Trombone and “homemade” synthesizer, this is the improbable duo that Platanus showcases for the most discerning music lovers. It is indeed ultra-free music, noise-driven but playful most of the time, featuring wacky sounds from the two instrumentalists present, Scott Thomson on trombone and Allison Cameron on synthesizer. The Montréaler and the Torontonian shatter all imaginable systems over the course of three long, largely improvised pieces. Squeaks, breaths, clicks, white noise, sometimes vaguely “melodic” lines, all the possibilities generated by extended techniques on the trombone and the particular timbres of Cameron’s synthesizer (an instrument built by a friend and colleague of both artists, which Thomson calls the “Cadillac Cracklebox”), intertwine in atomistic settings traversed by waves and some more or less vehement eruptions.

A music that is as contemporary and demanding as it gets, but satisfying, for receptive and adventurous ears.

Translated from French.

The collaboration of composer Allison Cameron and trombonist Scott Thomson dates from the late 2000s, when Thomson presided over Somewhere There, a Toronto loft space used by creative, improvising musicians. Their new recording is dedicated to the late Nobuo Kubota, multimedia artist and member of long-running Toronto improvising groups the Artists’ Jazz Band and CCMC. Cameron inherited his crackle-box synthesizer. Those relationships between place, personalities, and instruments define the special ground of Platanus (the genus of plane trees or sycamores), three extended instrumental dialogues between Cameron on synthesizer, keyboards, and tapes and Thomson on trombone. Taproot, Bark, and Limbing represent three substantial chunks of wildly exploratory improvisation, running from fifteen to twenty-four minutes.

The recording process admits repetition and simultaneous extractions and intrusions, which leads to music that is more temporally complex and polyvocal than one might initially imagine from a duo, stretching and connecting playful highs and subterranean lows into miracles of technology and technique. The final track, Limbing, initially matches the myriad glassy sonic events of the synthesizer with a quiet, barely articulated mumble from the trombone that might suggest small woodland creatures. These are sounds that will eventually expand their identities, as the keyboards’ layered bleeps and whirrs and the trombone’s more vocalic muted mutterings, all in some sense still lightly lyrical, assume their most abstract ultimate identities.

Toronto composer, performer, and improviser Allison Cameron has carved out a distinctive niche in Canadian new music since the mid-1980s, her work marked by an instrumental kaleidoscope and gentle waywardness that tends to elude quick summary. Born in Edmonton and trained at the University of Victoria and York University, she settled in Toronto in 1989, eventually earning a Bang on a Can All-Stars commission that brought her piece November to Lincoln Center in 1994. Montréal trombonist Scott Thomson needs little introduction in these circles: co-founder of AIMToronto, former head of the Guelph Jazz Festival, current Artistic Director of FIMAV, and a player whose allegiance to open improvisation runs bone-deep. The two first crossed paths in 2007 in a trio with the late Toronto polymath Nobuo Kubota. It took the better part of two decades for a proper duo record to materialize. Better late than never.

The instrument at the center of Platanus is not the trombone. It is a plywood-cased, homemade crackle synthesizer that once belonged to Kubota and eventually made its way to Cameron. When Thomson heard her playing it in 2022, he promptly dubbed it the “Cadillac Cracklebox” — a name that does most of the descriptive work on its own. The album is dedicated to Kubota’s memory, and something of his restless, mischievous spirit seems to have followed the instrument into the studio.

Three extended pieces work through Platanus with deliberate arboreal logic, moving from grounded rumble to more exposed terrain. Thomson coaxes breaths, squeaks, and near-melodic smears from his horn with the patience of a player who treats silence as a viable option. Cameron’s arsenal — Cracklebox, additional keyboards, and scattered tapes—answers with clicks, white noise, timbral eruptions and Thomson’s multiphonics that arrive on their own schedule. What sets Cameron and Thomson apart from the broader electroacoustic free improvisation pile is the quality of listening between them—genuinely responsive, at times conversational, elsewhere resembling a quiet disagreement between people who respect each other too much to raise their voices.

Platanus is prickly, patient, and not for the faint of ear—which is precisely what recommends it. Cameron and Thomson have waited nearly twenty years to make this record, and the restraint that shaped that timeline shows up in the music itself. Nothing here is rushed, nothing overstated. It is a small ensemble by any measure, but the sonic world these two construct is anything but.

Both Cameron and Thomson are well-pedigreed Canadian composer-improvisors, the latter founding Toronto’s creative music hub Somewhere There, a consistent haunt for the former to express her sonic imagination. Years later, Thomson calls Montréal home and Cameron continues to prowl Toronto, wielding the “Cadillac Cracklebox,” a homemade electronic sound generator. On Platanus, the pair dissolve music into its emotion-generating constituent parts. The sounds are both challenging and levity-inducing: Thomson’s trombone becomes a puddle of boiling gurgles, hisses, and outright zaniness while Cameron reveals the multi-hued universe existing within the confines of her synth. Across three lengthy improvisations, the pair stretch their instruments to their limits together, with the symbiosis only a pair of long-time sparring partners can conjure.

Montréal based experimental music label Ambiances Magnétiques has published two new albums: Le sourire, a Steve Lacy tribute by Canadian artists Jean Derome & Somebody Special, and Platanus by the duo of noted Toronto-based composer-improviser Allison Cameron (crackle synthesizer, keyboards, tapes), and Montréal’s Scott Thomson (on trombone). It’s the latter album that I want to draw attention to. It’s so out-of-world.

Platanus is pure abstract music born out of Thomson’s timbral experiments, and Cameron’s unique and unusual instrumentation, which showcases the Crackle Synthesizer and other keyboards (audibly the Casio SK-1) and tapes. The audible results such that it is hard to get grip on at any level. This is utterly bizarre! Truly tough material! I wouldn’t even say in a positive way but confusing, disturbing and unexplained way. But also thoroughly compelling and captivating. A mystery.

“The near-hour’s worth of music pulls listeners into a uniquely disorienting topography, painting a confounding scenery — a place that feels perched precariously on the cusp between dreaming and wakefulness. Within this wobbly frame, their interplay variously floats, wafts, gurgles, and drifts, a curious assortment of textures and murky hues.”

Another quote: “What they produce collectively resists easy description and that’s precisely what makes it so resonant. Their elusive semi-hush feels as like something was piped in from another reality.” I agree. Give it a try. You decide.

The release is dedicated to the memory of Nobuo Kubota, the extraordinary Canadian improviser and intermedia artist who passed away in September of 2025 at the age of 93. The duo had played as a trio with Kubota, and the aforementioned Crackle Synthesizer in fact used to belong to the elder artist.

Canadian artists Allison Cameron & Scott Thomson are out with the album Platanus, and this is a production that resides somewhere in the experimental music section. This is very much a minimalist experience, with the saxophone combined with keyboards, electronic sounds and tape effects as the sounds and instruments used. The three long improvisations all ebb and flow between minimalist expressive attitudes and more melody-oriented but still expressive escapades, more often than not with a more twisted, expressive use of the saxophone complemented with noise effects, rhythm details or minimalist melody-oriented sounds from what I’d broadly describe as the electronic part of this equation. Often with a bit of an otherworldly feel created by these combinations, and just about always with expressions that reside in the more unusual compartments of the music universe. A production to seek out by those who tend to enjoy minimalist experimental music explored in an expressive and improvised manner.

Much of the music on this weeks offering has a quiet ambience which offers a healing solace in these crazy times. There is some noisy stuff as well, to shake things up, plus the usual selection of current featured releases and old favourites.

An abstract affair, chronicling the duo of noted Toronto-based composer-improviser Allison Cameron and Montréal’s Scott Thomson (on trombone). The woozy, intangible space they construct spontaneously together is thoroughly compelling; Thomson’s formidable timbral command pairs beautifully with Cameron’s unusual instrumentation which showcases the Crackle Synthesizer (a more flexible sibling to the Crackle Box) but also employs other keyboards (audibly the Casio SK-1) and tapes. What they produce collectively resists easy description and that’s precisely what makes it so resonant. Their elusive semi-hush feels as like something was piped in from another reality. The release is dedicated to the memory of Nobuo Kubota, the extraordinary Canadian improviser and intermedia artist who passed away in September of 2025 at the age of 93. The duo had played as a trio with Kubota, and the aforementioned Crackle Synthesizer in fact used to belong to the elder artist.

Montréal’s Ambiances Magnétiques label, one of many imprints distributed by the venerable DAME is announcing two exciting new releases due out on April 17th, 2026 on CD and digital formats. First of them, the near-hour’s worth of music, Platanus, contained on the first duo recording from multifaceted artists Scott Thomson (trombone) and Allison Cameron (crackle synthesiser, keyboards, tapes) pulls listeners into a uniquely disorienting topography.

Their exchanges are neither deliberate and delicate nor assertively gestural and mostly evade typical markers of directionality. Instead, Thomson and Cameron collectively paint a confounding scenery—a place that feels perched precariously on the cusp between dreaming and wakefulness. Within this wobbly frame, their interplay variously foats, wafts, gurgles, and drifts, a curious assortment of textures and murky hues. It leaves an indelible impression yet without actively articulating or resisting form.

Platanus is dedicated to the memory of Nobuo Kubota, the extraordinary Canadian improviser and intermedia artist who passed away in September of 2025 at the age of 93. Kubota’s connection to the strange and inventive music-making that unfolds here may be indirect but it’s also substantial. In the liner notes, Thomson recalls a 2009 residency that Cameron held at his erstwhile Toronto venue Somewhere There, where “Allison proposed a trio with me and the inspiring polymath, Nobuo Kubota, whose syllable-spitting vocals almost demanded to be called shamanic. It was an eye-opening experience, one of many that I lived during those heady, music-drenched days.”

Additionally, one of the key (and rarest) elements in what Thomson calls the “quirky kaleidoscopy of [Cameron’s] instrumentation” here was a gift from Kubota. The Crackle Synthesiser is a deluxe variation on the more common STEIM Cracklebox/ Kraakdoos where the Cracklebox’s metal contacts (which actually place the variability of the human body within its circuitry) are augmented with many additional controls.

Cameron is noted for her unusual sonics in both her written-out music and her improvisational practice. Thomson’s commendable palette on the trombone makes him an ideal co-conspirator, and their chemistry is only compounded by their mutual willingness to inhabit the restless, engrossing quasi-stasis unfurled here. Platanus is a quietly potent recording that doesn’t so much defy conventions as slide between them.

The experimental music landscape of Canada finds a new, deeply resonant anchor in Platanus, a collaborative duo recording by composer-improviser Allison Cameron and trombonist Scott Thomson. Released via the esteemed DAME (Distribution Ambiances Magnétiques Et cetera), the album is a woozy, intangible journey into a “semi-hush” reality that defies easy description.

Dedicated to a Legend

Platanus is dedicated to the memory of Nobuo Kubota, the extraordinary Canadian intermedia artist and improviser who passed away in September 2025 at the age of 93. The connection to Kubota is both spiritual and physical: the duo once performed as a trio with the “inspiring polymath,” and a key instrument on this record — the rare Crackle Synthesizer — was a personal gift from Kubota to Cameron.

This instrument, a deluxe variation of the STEIM Cracklebox, places the human body directly into the circuitry, creating unpredictable and raw electronic textures that Kubota himself once pioneered.

A Masterclass in Timbral Chemistry

The album thrives on the unique synergy between its two creators:

Allison Cameron: A fixture in Canadian experimental music since the 80s, Cameron is celebrated for her “quirky kaleidoscopy” of instruments. In Platanus, she blends the Crackle Synthesizer with the toy-like sounds of the Casio SK-1 and tape loops, creating liminal spaces that interrogate the listener’s attention.

Scott Thomson: A trombonist with formidable timbral command, Thomson is a key figure in the Montréal and Toronto improvisational scenes (and current director of FIMAV). His ability to produce unusual, vocal-like tones on the trombone makes him the perfect foil for Cameron’s electronic abstractions.

Beyond Convention

Rather than following the high-energy tangles of traditional free jazz, Platanus unfurls in a state of “restless quasi-stasis.” It is a quietly potent recording that doesn’t so much defy conventions as slide between them, feeling as though it were “piped in from another reality.”

Das Montréaler Avantgarde-Label Ambiances Magnétiques erweitert seinen Katalog um zwei bemerkenswerte Neuerscheinungen, die am 17. April 2026 auf CD und digital erscheinen werden. Beide Produktionen werden über den traditionsreichen Vertrieb DAME (Distribution Ambiances Magnétiques Etcetera) zugänglich gemacht und spiegeln eindrucksvoll die künstlerische Bandbreite des Labels wider: vom literarisch inspirierten Jazz bis zur radikal offenen Improvisation.

Platanus: Klangräume zwischen Elektronik und Posaune

Deutlich abstrakter präsentiert sich die zweite Veröffentlichung des Labels. Platanus dokumentiert die Zusammenarbeit der in Toronto lebenden Komponistin und Improvisatorin Allison Cameron mit dem Montréaler Posaunisten Scott Thomson.

Gemeinsam erschaffen sie ein schwebendes, beinahe körperlos wirkendes Klangfeld, das sich vollständig aus spontaner Improvisation entwickelt. Thomsons ausgeprägtes Gespür für Klangfarben und Timbres verbindet sich dabei mit Camerons ungewöhnlicher Instrumentierung. Eine zentrale Rolle spielt der Crackle Synthesizer, ein flexiblerer Verwandter der experimentellen Crackle Box. Darüber hinaus kommen weitere Keyboards — hörbar etwa ein Casio SK-1 — sowie Tonbandmaterial zum Einsatz.

Das Resultat ist eine Musik, die sich einfachen Kategorien entzieht und gerade dadurch eine starke Sogwirkung entfaltet. Die fragile, halb entrückte Klangwelt wirkt mitunter, als würde sie aus einer anderen Realität in den Raum hineinströmen.

Das Album ist dem kanadischen Improvisationskünstler und Intermedia-Pionier Nobuo Kubota gewidmet, der im September 2025 im Alter von 93 Jahren verstarb. Cameron und Thomson hatten zuvor häufig gemeinsam mit Kubota musiziert; der auf der Aufnahme verwendete Crackle Synthesizer gehörte ursprünglich dem verstorbenen Kunstler.

Beide Alben erscheinen am 17. April 2026 auf CD und in digitalen Formaten. Vorbestellungen werden in Kürze über die Plattformen des Labels möglich sein.

Mit Le sourire und Platanus unterstreicht Ambiances Magnétiques einmal mehr seine Rolle als wichtiger Motor der nordamerikanischen Improvisationsszene — zwischen literarisch inspiriertem Jazz und radikal offener Klangforschung.