Anya M. Wassenberg's Blog: Art & Culture Maven, page 3

Outta Nashville | Retrosaint: False Start (Secondary Renaissance / 27 August 2024)

Outta Nashville
Retrosaint: False Start
(Secondary Renaissance / 27 August 2024)

Stream It On Spotify

False Start is a new single by Retrosaint, a band from Tennessee. The lyrics are an upbeat take on the resilience of love with a nicely poetic sensibility.

Their home base is Nashville, and the song not far from country. But, with an edge of old fashioned Americana at its heart, the song comes as a bit of a new direction for the band.

Retrosaints is fronted by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Ross. The song has a hummable refrain, and an emotional and musical progression that transcends both country and Americana.

Ross has an amiable tenor with enough power and expression to make it work. The multi-layered instrumental track, though, is the real star of the show.  Ross, a classically trained pianist, appeared on the reality TV show American Supergroup for its pilot season. 

Along with Ross, the band includes Jonny Lutz on electric guitars, bass and drums. Lutz also produced the track.  Frances Takemoto provided the fiddle-style violins. 

Ross talks about the inspiration for the song in a statement. 

"Sometimes good relationships come to an end, for whatever reason. And sometimes, we think we’ve reached some big milestone in life when in fact, the journey hasn’t even started yet. That’s what "False Start" is about. (No, it’s not a song about football. Har har) I was still processing a breakup, while also witnessing a loved one’s marriage fall apart. Writing this song was the best response I could come up with."

The track marks a new way of working for the band as well.

"This song is the first commercial release to come out of my home studio (still yet-to-be-named) in Nashville," says Ross, "a project that was several years in the making. Besides the mastering, the only people involved in creating it were close friends of mine–a departure from my past approach to the recording process. I’m super proud of this fact!"

Personnel:

David Ross – Songwriter, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, KeyboardsJonny Lutz – Electric guitars, Drums, BassFrances Takemoto – Violin 

Websites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retrosaintsongsInstagram: instagram.com/retrosaintsongs

Progrock Trio | The Wrong Sides: The Singles (2023/2024)

Progrock Trio
The Wrong Sides: The Singles (2023/2024)

Elephant Spaceship, CHASING THƎ WЯONG INSANITY, Sour Sea Stream Them On Spotify

Three new tracks by The Wrong Sides prove the prog rock trio as an art form is anything but dead.

"Each of these tracks provided a way for us to explore the sonic landscape of this lineup," says the trio in a statement.

The Wrong Sides are a progressive metal band from Puerto Rico, in a classic trio lineup of bass-drums-guitar. They're usual M.O. is to release a series of singles, culminating in an album, a habit they've developed since forming in 2019.

Elephant Spaceship is prog rock with a polished edge, compleat with all those impressive arpeggiated chords and jazzy harmonic progressions. There's a lot of notes for just one melodic instrument, in other words. The band calls it "a galactic somewhat freeform prog metal jam".

What keeps it interesting - and keeps it from sliding into musical navel gazing - is the passion you can feel for the music, and the tight playing between the trio. The band also has a nice sense of structure, and how to maintain the momentum in a way that sounds effortless.

Like the Western art music that is its cousin, the form explores a series of themes and variations.

Sour Sea builds a sense of urgency through interwoven themes and variations that progress to a climax and then slow down, strip back to melody and simpler rhythmic accompaniment for an intriguing middle section... only to slide back into guitar heavy metal.  

Each of the instruments gets its chance to take the spotlight. In Sour Sea, it's a mesmerizing fretless bass solo by Joan Torres that tears through the last part of the track.

In Chasing The Wrong Insanity, the drums take over the wheel. Always present, they're more demure in the other tracks. There's a nice bit in the song where the bass and drums trade riffs back and forth. Torres arranged the track as inspired by the video game Maximum Carnage. 

Through impeccable musicianship, the trio manages effects that most would routinely try to recreate via programming.

Personnel:

Israel Romero - GuitarJoan Torres - BassJosé Linares - Drums

Tracks:

Sour Sea (February 17, 2023)CHASING THƎ WЯONG INSANITY (October 16, 2023)Elephant Spaceship (March 11, 2024)

Websites: 

Official Website: https://linktr.ee/thewrongsidesFacebook: https://facebook.com/thewrongsides/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thewrongsidesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewrongsides/

Atmospheric Electronic | Danny Peck: Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows

Atmospheric Electronic
Danny Peck: Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows
(Independent / 14 August 2024)

Stream it on Spotify

It comes as no surprise to learn that Danny Peck is both musician and scientist after listening to a few of the tracks on his album Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows. 

The album consists of instrumental tracks characterized by a cinematic sense of emotional flow, along with a mastery of electronic music creation. They're architecturally sound as well as emotionally stirring.

Peck goes by several different names, or has over the years as an artist, including dep and A Defiant Heart. This time, he's releasing the album under his real name - the dude who's been researching the physics of music for three decades or so. 

He's a software developer and engineer, but while you may get distracted by the sheer variety of sounds and effects he can produce, you'll also be swept up in the musicality of the tracks.

Each takes you on a trip with an energy that builds and leads to a kind of ecstatic release, or a hypnotic, peaceful state. 

The new album marks a departure from his previous work. Peck talks about his development as a musician in a statement.

"'Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows' is about starting over, it's about growing older and facing one's intensifying thoughts around legacy and mortality. I made this while going through a lot of changes in my life, and honestly it's also a lifetime culmination of my own creative process.

"I've spent the better part of the last 3 decades making music in one form or another. I started experimenting in the 90s, fiddling around with trackers in MS-DOS before I started using notation software in Windows."

Changes in his life led to a new way of thinking.

"Fast forward to 2023: my wife and I moved to a small town in Michigan, and I decided, by both necessity and intuition, that it was time to start over. I built my studio from the ground up, replaced all of my existing software, started over with new hardware and equipment. I kept my trusty Korg piano keyboard, but everything else was a complete reinvention.

"I moved on from tracker-driven music making software. For me, this was the key. Tracker sequencers, I realized, forced me into a rigid grid, stifling my creativity, and forcing me down the same path with each song again and again. Everything I made, to me largely sounded and felt the same. I needed a change."

The atmospheric music is perfect for work, study, or relaxing with a book. 

Tracklist:

1. To Rise and Fall 2. We Can Live Underground Forever 3. The Gate 4. Controlled Flight 5. Time is Not Real 6. There Must Be Something Special When We're Gone 7. Dawn 8. In the Pine Trees 9. The Edge of Reason 10. Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows 

Links

Official Website: https://dannypeck.comTwitter: https://x.com/dep

Leading Artists in the American South Confront Today's Issues At The Gibbes Museum of Art

From a media release

Leading Artists in the American South Confront Today's Issues
At The Gibbes Museum of Art

Landmark Group Exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art Honors the 15 Winning Artists of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art

Check it out here

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: Six more weeks remain to see this powerful group exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art, on view now until January 12.

The show is titled Celebrating the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, and is the culmination of 15 years of one of the most prestigious art prizes in the Southeastern United States. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, video, textiles, photography, digital art, mixed media, and installations.

Clockwise from top: They Combined Beauty, by Stephen L. Hayes Jr. (2020 winner); Wave After Wave, by John Westmark (2012 winner); Lavender Notes, by Stephanie J. Woods (2021 winner); The Omen, by Leo Twiggs (2018 winner); Charleston, by Radcliffe Bailey (2010 winner); Hurtsboro, by Bo Bartlett (2017 winner).

This is the first time the Museum has created an original exhibition of this scope, featuring all of the winning artists from each year since the inaugural prize of 2008. 

The co-curators of the exhibition are Sara Arnold, Jordan Brown, and Brenna Reilley.

The 2009 Prize winner Stephen Marc (his artwork is pictured below) states: “It is invaluable to see how the South’s diverse cultural heritage and collective regional identity are creatively expressed through explorations of everyday life, historical references, and visions of the future.” 

Untitled (2002), by Stephen Marc, the 2009 Prize winner. Gibbes Museum purchase/partial gift by the artist.

The works in this group exhibition explore a striking variety of themes, including: resilience; cultural heritage; the African Diaspora; feminist theory; the relationship between humans and their environment; incarceration; and the physical, spiritual and artistic journeys these artists convey, with their creative strength to conjure hope.

The juried competition awards $10,000 each year to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South.

Each winner’s work is exhibited at the Museum for a full year.

“These artists have the power to illuminate how the past unfolds and impacts our present, a recurring theme in their works,” says Sara Arnold, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Gibbes Museum of Art.

More exhibition programming continues with two new exhibition tours for the public to enjoy, on Dec. 11, and on Jan. 8. Both events feature intimate insider tours led by special guests who will share their insights about these artists, and their personal experiences in helping to steer the success of this competition.

The Gibbes Museum is a beacon in the American South since it was established in 1858, and is located in the heart of Charleston’s Historic District.  

The exhibition features 27 works by 15 Prize winners

Sherrill Roland (2023 winner)Raheleh Filsoofi (2022 winner)Stephanie J. Woods (2021 winner)Stephen L. Hayes Jr. (2020 winner)Donte K. Hayes (2019 winner)            Leo Twiggs (2018 winner)Bo Bartlett (2017 winner)                    Alicia Henry (2016 winner)Deborah Luster (2015 winner)        Sonya Clark (2014 winner)John Westmark (2012 winner)         Patrick Dougherty (2011 winner)Radcliffe Bailey (2010 winner)             Stephen Marc (2009 winner)Jeff Whetstone (2008 winner)

Through the years, several works by winners and finalists have been acquired by the Gibbes. Some winners have received awards from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

Some are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago.

“The Gibbes Museum of Art is thrilled to honor these leading Southern artists who are reshaping and redefining American art,” says Angela Mack, the President and CEO of the Gibbes Museum of Art.

“This artist-centric initiative builds ongoing museum relationships with these creatives, to tell their contemporary stories.” 

“These artists have continued to garner accolades regionally, nationally, and internationally. Our team at the Museum is deeply committed to spearheading this vital platform for Southern artists, and we are proud of this competition’s growing prominence over the past 15 years,” adds Angela Mack.

Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia are eligible to apply. Read more details about the artists and finalists spanning the past 15 years of this competition at ‒ www.gibbesmuseum.org/1858-prize. 

The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum. This group of dynamic young professionals supports the Museum with social and educational programs tailored for up-and-coming art patrons.

Society 1858 takes its name from the year that the Carolina Art Association was established (the Museum's art collection, which began in 1858). 

The 2024 winner of the competition was recently announced, honoring the multi-disciplinary artist Demond Melancon. His work will be on view separately starting in February 2025, for a full year at the Museum.

This exhibition is also made possible thanks to the support of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Jane Smith Turner Foundation, the City of Charleston, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

In the spirit of the 1858 Prize, the Gibbes is launching new initiatives to support the next wave of Southern artists with a new professional development series in the Spring.

Highlights from the exhibition

Radcliffe Bailey (1968-2023) was the 2009 Prize winner. He was known for monumental assemblages, paintings, and prints that explore race, memory, music, and familial connections. 

Bailey created this large-scale mixed media painting titled Charleston (pictured bellow) using shipping tarpaulin as his canvas.

Installation photo of the artwork titled Charleston (2021), by Radcliffe Bailey, the 2010 Prize winner. Mixed media, flock, oil stick, acrylic paint on tarp with steel shelf supporting a tabby concrete block. On loan courtesy of the Estate of Radcliffe Bailey and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Installation photo from the exhibition opening, by MCG Photography. 

Bailey's quilt-like patchwork of color shapes in the artwork titled Charleston alludes to themes of geographical displacement ‒ layered with text and imagery inspired by antique maps, family trees, travel logs, and Haitian vévé spiritual diagrams.

Near the center of the canvas is a block of tabby concrete, a building material used in the construction of homes and buildings along the South Carolina and Georgia coast prior to the Civil War. A mixture of lime, sand, water, and shell, tabby blocks were crafted by enslaved laborers.

Sonya Clark is the 2014 Prize winner. She is a fiber and mixed media artist. She works with strands of human hair, combs, coins, seed beads, and thin threads to give voice to the complexity of American identity and history. 

In Clark's artwork (pictured below), she utilizes seven Afro wigs and thread-wrapped combs, with the colors of the rainbow to honor and amplify diversity among Black women. 

Installation photo of For Colored Girls, A Rainbow (2020), by Sonya Clark, the 2014 Prize winner. Wigs, cast plastic combs, and wrapped thread. On loan from the artist and Goya Contemporary, Baltimore. Installation photo by MCG Photography, from the exhibition opening.

Clark's artwork in this exhibition is a tribute to the 1976 Broadway play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange.

The groundbreaking, award-winning play explores the lives, struggles, and resilience of Black women, featuring seven female actors identified only by the colors they wear.

Clark honors contemporary craftspeople like hairdressers, and notable African American figures. 

“Sonya Clark sculpts, shapes and winds thread into hair power, a thrilling metaphor.” ‒ Scott Wilson, The Visual Arts Journal

John Westmark is the 2012 Prize winner. His wife and two daughters are the true inspiration behind his work. After observing his wife using a pattern for a sewing project, his artistic vision took a new direction. Pictured below is his work Wave After Wave.

Wave Upon Wave (2014), by John Westmark, the 2012 winner. Acrylic, quilting pins, paper sewing patterns on canvas. Museum purchase.

Westmark's paintings depict courageous women, some portrayed as stoic martyrs and others as warriors engaged in conflicts of rebellion. 

Intrigued with the pattern design and the cultural meaning of the pattern itself, Westmark began reading feminist theory and creating collage studies with the sewing patterns. His intense exploration led to these dynamic, large-scale, mixed-media figurative paintings.

By utilizing sewing patterns to compose his female figures, Westmark creates anonymous yet powerful women that challenge the historical understanding of “women’s work.” 

Deborah Luster is the 2015 Prize winner. In 1988, Luster’s mother was murdered, and as a way of coping she turned to photography and became known for investigating violence, place, and prison. 

Pictured below is an installation photo from the exhibition, of her series titled Angola History Project (photos of the buildings and history of the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana). 

Angola takes its name from an antebellum plantation where for generations thousands of enslaved people produced cotton and sugar cane. After the Civil War, cotton production continued through a convict leasing program. The property formally became a state prison in the early 1900s and today is one of the largest prisons in the country. 

Installation photo from the exhibition of the series titled Angola History Project, by Deborah Luster (photos of the buildings and history of the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana). Archival pigment print. Loan courtesy of the artist. Installation photo by MCG Photography, from the exhibition opening.

In the 2017 photograph above by Luster, inmate Taece Defillo poses as Nurse Mary Margaret Daugherty in a play created by the prisoners. The original, real-life Nurse Daugherty was an Irish immigrant working at the prison in the 1950s who exposed the deplorable conditions at Angola, leading to much-needed reforms. 

Bo Bartlett is the 2017 Prize winner and is acclaimed for his large-scale paintings that explore American life and cultural heritage. 

Hurtsboro, by Bo Bartlett, the 2017 winner. Oil on linen (2021). Museum purchase with funds from an anonymous donor. 

Bartlett's large-scale painting Hurtsboro (pictured above) is inspired by his memory of hitchhiking as a teenager in the segregated South. Hurtsboro conveys the beauty of friendship, and the difficulties faced by Black men in America. 

Raheleh Filsoofi is the 2022 Prize winner.

For her multimedia installation Imagined Boundaries (pictured below) the artist invited more than 100 Charlestonians for video portraits she embedded into each of the boxes using iPads. Her video portrait subjects range in age from three months to 92.

The view portals reference Iranian pottery. Her work synthesizes socio-political statements, here interconnecting Southerners to Iran’s culture across boundaries. 

Detail view of the multimedia installation Imagined Boundaries, by Raheleh Filsoofi. Commissioned by the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Filmmaker Jeff Whetstone won the inaugural Prize in 2008. He has explored the relationship between humans and their environment since he received a Zoology degree in 1990. 

His video The Batture Ritual examines the intersection of economy and ecology at a single point along the lower Mississippi River. The video installation and accompanying photographs vividly capture the rhythms of local families, fishermen, nature, and cargo ships.

You can check it out at this link .

Leo Twiggs is the 2018 Prize Winner. The Gibbes first presented the work of Leo Twiggs almost 50 years ago, in a 1976 solo exhibition.

Twiggs was the first African American student to receive a Doctorate of Arts from the University of Georgia, and the first visual artist to receive the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award (Governor’s Trophy) for outstanding contributions to the arts in South Carolina. 

Sarah Remembered (1997), by Leo Twiggs, the 2018 Prize winner. Batik and mixed media paint on board. Museum purchase.
About the Gibbes Museum of Art

The Gibbes Museum of Art, a beacon in the American South for arts and culture since 1858 when it was originally the Carolina Art Association, is heralded as one of the earliest and most longstanding arts institutions in the United States.

The Museum’s collection spans 350 years, and features some of the country’s most celebrated artists ‒ including contemporary, modern and historical works. With world-class rotating exhibitions and a dynamic visiting artist residency program, the Gibbes is a southern museum with a global perspective.

The Museum’s mission is to enhance lives through art by engaging people of every background and experience with art and artists of enduring quality, providing opportunities to learn and discover, to enjoy and be inspired by the creative process. Museum hours and visitor info at: www.gibbesmuseum.org/visit   

The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston SC

A New Take On World | The Beatroot Road: Underground Roots (Independent / 11 October 2024)

A New Take On World
The Beatroot Road: Underground Roots
(Independent / 11 October 2024)

Stream it on Spotify

Underground Roots is the very first release from The Beatroot Road, an ensemble with an adventurous sense of musicality. It's a single that hints of much more to come, written by Demmy James, ‘Apes’, (active in London in the '80s) and The Beatroot Road.

Alternative/World is the label the release notes give for the musical genre of The Beatroot Road. It's about as good a moniker as any.

The song's bouncy and fun, with an irrepressible groove that draws from various global beats. Classic Afro-Caribbean rhythm guitar blends seamlessly with jangly riffs, over a kinetic polyrhythmic beat. 

Lyrically, underneath the danceable rhythms is a message about the resilience of roots to hold on and survive the many changes that take place during the seasons. 

“So if you wonder how the underdog can manage a grin, it’s cos the roots are underground and the blood moves within.”

The Band

Mark Russell is the leader of the North Vancouver based project, alongside  violinist Hazel Fairbairn. Their plan is to release a series of singles that will lead up to their first album in 2025. 

The project was conceived during the pandemic lockdowns. All the works have beats at their core, and a mix and match attitude towards musical genres. 

Mark comments in a statement, “If asked what it is, I like to call it music for dancing, but I’ve heard it called other things, some quite kind, some not so much. That’s enough for me. 'The Beatroot Road' describes what it is; this is just where we are right now on the journey.”

Russell spent some of his early years in Khartoum in the Sudan, followed by Scotland, where he learned African and Caribbean styles of music alongside classic rock drumming. 

Hazel Fairbairn switched to Celtic fiddle from early classical training, and wrote her PhD on Irish pub music at Cambridge University in the UK. She went on to study Indian, Romani and Cajun fiddling with masters.

Russell plays percussion on the track, incorporating several traditional instruments from the African continent, such as the conga and cabassa, along with the bodhrán, a traditional Irish drum. He also plays bass, guitar and synth.

Vocalist Lucinia Karrey, photo by Mark Russell

The other collaborators and contributors for the forthcoming album are seasoned international session musicians and artists with roots in Austria, Canada, China, Kenya, Korea, Moldova, Nigeria, Punjabi,  Türkiye, UK, USA, and Venezuela. ...so far. 

Kenyan vocalist Lucinda Karrey joins them for Underground Roots, along with Nigerian singer Fuki Anditi on backing vocals.

The video features 3D animation from Griang and Mesut C. from Türkiye, with live footage of Lucinia shot in Kenya.

While Underground Roots has a distinctly African and Latin vibe, that won't be the only musical mode for the group... more surprises to come.

Websites:

Official Website: www.thebeatrootroad.caFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBeatrootRoad/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.beatroot.road?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/The_Beatroot_Road

A New Take On WorldThe Beatroot Road: Underground Roots(I...

A New Take On World
The Beatroot Road: Underground Roots
(Independent / 11 October 2024)

Stream it on Spotify

Underground Roots is the very first release from The Beatroot Road, an ensemble with an adventurous sense of musicality. It's a single that hints of much more to come, written by Demmy James, ‘Apes’, (London '80s) and The Beatroot Road.

Alternative/World is the label the release notes give for the musical genre of The Beatroot Road. It's about as good a moniker as any.

The song's bouncy and fun, with an irrepressible groove that draws from various global beats. Classic Afro-Caribbean rhythm guitar blends seamlessly with jangly riffs, over a kinetic polyrhythmic beat. 

Lyrically, underneath the danceable rhythms is a message about the resilience of roots to hold on and survive the many changes that take place during the seasons. 

“So if you wonder how the underdog can manage a grin, it’s cos the roots are underground and the blood moves within.”

The Band

Mark Russell is the leader of the North Vancouver based project, alongside  violinist Hazel Fairbairn. Their plan is to release a series of singles that will lead up to their first album in 2025. 

The project was conceived during the pandemic lockdowns. All the works have beats at their core, and a mix and match attitude towards musical genres. 

Mark comments in a statement, “If asked what it is, I like to call it music for dancing, but I’ve heard it called other things, some quite kind, some not so much. That’s enough for me. 'The Beatroot Road' describes what it is; this is just where we are right now on the journey.”

Russell spent some of his early years in Khartoum in the Sudan, followed by Scotland, where he learned African and Caribbean styles of music alongside classic rock drumming. 

Hazel Fairbairn switched to Celtic fiddle from early classical training, and wrote her PhD on Irish pub music at Cambridge University in the UK. She went on to study Indian, Romani and Cajun fiddling with masters.

Russell plays percussion on the track, incorporating several traditional instruments from the African continent, such as the conga and cabassa, along with the bodhrán, a traditional Irish drum. He also plays bass, guitar and synth.

Vocalist Lucinia Karrey, photo by Mark Russell

While Underground Roots has a distinctly African and Latin vibe, that won't be the only musical mode for the group. 

The other collaborators and contributors for the forthcoming album are seasoned international session musicians and artists with roots in Austria, Canada, China, Kenya, Korea, Moldova, Nigeria, Punjabi,  Türkiye, UK, USA, and Venezuela. ...so far. 

Kenyan vocalist Lucinda Karrey joins them for Underground Roots, along with Nigerian singer Fuki Anditi on backing vocals.

The video features 3D animation from Griang and Mesut C. from Türkiye, with live footage of Lucinia shot in Kenya.

Websites:

Official Website: www.thebeatrootroad.caFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBeatrootRoad/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.beatroot.road?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/The_Beatroot_Road

Dance Flashback | Pol Sembrano: Anywhere (EP) (Independent / 28 October 2024)

Dance Flashback
Pol Sembrano: Anywhere (EP)
(Independent / 28 October 2024)

Stream it on Spotify

Upbeat dance music with a retro kind of flair, that's the mood of this four-song EP from Filipino-American composer and musician Pol Sembrano.

Vintage synths create a signature sound that, while inspired by the artists of the 80s and 90s, adds a modern, existential take on lyrics. 

The message is simple: fall in love, and of course, dance. 

Based in Seattle, Pol is a classically trained pianist. His sense of musical experimentation led him into electronic music. The EP is a teaser for his upcoming full-length album. 

“I have always been confident in myself as a musician and by writing, producing, arranging and performing on my own. I am a classically trained pianist, but I am also inspired by other genres of music, in this case electronic/dance music. This provides a whole new dimension in my music persona as I do not wish to be categorized as “this or that type of artist”,” he says in a statement. 

The songs have earworm melodies and layers of rhythm and harmony. You'll be reminded of the likes of Depeche Mode, Blondie, and New Order. 

Pol acts as singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer for the self-titled release.  

“Although I am open to working with other collaborators, I want to prove to myself I can musically survive on my own, especially at the very beginning stages of this artistic journey. My goal is to share my music with those who will hopefully connect with it. Whatever happens afterwards is not up to me but the universe.” 

One quibble comes to mind: the vocals need a little more conviction. They can be either somewhat disembodied in that vintage style, or more impassioned - here they feel somewhere in between.

Tracklist: 

Anywhere (Single Mix) Open Mind (Single Mix) Number (Single Mix) Nothing To Say (Single Mix) 

Websites:

Official Website: https://polsembranomusic.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555480786694Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polsembranomusic/

Lighting Designer Sonoyo Nishikawa Wins The 2024 Siminovitch Prize

 From a media release

Lighting Designer Sonoyo Nishikawa Wins The 2024 Siminovitch Prize
Canada's Top Theatre Prize

Toronto, ON (December 2, 2024) — Montreal-based lighting designer Sonoyo Nishikawa, acclaimed for her transformative and evocative lighting designs, is this year’s winner of Canada’s most valuable theatre award. Since 2001, the Siminovitch Prize has celebrated groundbreaking theatre artists whose work has strengthened the Canadian theatre landscape and advanced the art form. With a career spanning continents and collaborations with leading theatre artists, Nishikawa has established herself as a pioneering force in Canadian theatre. Sonoyo Nishikawa, the 2024 Siminovitch Prize Laureate, has selected Mayumi Ide-Bergeron as the Siminovitch Prize Protégé.

 “Sonoyo Nishikawa’s designs push the boundaries of what we expect lighting to do. Often working within challenging technical constraints and using an array of sources, Sonoyo unfailingly finds ways to transcend the limitations imposed and create unexpected and variously spectacular or intimate, compelling images that go far beyond typical theatre illumination. Known and admired for her dedication across all scales of productions, from indie theatre to opera, she brings the same excellence and attention to detail regardless of budget or venue. Her work embodies a profound spirit of collaboration, and her enduring commitment to experimentation and risk has moved theatre lighting into an expressive art form that reaches audiences on a deeply emotional level.” - Guillermo Verdecchia, 2024 Siminovitch Prize Jury Chair

Sonoyo Nishikawa 

Sonoyo Nishikawa has established herself as one of the most visionary lighting designers in Canadian theatre. Trained in London under the sponsorship of Japan’s Ministry of Education and Culture, Nishikawa has collaborated with some of the world’s leading theatre artists. Her work includes celebrated productions with Robert Lepage, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Les Sept Branches de la Rivière Ōta, for which she won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. 

Her innovative approach has earned her numerous accolades, including the Prix des meilleurs éclairages, awarded by l'Académie québécoise du théâtre, and the Prix Jacques-Pelletier.

Nishikawa’s recent projects showcase her range and influence, from Les Sept Branches de la Rivière Ota at the National Theatre in London to Once Upon A One More Time at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes at Centaur Theatre. Known for her subtle yet powerful techniques, she transforms theatrical spaces with designs that resonate deeply, creating what has been described as “painting in light.”

“The light on stage turns on and off, disappears and reappears, according to the ever-changing story, the movements of the performers, the rhythm of the music and the breath of the audience. It's as ephemeral as fireworks. I aim to create lighting designs that give the audience hope for tomorrow, that leaves them with a lifetime of inspiration, just like watching a sunrise or sunset.”  - Sonoyo Nishikawa

Siminovitch Protégé Prize: Mentorship for the Next Generation

Supported by the RBC Foundation, the Siminovitch Protégé Prize underscores the importance of mentorship. This year, Sonoyo Nishikawa has selected Mayumi Ide-Bergeron, a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal. A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Set and Costume Design program, Mayumi’s work bridges French and English theatre, incorporating an innovative style that is both poetic and eco-conscious.

Thanks to a partnership among the Siminovitch Theatre Foundation, the National Arts Centre, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the 2024 Siminovitch Prize Laureate and Siminovitch Prize Protégé are also being given the opportunity to come together and collaborate at an artist residency at the Banff Centre in 2025.

Celebrating the Future of Canadian Theatre

The Siminovitch Prize Gala, held on December 2, 2024, was a vibrant celebration of Canadian theatre, attracting notable figures from the theatre community, including artists, producers and patrons. The evening began with the premiere screening of the 2024 Siminovitch Prize documentaries, also shown at siminovitchprize.com, followed by the eagerly anticipated winner announcement and Sonoyo’s passionate acceptance speech. 

2024 Siminovitch Prize Finalists

The Siminovitch Prize represents the highest level of peer recognition in the profession. This year’s finalists showcase the diversity and creativity within Canadian theatre design:

Itai Erdal (Vancouver, BC): A performer, playwright, and lighting designer renowned for his evocative and atmospheric lighting designs.Debashis Sinha (Toronto, ON): An award-winning and boundary-pushing sound designer/composer who blends technology and heritage to add new meaning and richness to theatrical experiences.The Old Trout Puppet Workshop (Calgary, AB): A groundbreaking puppetry company known for its all-encompassing design work, creating whimsical, larger-than-life productions for audiences of all ages.

Each finalist receives a $5,000 award and a documentary for their portfolio.

“The Siminovitch Theatre Foundation congratulates the groundbreaking designers shortlisted for the 2024 Siminovitch Prize and the talented emerging artists that the finalists have chosen to mentor. We look forward to the significant work they will go on to make for years to come.” – Briony Glassco, Chair, Siminovitch Theatre Foundation Board of Directors

Commitment to Artistic Growth

A total of $138,000 was awarded: $75,000 to the Siminovitch Prize Laureate, $25,000 to the Siminovitch Prize Protégé, $5,000 to each of the shortlisted artists, and $5,000 to the three emerging artists selected by the finalists. Each finalist/emerging artist pair also receives $2,000 to support collaboration and mentorship in 2025.

Documentaries Showcasing Canadian Theatre

Audiences can step into the studios of the 2024 Siminovitch Prize finalists for an intimate glimpse into their artistic vision and creative process through short documentaries in the Siminovitch Showcase.

2024 Siminovitch Prize Jury

Each year, a jury of professional theatre artists from varied disciplines and backgrounds selects the Laureate. The 2024 Siminovith Prize jury included Reneltta Arluk, MJ Dandeneau, Soheil Parsa, Jessica Poirier-Chang, and Jury Chair Guillermo Verdecchia.

Musicata Chamber Choir | Solid Joys and Lasting Treasures

From a media release:

Musicata Chamber Choir
Solid Joys and Lasting Treasures
December 1, 2024

Get Tickets

Come join the Musicata Chamber Choir for an unforgettable experience at the Church of the Ascension. This event promises to fill your heart with joy and your soul with treasures that will last a lifetime. Don't miss out on this opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and bask in the warmth of community. 

Mark your calendars and get ready for a day filled with inspiration and love!

Musicata is joined by cellist Miriam Stewart-Kroeker and organist Stephen Boda in Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy), Pachelbel’s Magnificat, Mendelssohn’s Weihnachten and many other old and new songs of seasonal joy.

Guest Performers

Hamilton native Miriam Stewart-Kroeker began her musical studies at the age of five. She earned an Honours Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance, followed by a Diploma in Chamber Music Performance. She subsequently earned a Master's degree in Cello Performance at McGill University.

Miriam is an avid chamber as well as orchestra musician. She is a co-founder of the Andromeda Trio, and has performed as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. She is a former member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. 

Musicata Chamber Choir (Photo courtesy of Musicata)

Stephen Boda is a noted organist, composer and teacher based in Hamilton. Stephen earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto, followed by an Artist Diploma at McGill University. He went on to earn a Master of Music degree from Yale University. 

He has performed as a soloist across North America, and has accompanied choirs throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Stephen is the Principal Organist at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto.

He is also a passionate educator. 

The concert takes place at the historic Church of the Ascension, 64 Forest Avenue Hamilton, ON L8N 1X1.Musicata 2024/25 Season

Season tickets (3 concerts) - $75

March 2, 2025 - Bells, Bongos and Bernstein

Percussionists Stefan Kitai and Byron Allen rejoin Musicata in a wide-ranging concert of music for choir and percussion. Bernstein’s haunting Miss Brevis centres a program that also includes music from Africa and Latin America.

May 4, 2025 - Myth Congeniality

The lighter side of Musicata expresses itself this year with a program of music that takes a modern look at antiquity. New works by Broadway composer Rosalind Mills, and Alice Dearden give a quirky modern take on tales from Greek mythology.

Musicata is joined by clarinet, piano, and percussion in this wild ride into the distant past.

A taste of the choir:

The Vancouver Art Gallery Opens the First Exhibition in Canada Dedicated to Firelei Báez

From a media release:

The Vancouver Art Gallery Opens the First Exhibition in Canada Dedicated to Firelei Báezon view at the Vancouver Art Gallery from November 3, 2024, to March 16, 2025

This major survey will take over the second floor and exterior of the Gallery, showcasing two decades of otherworldly painting, sculpture and installation

Check it out here

OCTOBER 29, 2024, VANCOUVER, BC // Traditional Coast Salish Lands including the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ) Nations.  

The Vancouver Art Gallery is proud to present the first North American solo exhibition dedicated to the work of Firelei Báez, one of the most exciting painters of her generation. 

Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019 (detail), two paintings, hand-painted wooden frame, perforated tarp, printed mesh, handmade paper over found objects, plants, books, Oman incense and palo santo, The Joyner/ Giuffrida Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle, © Firelei Báez

Spanning nearly two decades of her career, Báez’s rich and potent body of work delves into the complicated and often incomplete historical narratives that surround the Atlantic Basin and reexamines these histories for the present day. 

Over the past twenty years, Báez has made work that explores the legacies of colonial rule in the Americas and the Caribbean, drawing from sci-fi, fantasy, anthropology, folklore and mythology to propose new narratives. 

Firelei Báez, Fire wood pretending to be fire, February 12, 2012, 2013, acrylic and gouache on Yupo paper, Collection of Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr., Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Adam Reich, © Firelei Báez

The exhibition features over two dozen paintings (some over 20 feet in length), drawings and sculptural installations, all of which are expansively vibrant and original, creating a sense of otherworldliness. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and featuring the largest number of Báez’s paintings gathered in one place to date, this spectacular survey offers Canadian audiences the rare opportunity to revel in Báez’s powerful stories and sumptuous details.

“We are honoured to host the only presentation of Firelei Báez’s work on North America’s West Coast,” says Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “Currently located in a historical courthouse steeped in colonial history, the Vancouver Art Gallery is an apt site for showcasing Báez’s art, weaving another narrative into her rich tapestry of history, folklore and fantasy.” 

Firelei Báez, Sans-Souci (This threshold between a dematerialized and a historicized body), 2015, acrylic and ink on linen, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museum purchase with funds provided by Lesie and Greg Ferrero and Rose Ellen Meyerhoff Greene, Photo: Oriol Tarridas, ©The Works

Historical knowledge is met with colour and imagination in this exhibition, which results in powerful, richly coloured paintings and immersive sculptural installations that offer visitors the sensation of stepping into Báez’s world. 

This ambitious survey will take over an entire floor at the Vancouver Art Gallery, including two works installed in the rotunda, where they engage with the building’s colonial architecture and history. The exterior of the building will showcase a banner designed by the artist specifically for the Gallery’s facade, poignantly covering its imposing neo-classical architecture with a mythical female protagonist and engaging the city’s location at the edge of the ocean. 

Truth was the bridge (or an emancipatory healing) (2024) depicts a ciguapa—a mythological figure that is a recurring motif in Báez’s work— crouching over a map on the left panel, while a tidal wave on the right crashes towards the centre. Báez often paints overtop maps, charts or construction plans for colonial architecture to challenge our understanding of power, history and truth. In Truth was the bridge (or an emancipatory healing), she combines this practice with her common reimagining of Afrodiasporic figures, ciguapas of Dominican folklore and other mythological creatures. The ciguapa is a woman-plant-animal hybrid who is known to be a trickster, reclaimed as a powerful femme figure by the artist. 

This monumental mural is a reminder that colonial histories can be reimagined for future generations. 

Firelei Báez, Adjusting the Moon (The right to non-imperative clarities): Waxing, 2019–20, oil and acrylic on panel, Private Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Christopher Burke Studios, © Firelei Báez
From the Curator

Firelei Báez is the first major exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery curated by Eva Respini, who joined the Gallery in 2023 as Deputy Director & Director of Curatorial Programs. 

“Since I first saw Firelei’s work over a decade ago, I have been impressed by the rigour of the work, and its expansive creativity and ambition. From the very beginning, she has made work that explores how we understand the Americas and its colonial histories. In this moment, her insistence on revising the dominant narratives to include multiple perspectives, imaginary realms and layers of complexity, is not only refreshing, but necessary. Her sweeping, large scale paintings are history paintings for our era,” says Eva Respini, Deputy Director & Director of Curatorial Programs. 

Báez’s powerful paintings feature complex and layered use of pattern, decoration and saturated colour, and their impressive scale physically immerses viewers into her worlds. Her investment in painting’s capacity for storytelling and mythmaking informs all her work, including her sculptural installations, which bring this narrative quality into three dimensions. 

A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways) (2019) is an otherworldly installation that invites audiences to reassess the past, present and possible futures. A grotto-like space is cocooned in perforated blue tarp—a material often used for shelter following natural disasters, particularly in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where the artist’s family is from. The tarps are reimagined as the night sky, or perhaps an underwater world, casting spots of light onto material patterned with Black diasporic symbols of nurturing and resistance.

A notable work is Báez’s wall-size installation Man Without a Country (aka anthropophagist wading in the Artibonite River) (2014–15), in which Báez uses 225 pages sourced from late 19th century texts on the history of Hispaniola—the Caribbean Island that is divided between the Dominican Republic and Haiti—as supports for drawings depicting chimeric organisms, femme figurations and decorative embellishments. The markings intervene across the text, fusing folkloric motifs with academic writing to offer new ways of reading history and culture. Báez installs each page individually to form this intricate installation, suggestive of island geographies and bodies of water, which viewers navigate according to their personal paths and perspectives. 

Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019 (detail), two paintings, hand-painted wooden frame, perforated tarp, printed mesh, handmade paper over found objects, plants, books, Oman incense and palo santo, The Joyner/ Giuffrida Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle, © Firelei BáezBaezThe Exhibition: On The Road

This exhibition is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and will be on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery from November 3, 2024, to March 16, 2025. The exhibition will then move to the Des Moines Art Center (June 14, 2025 to September 21, 2025). Firelei Báez is curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director & Director of Curatorial Programs, Vancouver Art Gallery (former Barbara Lee Chief Curator, ICA/Boston), with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator, ICA/Boston. 

 The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, available for purchase in the Gallery Store. This beautiful hardcover publication features works from throughout Báez’s career, sketchbook extracts and essays by Leticia Alvarado, Katherine Brinson, Jessica Bell Brown, Julie Crooks, Daniella Rose King, Eva Respini, Hallie Ringle and Katy Siegel.

The artist talks about her work in a video: