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Abigail Washburn's music is a visionary melange

Abigail Washburn's music is a visionary melange

By Alexander Varty | February 9, 2012
Both as a solo artist and in the company of the Nashville all-stars who make up her Sparrow Quartet, former Beijing resident Abigail Washburn has generated a significant buzz in roots-music circles.
Dances for a Small Stage 25 proves the series' longevity is entirely justified

Dances for a Small Stage 25 proves the series' longevity is entirely justified

By Alexander Varty | February 2, 2012
Things were grim, then Grimm, then grim again. And intermittently goofy.
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Paul Pigat gets live at the WISE Hall

Paul Pigat gets live at the WISE Hall

By Alexander Varty | February 2, 2012
Paul Pigat has fond memories of the WISE Hall, which is totally understandable when you consider that one of his first gigs in Vancouver was there
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Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth is the real deal

Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth is the real deal

By Alexander Varty | February 1, 2012
Those looking for something truly new from the world’s latest trumpet sensation may have to wait a while.
Locals play for jailed birds at Waldorf Rock Lotto

Locals play for jailed birds at Waldorf Rock Lotto

By Alexander Varty | January 26, 2012
Rock, noise, and folk musicians, including prOphecy Sun, form impromptu bands for a charity concert.
Travis Laplante used music as part of a healing process

Travis Laplante used music as part of a healing process

By Alexander Varty | January 25, 2012
If you’re already acquainted with Evan Parker, John Butcher, Colin Stetson, and Mats Gustafsson, you’ll want to put Travis Laplante’s name on your list of must-see saxophonists.
Composer Rodney Sharman tells no tales in Chamber Symphony

Composer Rodney Sharman tells no tales in Chamber Symphony

By Alexander Varty | January 25, 2012
Glenn Gould once proclaimed Richard Strauss as the most important musical figure of the 20th century, but according to Rodney Sharman, the great pianist got it wrong.
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Grandpa's presence haunts Dirk Powell's mountain music

Grandpa's presence haunts Dirk Powell's mountain music

By Alexander Varty | January 19, 2012
A weathered, ghostly presence can be heard on Dirk Powell’s third Rounder Records release, Time Again.
Beat Nation Live melds hip-hop and art at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

Beat Nation Live melds hip-hop and art at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

By Alexander Varty | January 19, 2012
Call it a party with a purpose.
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PuSh Festival: Do You Want What I Have Got? An expanded song cycle conjures stories from classifieds

PuSh Festival: Do You Want What I Have Got? An expanded song cycle conjures stories from classifieds

By Alexander Varty | January 12, 2012
When the PuSh Festival announced its 2012 lineup, regular attendees were surprised to see Veda Hille and Bill Richardson’s Do You Want What I Have Got? described as a premiere.
PuSh Festival: Andrew Cross takes a look at a true master at play in The Solo

PuSh Festival: Andrew Cross takes a look at a true master at play in The Solo

By Alexander Varty | January 12, 2012
Prior to making his film Ensemble, the last time U.K.–based media artist Andrew Cross had seen enigmatic symphonic rockers the Enid was under what he describes as “mystical” circumstances.
PuSh Festival: Fiery Eve Egoyan keys into a legacy with Simple Lines of Enquiry

PuSh Festival: Fiery Eve Egoyan keys into a legacy with Simple Lines of Enquiry

By Alexander Varty | January 12, 2012
The combination of an extraordinary pianist, an acclaimed composer, and an acoustically interesting venue should be enough.
Flutist Soile Stratkauskas shows the beauty of going baroque

Flutist Soile Stratkauskas shows the beauty of going baroque

By Alexander Varty | January 12, 2012
It’s nice not to be brilliant, sometimes—or at least it is if you’re a flutist.
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Benoit Delbecq and François Houle craft a quiet conversation on Because She Hoped

Benoit Delbecq and François Houle craft a quiet conversation on Because She Hoped

By Alexander Varty | January 5, 2012
Because She Hoped (Songlines)
Late bloomer Alicia Hansen mixes it up on Fractography

Late bloomer Alicia Hansen mixes it up on Fractography

By Alexander Varty | January 4, 2012
Over a churning cello line and stately piano chords, a woman is describing a series of very uncomfortable scenes.
Charlotte Gill illuminates the tree-planting lifestyle in Eating Dirt

Charlotte Gill illuminates the tree-planting lifestyle in Eating Dirt

By Alexander Varty | December 28, 2011
There are so few really great books about life in the Pacific Northwest that it seems churlish to quibble with a pretty good one.
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Victoriaâs Current Swell hits the jackpot

Victoria’s Current Swell hits the jackpot

By Alexander Varty | December 27, 2011
Barring those reprobates in Twisted Solicitor, the richest indie band in B.C. is most likely Victoria’s Current Swell.
Top 10 albums of 2011: Alexander Varty

Top 10 albums of 2011: Alexander Varty

By Alexander Varty | December 15, 2011
This year, I tried to take a more scientific approach to the Top 10 list.
Critics make year-end book picks

Critics make year-end book picks

By Alexander Varty, Brian Lynch, Charlie Smith, David Chau, Jennifer Croll, and Michael Hingston | December 15, 2011
Here’s our annual roundup of the books that struck us as outstanding this year—not exhaustive, not definitive, but an accurate thumbnail of what grabbed us and didn’t let go.
Tori Amos channels the classics for Night of Hunters

Tori Amos channels the classics for Night of Hunters

By Alexander Varty | December 8, 2011
For Night of Hunters, songstress Tori Amos conjures the ghosts of composers like Franz Schubert and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Small-town life feeds Other Lives' sonic ambition

Small-town life feeds Other Lives' sonic ambition

By Alexander Varty | December 7, 2011
You might want to make a point of catching Other Lives at the Media Club this weekend, and not only because the band has invented a particularly beguiling brand of prog-tinged chamber pop.
Phil Dwyer explores the Canadian Songbook

Phil Dwyer explores the Canadian Songbook

By Alexander Varty | December 1, 2011
The saxophonist, pianist, composer, and arranger has come to a startling conclusion about Canada's pop music.
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Old-time mountain music is still in Riley Baugus's blood

Old-time mountain music is still in Riley Baugus's blood

By Alexander Varty | December 1, 2011
Back in the day when his high-school peers used to mock his banjo with requests for “Stairway to Heaven”, Riley Baugus never dreamed that he would have such sweet, sweet revenge.
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Vancouver Pro Musica catches ghostly zone in Shadow Catch

Vancouver Pro Musica catches ghostly zone in Shadow Catch

By Alexander Varty | November 30, 2011
The stories of Oppenheimer Park are told in a 21st-century opera that draws on ancient Japanese Noh theatre.
South-of-the-border connections keep the Deep Dark Woods rolling

South-of-the-border connections keep the Deep Dark Woods rolling

By Alexander Varty | November 24, 2011
Ryan Boldt is exactly where he wants to be: high in the mountains that surround Athens, Georgia, sitting on a friend’s porch and interrupting the silence every now and then with a rousing burst of small-arms fire.
Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal's Chamber Music is an excellent cross-cultural collaboration

Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal's Chamber Music is an excellent cross-cultural collaboration

By Alexander Varty | November 24, 2011
Chamber Music (No Format)
Tragedy and hope rule Etgar Keret's warped world

Tragedy and hope rule Etgar Keret's warped world

By Alexander Varty | November 23, 2011
Malign and nightmarish transformations are a constant in Etgar Keret’s creepily seductive micro-fictions.
Touring helped Ohbijou broaden its horizons

Touring helped Ohbijou broaden its horizons

By Alexander Varty | November 17, 2011
There’s a time in every successful group’s life when its horizons widen, as it goes from local buzz band to underground sensation to international touring act.
Puppet master Ronnie Burkettâs Penny Plain strings along the end of times

Puppet master Ronnie Burkett’s Penny Plain strings along the end of times

By Alexander Varty | November 17, 2011
The polar ice is melting, the economy’s in tatters, and a new pandemic looms: it’s the end of the world as we know it, and Ronnie Burkett feels fine.
Alvin Curran makes mad-scientist music in The Fake Book

Alvin Curran makes mad-scientist music in The Fake Book

By Alexander Varty | November 15, 2011
The 72-year-old musician's impending publication collects several hundred of the eccentric, experimental melodies he's composed over the years.
The Amazing's Gentle Stream evokes 1970s folk-rock

The Amazing's Gentle Stream evokes 1970s folk-rock

By Alexander Varty | November 10, 2011
Gentle Stream (Subliminal Sounds)
Bassekou Kouyate says griot music crosses language barriers

Bassekou Kouyate says griot music crosses language barriers

By Alexander Varty | November 9, 2011
Bassekou Kouyate is a griot, meaning that he’s part of an ancient, hereditary caste responsible for maintaining a body of songs and stories that have been passed down for generations.
Cross-cultural collaboration is at the heart of Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra's Orchestral Evolution

Cross-cultural collaboration is at the heart of Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra's Orchestral Evolution

By Alexander Varty | November 8, 2011
Founder Moshe Denburg's 24-piece band is set to tackle new commissions, remounts, and historical works during a 10th-anniversary concert.
Kronos Quartet's collective curiosity takes audiences all over the map

Kronos Quartet's collective curiosity takes audiences all over the map

By Alexander Varty | November 7, 2011
What makes Kronos special is that they're willing to try anything, although it does help that they're generally capable of pulling it off.
Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour spans the absurd to the shallow

Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour spans the absurd to the shallow

By Alexander Varty | November 5, 2011
It would be easy to lay the blame on the narrow shoulders of the hip-hop dancer and mime playing the Jackson role, but that would be unfair to Salah Benlemqawanssa.
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Canonizing the King of Pop in Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour

Canonizing the King of Pop in Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour

By Alexander Varty | November 3, 2011
Cirque du Soleil’s latest production merges archival recordings of Michael Jackson singing with live performances from an almost inhumanly skilled band.
Deer Tick gets quick and dirty

Deer Tick gets quick and dirty

By Alexander Varty | November 3, 2011
When it comes to making loud-and-fast rock ’n’ roll music, the Rhode Island–based band sees no reason to be subtle.
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The Field's Axel Willner prefers to keep his sample sources a secret

The Field's Axel Willner prefers to keep his sample sources a secret

By Alexander Varty | November 3, 2011
The Swedish-born, Berlin-based musician's Looping State of Mind is almost completely sample-based.
Kronos Quartet finds a virtuoso Kabul collaborator in Homayun Sakhi

Kronos Quartet finds a virtuoso Kabul collaborator in Homayun Sakhi

By Alexander Varty | November 3, 2011
Afghan performer Homayun Sakhi escaped from the fundamentalist zealots of the Taliban—his instrument concealed in the trunk of a car—to California.
A.S. Byatt's Ragnarok may spark night terrors

A.S. Byatt's Ragnarok may spark night terrors

By Alexander Varty | November 2, 2011
The English author best known for novels such as Possession and The Children's Book explores the darkness with a retelling of the Norse creation myth.
Cultures tangle in the Heart of the City Festival's Trisurgence

Cultures tangle in the Heart of the City Festival's Trisurgence

By Alexander Varty | October 27, 2011
The path that led Brad Muirhead to his latest, and largest, musical project, Trisurgence, was so long and complex that there’s no way we can give all the details here.
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Phil Dwyer Orchestra's Changing Seasons stands on its own merits

Phil Dwyer Orchestra's Changing Seasons stands on its own merits

By Alexander Varty | October 27, 2011
Changing Seasons (ALMA)
Short attention span led Friendly Rich to vaudeville

Short attention span led Friendly Rich to vaudeville

By Alexander Varty | October 26, 2011
While Richard Marsella is a mild-mannered music teacher, his alter ego Friendly Rich has clearly beamed in from a parallel universe.
Charles C. Mann's 1493 offers insight into globalization's beginnings

Charles C. Mann's 1493 offers insight into globalization's beginnings

By Alexander Varty | October 26, 2011
If you ever wanted to know how the world became the world, here’s a grand place to start.
Vancouver New Music Festival bravely takes on Iannis Xenakis

Vancouver New Music Festival bravely takes on Iannis Xenakis

By Alexander Varty | October 25, 2011
How do you play a piece that can’t be played?
Canadian rapper Socalled throws diverse house party

Canadian rapper Socalled throws diverse house party

By Alexander Varty | October 18, 2011
Chicago house maven Derrick Carter’s not the only noteworthy guest on Sleepover.
JACK Quartet tackles the contemporary at Festival: Xenakis

JACK Quartet tackles the contemporary at Festival: Xenakis

By Alexander Varty | October 18, 2011
Vancouver New Music Festival’s celebration of the Romanian-born Greek composer has a New York City-based string quartet playing what might be the most technically demanding work in the repertoire.
Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues finds music in a dangerous time

Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues finds music in a dangerous time

By Alexander Varty | October 13, 2011
Her phones are ringing, her inbox is full, and the entire Canadian literary world is all atwitter about Esi Edugyan
Chad VanGaalen dreams of Diaper Island

Chad VanGaalen dreams of Diaper Island

By Alexander Varty | October 13, 2011
While Diaper Island took three years to make, the 33-year-old Alberta-based musician is currently working on 11 records that he hopes to release very soon.
Endangered Blood songs get more than pint of love

Endangered Blood songs get more than pint of love

By Alexander Varty | October 13, 2011
It’s clear that there’s something very special about Endangered Blood, but it’s not immediately obvious what that might be.

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