We’re pleased to announce that Birds of Paradox’s new self-titled cd has been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award in the category of Instrumental Recording of the Year.
The WCMA’s will be held in Kelowna, BC this year October 21-24. You can find more about the conference & awards show here.
There’s been a flutter of press about the new cd. Check out this article in the Georgia Straight (July 6,2010) and this review in The Province (July 5, 2010).
Katari Taiko with Mario Zetina
Saturday, 4-4:30pm, Main Stage
With arms and hips swinging, Katari Taiko and guest percussionist Mario Zetina will present new work and fresh arrangements combining Latin American music and rhythms with the beat of the taiko at the 2010 Powell Street Festival. With taiko, congas and voice, Katari Taiko and Zetina will
create a commotion with Ja Sawago, wake the lion with Shi Shi Mai, get the blood flowing with a merengue-taiko concoction and celebrate this fabulous union with Matsuri .
Title: Orquesta Goma Dura at MusicFest Vancouver Opening Night Celebration Location: Orpheum Theatre Link out: Click here Start Time: 20:00 Date: 2010-08-06
Title: Hard Rubber Orchestra Location: Roundhouse Exhibition Hall Link out: Click here Description: Vancouver International Jazz Festival presents the Hard Rubber Orchestra at the Roundhouse Festival Hall Start Time: 19:30 Date: 2010-07-03 End Time: 20:30
Title: Birds of Paradox Location: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden Link out: Click here Description: Birds of Paradox blends jazz and improvised music with traditional Chinese, Western and Indian music into a vibrant expression of life in Vancouver. Start Time: 19:30 Date: 2010-07-09
Birds of Paradox was formed in 2007 to explore the fusion of composition and improvisation, incorporating three very distinct voices and cultural backgrounds into a creative whole. The trio synthesizes elements of jazz and improvised music, traditional Chinese, Western and Indian music into a collective expression of life in post-millennial Vancouver. Their new cd has been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award in the category of Instrumental Recording of the Year.
“It’s so vivid, you can almost feel the heat and the surging press of bustling humanity. “Asian Market: Chapter 1 China”, from the Vancouver trio Birds of Paradox’s new, selftitled CD, mixes discordant cries, half-heard conversations, the rattle and clatter of traffic, and the whirring and clanking of mysterious machinery into a startling, abstract portrait of a Beijing streetscape. Even if you’ve never been to the Chinese capital, it’ll put you there…” – Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight, July 6, 2010
“Both gorgeous and adventurous at the same time, the dozen tracks on this disc provide a wealth of unique entry points into where classical, modern and improvisational styles meet.” -Stuart Derdeyn, The Province, July 5, 2010
Bios
Neelamjit Dhillon
Being born and raised in Vancouver has given me a unique and interesting perspective on music. Having extensive training in two different musical styles [jazz and classical Indian], and being from one of the most multi-cultural places on the planet, I don’t see barriers that others might. It’s all just sound, expressions of emotion and it is all valid. Music doesn’t have a nationality; it comes from the human experience, which is tied together at all corners of the world. No matter where we come from, it is our humanity that leads us to create, explore and discover, humanity that surrounds us and which is within us at all times. Neelamjit Dhillontabla, alto saxophone, flute, bansuri
Ron Samworth
The music on this CD is a conversation between three artists who are a product of Vancouver, Canada in the early 21th century. Needless to say, there is an intercultural aspect to it, but like the city itself, diversity is a given. Musicians, in general, have a particular quality of discovering natural affinities among themselves. Strong melodies, interesting grooves, cool sonic textures are our common currency. Playing together, bringing whatever you have in your musical arsenal into play, is what it’s all about. The personal narratives that constitute any community, musical or otherwise, are what give the world of human relationships its nuance and fullness. Being open and engaged is all that’s required to get on board.
Nightface is a composition of mine originally written as an instrumental then adapted, with lyrics by Elizabeth Fischer, into a beautiful haunting song that was performed and recorded by the band DarkBlueWorld. It is in 7/8 time, a 3-2-2 pattern with one bar of 6/8 at the end of the verses just to keep you on your toes. The verses are in G minor – the bridge in E major.
It’s a great pleasure playing with Lan and Neel – two gifted and wonderfully expressive musicians. Listen and enjoy! Ron Samworthguitar, effects
Lan Tung
After moving from Taiwan to Canada in 1994, I have been surrounded by great music of different genres – from western contemporary music to various ethnic styles – which feed my ever-growing musical appetite. I am inspired by the western violin’s ability to transform itself in Indian, Gypsy and Middle Eastern music, jazz and even Cantonese opera. This, as well as travels and studies in the “exotic” lands of India, Egypt, Amsterdam and Berlin, has led me to look outside Chinese traditions to develop new vocabularies on the erhu and to countless interesting collaborations at home and abroad. In both composition and improvisation, I experiment with contradictions by taking culturally specific music outside its context and fusing it with other genres. Ba Ban Variations, inspired by traditional Chinese music, embodies the paradox of many opposite characters: chromatic vs pentatonic, composed vs improvised, contemporary vs traditional, with sudden shifts between a mysterious quality and an exciting 3+2+3 rhythmic cycle. Asian Market begins by using the basic four tones/inflections in Mandarin to develop vocal patterns to depict a vibrant market scene. Colourful Clouds Eating the Moon is an incarnation of Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon from China, with an Indonesian twist. Temple Bells colours Cantonese melody with blues chords. Xia He (Flowing River) gives occasional hints to its Chinese roots. By incorporating improvisation with Asian traditions, I see a whole new territory in which to discover fresh sounds. Lan Tungerhu (Chinese violin), vocals
Track Listing
1. Nightface – Samworth, E.Fischer 6:34
2. Ba Ban Variations – Tung 5:41
3. Colourful Clouds Eating the Moon – Tung 5:16
4. Improvisation I – Samworth, Tung, Dhillon 4:18
5. Travellin’ Travis – Dhillon 5:07
6. Improvisation II – Tung, Dhillon, Samworth 2:33
7. Xiao He – Tung, Samworth, Dhillon 5:45
8. Asian Market: Chapter 1 China – Tung 5:34
9. Temple Bells – arr. Tung, Samworth, Dhillon 5:06
10. D’Arcy Island – Dhillon 6:34
11. Improvisation III – Dhillon, Samworth, Tung 2:24
12. Charukeshi – Dhillon 6:41
Total Time: 61:33
Nightface – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Ba Ban Variations – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Charukeshi – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Colourful Clouds Eating the Moon – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Improvisation I – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Xiao He – excerpt - from Birds of Paradox
Recording Credits
Recorded by Sheldon Zaharko at The Factory Studios, Vancouver, BC Canada on August 6 and 7, 2009
Mixing and mastering: Dylan van der Schyff
Design and Layout: John Endo Greenaway
Cover Art: Aleksandra Dulic and Kenneth Newby
Photography: Nenad Stevanovic
Birds of Paradox was co-produced by Ron Samworth, Lan Tung and Neelamjit Dhillon.
We would like to thank Ken Pickering and Diane Kadota who have supported this project since its inception.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts through the Specialized Music Sound Recording Program and the Department of Canadian Heritage Canadian Music Fund through the Canadian Musical Diversity Program of the Canada Music Fund.
The ice rink. In small and large communities across Canada, it sits at the centre of daily life, a cold place warmed by entertainment and physical activity. Ice Age 2010 is a musical exploration of that love affair with the rink, complete with Zamboni choreography, hockey, curling, ringette, the high energy 17-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, champion figure skater and So You Think You Can Dance Canada finalist Emanuel Sandhu, North Vancouver’s own rising figure skating star Kathryn Kang, dance pair Tarrah Harvey and Keith Gagnon, national Canadian radio’s Kevin Sylvester, DOA’s Joe Keithley, Double Exposure’sBob Robertson, commissioned compositions by Peter Hannan, Brad Turner, Bill Runge, Tony Wilson, Amsterdam’s David Dramm and a full locker room of guest vocalists and performers.
Emanuel Sandhu
On Saturday, March 20, 2010 at the Harry Jerome Arena in North Vancouver, experience the 2010 edition of Hard Rubber Orchestra’s new music ice show. New choreography, large visual projections of film, images and lighting effects along with plenty of on ice action will be set to original music. Gathered here will be an all-star cast of heroes from on the ice and behind the scenes. Figure skating choreographer and coach Joanne McLeod will be working her magic with some of Canada’s finest figure skaters, hockey lover Kevin Sylvester of national Canadian radio fame will be your host and librettist. The Hard Rubber Orchestra will pump out music ranging from new music to pop, jazz and world; premieres of commissioned pieces from some of Vancouver’s finest composers.
Kathryn Kang
In 2000, the Hard Rubber New Music Society presented The Ice Age – the World’s First New Music Ice Show at the Kerrisdale Arena. This mega multi-media production was an opera on ice, a new music concert on ice and a tribute to the great cornerstones of Canadian culture: hockey, figure skating and winter sport. In 2010, Ice Age is back and it’s bigger and better than ever.
Hard Rubber New Music has presented concerts of original music by some of Canada’s most exciting composers, performed by some of Vancouver’s finest musicians. Under the artistic direction of composer, conductor, musician John Korsrud, previous large-scale works include Alcan Award-winning multi-media extravaganza, Enter/Exit; White Hot Core, a collaboration with Kokoro Dance; and The Elvis Cantata, which took an irreverent look at pop icons. The all-star Hard Rubber Orchestra features the finest of Vancouver’s jazz community and performs music that is influenced by jazz, pop, world, contemporary classical, and improvised music. Since its debut in 1990 the Orchestra has toured to Europe and across Canada including concerts in Amsterdam and at FIMAV in Quebec.
Tarrah Harvey & Keith Gagnon
“HARD RUBBER IS, NO QUESTION, CONSISTENTLY THE BEST VANCOUVER BAND EVENT YOU CAN SEE” (Discorder Magazine)
Naoko Takahashi drank an extract distilled from Japanese giant killer hornets (Vespa Mandarina Japonica) just before she won the women’s marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Marathonologue, an interdisciplinary production inspired by this ultra-marathon runner energized by killer hornet extract, combines highland bagpipe, Japanese taiko andBalinese gamelan music by composers Michael O’Neill, Boyd Seiichi Grealy and I Wayan Sudirana, in live synchronization with computer-animated projections by Kenneth Newby and Aleksandra Dulic. The production brings to life the interplay between the physical landscape and a runner’s internal ‘mindscape’ as it develops and transforms in the experience of running aglobal marathon.
Marathonolgue zooms in on the creative powers of imagination catalyzed by motor-rhythmic physical exertion, the enzymes of hornet juice, the landscape, and the solitude of long distance running. Performing live with a tri-cultural ensemble of 7 musicians, and using additional animation by Oliver Szeleczky, Brendan Edward Wingrove, and Melissa Ftrzelec, Newby and Dulic use digital animation techniques to produce a startling array of images, envisioning both the runner and the hornets’ chameleon-like transformations, and reflecting the terrain and human physical/ cultural differences encountered. Image and sound combine to transport the audience to a realm of heightened imagination.
Michael O’Neill and Kenneth Newby have a long history of inter-arts collaborations originating with their involvement with the gamelan community in Vancouver in 1986. In keeping with the Indonesian tradition of using gamelan in an interdisciplinary capacity, their initial collaboration was a shadowplay presented in the context of a large interdisciplinary outdoor work Journey to the New World, a Vancouver Public Dreams Society production. Their collaborative work has continued over the years to include works involving dance, theatre, and many shadowplay productions. In 2005 they were principal artists in the development of a major new cross-cultural, collaborative multi-media shadow play with gamelan, shadow puppetry and media performance, Semar’s Journey, which was premiered at the Roundhouse in 2007.
Videographers Newby and Dulic, leaders in the field of interactive audiovisual installation, received critical praise for their work, in a thousand drops… refracted glances, presented in Genoa, Italy in 2008. Their collaborative interdisciplinary performance work Triaspora, was presented at the National Arts Center in Ottawa in 2009, their visual music work, Symmetry, was selected as a finalist in the Punto y Raya animation festival in 2007.
The three composers creating music for Marathonologue are each immersed in rich cultural music traditions; Balinese gamelan, highland bagpipe and Japanese taiko. The music in Marathonologue gives the composers, who will also be performing in the show, an opportunity to explore the relation between these musical styles both in theory and in practice. I Wayan Sudirana was born in Ubud, Bali and is regarded as one of Bali’s most gifted musicians. He has composed and taught actively in Bali and abroad and has been artist in residence at the University of British Columbia since 2004. Vancouver composer-performer Michael O’Neill is a founding member of Gamelan Madu Sari and performs both Javanese gamelan and Balinese gender wayang. Michael also performs with and composes for his own highland bagpipe ensemble Mearingstone. A native of Victoria, Boyd Seiichi Grealy is a multifaceted taiko drummer and percussionist. He has spent seventeen years as an international touring artist and co-artistic director of Vancouver ensemble Uzume Taiko, Canada’s first professional taiko group. Together, in collaboration with musicians Sylvia DeTar, Elaine Ng, and Eien Hunter-Ishikawa, they create a mesmerizing river of sound and texture, trance-like and rhythmic, expanding the sonic landscape.
Mark February 11th on your calendar! Come out and dance! The Drum & Light Festival is an evening of high-energy sonic and visual extravagance featuring percussion, improvised and jazz music, electronica, dance and visual projections by some of Vancouver’s best and brightest artists.In 2008 and 2009, Vancouver’s Hard Rubber Orchestra introduced the Drum & Light Festival, a series of sold-out multimedia dance events featuring a 14-piece groove orchestra and eye-popping visuals. The dance party continues in 2010.
The Drum & Light Festival combines the most cutting-edge music, movement and visuals into one breathtaking evening. This high-energy dance event features a 14-piece groove big band, five drummers, electronic music, intense visual projections and innovative choreography. Music by an all-star collection of Vancouver artists —Ray Garroway(K-OS), Randall Stoll(Soulstream), Alvin Cornista(Sekoya), DJ Timothy Wisdom and keyboardist Chris Gestrin (to name just a few)— is fused with incredible visuals by Brian Johnsonand Jason Whyteand movement choreographed and performed by theTomorrow Collective.
Hard Rubber New Music has presented concerts of original music by some of Canada’s most exciting composers, performed by some of Vancouver’s finest musicians. Under the artistic direction of composer, conductor, musician John Korsrud, previous large-scale works include Alcan Award-winning Enter/Exit,a multi-media extravaganza featuring the premiere of compositions by Giorgio Magnanensi, Brad Turner and John Korsrud as well as visual projections by jamie griffiths, Brian Johnson, Rena del Pieve Gobbi, Riel Roussopoulos and HoneyBee Visuals. Other projects include The Ice Age: The World’s First New Music Ice Show, performed at Kerrisdale Arena and featuring the talents of hockey players, curlers and figure skaters; White Hot Core, a collaboration with Kokoro Dance; and The Elvis Cantata, which took an irreverent look at pop icons. The all-star Hard Rubber Orchestra features the finest of Vancouver’s jazz community and performs music that is influenced by jazz, pop, world, contemporary classical and improvised music. Since its debut in 1990 the Orchestra has toured to Europe and across Canada including concerts in Amsterdam and at FIMAV in Quebec.
“HARD RUBBER IS, NO QUESTION, CONSISTENTLY THE BEST VANCOUVER BAND EVENT YOU CAN SEE” (Discorder Magazine)
Drum and Light 2009
Drum and Light 2009 – 3-minute documentary for Vancouver’s Knowledge Network
Standing Wave at the Quadra Island Community Centre on Saturday, January 23rd at 8 PM
To catch this wave, get your advance tickets for $17 at the Music Plant in Campbell River and at Quadra Crafts or Hummingbird Office and Art Supply on Quadra Island. Students 16 and under are welcomed free with an adult. For more information, call 250-285-2580 or visit the group’s website at www.standingwave.ca
“…fresh sounds that twist and surprise… Standing Wave is a vital contemporary voice with drop-dead ingenious musicians.” Vancouver Sun
Michael O’Neill and Kenneth Newby have a long history of inter-arts collaborations originating with their involvement with the gamelan community in Vancouver in 1986. In keeping with the Indonesian tradition of using gamelan in an interdisciplinary capacity, their initial collaboration was a shadowplay presented in the context of a large interdisciplinary outdoor work Journey to the New World, a Vancouver Public Dreams Society production. Their collaborative work has continued over the years to include works involving dance, theatre, and many shadowplay productions. In 2005 they were principal artists in the development of a major new cross-cultural, collaborative multi-media shadow play with gamelan, shadow puppetry and media performance, Semar’s Journey, which was premiered at the Roundhouse in 2007.
Videographers Newby and Dulic, leaders in the field of interactive audiovisual installation, received critical praise for their work, in a thousand drops… refracted glances, presented in Genoa, Italy in 2008. Their collaborative interdisciplinary performance work Triaspora, was presented at the National Arts Center in Ottawa in 2009, their visual music work, Symmetry, was selected as a finalist in the Punto y Raya animation festival in 2007.
