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.
