryan Scott premieres fourteen commissioned works by Canadian composers, revealing the snare drum's remarkable range through traditional and extended techniques, electronics, objects, cymbal, bass drum, metal plates, and voice, while presenting a vivid survey of contemporary Canadian percussion writing and expanding the instrument's solo repertoire.

Quatuor Bozzini performs works by Canadian composer Owen Underhill, joined by countertenor Daniel Cabena and sackbut player Jeremy Berkman in settings of 17th-century poetry, alongside two string quartets shaped by encounters with John Cage, quoted musical fragments, natural landscapes, specific places, and personal memory, balancing lucid formal design with vocal expression and finely detailed instrumental color.

Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini records Jurg Frey's Streichquartett (1988) at Radiostudio Zurich, shaping spare scales, measured intervals, and quietly sustained tones into music of unusual clarity and concentration, where seemingly anonymous material reveals its own distinct character through space, duration, resonance, and the tactile presence of sound.

A compelling issue of Musicworks spotlights Montreal artist Quinton Barnes and his hybrid of free jazz, drone, and experimental R&B, alongside features on composer Corie Rose Soumah and writer/musician DeForrest Brown, Jr., with additional artist profiles, festival coverage, and reviews of contemporary experimental music.

Documenting a ferocious live performance from the 2018 Victoriaville Festival with additional recordings from 2025, the trio of Merzbow (electronics), Mats Gustafsson (bass & baritone sax, electronics), and Balázs Pándi (drums) unleash a volatile collision of noise, free jazz intensity, and crushing rhythmic force of towering electronic textures, blistering sax blasts, and wildly inventive percussion.

Percussionist Danielle Palardy Roger's first major solo composition in 13 pieces which is performed by Claude Beaugrand, Jean Derome, André Duchesne, Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Martin Ouellet.

Summer 2011 issue of Canada's premiere music magazine and CD, with articles and tracks from Gregory Oh, Grimes, Doldrums, The Vegetable Orchestra, Terri Hron, Miguel Azguime, Rachel Wadham, &c.

A musical theatre in 3 acts using texts, songs, free improvisation and compositional textures, "an evocation of the fusion between opposite forces-tight and flexible, male and female".

Sporadic sonic exchanges exploring guidelines, graphic scores, or completely improvised, with an expansive instrumentorium from the sextet of Magali Babin, Andrea-Jane Cornell, Martine H Crispo, Anne-Francoise Jacques, Emilie Mouchous, and Erin Sexton.

Twelve pieces for guitar performed by Tim Brady, including three updated versions of previous pieces, new compositions by Brady, and four pieces composed by other artists.

Guitarist and singer Sylvie Chenard in duet with musician/performance artist Jon Asencio, joyfully exploring the energies of resistance and anarchy, in shades of science-fiction and totalitarian reality.

Recorded in Nanaimo, British Columbia in 2024, Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Norwegian reedist Kjetil Moster unite for their first duo outing, navigating a dynamic spectrum from airy, conversational reed exchanges to ferocious bursts of fire music, their quicksilver interplay weaving humor, texture, and raw improvisational energy into a fiercely expressive and unpredictable sonic encounter.

MusicWork's Fall 2025 publication is wide-ranging issue exploring contemporary experimental practice through profiles of artists including Lisa Conway, Kalun Leung, Susie Ibarra, Mali Obomsawin, and Marek Tyler, alongside features on Montreal�s late-night listening scene and reviews spanning new music, improvisation, electronic sound, and interdisciplinary performance.

On the 30th anniversary of the Victo Festival Anthony Braxton took to the stage for a magnificent solo performance on the alto sax, performing 8 spontaneous compositions and an 8+ minute version of "Body and Soul", seamlessly crossing lyrical and complex approaches to the horn using his unique intervallic, trimbral and diagrammatic language, a stunning and embraceable accomplishment.

A 46-page French-language book with download code from bassist Éric Normand, combining text, illustrations by Robert Marcel Lepage, and partial scores with recordings of duo improvisations made between 2020 and 2022 with Sarah Albu, Philippe Lemoine, Xavier Garcia, Rémy Bélanger de Beauport, Tom Malmendier, Lori Freedman, and Jean-Sébastien Mariage; inventive and exploratory.

A collaborative project by Éric Normand, Dur Temps Pour les Rouges (Hard Times for the Reds.) combines recordings from 2020-2025 by a large ensemble of voices, horns, strings, guitars, drums, synths, and electronics to realize a textured and emotionally rich sound world: intimate and expansive, lyrical and experimental, a striking and immersive listening experience.

A solo double bass album from Colombian-born, Montreal-based improviser Pablo Jiménez, recorded at the Conservatory of Music in Montreal in 2024, where his imaginative use of extended techniques and deep engagement with improvisation reveal a distinctive personal language that merges avant and contemporary traditions into a striking and sensitive exploration of the instrument.

An extraordinary 1996 Mixtery Studio encounter between pianist Borah Bergman, Anthony Braxton on a wide range of reeds, and Peter Brötzmann on saxophones, clarinet, and tárogató, balancing ferocious torrents of free jazz interplay with moments of surprising lyricism and abstraction, as three titans of improvisation push their individual voices into a thrilling collective dialogue.

An overview of Montreal's Ensemble Supermusique celebrating their 40th anniversary, drawing on works from founders Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Danielle Palardy Roger and their projects including Wondeur Brass, Les Poules, Justine, &c., realized by 40 instrumentalists in 8 groups of 3 to 8 players; masterful sophistication with a sense of humor and wonder — exceptionnelle!

The summer edition of Canada's premier music magazine, with cellist Rémy Bélanger de Beauport on the cover, plus articles on sound artist Lola de la Mata, global koto innovators, &c, with a diverse CD featuring new works by Edzi'u, Yoo Doo Right, Kathryn Patricia Cobbler, Rocío Cano Valiño, and others exploring electroacoustic, post-rock, improvisation, and contemporary composition.

Ensemble Supermusique, Montreal's premiere open-minded improvising ensemble, here led by saxophonist & vocalist Joane Hetu and conducted by percussionist Danielle Palardy Roger, present a live concert of graphic scores dating back to 1920, with works from Fred Frith (Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire), Luigi Russolo, Maxime Daigneault, Emilie Girard-Charest & Anestis Logothetis.

Canada's premiere music magazine dedicated to experimental music, improvisation, and sound art, featuring interviews with Maylee Todd, Joshua Van Tassel, Kaïa Kater, and Alexis Baro, alongside coverage of Chuck Copenace, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, and The Burning Hell, with an accompanying CD of tracks from the issue's featured musicians, offering great inside into the contemporary creative music scene.

corner cut promo

Extraordinary and masterful performers Sophie Agnel (piano) and John Butcher (soprano & tenor saxophones) present a live recording from the 40th International Festival of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada, featuring five improvised pieces that highlight their exceptional interplay and collective discovery of new musical forms while exploring the boundaries of free improvisation.

The Fall 2024 issue of Canada's premiere music magazine: On The Cover Brendan Grey and the Evolving Ethos of Super Duty Tough Work; avant-garde sound murals of Filipino composer José Maceda; Montreal-based composer and improviser Allison Burik; Kurt Gottschalk interviews Rita Ueda; Windsor-based post-classical guitarist Bilal Nasser; plus reviews and a CD of artists covered in this issue.

Opening with an adaptation of Cornelius Cardew's "Red Flag", the Buffalo-based new music ensemble Wooden Cities Brendan Fitzgerald introduces the first of a trilogy of albums, a set of narrative works that confront topics of work, labor, commodity, and justice through a blend of composition and improvisation, including works by Cardew, Julius Eastman, and Frederic Rzewski.

Summer 2024 issue of Canada's new music magazine, with composer & sound designer Stefana Fratila on the cover; plus articles on Evan Parker & Matthew Wright; Big Ears review; Filipino-Canadian composer Juro Kim Feliz; Brunswick composer & sound artist Charles Harding; the Canadian Afro-Cuban duo behind the ensemble Okan; plus album reviews, essays and a CD of tracks from artists in the magazine.

The transatlantic trio of UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, NY drummer Kate Gentile and Canadian reedist Francois Houle are heard in four masterful spontaneous improvisations in their live performance at the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Houle performing on clarinets (sometimes two at a time) including the early, deep-note basset clarinet.

Winter 2024 issue of Canada's premiere new music magazine, with Saxophonist Andrew MacKelvie on the cover; plus features on Indonesia's Music Subculture; Sonny-Ray Day Ride; Solidaridad Tango; A History of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble; plus album reviews, essays and a CD of tracks from artists covered in the magazine.

In the footsteps of the band for which she's the vocalist — Scott Thomason's The Rent paying homage to the music of Steve Lacy — Montreal vocalist and movement performer Susan Hood steps out on her own to merge the words of German poet Judith Malina, who influenced Lacy and Irene Aebi's "Cycle of Jazz Art Songs", with Steve Lacy's exuberant music, for a captivating and sincere pairing.

A wild and adventurous concert and one of the highlights of the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville from the electric improvising quartet of Elliott Sharp on electric guitar & electronics, Colin Stetson on bass, alto & tenor saxophones, Billy Martin on drums & percussion and Payton Macdonald on marimba, vibraphone & African xylophone.

Featuring works premiered at the ESM concert "Zigzague and Colore" in November 2022 in Montreal at Escape Orange - Edifice Wilder - Espace Danse, this exceptional concert of Montreal's premiere improvising Ensemble SuperMusique presents the works of three female composers--Elizabeth Millar, Laura Kavanaugh, and Danielle Palardy Roger--through a variety of graphic scores.

Merging members of Ensemble SuperMusique with a subset of the ensemble Chorale Joker, Joane Hétu presents four premieres that explore our experiences during the pandemic, SuperMusique focused on electronics and synthetic instruments and offset by a wind quintet, the music and vocal interactions often explosive, reflecting on our mental states during an overwhelming cultural malady.

Since 1997 the duo of Montreal sonic experimenters Christof Migone and Alexandre St-Onge, both members of Klaxon Gueule, have performed under the name "Undo", here declaring themselves "undone", presenting nine tracks of of live & studio recordings from 1997-2013 of often bizarre yet ever innovative cracked electronics, acoustics, voice, and inexplicable sound; weird and wonderful!

Montreal composer, guitarist and arranger Andre Duchesne developed the pieces on this solo album as a tribute to his sister Carole, "the one who dreamed of horses," who passed in 2010, his pieces incorporating elements of rock, improvisation and compositional forms, a sincere tribute developed by recording daily over a month as a virtual rock band of guitar, bass and drum programming.

A fascinating work dedicated to improvising cellist Remy Belanger de Beauport written by Montreal composer Joane Hétu and performed by the large Ensemble SuperMusique with Jean Derome, Lori Freedman, Scott Thomson, Diane Labrosse, Danielle Palardy Roger, Pierre Tanguay, &c., commissioned and performed for the Ensemble's 40th anniversary and expanded for this studio edition.

An overview of Montreal's Ensemble Supermusique celebrating their 40th anniversary, drawing on works from founders Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Danielle Palardy Roger and their projects including Wondeur Brass, Les Poules, Justine, &c., realized by 40 instrumentalists in 8 groups of 3 to 8 players; masterful sophistication with a sense of humor and wonder — exceptionnelle!

The third string quartet that Swiss composer Jürg Frey has written for the Montreal string quartet Quatuor Bozzini of Alissa Cheung on violin, Clemens Merkel on violin, Stephanie Bozzini on viola and Isabelle Bozzini on cello, a beautiful work in five movements of illusory motion, slowly evolving through furtive and seemingly feigned momentum.

Concepts of community, dialog, sharing and transmission, or "recontre", are the linking ideas between these four works commissioned of Montreal composer and wind player Jean Derome, developed for four Quebec ensembles, these pieces combine contemporary and improvisational forms, the scores shaped by constraints from the combinatorial mathematics of Marin Mersenne.

Two improvisations by saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet & violinist Dan Warburton recorded in Paris & Melbourne parking garages 14 years apart, registering the behavior and characteristics of environmental and instrumental sound within these unique spaces, edited by Eric La Casa and Philip Samartzis as a 4-channel master by synchronizing two sets of independent stereo recordings.