What  is  love?  By  Rod  Dubey,  Charivari  Press,  Uxbridge,  Ontario    Rod  Dubey  has  written  a  unapologetically  political  book  about  love.  Dubey’s  story  of  love  does  indeed  transgress  into  historical,  political,  philosophical  dialogues  on  religion,  conservatism,  David  Hume,  the  surrealists,  and  current  Canadian  politicians  for  starters.  The  intellectual  terrain  is  remarkable  for  a  small  book.  But  a  more  suspicious  ‘transgression’  begins  with  the  author’s  acknowledgements:  “…my  editor  at  Charivari  Press…provided  extensive  notes  on  my  original  drafts.  I  have  freely  used  his  ideas,  suggestions  and  sometimes  his  words.”  Rather  than  seeing  this  act  of  borrowing  as  a  kind  of  abuse,  I  believe,  this  acknowledgement  is  a  statement  of  affection,  if  not  an  act  of  love  itself  -­‐  an  action  that  refers  to  some  of  the  concepts  within  this  book.      There  is  a  kind  of  beauty  in  The  Transgressions  of  Love  as  the  writing  winds  its  way  through  poetic  quotations  intermingling  time,  era,  and  text  as  though  part  of  one  long  tome.  The  first  part  of  the  books’  title  ‘…beautiful  in  my  worn  clothes…’  perhaps  refers  to  the  many  metaphors  for  love  that  are  intertwined  with  stories  of  personal  will  and  aesthetic  freedom.  For  Dubey  the  history  of  love  is  also  the  history  of  power  and  control,  of  community  and  activism,  of  both  autonomy  and  symmetry.  Within  this  history  is  also  a  critique  of  love  how  love  and  consumerism  have  undermined  relationships  and  how  religion  has  tried  to  dehumanize  the  emotion.      This  highly  interesting  book  is  both  an  intellectual  and  emotional  exploration  of  love.  It  is  a  beautiful  expression  of  poetry  and  pictures  that  documents  a  political  history  of  love,  an  emotion  that  is  forever  powerful  and  mysterious.            

Toca Loca. P*P Centredisques. <www.musiccentre.ca/cds.cfm>. Toca Loca is a kick-ass ensemble with some of the heaviest performers in new music (Gregory Oh, piano/voice; Simon Docking, piano/voice; and, Aiyung Huang, percussion/voice), all of who deserve kudos for this ambitious project of taking on ‘pop’ or ‘peer-to-peer’ sharing in new music. The idea of sharing music is always an interesting one and certainly not new but the concept of ‘peer-to-peer’ in this world of ‘anything goes’ composition is the kind of hip notion that makes Toca Loca the savvy group that it is. To help realize the project the group invited eight composers from the contemporary music world – most of who used a pop song as reference point in their pieces – as well as works from performance artist Myra Davies, indie pop artist Laura Barrett and jazz composer Quinsin Nachoff. [Allison: how does the premise of ‘peer-to-peer’ play itself out either in the programming of pieces on the CD or in the pieces themselves?]The CD booklet itself for P*P is most so impressive it deserves some mention, It features featuring Shary Boyle’s graphically brilliant collage work on the front and back covers; Emily Holton’s text drawing gives the CD an entry into another world—that of comic strips—and behaves like a story within a story; Yesim Tosuner’s street-art like drawing has the macabre character one might find in some of Francis Bacon’s work; and, Misanthrope Specialty Co. (a.k.a. Reverend Aitor) references the hallucinatory world of Francesco Clemente on the inside cover. Their His full-page drawing further in of the group as half-animals should be Toca Loca’s logo. This is a great example of how good CD booklet artwork can be. So what should we expect from this selection of composers? (who also include Aaron Gervais, Andrew Staniland, Geof Holbrook, Juliet Palmer, Bob Stevenson, Veronika Krausas, Erik Ross and Nicole Lizée)? For that, I highly recommend listening to this CD. I wonder what’s next for Toca Loca – a date with Lady Ga Ga perhaps Allison Cameron is a composer and musician who blogs at allisoncameronmusic.com.

S:ON  Le  son  de  l’art  contemporain  canadien  Sound  in  Contemporary  Canadian  Art  (bi-­‐lingual  texts)    Edited  by  Nicole  Gingras      In  2003  Éditions  Artexte  published  S:ON  a  book  with  accompanying  CD  that  speaks  to  various  facets  of  sound  and  visual  arts  in  a  Canadian  contemporary  art  context.  This  well  researched  publication  grew  out  of  a  residency  held  by  curator  /art  critic  Nicole  Gingras  in  2002  at  the  Montréal  based  contemporary  art  information  centre  Artexte.    As  Ms.  Gingras  points  out  in  her  introduction  ‘the  ground  to  be  covered,  or  rather  skimmed,  was  quite  vast,  with  no  shortage  of  singular  examples.”    Generally  speaking,  the  research  done  is  excellent  and  the  context  of  some  of  the  articles  is  curious.  S:ON  endeavours  to  create  "…a  forum  for  discussion  based  on  the  act  of  listening,”  and  includes  18  interdisciplinary  artists  from  across  Canada  involved  in  a  variety  of  audio  practices.      The  book  is  divided  into  four  sections:    Penser  le  son/Thinking  through  sound;  Volumes  and  Surfaces;  Espaces  d’écoute;  and,  Modulations  -­  installation  body  and  machine  body.    Thinking  through  sound  includes  a  lovely,  poetic  (yet  brief!)  purview  of  the  life  and  work  of  composer/sound  artist  Pierre  Mercure  written  by  Raymond  Gervais.  In  it  Gervais  recounts  the  historically  piquant  times  of  1948  Montréal  when  the  manifesto  Refus  Global  was  published.  Author  Paul-­‐Émile  Borduas  and  the  Automatistes  had  a  decisive  influence  on  Mercure’s  artistic  consciousness  and  consequently  his  predilection  for  mixed  media  and  involvement  in  the  much  later  Fluxus  movement.    Volumes  et  Surfaces  includes  fascinating  articles  by  Christof  Migone  discussing  space  and  silence  in  his  article:  Volume  –  a  history  of  unsound  art,  Michèle  Waquant  discusses  her  acoustically  rich  work  Impression  Débâcle  where  sound  and  visuals  mesh  into  a  kind  of  aural  cinematic  landscape;  and,  sound  designer  Colin  Griffiths  (collaborator  with  Rodney  Graham  and  Stan  Douglas  among  others),  discusses  acoustics,  architecture,  and  the  audience  member.  From  Listening  Spaces  we  read  about  Nicolas  Reeves  installation  Le  Jardin  des  Ovelyniers  where  a  glass  aquarium  houses  five  oranges  each  with  two  electrodes  implanted.  The  variable  voltage  current  eventually  results  in  a  ‘chant  des  oranges.’    Most  interesting  from  the  final  section  Modulations  is  the  triptych  of  interviews  conducted  by  Nicole  Gingras  via  email  with  improviser  Alexandre  St.-­‐Onge,  visual  artist  Jean-­‐Pierre  Gauthier  and  multi-­‐media  artist  James  Partaik.  The  first  three  questions  for  each  interviewee  are  identical  and  result  in  some  radically  different  answers,  especially  that  of  Alex  St.-­‐Onge.  He  states  frankly  that  self-­‐expression  in  musical  improvisation  is  something  that  disgusts  him.    The  CD  portion  of  the  book  has  also  left  much  to  the  imagination.  With  15  different  artists  represented  it  is  jam-­‐packed  with  both  excerpts  and  complete  sound  pieces.  

Interestingly,  only  two  of  the  artists  with  texts  in  the  book  are  represented  on  the  CD.  The  disc  includes  works  by  sound  artists  Pierre-­‐André  Arcand,  Diane  Landry,  Rita  McKeough,  Daniel  Olson  and  Rober  Racine  among  others.  Highlights  of  the  CD  include:  Hugh  Le  Caine’s  Mouth  Cavity  Oscillator,  Martin  Tétreault’s  Citation,  Daniel  Olson’s  Soundtrack,  and  Emmanuel  Madan’s  Soundwalk  through  “Incredibly  Soft  Sounds.”  Bios  of  all  of  the  artists  on  the  CD  are  included  in  the  book.    For  both  research  purposes  and  engaging  articles,  S:ON  is  a  book/cd  to  be  read,  seen,  heard  and  appreciated.  It  leaves  much  for  the  imagination  to  ponder  and  initiate  further  investigation,  reading,  creation.    …en  particulier  grâce  à  Hélène  Kay.    Review  by  Allison  Cameron,  composer.    

   

Pierre  Bastien:  Vision  of  Doing  on  WEST053  -­‐  western  vinyl  (http://www.westernvinyl.com/)      

With  this  latest  release  from  Pierre  Bastien,  I  can  safely  say  that  every  recording  Bastien  releases  I  like  –  a  lot.  Most  impressive  is  his  ability  to  put  elementary  musical  materials  and  found  sounds  together  into  an  enjoyable  and  extraordinary  listening  experience.  Like  songs  you  may  have  forgotten,  each  piece  can  sound  familiar  but  inevitably  takes  you  where  you  don’t  expect.  Pierre  Bastien’s  music  includes  homemade  sound  making  machines  that  create  series’  of  drones  and  rhythmical  patterns.    His  ‘toy  orchestra’  is  made  up  of  many  mechanical  parts  (from  the  toy  set  Meccano)  and  other  found  objects  that  create  layers  of  sound  like  several  beds  of  rustling  leaves.  Over  this  Bastien  sometimes  solos,  sometimes  plays  his  own  wobbly  ostinatos  on  acoustically  altered  trumpet  or  small  guitar  and  occasionally  on  older  electronic  keyboards  of  the  sort  you  don’t  hear  much  anymore.  The  drones  and  patterns  are  unique  to  Bastien  as  are  the  physicality  of  the  instruments  and  their  ability  to  make  sounds.  All  of  the  invented  asymmetries  are  taken  into  account  in  any  given  composition  of  Bastien’s  where  rhythmical  peculiarities  and  odd  gestures  abound.  His  musically  meandering  solos  also  have  a  wonderful  low-­‐tech  ambiance.  Such  as  the  enchanting  electric  piano  solo  in  South  African  Lady  that  moves  from  atonal  chords  to  modal  riffs  to  rhythmically  uneven  clusters  as  though  the  pianist  has  lost  his  way  indefinitely  –  and  then  suddenly  the  precarious  line  of  a  slow  moving  musical  saw  will  float  in  and  out  like  a  ghost  on  its  own  train.  At  times  there  is  a  feeling  of  nostalgia  in  Bastien’s  tunes,  a  nostalgia  that  might  resemble  being  in  a  smoky  laid-­‐back  nightclub  listening  to  Duke  Ellington  and  his  band  play  a  super  slow  yet  swinging  rendition  of  Mood  Indigo  for  the  fortieth  time.  Such  is  the  tone  of  The  Thermodynamic  Orchestra.  Or  the  trippy  lips-­‐buzzing-­‐singing-­‐into-­‐a-­‐bowl-­‐of-­‐water  solo  that  beats  the  hell  out  of  any  kazoo  I’ve  ever  heard  in  The  Girl  from  Surinam.  (In  case  you’re  wondering  if  this  disc  would  sound  good  on  LSD,  I  say  you  won’t  need  the  drugs!)  Visions  of  Doing  is  different  from  other  Bastien  records  in  that  it  marks  his  collaboration  in  sound/film  with  audiovisual  artist  Karel  Doing.  “Now  twenty  years  after  our  first  encounter  I  am  paying  homage  to  Karel  Doing’s  images…more  than  just  the  soundtracks  to  his  films,  these  pieces  are  the  result  of  years  of  collaboration…”  writes  Bastien.  Several  of  Karel  Doing’s  sounds  have  been  incorporated  into  the  fabric  of  Bastien’s  musical  selections.  And  Bastien’s  music  inspired  Doing’s  development  of  several  of  his  ‘Optical  Toys.’  The  main  difference  I  hear  from  previous  releases  is  a  more  processed  sound  attributed  to  the  types  of  musical  materials  used.  Here  Bastien  deftly  layers  the  acoustic  with  the  electronic  while  letting  the  sounds  ‘behave  as  themselves’  as  though  they  were  simply  found  on  the  beach  before  being  thrown  into  the  composition.  Although  there  are  definitive  Bastien  ideas  in  these  selections,  there  are  also  elements  of  the  unknown.  

And  the  one  thing  that  brings  Bastien  and  Doing  together  is  not  to  be  left  off  of  this  disc:  as  an  added  bonus  there  is  an  excerpt  from  the  film  collaboration,  Four  Eyes.    Here  the  listener  views  the  visual  imagery  of  this  duo’s  collective  mindset.    But  even  without  seeing  the  film  I  had  a  very  definite  visual  experience  of  the  music  after  listening.  The  images  –  rightly  or  wrongly  -­‐  can  be  created  in  the  fiction  of  one’s  mind  and  I  like  that  very  much  about  this  recording.  Even  upon  hearing  sonic  references  the  overall  effect  is  not  one  of  a  particular  narrative,  but  more  like  a  non-­‐existent  fiction  -­‐  the  kind  that  is  not  written,  only  imagined.  If  you  haven’t  heard  the  music  of  Pierre  Bastien  nor  seen  his  collaborations  with  filmmaker  Karel  Doing  I  highly  recommend  seeking  them  out.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  find  in  stores  or  catalogues.  Verge  Music  mail  order  distribution  in  Uxbridge  carries  every  new  release  and  has  some  back  catalogue  as  well.    Online  it  can  be  found  from  www.vergemusic,com,  www.pierrebastien.com  and  of  course  www.westernvinyl.com.        Allison  Cameron  is  www.allisoncameronmusic.com