Modern and Contemporary

For the Time, Being
Andy Haas
Resonant Music 019 (andyhaas.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-time-being)

Be ready for the unexpected: intense, at times blasting loud, unforgettable, disturbing, boundary-pushing avant guard jazz/improvised/composed music in this solo release by Canadian experimental saxophonist Andy Haas. 

After performing with Toronto’s Martha and the Muffins, Haas moved to New York City in 1984 where he collaborated with avant-garde musicians John Zorn, Marc Ribo and others. Here, four decades later, Haas controls self-generated tremolos, guitar pedals, extreme panning and manipulated vinyl LPs while playing saxophone to create unique, multi-layered sonic landscapes. Haas suggests listening on a good low-end response system to get the full effect.  

This is not noise; Haas has thought out his music well in these seldom heard frequencies. Opening (de)compose starts with repeated different pitch notes. Drama is created as the repeated notes get a little slower, then are separated by silences then back to repeats. Swells, drones, low grumbles, descending pitch effects, intriguing at times squeaky sax notes create a chaotic feel. The next tracks expand on these sonic ideas. But Still Madness has different higher sound colours with a sudden change to lower pitches. Clear sections with an unexpected louder crashing element add intensity midstream in the noisy A Strange Nothingness. Its louder closing effects add an unexpectedly reflective nature to the work.

Haas’ undefinable perplexing music is highlighted by low frequency machines and saxophone effects in this brilliant sound experiment. It may be difficult listening, but it’s well worth the effort!

Listen to 'For the Time, Being' Now in the Listening Room

Voix Jetées
Paramirabo; Sarah Albu
ATMA ACD2 2887 (atmaclassique.com/produit/voix-jetees)

Not to wade into politics, but a movement has been afoot in early 2025 to “buy Canadian,” a citizenry reaction that is perhaps equal parts jingoism and an extended middle-finger to our neighbours to the south. And if such a nationalistic approach works for the purchase and consumption of beer and groceries, then why not for music too? As such, add Voix jetées by Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo to your list, as this excellent chamber music group serves up a compelling selection of largely contemporary Canadian classical pieces on its newest, and fifth, recording.

Under the fine artistic direction of flutist Jeffrey Stonehouse, Paramirabo’s six musicians (plus guest vocalist Sarah Albu on Keiko DeVeaux’s haunting L’écoute du perdu) traverse musically through five new pieces penned by a cohort of exciting young composers. While the specific compositional styles vary, of course, with avant-gardism (Nicole Lizée’s Music for Body-Without-Organs), chamber ensemble interplay, and the bio- or eco-musical “natural sounds” of whale cries (Jared Miller’s Leviathan) all represented beautifully, it is cohesive ensemble playing and an assured sense of musicianship that unite this terrific 2024 ATMA Classique release. Further, according to Stonehouse’s liner note comments, it is constructs of memory and the displacement of self that thematically cleave together the selection of pieces heard here, representing some of Ensemble Paramirabo’s most performed repertoire of the last five years. Good for Stonehouse and ATMA for immortalizing these sounds on this fine digital capture.

Listen to 'Voix Jetées' Now in the Listening Room

Frank Horvat – Anatomy of the Recovering Brain
Kathryn Ladano
I Am Who I Am Records LTLP21 (iam-records.com/releases/anatomy-of-the-recovering-brain)

The story of Anatomy of the Recovering Brain began in the fall of 2020 when Kathryn Ladano was rear ended at a Toronto intersection. Although the impact was not physically rough, it changed her life in very major ways as she fought to keep teaching and recover from the trauma. Brain injuries can be extremely deceptive, showing little outward evidence of their effects, but internally one’s world is completely transformed with headaches, concentration problems and many other issues. In addition to teaching university music courses, Dr. Ladano was also Artistic Director of Kitchener-Waterloo’s contemporary music organization NUMUS. In 2021 composer Frank Horvat and Ladano “conceived the idea of creating a composition that would shine a light on the profound challenges of living with an acquired brain injury. At the time, even playing her instrument for five minutes caused severe pressure in her head, making the completion of this hour-long piece a remarkable achievement in her recovery.”

Anatomy of the Recovering Brain is an important and original work that brings together several “guest” musicians (Richard Burrows - vibraphone, Morgan Lovell - cello, Greg Turner - piano, Pam Patel - soprano) who complement the stories of Ladano and five other acquired brain injury survivors. The six ten-minute movements are named after the individuals (Kathryn, Russ, Paul, Melanie, Lucy, Jeffrey) and Ladano plays bass clarinet throughout over a moving palate of electronic sounds. The 60 minutes flow from one story to another: the bass clarinet and backing electronics are a constant throughout with the guest musicians supplying different timbres. Each person narrates their own story and their words mix with the acoustic and electronic sounds. I was fortunate enough to attend the premier of this work in Kitchener in June of 2023 where the event was attended by friends, musicians, politicians and individuals from the brain injury community. It was exciting that this work brought together so many people from different backgrounds and this recording should also reach beyond the traditional “new music” audience. Great thanks is owed to Horvat, Ladano and everyone else involved in this production. 

Christian Thomas – Dragon Pipa Concerto
Liu Fang; FILMharmonique Orchestra; Francis Choinière
GFN Productions (gfnproductions.ca/albums/pipa-concerto)

The pipa, a stringed instrument capable of a unique percussive sound that is beautiful and was previously unknown to me, is a plucked (as opposed to bowed) traditional Chinese instrument perhaps most analogous to that of the European lute. In the skilled hands of Liu Fang, the Chinese-born Montreal resident heard here on Christian Thomas’ Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra “Dragon,” the instrument is given a wide creative berth to be featured in front of a rich orchestral backdrop for impressive results. 

Recorded at Maison Symphonique in Montreal in September of 2024, Thomas’ four-movement concerto is handled with aplomb by Orchestre FILMharmonique under the direction of conductor Francis Choinière. A musical fusion in the truest sense of the word, here blending Eastern and Western musical styles and traditions, Thomas’ concerto musically charts the life cycle of a dragon from babe to matured Dragon Emperor as a celebration of 2024’s designation as Chinese Year of the Dragon. 

The recording, and subsequent live performances, also represents a celebration of the creativity (particularly when it comes to classical music) that is found and supported within Quebec. The project’s two principals, Fang and Thomas, both based out of La belle province, collaborate meaningfully together, demonstrating that creative purpose and artistic excellence can traverse country of origin, background, and cultural context. 

Finally, GFN Productions, the label on which this fine recording has been released is a Quebec-based production and promotion company formed in part by conductor Choinière, proves once again that creative genre-bending projects whose unifier is musical excellence will always find an audience and a home.