v. 23 – Day Three – September 11th 2021

Our final concert begins with an acousmatic presentation by sound artist and composer Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU. Resonant Links (2021) investigates our everyday state of aural immersion, positing an oceanic infrastructure of experience:

Within the complex sound specter of our environments and surroundings, sounds are always immersive, proximal, and constantly pushing through our bodies. There is a temporal flux with the sounds of our habitus and daily lives, which most often goes unnoticed and ignored. ‘Resonant Links’ investigates this aural-dual infrastructure of the urban and sea life, accentuating these two world’s auditory perspectives and dimensions and poses an impetus on our relationship with the sonic habitus. 

KMRU

Toronto-based group Not The Wind, Not The Flag is a roving, ecstatic conversation between two stalwarts of Canadian improvisation, Colin Fisher and Brandon Valdivia. Thorny and picturesque, spanning voices and moods, NTWNTF is a constantly metamorphosing creature and landscape at once. 

FYEAR bridges improvisation and composition, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, language and abstract vocalization, and combines a strident pulse with an expansive sense of freedom. The Montréal-based group includes Jason Sharp (compositions, electronics, bass and baritone saxophones), Kaie Kellough (text, voice), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (voice), Joe Grass (pedal steel),  Stefan Schneider (drums), JahSun (drums), and Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (type and visual design). 

Presented in collaboration with Jazz Winnipeg and the Exchange District BIZ

FYEAR bridges improvisation and composition, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, language and abstract vocalization, and combines a strident pulse with an expansive sense of freedom. Its mixed-media compositions invoke the urgency of the troubled moment while leveling a gaze at the future. Contributors are Jason Sharp (compositions, electronics, bass and baritone saxophones), Kaie Kellough (text, voice), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (voice), Joe Grass (pedal steel),  Stefan Schneider (drums), JahSun (drums), and Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (type and visual design). Together, FYEAR draws us into a contemplation of our struggles, our fictions, and our freedom. Interwoven with the ensemble’s sound are literary texts that draw their language from the various histories that inform the territory on which we live. They question coloniality and reference eco-poetics while nimbly improvising within the strictures of electroacoustic composition. Extended, large-scale typographic works (digital concrete poems) are projected into the ensemble, and converse with the performance. The experience is immersive, maximal, and conjures a world that includes the audience. 

Sometimes posing questions and working in the interrogative mode, FYEAR moves through us as we wonder at the future we’ve inherited. It speaks in two tongues that surge to the pulse of two drummers. It is brass, earth, and it is flashing broken typography signaling to – and echoing back from – a brighter horizon. 

Toronto-based “free-psych” duo Not The Wind, Not The Flag is composed of two of the city’s most accomplished musicians, Colin Fisher and Brandon Valdivia. Both have wide-ranging, diverse musical backgrounds that help inform their long running partnership in NTW, NTF. Fisher (guitar, saxophone, electronics, percussion) has played and collaborated with Anthony Braxton, Caribou, The Constantines, and Rhys Chatham. Valdivia (drums, percussion, electronics, mbira, flutes) has worked with Lido Pimienta, Michael Snow, Sook-Yin Lee, Tanya Tagaq, and performs solo as Mas Aya.

For Colin and Brandon the experience of music is a transformative tool: a conduit for gnosis and discovering the true self. Their music reflects the traditions of many cultures from around the world but refrains from being derivative and comes from a place of deep respect for the works that have lifted and guided their spirits.

Currently studying sonic arts in Berlin, Joseph Kamaru aka KMRU is a Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist whose work is grounded on the discourse of field recording, noise, and improvisation. His work posits expanded listening cultures of sonic thoughts and sound practices, a proposition to consider and reflect on auditory cultures beyond the norms, and an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions and installations. His last three albums, 2020’s “Peel”, “Opaquer” and “Jar” received high praise from Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, NPR, and Bandcamp, KMRU is part of SHAPE platform roaster of artists for 2021. His works have been presented in NyegeNyege Festival (UG), CTM Festival (DE), GAMMA (RU), and Mutek Montreal and Barcelona.