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THE AMBiENT PiNG http://www.theambientping.com Tuesdays @ HACiENDA - 794 Bathurst Street at Bloor - Toronto (upstairs - directly across from the Bathurst subway station) Doors open at 9pm - 1st set at 9:30 - PayWhatYouCan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THiS Tuesday, January 31st . iomedia (Neil Wiernik, Mantissa, Rob Cruickshank, Dafydd Hughes, Len Goins, Michael Trommer, Oliver Heinrich, David McCallum, VJ Nokami and Ben Bogart) iomedia is a collaborative collective of sound and video artists exploring real-time performance in an improvised construction that is reminiscent of 1960's free-jazz. The fluctuating group of participants utilize a wide variety of instruments to make their audio/video compositions, including homemade hardware, customized software applications, analog synthesizers, samplers, and video mixers. Members of the group also experiment with performance techniques such as live sampling, real-time sample manipulation, and audio/video interaction. The group is associated with the InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre in Toronto and performs there on a monthly basis. On Jan 31st, iomedia will be: audio: Neil Wiernik, Mantissa, Rob Cruickshank, Dafydd Hughes, Len Goins, Michael Trommer, Oliver Heinrich and David McCallum video: VJ Nokami and Ben Bogart 0930-1020 iomedia . 1025-1045 Ben Bogart . 1050-1140 iomedia iomedia . http://www.mantissa.ca/iomedia Mantissa . http://www.mantissa.ca Ben Bogart . http://www.ekran.org/ben Neil Wiernik . http://www.naw.phoniq.net Nokami . www.nokami.com Len Goins . www.mortmain.com Dafydd Hugues . http://www.sideshowmedia.ca Rob Cruickshank . http://www.robcruickshank David McCallum . http://www.sintheta.org InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre . http://www.interaccess.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Before Sets CD . Transparent Planet by Numina As part of his ongoing re-release project, Jesse Sola of Numina has remastered and reissued this long out of print disc which is an excellent collection of early Numina music. Read about it here in rik's *ping things* CD review below and hear it Tuesday @ the PiNG. http://www.numinamusic.com No Between Set CD this week. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COMiNG Tuesday February 7th 2006 . Arms Full of Sound "Journey To Ambientia Winter" Journey to Ambientia 2: Seasons, is the year long project from Arms Full of Sound that will take you back to that special place, deep within the ambient mind. On the last journey, you were taken to the powerful place called Ambientia, where you were able to explore its strange ways of music. The Traveler is still there trapped in the timeless world of music. We now embark on the year-long journey to help the Traveler come home. We return to Ambientia and experience what the Traveler has learned so that we may help him home. The seasons change one into another and back again. Our journey begins again. All must end where it began. Arms Full of Sound is an Ambient-Electronic music performer formed 4 years ago by Paul Needler. Using a large compliment of analog, digital and software synthesizers, Arms Full of Sound produces live blends of ambient music, usually all improvisational. http://www.armsfullofsound.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rik maclean's *ping things* CD Reviews As part of his ongoing re-release project, Jesse Sola of Numina has remastered and reissued his long out of print "Transparent Planet" disc, an album showcasing some of Sola's earlier work. It's an excellent collection of tracks and a wonderful insight into the talents and wonder inherent in the music of Numina from the very beginning of Sola's musical career. Opening with "A Distant Gaze, Then Silence" we're treated to a number of pads and waves interweaving around each other. Shaken tones tremble on the periphery and other sounds rise up to be heard for only an instant before disappearing into the soundpool. Simply lovely work. Track two, "Further Entwined (Early Mix)", is a slightly darker track, minor key chords swelling up and gaining in strength, the sounds of a moonlit tide ebbing and flowing. The sounds of darkness, vaguely unsettling, but still very engaging, drawing us in like a long standing mystery. This leads into "The Vacant Domain", a slowly building drone based piece where vague melodies and the sounds of steam continue to beguile the listener. It's quite a moving piece, very emotive despite it's minimal elements, a testimony to Sola's abilities. "Beyond Infinity" follows, a pulsing phrase repeating itself overtop a thick, shimmering wave. It's hypnotic, speaking to blood memory and collective DNA, slowly growing and shifting while alien voices are heard faintly in the background. A fine example of the kind of magic that fans of Numina have come to expect from his releases. "Interlude for K" is up next, a strikingly beautiful piece of music, an aural landscape where sweeping pads and waves create images of lush spaces and warm environments. You can't help but feel you are there, a secret location of wonder and magic formed through the music. "From a Darkened Path" features a haunting chorus of voices, the suggestion of woodwinds from distant planets accompanied by strange music unlike anything we're familiar with here on Earth. A visit to alien worlds, new cultures laid out before us to be seen and experienced. We return to more familiar (but no less beautiful) environments with "The Moments Before the Glass Shattered", a musical tone poem capturing a brief instant in time, a second of purity before change. Phrases repeat and morph, allowing us to examine them from a variety of angles, sides, shapes, forms, all in an effort to show the truth of that particular time. The disc closes with "Dustclouds on the Horizon", a slow cascade of tones that blends together to create a kaleidoscopic soundfield, shifting and changing as the song progresses. Beautiful. As with all his later releases, "Transparent Planet" is a fine showcase of Jesse Sola's talents as an ambient artist. From the way that he is able to manipulate sound to create a new atmosphere for the listener, to his ability to wring emotion and feeling from his work, to the way that he is able to create beautiful and striking work from such minimal sources, all of Sola's talents are on display in fine form. An excellent collection from the Numina back catalogue. "Transparent Planet" by Numina is available now at ping things! http://www.pingthings.com/NUMINAtransparent.htm rik maclean - rik@pingthings.com http://www.pingthings.com = ambient + electronic + chill things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * Other Toronto area sonic/visual events of interest this week: * Thursday, February 2nd . Improvisors' Pool Ralph Thornton Centre, 765 Queen Street East East of Broadview and west of De Grassi 7:00-9:00 * Thursday, February 2nd . Coexistence Series #4 A monthly series of duet collaborations, this month featuring: John Wilson - guitar Colin Anthony - piano TRANZAC 292 Brunswick Ave 7:30pm * Friday, February 3rd . Interface Fundraiser Series in association with Arraymusic and AIMT i - Dutton / Piilonen / Yue / Morse w/ paul dutton - voice, rob piilonen - flute, andy yue - piano, michael morse - bass ii - I Have Eaten the City w/ colin fisher - tenor sax/guitar, nick storring - cello/laptop, brandon valdivia - drums iii - Bateman / Bichan / Anthony / Luciani w/ victor bateman - bass, dougal bichan - violin/bamboo flute, colin anthony - piano, jeff luciani - drums 9:00pm ARRAYMUSIC Studio 60 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 218 $15 * Saturday, February 4th . Canadian Music Centre Continues Province-Wide Professional Readings Series in 2006 Toronto Wind Orchestra, conducted by Tony Gomes, read previously unperformed works for winds, brass and percussion by composers Arsenio Giron and Elma Miller. 1 – 2:30 PM, Laidlaw Hall, Upper Canada College FREE ADMISSION * Saturday, February 4th . LEARK presents AN ELECTRONIC ZEN GARDEN - Performance of interactive installation piece “An Electronic Zen Garden” by LEARK (Live Electro Acoustic Research Kitchen), a Kingston, ON based electroacoustic collective whose founding members include Kristi Allik, Mike Cassells, Aglaia Lessard, David McCallum, Robert Mulder and Adam Tindale. $15 regular/$10 member + senior/$5 student 8PM The Music Gallery, 197 John St. * Saturday, February 4th . Interface Fundraiser Series in association with Arraymusic and AIMT i - Todd Biffard's "Apparatus" w/ todd biffard - drums, kiran sachdev - guitar, adam teixeira - drums, matt roberts - bass, mike glendon - tenor, dan corbett - trombone ii - Lerner / Nachoff / Higgins w/ marilyn lerner - piano, quinsin nachoff - tenor saxophone, bret higgins - bass iii - Elie Katzin Trio w/ elie katzin - guitar, scott peterson - bass, nick fraser - drums 9:00pm ARRAYMUSIC Studio 60 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 218 $15 * Sunday, February 5th . Interface Fundraiser Series in association with Arraymusic and AIMT i - Peebles / Haley / Driver w/ sarah peebles - laptop, mixing bowls, bees geordie haley - red pre-peared guitar 'nd efx, ryan driver - analog synth and thumb reeds ii - Paydirt w/ dafydd hughes - laptop, dave clark - drums, joe lapinski - guitar iii - Hansen / Keith w/ mike hansen - turntable, michael keith - guitar 4pm NOW Lounge 189 Church St. $15 * Sunday, February 5th . CONTINUUM: PLAYING IN TONGUES premieres of three newly commissioned works by composers Peter Hatch - Five Memos, Michael Oesterle - Heuristic Imitations and Patrick Saint-Denis - zone confortable + Argentinean-American Fernando Benadon - Meet Café $20 regular/$10 seniors + arts workers/$5 students 8PM The Music Gallery, 197 John St. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE AMBiENT PiNG is a social sound/art event presenting live performances by Toronto's finest ambient, chillout, improv and experimental music artists plus performers from across the continent, every Tuesday evening at HACiENDA - 794 Bathurst Street at Bloor. http://www.theambientping.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Please forward this e-mail to any friends who may be interested in live ambient, chillout and experimental music performances or to any of your appropriate newsgroups. Thanks.