
The Drop & The Turning 15 - Ohama - That Sky That You Have Here
‘Tona Walt Ohama has lived many lives. Born on a potato farm in Southern Alberta, he has spent the past forty years making passionate, deeply personal music while forging friendly connections with anyone who enters his orbit. Since his debut album, the 1982 cassette release Midnite News, Ohama has become a prolific producer and sound-art composer, as well as a community advocate for Calgary’s most marginalized people.’ – Jesse Locke
Ohama on Bandcamp: https://ohama.bandcamp.com/music
Ohama on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TonaOhama/
Credits – musical selection in order of their placement in the episode:
1. The Drum – originally released on the SNX Box Set France 1985 - Composed by Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
2. 3 Dancers The Final Release - The Dorothy Bishop Cello Soundscapes - Composed by Dorothy Bishop and Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
3. Multiambient Tower-Trees - 2014 High Performance Rodeo - Composed by Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
4. Swirling Leaves of Autumn II - The Dorothy Bishop Cello Soundscapes - Composed by Dorothy Bishop and Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
5. Kepler Was My Hero – My Electronic Country Album - Words & Music by Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
6. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry - My Electronic Country Album - Words & Music by Hank Williams Published Hiriam Music / Acuff-Rose Music Publishing Inc.
7. Thick as a Brick - Thick As A Brick The Synth Edition - Words & Music by Ian Anderson Published Chrysalis Music
8. A Tangerine Dream mixed with The Swirling Leaves Of Autumn as per the artist’s suggestion - Composed by Dorothy Bishop and Tona W. Ohama Published Midnite News Music (SOCAN)
All tracks MAPL except 7 AP
Jun 13, 2023

The Drop & The Turning 14: Lou Sheppard - Crepuscular Times of Day
An interview with Nova Scotia-based interdisciplinary artist Lou Sheppard (he/him).
Lou Sheppard is a Canadian artist working in interdisciplinary audio, performance and installation based practice. Of settler ancestry, Sheppard was raised on unceded Mi'Kmaq territory in rural Nova Scotia. Sheppard first studied theatre at Concordia University in Montreal, and then graduated with a BFA in Interdisciplinary studies from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He has also studied English Literature and Education. Sheppard now lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia/ Mi’kma’ki.
Sheppard’s practice is research driven and site specific, developing as particular projects or iterations of projects in response to a particular location. Sheppard’s artistic research reflects his background in critical theory and social activism. He is interested in languages, both as systems of notation and communication, as well as systems that structure and enact power.
Audio within this episode is excerpted from Lou's exhibition 'Rights of Passage' at the Art Gallery of York University in 2022.
Rights of Passage is comprised of five scores based on the interactions between rivers and the city in Toronto, This served as the chorus for a three act play that followed ai/drag performer/plant species through Toronto's riparian zones. The scores were interpreted and directed by Pamela Hart and sung by 8 voices: Kira Daube, Wren Tian, Seamus Gallagher, Arjun Lal, Helah Cooper, Lou Campbell, me and Pamela Hart.
Apr 14, 2023

Drop & Turn 14 / Traceries 1 - Mélanie, The Desert, & All The Possibilities of the Universe - an interview with multidisciplinary artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry
An interview between rebecca bruton and multidisciplinary artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry, about their upcoming opera 'Le Désert Mauve'.
Audio excerpts 1 &2 from 'La Réalité' (Opéra Le Désert Mauve)
Audio excerpts 3 & 4 from 'Angela' (Opéra Le Désert Mauve)
On March 23rd and 24th New Works Calgary presents, 'Le Désert Mauve,' an experimental queer opera (en Français!) by Montréal composer, writer, and visual artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry (they/them). This interdisciplinary performance work is based on the iconic Québécois dreamscape novel 'Mauve Desert,' by Governor General award-winning francophone poet Nicole Brossard. Through original paintings, sound, choreography, and music, Henry has created a performance 'translation' of the original text, resulting in a rich re-imagination of the iridescent harmonic textures of Brossard's literary sonic environment. The opera will run for two nights only at CSpace King Edward.
March 23rd – 7:30PM (1hour, no intermission)
March 24th – 7:30PM (1 hour, no intermission), followed by an artist Q & A
For tickets and further information: https://www.newworkscalgary.com/opera-le-desert-mauve, https://www.showpass.com/opera-le-desert-mauve/ Student and PWYC ticket options available.
At New Works Calgary we are working towards fostering safe and supportive artistic creation and presentation spaces; no forms of racism, sexism, transphobia/homophobia/biphobia will be tolerated.
Mar 22, 2023

Caitlind Brown & Wayne Garrett - Sometimes All You Need to Do is Go Outside and Listen
An interview between New Works Calgary Artistic Director Rebecca Bruton, and local artists Caitlind Brown and Wayne Garrett.
This interview provides information and context for Wayne and Caitlind's upcoming public participatory event 'Device For Listening To Snow Falling', on St. Patrick's Island. February 26th 2023, 2-5PM.
Device for Listening to Snow Falling invites audiences to engage in a participatory group performance of deep listening in the wintertime landscape. When temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, sound travels differently, moving further and more slowly. Snow absorbs sound, lowering the noise floor and quieting city spaces. Drawing from long histories of experimental sound and happenings, artists and musician Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett invite you to experience enhanced listening devices designed to expand your acoustic awareness – reaching further and more slowly into the soundscapes of familiar places. Be prepared for surprises.
Register here: https://www.showpass.com/device-for-listening-to-snow-falling/
Feb 23, 2023

Jonathan Kawchuk - Everything You See Was Once Alive
A conversation between New Works Calgary Artistic Director rebecca bruton, and Albertan composer, wilderness-recordist and paleontology-enthusiast Jonathan Kawchuk. Jonathan is fascinated by how the music and sound we create can interact with, and stem from, the natural world (rather than just mirror the sounds and structures we hear). Much like a documentary might aim to illustrate facts about a subject, his work aims to document, archive, and translate the emotional atmosphere of non-human natural environments.
Audio excerpts are all from Jonathan's 2022 album Everywhen. https://jonathankawchuk.bandcamp.com/ In order of their placement in the interview:
,look at this distractor
Talus Talus Tallis
Death of a Poacher
Solar Plexus
Place So Thin
Everywhen
Feb 17, 2023

Xuan Ye - Mutual Agency, Machinic Bodies
A conversation between New Works Calgary Artistic Director rebecca bruton and Toronto-based artist Xuan Ye.
Xuan Ye 叶轩 (CN/CA) works across various art, music, design and technology contexts. Their work coheres around hacking-informed noisemaking, the erratum and the untranslatable. They work with more-than-human agencies to construct multisensory networked experiences synthesizing language, code, sound, body, image, data, light, and time.
The artist has been featured and exhibited internationally, including at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (CN), the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, Venice Architecture Biennale (IT), MUTEK (CA), Centre de Design de l’UQAM à Montréal (CA), Fonderie Darling (CA), Varley Art Gallery (CA), the Art Gallery of Ontario (CA), Inside-out Art Museum (CN), the Goethe-Institut (Beijing & Montreal), ArtAsiaPacific (Issue. 111), KUNSTFORUM (Bd. 257), among others. They have received grants from the Arts Councils at three levels in Canada. They are a recipient of the SSHRC scholarship and a finalist of the 2018 EQ Bank Digital Artists Award.
As a musician, X is techne agnostic and genre eclectic and has been lauded as “one of Canada’s most exciting voices in textural soma.” They have been commissioned by Edmonton New Music (2021), and the Canadian Music Centre (2020). They have performed at numerous experimental music festivals and DIY shows, sharing programs with Phew, Pharmakon, Chris Corsano, Carl Stone, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Xylouris White, GOOOOOSE, etc. Their live performances and music releases have received critical accolades from Bandcamp, Exclaim! and Musicworks.
Music featured in this episode:
uncertain loop no.20190510 总是这样的循环第20190511号 (2019)
Dec 20, 2022

just ordinary things: a conversation with crys cole
A conversation between New Works Calgary Artistic Director rebecca bruton and Berlin-based Canadian Sound Artist crys cole.
crys cole performs with Oren Ambarchi at Highline Brewing in Calgary on October 24th 2022. For more information visit http://newworkscalgary.com, or http://bugincision.com. Audio excerpts, in order of their appearance in the episode:
Ora Clementi (crys cole & James Rushford) - Dialogue Between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea Captain (2021)
crys cole - excerpt from ‘A Piece Of Work’ (2022)
crys cole - excerpt from 'filling a space with salt' (2013)
crys cole - excerpt from 'Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr' (2021)
Oct 13, 2022

Bongga Bongga - A conversation with April Aliermo
A one-hour conversation between New Works Calgary Artistic Director rebecca bruton, and Filipina-Canadian musician April Aliermo.
For the last 10 years, playing bass, synths and samplers, April Aliermo has extensively toured North America, Europe and Asia with her rock and electronic bands, Hooded Fang and Phèdre. In 2018, she begun her solo foray into sound art. She mentored under pioneering sound artist Christina Kubisch at the Darmstadt Summer Course New Music Festival, studying and recording "hidden" electromagnetic sounds as well as site specific, immersive sound installations. Since then, she has performed and installed her own sound art pieces at The Music Gallery and Long Winter in Toronto and Pique in Ottawa. As a Filipina-Canadian artist, April attempts to create sonic works that uncover clandestine narratives, while gently asking one to question socio-political systems and reality.
Music featured in this episode, in order of appearance in the conversation:
1. Artemis of Colour (Excerpt 1) - Audio recorded at the Music Gallery by: Paul Hodge, 2019.
2. Artemis of Colour (Excerpt 2) - Audio recorded at the Music Gallery by: Paul Hodge, 2019.
3. Zenith, by Phèdre (Excerpt) - Released 2020. https://phedre.bandcamp.com/ 4. Happy Meal? 02 (Excerpt) - https://soundcloud.com/apeyapey/happy-meal-02 5. Happy Meal? 02 (Excerpt) -
https://soundcloud.com/apeyapey/happy-meal-02 6. Simula (Teaser Excerpt) - https://vimeo.com/721063153 7. Simula (Teaser Excerpt) - https://vimeo.com/721063153
Jul 15, 2022

chik white - feeding the marsh
A one-hour interview with experimental jaw-harpist, actor, and writer Darcy Spidle, who releases work under the name chik white and is based in West Chezzetcook.
Musical excerpts, in order of their placement in the interview:
Intro – chik white and Philadelphia guitarist Bill Nace, on the album 'off motion' – to be released later in 2022
xY3-rat – from a split with Vancouver Noise artist Hermit – to be released later in 2022
Excerpt from part 2 of chik white's ‘Wind Wound’ – coming out this winter
Excerpt for the 2004 record ‘NoiseBloodAssault’ by The Hold
Erasing, from the aforementioned Biill Nace collaboration
Joseph, from the Hermit split
Nose Wires from chik white's ‘Solo Horn’, out now on Soundholes
Excerpt from Johann Georg Albrecthsberger’s Concerto for Jaw Harp, Mandora and Orchestra
Jun 16, 2022

seth cardinal dodginghorse – Wild strawberries on the ground:
seth cardinal dodginghorse is an experimental musician, cultural researcher, and multidisciplinary artist working within performance, printmaking, installation, sound and film. He grew up eating dirt and exploring the forest on his family’s ancestral land on the Tsuu’tina nation. In 2014 he and his family were forcibly removed from their homes and land for the construction of the South West Calgary Ring Road. His work explores his family’s history and experiences of displacement.
Mar 10, 2021
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