Mali Obomsawin at FONO
With special guest Main Arteries
On October 29, Abenaki multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Mali Obomsawin comes to FONO for an Ottawa release show celebrating her new album, Automatic. Moving between experimental music and free jazz, Automatic is the result of Obomsawin’s exploration of Abenaki language ethnological recordings made in the mid-1900s, and her intention to reclaim the ancestral material from the outsiders who seized it. “Behind Automatic is a deep awareness about institutions’ predatory relationship with Native material,” Obomsawin explains. “I wanted to make a record that institutions couldn’t own.” (via Various Small Flames)
Opening the evening is Main Arteries, a new project from prolific local drum improvisers Olivier Fairfield and Scott Warren combining acoustic percussion, tape loops and synthetic textures.
Mali Obomsawin (Abenaki Nation, Odanak) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer known for her solo work and her rock band Deerlady. She is based in New York City and Odanak, Quebec.
Mali’s albums Sweet Tooth (2022) and Greatest Hits (released as ‘Deerlady’ in 2024) have garnered critical acclaim from Stereogum, KEXP, NPR, and The Guardian. Her projects have brought her to Big Ears and Montreal Jazz Festivals, and earned her a name across experimental, free-jazz and rock scenes. Mali’s music has been featured in the Hulu FX series Reservation Dogs (2023) and is also part of an unsanctioned exhibition at the MET titled: "ENCODED: Change the Story, Change the Future." Encoded features 17 Native artists and won two 2025 Webby Awards.
Mali scored the film “Sugarcane” (2025) , which was nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Documentary Feature. Her work was nominated for Best Original Score by the International Documentary Association and Cinema Eye Honors.
Combining acoustic percussion, tape loops, and synthetic textures, Main Arteries (Olivier Fairfield & Scott Warren) shapes soundscapes driven by the fractured legacy of the mid-20th-century Gréber Plan —a failed utopian vision for the design of Canada’s Capital Region by French urban planner Jacques Gréber.
This event is licensed / 19+
Accessibility
-
FONO is on the ground floor with no steps into or inside the venue. The main entrance does not have an automatic door. Knock for help accessing.
-
There is a gender-neutral universal washroom in the hallway with an automatic opener and a push button lock with wall grab bars.
Made possible with the support of Ontario Creates