What recordings best convey the live feeling of improvisation? Today we showcase the views of IICSI affiliates about what to listen! David Lee suggests “Ra” by Evan Parker and Paul Lytton; Alexandre Pierrepont recommends Memorize the Sky; Maggie Nicols, Joëlle Léandre, and Lindsay Cooper “Live at the Bastille” is Chris Tonelli’s favourite; and Lisa Lorenzino … Continue reading Episode #13: Essential Recordings →

Poet and Spoken Word artist Jack Daniel reflects on what it means to bring fragmentation and disjuncture into the improvisational situation. How can words interrupt and provoke our habitual ways of being expressive together? Do they help us say what is unsayable, to acknowledge the underbelly of human existence? This episode originally aired on CFRU … Continue reading Episode #12: Broken Robots →

This episode showcases the performance of composer Dan Blake’s new work, Without Walls at Ibeam in Gowanus Brooklyn. In addition to hearing the performance that features musicians Christina Van Alstine, Erin Wight, Yegor Shevtsov, and Kevin Sims, you’ll hear Dan Blake reflect on his relationship to improvising and composing respectively, storytelling and character, and finding … Continue reading Episode #11: Dan Blake Loosening the Hinges →

Sound artist and site-specific performer Jen Reimer meditates on her fascination with resonant spaces, explaining how eking out a space to practice the french horn instigated her creative process, and eventually a generative collaboration with sound experimenter Max Stein. Hear recordings of their performances in a former cistern in Mãe d´Agua, Lisboa and an old chimney at Skagaströnd, Iceland. This … Continue reading Episode #10: Jen Reimer Building Space with 60 Hz Harmonies →

Drift through an hour of life with this diffuse and meditative episode, which originally aired on November 20th at 3pm. Hear the latest updates from the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, Marcel Swiboda of School of Fine Art, History of Art, and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, UK talk about “Sun Ra’s Philosophical … Continue reading Episode #9: Spiritual Snowdrift →

Arwen Fleming reads from Permission (2013) by York University’s S.D. Chrostowska, I improvise a celestial soundscape out of NASA’s outer-space audio archive, Afrofuturist Filmmaker Cauleen Smith talks about her Black Utopia LP, being Sun Ra’s student, and the multidimensional nature of sound, Matt Furlong worries about being too cerebral (the music is the thinking), and … Continue reading Episode #8: Deep Space, Sun Ra, and Psyche →

Originally airing at 3pm on CFRU 93.3FM on October 23, 2014, this episode considers the relationship between improvisation and composition. I speak with Nick Storring about his tactile composition process on his new album Gardens, musicologist Chris Stover on the value and limits of scores as well as his understanding of Beat Span, and Guleph … Continue reading Episode #7: Writing, Recording and The Ephemeral →

This episode originally aired on CFRU 93.3FM on October 9th at 3pm. In it: Sean Michaels on Tanya Tegaq, Pamela Dwyer of the Cagibi and Mozart’s Sister on gender in the music industry, James Hale on jazz and John Stetch, Neelamjit Dhillon on his project Komagata Maru, Jeff Bird and Jeff Cairns on musical instruments … Continue reading Episode #6: Marginal(ized) Music →

This episode originally aired on CFRU 93.3FM on September 24th at 3pm. It features Chris Tonelli speaking about boundary pushing vocalist Jeanne Lee, Dana Reason on disrupting the body in order to find an improvising voice, and composer Kip Haaheim about how to find the musical underpinnings in speech. All of these conversations took place … Continue reading Episode #5: Voice! Guelph Jazz Festival →

This hour welcomes Dong-Won Kim to Guelph as Improviser-In-Residence. We learn of Dong-Won’s relationship with Korean traditional music, to loneliness and improvising, inspiration and digestion. Hear him playing with Jesse Stewart, Jeff Bird, and Jeff Cairns, and in conversation with Daniel Fischlin, as well as Danica Evering, and Alissa Firth-Eagland of CFRU’s The Secret Ingredient.