Saturday, November 11, 2017

Recording: Germaine Liu

Artist: Germaine Liu

Songs: (Piz) Za + Float and Sink

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 1), October 11, 2017.

Germaine Liu - (Piz) Za

Germaine Liu - Float and Sink

After an off-season of uncertainty and exiled from its home at St. George The Martyr Church, The Music Gallery has found refuge at 918 Bathurst. Vibewise, this has kept things in the same ballpark, with the new space sharing churchy origins and a wood-y acoustic space. The X Avant Festival was first big test for this arrangement of things, presenting four nights of shows there. More than ever, the linkages between the Festival's performances was in the overarching theme of "Resistance", but this first night also had a percussive throughline.

Once again, composer Germaine Liu showed with daring inventiveness the deep music that can be found in everyday objects. Bringing pretty much everything including the kitchen sink, this was a "water music" ensemble with Joe Sorbara and Mark Zurawinski contributing to a series to low-fi sonic experiments — the first one here with bowed pizza flippers that had been dipped in pans of water and the second featuring small bowls dropped into the water's surface to let them drift and clink against each other. Later on, there'd be fishbowls and tin cans in the mix — beautiful and joyful sounds that astound as they transcend their mundane origins.

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