The last of Cool Drummings

So the Soundstreams Cool Drummings portion of Soundaxis wrapped up last night. As with most festivals, Soundaxis has quickly become more than just a series of concerts, not the least because so many interesting people are gathered in one place. I've had a chance to have some really interesting conversations with performers, composers, and all sorts of other people in one way or other connected to new music. Check out my 2nd "mini-podcast" for clips of music and interviews, to be posted shortly (I'm just transferring all the audio right now).

So here's a quick run down of yesterday's music. The day (for me) started with the Wired Percussion. The McGill Percussion ensemble (with a little help from Toca Loca) presented a concert of percussion + electronics pieces. Most of these pieces I really enjoyed, a few less so. Of the less enjoyed was Six Japanese Gardens, by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. There seemed to be little if any connection between the live performed music and pre-recorded electroacoustics. Furthermore, I wasn't really captured by either part. The music seemed disconnected and directionless to me. The show closer, Rolf Wallin's Stonewave, is a real showpiece for the ensemble, and is a greatly fun piece to listen to and watch. What threw me, however, was the program note. It explained how the piece was based on fractals, though he claims the music doesn't sound like it, which is true. He then goes on to say that the piece sounds ritualistic, then went on into a brief political diatribe about the evils of liberalism, blah blah blah. I found this to really detract from my experience of the piece. Never mind my own political views, I didn't at all find the piece to sound ritualistic in any way. In fact, I found it almost silly that he'd use a program note for a political agenda, trying to force politics into music that really had nothing to do with it in any way shape or form. I have no problem whatsoever with political music (in fact, I often wish there was more of it), but this failed miserably. Ironically, I still thought it was a good piece. I just wish I hadn't read the program note!

But I'm dwelling on the negative too much. I don't mean to sound biased towards colleagues, but the highlights for me were Andrew Staniland's Adventure Music and Geoff Holbrook's Wooden Stars. Andrew's piece was not only very well-constructed, but employed really musical use of extended piano techniques (a nice change from the too-often heard overuse of playing inside the piano, just for something interesting to do).

For me, Wooden Stars was my favourite of the concert. The electronic portion was composed so as to allow very seamless integration with the live performer. The sounds plus the innovative writing, especially for the guiro, did not in at all get in the way if a musically expressive and creative piece, which for me is the perfect combination. The piece was a first prize winner in 2007's SOCAN young composer's competition, and I can see why. It didn't hurt that percussionist Fernando Rocha absolutely nailed his performance of the work.

The second concert of the day was entitled World Beats. The first half featured the Evergreen Club Gamelan, while the second half consisted of a series of different performers from various parts of the globe, each bringing their respective cultures to the stage.

I feel ill at ease writing too in-depth about music I don't know as well, but the whole show was definitely a lot of fun. I could listen to gamelan for hours and enjoy it. I think the proverbial 1000 monkeys could be playing, and it would still sound good. Evergreen went through a series of 6 or 7 pieces, all highlighting different instruments within the group. Blair Mackay introduced each piece from the stage, so unfortunately I didn't catch any titles or composers (some were traditional arrangements, some composed by members of the group). What I love about watching these guys is that they always look like they're having the time of their life.

The second half was emceed by percussionist Sal Ferreras and featured music from all around the globe, including Latin America, Africa, native Canada and Indonesia. One highlight was Yamoussa Bangoura doing a (somewhat) traditional dance full of acrobatics and juggling. The best of the evening, and perhaps the week so far, though, was the final piece, where all the musicians of the concert joined together in a huge jam session, led by Ferreras. Even though the first concert was called "Coming Together", this was the true coming together. Here we had musicians from at least 6 or 7 countries, each representative of their own style, playing together. What a great analogy of what music can and should be for all of us.

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