VANCOUVER NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2007
17-20 October 2007
Show starts 8pm each night, artist panels 7:15 – 7:45pm each night
1 stage. 4 days. 108 strings.*
* give or take a dozen.
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie Street

Tickets $15/$10 each night, available at Zulu Records, Scratch, Tickets Tonight (604.231.7535 or www.ticketstonight.ca) and the door.

Passes for all 4 nights $50/$30, available at the door or by calling 604.633.0861.

For 2007, the Vancouver New Music Festival assembles an international conglomerate of some of the most innovative voices in guitar music today. From indie to abstract, acoustic to outlandish, Guitars! Guitars! will bring to your city a plethora of guitarists currently working to define or transcend their own respective performance tradition. 18 guitarists. 1 stage. Overkill? We think not.

Featuring performances by Oren Ambarchi (Australia), Paolo Angeli (Italy), Sir Richard Bishop (USA), Nicolas Bragg (Van), Bernard Falaise (Mtl), Bill Frisell (USA), Gord Grdina (Van), Her Jazz Noise Collective (Van), Annette Krebs (Germany), Rene Lussier (Mtl), Donald Miller (USA), James Plotkin (USA), Keith Rowe (UK), Tony Wilson (Van) and Walter Zanetti (Italy).

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> Download Festival Schedule-at-a-Glance PDF <

Wednesday October 17
Gord Grdina (Vancouver) - 8pm
A blend of the intensity of John McLaughlin and the linear phrasing of Joe Morris, with a bit of John Zorn attitude thrown in for good measure. - Coda

Gord Grdina is a Vancouver-based guitarist and oud player whose unique sound combines jazz, free-form improvisation and Arabic classical music. Grdina is a protégé of jazz great Gary Peacock, a pillar of Vancouver’s jazz and world music scenes and a member of Box Cutter, East Van Strings, Sangha, Maqam, Loose Acoustic and Think Like the Waves.

Nicolas Bragg (Vancouver) - 9pm
Here performing The Burial of Count Orgaz, Nicolas Bragg has been a familiar face in Vancouver’s music circles since 1991. He’s been involved in projects with Blaise Pascal, Citroen, The Bellerophontic Letter, The Countless Jibes and veterans of the Vancouver indie-rock scene Destroyer.

Oren Ambarchi  (Australia) - 10pm
Ambarchi does an amazing job of drawing the casual listener deep into his atmospheric world with a meditative intimacy that does a lot with so little. Minimalism at its most sublime. - Raf Katigbak

Oren Ambarchi treats listeners to his unmistakable style of delicately nuanced minimalism. His intimate, in-depth exploration of harmonics and resonance have led him to define seRené spaces of fluid, shifting sound that is both fragile and physical.

Bill Frisell (USA) - 11pm
Bill Frisell is the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he straps on his guitar. - Spin

Always anything but typical, guitarist, composer, band-leader and “jazz Renégade” Bill Frisell is well known as a purveyor of a unique sound that is both recognizable and uncategorizable. Over the years Frisell has lent his chameleon-like versatility to collaborations with John Zorn, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Rinde Eckert, Brian Eno and John Scofield just to name a few. 

Thursday October 18
Her Jazz Noise Collective (Vancouver) - 8pm
Her Jazz Noise Collective is an experimental music network for women in Vancouver. We are hell bent on creating an inclusive community and supportive space for women to meet and experiment musically. We hope this project will be a catalyst for the formation of more female-based groups in this genre! This is not a band, it's the beginning of a radical community.  Our lineup for this show features members from The Choir Practice, Shearing Pinx, In Flux, Self Help, The Internet!

Tony Wilson (Vancouver) - 9pm
… unquestionably one of the most original guitar stylists on the Canadian scene. – Coastal Jazz and Blues

A mainstay in Vancouver’s vibrant jazz community, Tony Wilson has performed as a soloist and with numerous ensembles including the Tony Wilson Sextet, Tony Wilson Quintet, and the Peggy Lee Band.  Drawing on the rich history of jazz and blues, Wilson carves a unique musical space for himself.

Sir Richard Bishop (USA) - 10:15pm
Sir Richard Bishop forces one to alter that hoary cliché to ‘jack of all trades, master of… damn near all’. – Foxy Digitalis

Most well known as a founding member of ethno-improv pioneers Sun City Girls, Sir Richard Bishop has spent the last 26 years perplexing, amazing and alienating audiences.  Citing Django Reinhardt, Jimmy Page and Ravi Shankar as amongst his primary influences, Sir Bishop’s guitar explorations often reflect the shadow worlds of India, the Middle East and other points along the Gypsy trail.

Friday October 19
Bernard Falaise (Montréal) - 8pm
His distinctive guitar style, at times raw and twangy, at others highly atmospheric, set him apart… – All-Music Guide

A cornerstone of Montreal’s free-improv scene, Bernard Falaise – a member of Miriodor, Klaxon Gueule, les Projectionnistes, Diesel, among others – returns to Vancouver for a solo performance.  Defying categorization, Falaise explores acid rock, twelve-tone waltzes and industrial tangos with equal enthusiasm.

Donald Miller (USA) - 9pm
His is a sustained ... and defiant examination of the noise particles inherent in a magnetic field. – Cadence

Having entered New York City’s budding free-improv scene in 1976 with a “sense of vengeance”, Donald Miller has remained a noisy presence in experimental music ever since.  A founding member of the volume-obsessed Borbetomagus, Miller’s legendarily aggressive guitar style infuses subtle layers into the wall of noise.

Keith Rowe (UK) - 10pm
Rowe is also a painter, and it is not fanciful to hear this music as painting with sound… or maybe sculpting with sound. – Dusted

One of the most influential experimental guitarists of our time, and co-founding member of groundbreaking ensemble AMM, Keith Rowe laid the foundations for a new way of approaching the instrument.  In reaction to the limitations imposed by the ‘jazz cotext’ of the 1960s, Rowe developed various prepared guitar techniques, employing objects such as a library card, rubber eraser, springs, hand-held electric fans, alligator clips, and common office supplies with immeasurable influence on generations of experimental musicians to come.

James Plotkin (USA) - 11pm
A longstanding figure at the nexus of extreme and marginal music, James Plotkin has moved from high impact metal through experimental noise and tingling, metallic ambience. He has worked with Scorn, K.K. Null, John Zorn, Flux, and more recently the disjointed ambience of Lotus Eaters, his own beat-mangling Phantomasher project, and the sludge-metal supergroup Khanate.

Saturday October 20
Annette Krebs (Germany) - 8pm
Krebs belongs in a category of those musicians who have expanded the concept of improvisation beyond Free Jazz, Post-Serialism or the ‘English School’ – Grob (notes)

Annette Krebs inhabits the crossover area between improvisation and composition, using an array of contact mics and amplification to coax unusual sonic-textures from her instrument. Krebs has become well-known for exploring the possibilities of the prepared guitar with regard to sound, structure, noise, the mixing of materials, and space.

On October 25, Annette Krebs and Jeffrey Allport will perform with guest Lee Hutzulak at Access Artist Run Centre (206 Carrall Street) as part of the Father Zosima Presents series.

Paolo Angeli (Italy) - 9pm
Always unorthodox and innovative, composer, instrument builder and virtuoso Paolo Angeli’s music uniquely blends avant-garde improvisation with complex folk and classical techniques. Playing a Sardinian guitar modified and prepared with, among other things, a giant mechanical claw on its side, Angeli’s instrument becomes a hybrid between guitar, drums and violoncello.

Walter Zanetti (Italy) - 10pm
Zanetti’s repertoire spans the canonical to the contemporary, often incorporating electronic elements and creative improvisation.  He has become recognized as one of Italy’s earliest and foremost advocates of repertoire for electric guitar, championing works by composers such as Steve Reich and Steven Mackey.

René Lussier  (Montreal) - 11pm
… a folklorist hell-bent on experimentation; a vanguard artist with a working-class sensibility… – Ear

Guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist and singer René Lussier is one of the pillars of innovative music in Quebec. A passionate improvisor and prolific and eclectic composer, he has been charting new music territories since the end of the 1970s, teaming up with musicians from all fields including Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage.

In conjunction with Guitars! Guitars! the 2007 VNM Festival, Vancouver New Music presents two free workshops.

Workshop with René Lussier

Friday, October 19th
12:30-3:30pm
Vancouver Academy
1270 Chestnut Street

Participants will explore a number of styles of playing that encourage a playful approach to improvisation and develop the ability to respond to others. They will work on active listening: playing in the present and being conscious of sonic space.

Each player will practice structuring their interventions and making musical choices with respect to the material generated by the group, and the contributions of each individual.

Lussier will introduce strategies and approaches that encourage each player to adapt their language (style, texture, rhythm, melodies, dynamics, etc.) to different contexts.

Workshop with Keith Rowe
the Decisive Moment ... walking the dog ... leading to The Room

Saturday, October 20th
11:30am-2:30pm
ScotiaBank Dance Centre
Jandali Studio

The Decisive Moment of course comes from Henri Cartier-Bresson. Essentially it is locating the precise moment to act, walking the dog is about preparing oneself for that act, and the Room is the space where it takes place. In short how to place an event within a situation.

Maximum 12 participants for each workshop. Participants must bring their own instrument, cables and amp as needed.

Space is limited; if you have any questions or would like to register for the workshops please contact Giorgio Magnanensi at giorgio [at] newmusic.org or call 604.633.0861