8 pm | SAKINA ABDOU
Lille-based saxophonist and flutist Sakina Abdou has been active for many years within explosive collectives such as Muzzix, but it's as a solo artist that her strong, multi-faceted identity shines through: a powerful, precise sound, sometimes fierce, sometimes full of grace and quietude.
Abdou studied the flute (early and contemporary music) and the saxophone (classical/contemporary/jazz) at the Music Academy of Lille and Roubaix. She graduated from the Fine Arts School of Tourcoing and Valenciennes (DNAP, DNSEP) and also has a State Diploma of Music Teacher. Since 1998, she has been a member of various music bands in Lille's area. Concurrently with her studies, she has explored free improvisation, experimental and contemporary music within various entities: La Pieuvre orchestra, led by Olivier Benoit, part of the collective of musicians Muzzix, the band Vazytouille, part of the collective of musicians Zoone Libre, Le Miroir et le Marteau led by rock drummer Guigou Chenevier, the free rock quintet Eliogabal or the TOC & The Compulsive Brass Band.
"It's a music of paradoxes: at once airy, with its sudden bifurcations and devilishly earthy, planted in the raucousness of the reeds."
– Franpi Barriaux
9 pm | DOUG TIELLI’S IMAGINARY BRASS BAND
A long-time contributor to the range of experimental music in Toronto affiliated with the Rat-drifting record label, multi-instrumentalist Doug Tielli has been a key member of groups like the Silt, the Reveries, and Drumheller. Now based in Neustadt, Ontario, he has been more engaged in community music initiatives, activities that have inspired his Imaginary Brass Band project, a set of joyful, not-so-imaginary (but certainly imaginative!) tunes for an ensemble of brass and rhythm featuring Tielli, Heather Saumer, Emily Ferrell (trombones), Colin Couch (tuba), Charles Spearin (trumpet), Tania Gill (piano), and Aidan McConnell (drums).
Creating a quilt, or a pillow, not yet knowing who it’s for. A glove - that fits any hand … but just one at a time … a glove for a weather not yet known. In the fertile void of 2020-2022 The Imaginary Brass Band coalesced based on compositions for an ensemble that could not yet exist.
Writing and recording this music for an imagined group of musicians provided a source of energy, and a sense of vitality and possibility. When playing in larger groups became easier again, a real-life ensemble of instrumentalists came together to bring the imaginary to life. Friendly and strange, innocent and complex, this music rearranges the organic-familiar and celebrates the unusual.
Photo by Zena Curwain
10 pm | DAVID REMPIS & TASHI DORJI
North Carolina-based Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji and Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis first came together as a duo on the extensive solo tour that Rempis undertook across the US in 2017. Performing together in Dorji’s hometown of Asheville, the two spurred one another on with back-to-back solo sets that ratcheted up the fire, before coming together in a shared union of volcanic proportions. That initial meeting quickly led to the formation of the trio Kuzu with drummer Tyler Damon, which has toured extensively, and released five outstanding records since 2018. Over the past couple of years, the two have also decided to revisit the more stripped back duo context as a way to re-discover the underlying tendons of what’s become a profound musical relationship.
Both of these musicians have the ability to come out of the gate spewing lava at anything in their path. But they also know how to temper that energy into patiently constructed arcs, where meditative inner focus within the maelstrom renders the magnificence of their long form constructions even more powerful. At times, spacious gestures carve up the canvas with the austerity of a calligrapher, while at others those sparse gestures build into an unstoppable tsunami of energy. Those waves are never impulsive or impetuous though, they ebb and flow logically and patiently out of simple and clearly defined sources. Rempis’ penchant for pentatonic melodies and rough and tumble timbres combines seamlessly with Dorji’s thick, raw sound and singular approach to intonation to produce a music that’s exquisitely detailed at any one point in time, yet can also carry the narrative arc of their longer-form explorations without ever losing its coordinates.
$30 advance tickets (for 4 acts) via Eventbrite
$40 door
$85 festival weekend pass via Eventbrite
No one is refused admission for lack of funds
