Playful Noise

On Thursday, I was at the Burdock for New Music and Jazz, a show sponsored by the CWC (Canadian Women Composers Project). I was expecting some jazz, perhaps in the contemporary vein, but was rewarded with an evening of wonderful experimental music.

3 vocalists, Belinda Corpuz, Laura Swankey, and Lieke Van Der Voort did some beautiful harmonizing, especially on Tova Kardonne's Preposterous Locutions, her humorous exploration of the men you find at online dating sites. But they also made sounds like rivers (Juliet Palmer's Burble) and wind or bird calls (Corpuz's I Hear You). They were all composers with an interest in playing with words and the human voice. Joined by percussionist Germaine Liu, who sometimes acted like a mischievous foley (recreating river sounds with a bowl full of water), but more often played an impressionistic scientist evoking soundscapes with both conventional and unusual percussive props.

I've been attending mostly straight-forward shows lately, but tonight was a beautiful display of avant-garde, theatrical, and interesting music that was also auditory pleasing (as compared to this or this).