With what felt, even to the heartiest among us, like a cruel and endless winter now safely tucked away in our collective memory (for a few months anyway), along comes Dream of Heat, a chilly, occasionally chilling musical evocation of the unfairest season. Montréaler Ida Toninato, who plays baritone sax and synthesizers, and Winnipeg-based Jennifer Thiessen, on viola and synths, originally created the precursor to D of H as a concert piece called Winter[City]Speaks. (On the album, producer Jason Sharp also plays synths.) And indeed, speaking voices—as well as some lovely singing by Thiessen and Toninato — are a prominent ingredient of the music. Over a mournfully descending viola figure and the (synthesized) sound of a distant but persistent arctic wind, the album opens with Thiessen, shivery and desperate, pleading, “I need warmth… I need shelter… l need heat.” On the album’s penultimate and most unsettling track, amid a crowded soundscape of growling, slowly pulsing synth, anxious chanting, scraping noises, and animalistic utterances, Toninato insists repeatedly, in a rhythmic near whisper, “I am… suffocating,” both before and after a ghastly series of screams issues forth from somewhere deep in the mix. Overall, though, the prevailing mood is more one of celestial melancholy or gentle foreboding than panic-stricken claustrophobia, with sax, viola, and voices offering intimations of warmth that contrast nicely with the icier, more ethereal synthetic textures. The seasons are, after all, a handy metaphor for the cycle of life and death, and ultimately Dream of Heat seems to affirm the former.

In the depths of winter and the icy isolation of the pandemic lockdown “sonic post-cards” were exchan ged between composers Ida Toninato, on baritone saxo-phone, and Jennifer Thiessen, on viola and viola d’amore. These instruments share many acoustic ranges and qualities, enabling the duo to enjoy and expand their balanced intersecting relationship. Continuing the musical collaboration begun in their JUNO-nominated The Space Between Us, Dream of Heat continues their close conversational style to create a meditation on death and rebirth through allusions of ice and warmth. Beginning with a spare, acoustic duet between viola and saxophone, the opening track I need warmth sneaks in a cold wind and spoken word; both artists plead for heat as their instruments intertwine. The intimacy of is immediate. The layers of voices thread and expand throughout the album, grounding the humanness that draws the listener in, and expertly layered synths and occasional beats by Jason Sharp swell and morph the album from the early acoustic seeds to ambient, jazz, folk and rock. The strong arc of the album maintains the core of the cycle of death and rebirth, despite each track being a singular style, distinct from the next. The lyrics are beautifully and cleanly delivered in both English and French, keeping the intimacy at its core.

The running saxophone ostinato on Bear builds toward On a tellement rêvé, a gorgeously indescribable track combining ambient, noise and rock. I am suffocating describes anxiety with bow scrapes and low-end pulsing under vocals, becoming almost punk in its urgency to become Change, a restful, water-borne intensity that brings us home with both tonality and lyrics. Dream of Heat is a truly beautiful and authentic story of the time for these two artists.

The Canadian duo of Ida Toninato (baritone saxophone, voice, synthesizers) and Jennifer Thiessen (viola, voice, synthesizers), plus an additional musician: Jason Sharp also credited on synthesizers, this is one of those albums where the resulting music is far more rich and creative than one would expect from the instrumentations. Of course, in having two female vocalist/multi-instrumentalists, really, anything is possible. There’s both a “post rock without the rock” feel present, and an avant pop edge to much of it, whilst it runs from moody neo classical, to ambient space jazz to many other realms, all bordering the avant-garde, yet never really steeping over the line.

Put out on the circuit via the Canadian Ambiances Magnetiques label on February 13th, 2k26 is Dream of Heat, the latest collaborational album affair cooked up and conceived by Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen. Over the course of six pieces and almost 40 minutes of total playing time the two artists combine their skills in composition, lyricism, vocal performance and the skillful execution of their ideas on their respective instruments, saxophone and viola, later enhanced with overdubs and treated via electronic measures. Opening with the emotional and rather elegic, at times even ethereal sonic backdrop of I Need Warmth which is nicely contrasted by the absolute urgency of the Spoken Word passage in its intro as well as a deep, almost earth shaking ebb and flow of low end bass waves the artistic duo sets a tone and pace for things to come like the subsequently following nocturnal ambience of Bear, its specific spatiality and ever building intertwined melodic spirals which see viola and sax in a continuous, feverish and ever intensifying dialogue whereas Hot Blood Flow brings forth an almost mythical and certainly sacred feel hovering above and beyond the ordinary humans perception of three dimensional space and time whereas I Am Suffocating caters carefully layered vocals alongside wind swept minimalisms of probably electro-acoustic origin as well as deeply hidden quasi-rhythms of rather eerie and ritualistic nature just to name a few. An extremely intricate and beautifully intimate album. Recommended. Go check. Especially if Björk’s most ethereal and stripped down tunes from around the mid-90s struck a chord with you for a reason even though there is no direct parallels or specific connections to be drawn out here.

The baritone saxophone and viola form the foundation from which Ida Toninato & Jennifer Thiessen let their sounds flow out into the open, where the electric crackle of sonic freedom weaves itself into songs and structures. On their second collaboration, Dream of Heat (Ambiances Magnétiques, 13 February), the Franco-Canadian musicians weave the most delicate, melancholic sounds—spanning freak folk, post-rock and free noise—into fragile, one-off pieces, none of which resemble one another, yet which together form a wonderful whole of intimate beauty. The perfect winter album for the warm days ahead, for the budding hope that things will get better, that renewal and life are real.

Translated from German.

For those unaware, Dream of Heat explores the cycle of death and rebirth as manifested by the experience of winter. The arc of the album follows an isolated awareness descending into the subconscious horrors and hopes of hibernation dreams before warming and waking to the flow of life.

Written by Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen for their live show Winter[City]Speaks, this project follows their first album The Space Between Us (Ambiances Magnétiques) which was nominated for Juno and Opus awards in 2019.

This new body of work began as sonic postcards exchanged by the two musicians during the solitude of lockdown in the winter of 2021. These seed recordings were then nurtured into compositions that expanded the duo’s initial acoustic palette of viola, viola d’amore, baritone saxophone and reverberant spaces to include their spoken and sung voices, original texts in French and English, electronics, effects and field recordings.

The journey leading to the album Dream of Heat was as personal as it was creative and musical—a story of friendship, of opening doors and portals, and of daring to show up in renewed ways.

On what is a simply incredible sophomore album from the dutifully focused composer-performer duo, they open on the emotively engaging I need warmth and that is backed by the willowy Bear, the more industrialized ebbs, echoes and notches of On a tellement rêvé, the veritably ethereal smoothness of Hot blood flow, the set rounding out on the rhythmically canorous I am suffocating, coming to a close on the impassioned nuances within Change.

Collaborating with performer-composer Jason Sharp on the production of the studio album continued the creative evolution of these six experimental songs, bringing a distinctive breadth and depth to the music while remaining grounded in the instrumental craft and imaginative vision that define the artistry of Toninato & Thiessen.

There are works that seek to fill space and others that listen to it. Dream of Heat, a cycle of six pieces, clearly belongs to the latter category: it is a work born of silence, of distance and of the need to communicate through sound when physical contact is limited. The duo formed by Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen, already well established after years of musical rapport, here takes a decisive step towards a broader and more ambiguous language than in their previous works.

Toninato has built much of her artistic identity by working with reverberant spaces and the almost ritualistic dimension of the act of listening. In her previous projects, often recorded in distinctive architectural settings, sound is not just musical material but physical presence. This sensitivity is clearly perceptible in Dream of Heat: every breath of the saxophone seems measured, every resonance carries emotional weight. Thiessen, for her part, comes from a world that combines new music, improvisation and historical repertoire for viola and viola d’amore. Her writing and performance have a narrative quality, shaped by expressive texture and direction. Here, the viola becomes a thread that stitches the sound layers together with a constant delicacy.

The album is born from the meeting of these two artists and, in part, from the exchange of “sound postcards” during the winter lockdown of 2021. This is where the figure of Jason Sharp comes in. His synthesisers expand the duo’s harmonic and spatial field. The electronics act like a fog: it blurs contours, connects layers, and creates depth. Thanks to this, the album takes a leap forward from the more strictly acoustic character of their debut.

Likewise, another key element is the voice. The spoken and sung interventions—in French and English—transform the pieces into a kind of abstract song. This device brings fragility and intimacy.

The works revolve around the winter cycle of death and rebirth. What we are presented with is a metaphor translated into sonic processes. Sounds that fade away, others that reappear transformed, layers that slowly germinate in a sea of resonances and harmonic shadows, where every vibration seems to leave a trace and a memory.

The music unfolds like an almost geological process, in which each sound layer reveals a small mutation of what we have already heard, but never exactly the same. It is in this play of persistence and disappearances that Dream of Heat finds its poetic strength.

Translated from Spanish.

Deuxième album de Toninato & Thiessen qui s’éloigne considérablement de l’univers instrumental acoustique de leur premier opus. Là où le précédent déployait le paysage épuré des duos de saxophones d’Ida Toninato et d’alto de Jennifer Thiessen, Dream of Heat explore des compositions sombres aux atmosphères riches.

This second collaboration between Canadian composers Ida Toninato (baritone sax, voice, synthesizers) and Jennifer Thiessen (viola, voice, synthesizers) arose from a live show called Winter[City]Speaks, which they developed during a period of lockdown in the winter of 2021. A string-driven lament, I need warmth opens the album with an ancient, droning feeling that pulls you right into the narrative of “death and rebirth as manifested by the experience of winter.” Working with producer Jason Sharp, who also contributes synthesizers, they maintain a compelling tension throughout the six tracks, resulting in a song cycle that feels very complete. Even if you’re not connecting with the lyrics, in this long, cold, murderous winter of 2026, I think we can all relate when Toninato unleashes wordless shrieks in I am suffocating. Fortunately, the consolation of Change is the next song, ending the album with a feeling of peace, well-being, and community.

Anxiety and relaxation go hand in hand in these three works, which are very different from one another but share clear points of connection. Maya Shenfeld, for example, for the soundtrack to the Netflix film Cover-Up (Thrill Jockey), worked in analogue on modular systems, using loops of guitars, organ, brass and strings processed on tape to achieve a sound that envelops the listener whilst keeping them in a state of perpetual tension. A tension that is also palpable in Dream of Heat (Ambiances Magnétique), the new album by Toninato & Thiessen, which emerged during lockdown from a series of compositions for instruments such as the viola, viola d’amore and baritone saxophone, to which electronic elements, various effects, field recordings and ancestral vocals were added. Beautiful.

Translated from Italian.

No hay banda présentait, le lundi 9 février dernier à la Sala Rossa, un concert célébrant la sortie des albums Dream of Heat de la saxophoniste Ida Toninato et de la violoniste Jennifer Thiessen, ainsi que Backwards Blue de la saxophoniste Karen Ng.

Karen Ng a fait paraître son magnifique album Backwards Blue en octobre dernier. L’opus possède une signature sonore bien différente de ce que la saxophoniste improvisatrice de Toronto nous offre habituellement. Hybridant l’acoustique et l’électronique, le travail est ingénieux et singulier, proposant une variété de sons à la fois extraordinaires et intrigants.

La performance solo de Ng était impressionnante. La musicienne baignait dans une lumière rouge et bleue, comme si nous l’observions à travers des lunettes 3D. Son saxophone projetait des envolées harmonieuses, suivies d’enchevêtrements de notes explosant dans nos tympans sous forme d’échos dissonants. Des pistes d’accompagnement ambiantes ondulaient en arrière-plan. Alors que la fumée dansait devant les projecteurs, Ng mêlait son souffle à d’étranges bruits électroniques, déclenchés en temps réel par son jeu. L’un de ces patchs, baptisé AI JAZZ, transformait la finale des sons extraits du cornet de métal en singuliers signaux numériques, roulant et vibrant tels des robots fous.

Les musiciennes Ida Toninato et Jennifer Thiessen ont ensuite présenté des pièces tirées de leur album Dream of Heat, tout juste sorti des presses. L’opus explore le cycle de la mort et de la renaissance tel qu’il se manifeste à travers l’expérience de l’hiver. Au fil de la performance, les instrumentistes ont mêlé leurs voix parlées et chantées à des textes en français et en anglais, intégrés aux notes de leurs instruments. Des enregistrements de terrain et des pistes électroniques venaient enrichir ce paysage sonore dense, contribuant à une atmosphère à la fois introspective et immersive.

On pouvait entendre des craquements évoquant le bois, se superposant aux coups secs et cassants de l’archet de Thiessen, tandis que le son ample et enveloppant du saxophone baryton de Toninato épousait les drones s’élevant des haut-parleurs. Entre chaque pièce, Toninato prenait la parole pour contextualiser l’œuvre, évoquant Dream of Heat comme un parcours à la fois musical et intime: une histoire d’amitié, d’ouverture et de transformation, où la création devient un espace de partage et de renouveau.

The album Dream of Heat by the duo Toninato & Thiessen is a sonic narrative about the cycle of death and rebirth, inspired by the experience of winter as a time of hibernation, withdrawal and inner transformation. The narrative arc of the album takes the listener from a state of isolated consciousness, immersed in the subconscious fears and hopes of winter dreams, towards a gradual warming, awakening and the renewed flow of life.

The project was originally conceived as the musical component of the performance Winter[City]Speaks, created by Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen. This is their second joint release following the album The Space Between Us (Ambiances Magnétiques), which was nominated for Juno and Opus awards in 2019. The new material began to take shape in the winter of 2021, during the pandemic lockdown, as a series of ‘sound postcards’ exchanged between the artists whilst in isolation and seclusion.

These initial recordings were subsequently developed into fully-fledged compositions, expanding the duo’s original acoustic palette — comprising viola, viola d’amore, baritone saxophone and reverberant spaces — to include spoken and sung voices, original lyrics in French and English, electronics, effects and field recordings. The path leading to the creation of Dream of Heat was as personal as it was creative: it is a story of friendship, of opening new doors and portals, and of the courage to explore transformed forms of artistic presence.

The collaboration with performer and composer Jason Sharp on the production of the studio version of the album gave the six experimental tracks additional depth and scope, whilst retaining their roots in the instrumental craftsmanship and sonic imagination that define the work of Toninato & Thiessen.

Translated from Polish.

This is a second album for the Montréal baritone sax/viola duo of Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen. The first one ( The Space Between Us — 2018) had left a mark on us with its unique acoustic imprint. This Dream of Heat, Schubertian in its allegory of death through the figure of winter, effectively immerses us in an enchanting twilight, made up of slow and beautiful lines from the two main instruments, but also, for the first time, of synthesisers that are sometimes ethereal, sometimes pulsating and airy (with Jason Sharp’s support). The voices of the ladies, rather whispers, sometimes cries, are added to create desolate, spectral landscapes, but still seductive. This post-urban “Winterreise” that meets Blade Runner is superb, very contemporary, minimalist, and cinematic. Hope is in order at the end of the journey with the piece called Change, from where light emerges.

Dream of Heat warmed us up this early February in Montréal, last Monday the 9th at Sala Rossa, in a launch concert that was a not-miss affair, in my opinion.

Translated from French.

Comme les compositrices montréalaises Ida Toninato et Jennifer Thiessen, tout le monde ces jours-ci rêve d’un peu de chaleur. Leur second album collaboratif, lyrique et ingénieux, revisite le thème de l’hiver comme allégorie de la mort — ainsi que son corollaire, le printemps, symbole de renaissance, sur la lumineuse, magnifique Change en conclusion, Thiessen récitant son texte sur les orchestrations de l’alto dont elle joue et du saxophone de Toninato. Contemplatives, les six compositions de Dream of Heat soufflent davantage le froid (littéralement, le son du vent vient enrober les cordes et les voix de Thiessen sur I Need Warmth) que le chaud qui transpire du jeu passionné de Toninato sur la minimaliste chanson Bear; les synthétiseurs occupent davantage de place dans la poétique On a tellement rêvé et sur Hot Blood Flow, la plus avant-gardiste de cet album qui témoigne d’une réelle complicité créative, chacune d’elles sachant tirer le meilleur de l’autre. Concert-lancement le 9 février à la Sala Rossa avec la saxophoniste torontoise Karen Ng, présenté par No hay banda.

Ambiances Magnétiques presents the second album by Toninato & Thiessen, which marks a significant departure from their acclaimed debut. The Space Between Us was very much an acoustic duet album that interwove Ida Toninato’s saxophones with Jennifer Thiessen’s viola; the forthcoming Dream of Heat (out 13 February on vinyl and digitally) enriches their core instrumentation with synthesizers and, above all, their voices to produce a collection of dark, hypnotic songs that trace winter’s cycle of death and rebirth. With Jason Sharp on synthesizers and as producer, these six tracks take on a rich orchestral quality that blends various currents of experimentalism with exploratory songwriting in a way that might appeal to listeners of Bark Psychosis, late-period Scott Walker, Nico and various artists on the Constellation Records roster.

Translated from Italian.

The potent collaboration between Montréal-based composer-performers Ida Toninato (baritone saxophone) and Jennifer Thiessen (viola, viola d’amore) crystallized after both shared the stage with the legendary Montréal dance company La La La Human Steps. In 2018, they released their acclaimed debut, The Space Between Us, an intimate and decidedly conversational affair that dove headlong into both the common and contrasting features of their primary instruments. This singular recording garnered JUNO and prix Opus nominations, as well as praise from Musicworks, which aptly described the music as “at the intersection between jazz, baroque meets Rothko, and a kind of stretched-out folk.”

Their forthcoming album, Dream of Heat (out on Ambiances Magnétiques), reveals an arresting departure for the pair. Although they maintain the acoustic warmth of their previous work, they expand their sound generously with overdubs and electronic treatments, constructing a vivid and brooding landscape that takes winter’s cycle of death and rebirth as its core.

From Lockdown Postcards to Panoramic Compositions

Perhaps most notable among the panoply of new sonic components is the presence of singing. The fact that these six pieces feel like abstract songs brings additional stylistic intrigue to their already bewildering blend of approaches. The record’s underlying methodology explains much of this newfound panoramic outlook. As the liner notes state: “This new body of work began as sonic postcards exchanged by the two musicians during the solitude of lockdown in the winter of 2021. These seed recordings were then nurtured into compositions.”

The album’s constituent ingredients include viola, baritone saxophone, electronics, field recordings, reverberant spaces, and spoken and sung voices with original texts in both French and English.

Collaborative Alchemy

Initially conceived as a live performance entitled Winter [City] Speaks, the subsequent recording process continued to develop the pieces. Constellation Records alumnus Jason Sharp’s involvement was crucial in nurturing this second phase; he stepped in as a producer and performer on synthesizer.

The fact that portions of the album were recorded at the legendary hotel2tango by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh offers further insight into the collision of aesthetics at play. The visceral character of Dream of Heat, alongside the duo’s inspired weaving of deep textural detail and rich orchestration, positions them within a parallel orbit to both Constellation and Ambiances Magnétiques.