Inner Magazines

As to how we appreciate music, I’m a big fan of the so called Gestalt theory. Sort of. The theory says, in general terms, that the brain/mind automatically organizes sonic elements into patterns and configurations (Gestalt) to make sense of the environment, and before entering particularistic evaluations. So, rather than taking individual music samples, tracks or records, one...

After IAG released a new edition of the 60s classic, the LEAK Stereo 30 amplifier, and another famous British audio manufacturer, Musical Fidelity (Audio Tuning), introduced a replica of its 1980s A1 cult amplifier a couple of years ago, it was only a matter of time, I guess, before IAG would release a new edition of one of the QUAD’s classic amplifiers. Retro is fashionable....

When I first saw the image of Ludivine Large-Bessette’s Blinded Wheels, a video installation from 2021/2022, it made me a strong special impression, and reminded me of the iconic scene from Chaplin’s film Modern Times, where a large machine has swallowed a worker sliding on the machine’s conveyor belt between the wheels. The sprockets, nuts, chains, gear etc. exhibit an irres...

Microtonality is not a new invention, even in Western musical cultures. A number of contemporary composers make extensive use of it in different forms, often dividing the octave into quarter tones, and the like. In his latest album, Loop 7, the pianist and composer Phillip Golub continues his acoustic loops project using a 22-note per octave tuning system, and in so doing exp...

Montréal based experimental music label Ambiances Magnétiques has published two new albums: Le sourire, a Steve Lacy tribute by Canadian artists Jean Derome & Somebody Special, and Platanus by the duo of noted Toronto-based composer-improviser Allison Cameron (crackle synthesizer, keyboards, tapes), and Montréal’s Scott Thomson (on trombone). It’s the latter album that I ...