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I first heard Ian Tamblyn’s (Once Was A) Village, sung by our publisher David Perlman in my backyard one lovely summer day several years ago. He had learned the song after hearing it performed in Kensington Market by the SPECIAL INTEREST group. The Spark (independent KBG1905 thespecialinterestgroup.bandcamp.com/album/the-spark) is the debut CD by this self proclaimed “cultural/political project dedicated to playing music with a progressive message and providing a playlist for labour and activist groups.” Originally published digitally during the pandemic, it has now been released in physical form. The disc begins with that same Tamblyn song celebrating the small-town aspects of communities within large cities, with some added lyrics by Rebecca Campbell. As in most of the group’s repertoire the song is combined with another to make an effective medley, in this case Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’ (Cross the) Heartland. 

The quintet is comprised of Campbell (lead and backing vocals, guitar and percussion), Kevin Barrett (various acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, loops, lead and backing vocals), Jim Bish (various saxophones and flutes, backing vocals), Ian de Sousa (bass, loops) and Rakesh Tewari (drums and percussion). They are supplemented by the nine-voice People’s Chorus on two of my favourite tracks, Willie P. Bennett’s (Who’s Gonna Get The) Last Word (In) and Ed McCurdy’s classic Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream, here interpolated with John Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance. Also of particular note are Mimi Fariña and James Oppenheim’s Bread and Roses, Steven Stills’ For What It’s Worth, with Harris Seaton’s Peace, Love and Understanding, and a brilliant interlacing of Bruce Cockburn’s If I Had A Rocket Launcher and Talking Heads’ Listening Wind where Campbell’s voice, channeling David Byrne, is eerily reminiscent of both Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush. That track also includes an excerpt from Elijah Harper’s historic address to Parliament demanding that Indigenous voices be included in any changes to the Canadian Constitution. 

I also must mention the title track, Campbell’s own The Spark, an anthem of sorts that proclaims, “the spark, ignites the flame, that sheds a light, on all we once held true.” This disc is a heady throwback to the protest era of the sixties and early seventies, while addressing contemporary concerns, and with a great backbeat to get you up on your feet.

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This is the ninth release in a series of challenging projects from the Danish National Vocal Ensemble on Our Records. The professional chamber choir scene, especially amongst the Nordic countries, including Canada, is one of the most musically fecund departments in contemporary music. Choirs just seem to be getting better and more capable of negotiating ever newer compositional demands.

The retro graphic on the cover, a clunky ear, suggests that this release is odd. The disc opts to investigate some out-of-the-way developments around the middle of the 20th century. The Slovenian conductor of this ensemble, Martina Batič, has chosen two rarely exposed composers, one a fellow Slovenian, Uroš Krek, and Danish music concrète practitioner Else Maria Pade. 

Krek has a mid-century choral style that is closest to Gerald Finzi in the three English language pieces included, but the subsequent pieces in Slovenian and Latin show several attractive elements of his very solid style.

Pade’s mellifluous style fits well with standard mid-century practices, although she never sounds English. The real curate’s egg on this disc is one of Pade's electronic projects, an immersive environment meant to go around a challenging stratospheric coloratura soprano, baritone, speaking (like zombies) chorus and seven trombones. The electronic background includes assembled sounds. The very brief trombone chords and notes really make this piece. 

Performances throughout the recording are all supremely beautiful.

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The Quebec hills are alive with the sounds of saxophone quartets: Quasar and Nelligan are both based in that province and both have new and exciting releases. 

Quasar was founded in 1994 and has performed instrumental music, employed improvisation and used electronics. They perform as an acoustic quartet, but have also “plugged-in,” have been accompanied by an orchestra and have commissioned many pieces while continuously working for new music experimentation. Walter Boudreau’s Chaleurs was originally written in 1985 (predating the formation of Quasar by nine years) and was somehow forgotten until rediscovered in the Concordia University archives in 2019! This piece was originally “inspired by Paul-André Fortier’s choreography and his dancers’ work.” Boudreau revised Chaleurs for the tenth edition of Festival MNM in 2021 and Quasar premiered this new version at Salle Pierre-Mercure. It is a long, meditative piece of 50 minutes, and travels though many moods from quiet, sinuous and overlapping lines, to sections with playful interactions and onto more tentative and exploratory nuances.

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The talented violinist Angel Wang has assembled a chamber ensemble, Phoenix Orchestra, in a debut project that includes the notorious Butterfly Lover’s Concerto (written by committee) that marked the beginning (in the ‘50’s) of the Chinese détente, embracing collaboration with Western Art Music, which has since transformed and stimulated world musical culture. Wang includes a few other Chinese ethnic folk tunes, and these pieces are all arranged for her tidy little group by conductor Claudio Vena.

The Butterfly Lover’s Concerto has become famous and we can find several performances on YouTube, usually using orchestras augmented with Chinese folk instruments where the solo part can get lost amongst all the sonorities. I have never really been able to follow this piece through all its dense tangle of sweet sounding lines, but Wang plays with such purpose and concentration that she negotiates all the potentially cloying and swooning portamenti with cool accuracy and taste. The folk tunes are similarly handled with simple orchestration and no gimmicks. The pentatonic sound of all these provides a recognizable Chinese identity.

To complement this repertoire Wang commissioned Chinese Canadian veteran composer Alice Ping Yee Ho to provide a contemporary balance. The result is the lyrical, lightly orchestrated Phoenix Rising, conceived to fit in with some of the sonorities of the other works, except that the violin part is more fragmented and allusive. The piece is gentle overall, and it is a welcome addition to Ho’s output. Sound and production are almost slick. This really grows on you.

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Alive is the seventh recording by John Puchiele Ensemble. Created by the eponymous Toronto composer/performer, it was made during the past year when he was ill with cancer and during his subsequent treatment. His personal music here is not overly dramatic or intense but instead is very ambient, minimalist, reflective and at times powerful. His orchestral, electronic, contemporary classical, new age soundscape is composed, performed and mixed to perfection, all by him.

Opening track, I’m Alive is a superb introduction to the unique storytelling orchestral music here. It starts with a quiet, “distant,” haunting held note drone. Then fast repeated flutelike warbling detached lines set a contemplative yet powerful sound. Other contrapuntal lines join in with louder, slightly accented and lower in pitch music. The tempo is fast, yet the hypnotic repeated note lines are calming until they gradually disappear to a decrescendo fast ending, like it’s time to rest … 

Still begins quietly as slow held harmonic notes slightly move in a comforting, and not boring, manner.  An arpeggiated and slightly louder and higher pitched middle section leads to crescendo to end. In is an under two-minute track with the same held note, calming orchestral drone idea. Slightly moving higher pitches add a positive emotional tint to the listening colour.

Puchiele has done phenomenal work here. His knowledge of synthesizers has made his music gorgeous. Each note has been performed with his in-depth ability to layer sounds that are clear and resonating after mixing. This is memorable ambient “orchestral” music.

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