Bucko Art Machine is a new project by Ottawa-based electronic musician Chris Binkowski (aka Bucko) in collaboration with Nick Schofield and an evolving collective of artists and musicians. BAM makes groove-based music incorporating live improvisation. Central to their work is the idea of music as a dynamic way to express oneself and connect with people. They are currently working on their debut album, planned for release in late 2021.
Native Montreal artist Deidre focuses her work through the lens of performance, electronic soundscapes, and avant-pop music production. Her practice reveals thoughts on her relationship to her inner self, mental health, and physical identity. Her latest EP OPAL is a study in chaotic, textural bliss and romanticism via electro-acoustic sound.
Formed in the summer of 2018 and emerging from the sludge of the Ottawa river, Klapshmock! fuses art, music, theatre, and satire to create a chaotic mess. Klapshmock! is about being nonsensical and holding everything together with E-tape. Transmitting ideas and spewing them out. In simplest terms, Klapshmock! is an expression of electro jazz-fusion. Going deeper, the music of Klapshmock! is a mix of 70s and 80s electronic music based on toasty old synths, moldy drum machines, crunchy low-bit samples, all layered on juicy jazz chords and brought to you by Krautrock, industrial, minimal wave, space disco, and progressive rock.
Mas Aya is the solo project of Brandon Miguel Valdivia. A drummer known for improvisatory work with Not the Wind Not the Flag; composition in theatre and dance; and recording with artists such as U.S.Girls, Tribe Called Red, Jeremy Dutcher and Lido Pimienta. Mas Aya aims to meld music from various parts of the world and from different periods of time: from Indonesia to Cuba, from shamanic and ritualistic musical practices to contemporary popular music styles. Repetition, patience and contemplation play with dance, intensity and celebration creating a music from nowhere in particular and from everywhere, from neither here nor there. Flutes, drums, seeds, bells, synths, air, water.
Melody McKiver is a musician and composer from Sioux Lookout, Treaty #3 / Northwestern Ontario. Melody’s musical work integrates electronics with Western classical music to shape a new genre of Anishinaabe compositions. Melody was invited to the Berlinale Talents Sound Studio as a music and composition mentor for the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. Thomas Goguelin is a member of the group dscrd (a.k.a “Discordance”), an electronic music quintet which made its first steps in the Parisian suburbs and kept resolutely focused on live performance and improvisation. Melody and Thomas met through the Sound Studio of Berlinale Talents in February 2020. This improvisation was recorded at TRIXX Studios in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
Yolande Laroche, a Franco-Taiwanese Canadian artist based in Ottawa/Hull, reflects on her hyphenated identity, life and death, and themes of alienation in her debut solo project under the pseudonym Orchidae. Soft, hypnotic melodies and mantras intertwine with minimal yet meaningful, at-times psychedelic orchestration. She is currently recording a full length album set to release in 2021. As a classically trained clarinetist and a touring/session musician, Yolande is a core member of art-rock band Pony Girl and ambient chamber project mal/aimé. She has also worked with artists such as Rayannah, Nick Schofield, Luka Kuplowski, Keturah, Cedric Noel, and several others.
SlowPitchSound (Cheldon Paterson) is an experimental artist with over 20 years of experience in live composition and multi-disciplinary performance. With a passion for depth and detail in his work, he is heavily inspired by environmental awareness and dystopian sci-fi. His music is like the universe - indefinable, and forever expanding. A master turntablist, seasoned educator, and visionary artist, SlowPitchSound’s wide versatility has launched him fervidly into the worlds of both classical and contemporary music. His hypnotizing performances have been featured at world-renowned electronic festivals such as Mutek (Montreal, Canada), Clandestino (Göteborg, Sweden), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht, Netherlands) as well as major theatres, museums, and other unique spaces.