NoiseAgonyMayhem Presents
ADDRESSING THE COSMIC UNFOLDING:
An Exploration of Canadian Ambient and Experimental Musics

Although perhaps not widely considered as such, Canada has been at the forefront of the development of electronic music since the physicist/composer Hugh Le Caine invented the Electronic Sackbut, one of the earliest synthesizers, in the mid-1940s. The sixties and seventies also saw innovators and sonic explorers such as Bruce Haack, Hildegard Westerkamp, Mort Garson, Syrinx and the evergreen Canadian Electronic Ensemble all make telling contributions to its evolution, ultimately laying the foundation for the ilk of Loscil, Grimes, Tim Hecker, Venetian Snares, and EDM superstar Deadmau5 to take the baton and run with it.

While Canadian electronica has for decades existed as a fertile cultural force in both the underground and mainstream, in 2020 it is truly enjoying a risorgimento. To this end, at this extraordinary time in human history when the need for alleviating stimuli is considerably amplified, there could be no better time to unveil Addressing the Cosmic Unfolding, a spectacular double cassette compilation showcasing the trailblazing architects of some of the most beautiful electronic music being created across Canada today. Included on this compilation are acts including members of Wolf Parade (Dan Boeckner & Arlen Thompson), Sloan (keyboardist Gregory Macdonald), DOA (bassist Mike Hodsall), Moths & Locusts, Shooting Guns, Moonwood, Backhomes & more

British Columbia is heavily represented, with 12 of the 17 contributions hailing from the Left Coast. Of those 12, seven tracks are plucked from the flourishing independent Nanaimo music community, exemplifying the town’s ‘Hub City’ sobriquet in respect of provincial electronica. The town’s veteran COLLIDING CANYONS continue a run of exquisite releases with At Distance, an 11-minute epic featuring waves of mercurial percussion lapping at the shore of a consolatory drone. With the gorgeous Solitariness, Monica McGregor’s increasingly supernal TRUTH delivers a huge wall of soaring, anodyne sound, while the playful, baroque-leaning Lookfar sees Brendan Holm of local ‘gentlemen’s techno’ legends Top Men in his HOLY BOREDOMS guise, collaborating with the Toronto-based, Juno-winning violinist and electronic adventurer, TRENT FREEMAN (Speaker Face/The Fretless).

Formerly operating as Dream Daddy, now SOVEREIGN LAKE, Holm’s fellow Top Man Paul Carpenter contributes the Roedelius-like Stellar Plates, a pastoral and cinematic ambient piece of true beauty. NoiseAgonyMayhem label founder Dave Read (Moths & Locusts/Anunnaki) appears in two distinctly contrasting incarnations, firstly solo as EL HOMBRE AL AGUA, and with partner Valentina Cardinalli under the moniker GALACTIC BUTTERFLY. From the former, Endless is a melodious ambient composition reminiscent of Steve Roach, while the latter’s Approach to the Inmost Cave takes thematic inspiration from mythologist Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Under a haunting synth-scape Cardinalli’s treated vocal narrative offers food for thought in these unprecedented days when eerily reciting, A time of contemplation, meditation, reflection / A time / Who do you love? / What is important? / Where do you go when you dream? The Hub City’s final gift to Addressing the Cosmic Unfolding sees none other than Canadian indie rock institution Wolf Parade’s Nanaimo-based drummer Arlen Thompson and Montréal-based bandmate Dan Boeckner team up as FRANKFURT BOYS for The Arcades, a juddering 8-minute juggernaut displaying a distinct nod to the influential genius of Can and Neu!

Elsewhere on Vancouver Island, Mill Bay resident Crystal Dorval’s beautiful WHITE POPPY delivers Surrender, a harmonious drone embellished with celestial vocalizations, typifying her dreamlike and spiritual sonic universe. From the provincial capital of Victoria, via his DEAD MALLS offshoot Kees Dekker of psych-rock dreamers The Backhomes brings the cavernous, pulsating space-groove of Highway Fog to the listening party, and J. Schuurman’s prolific, long-running PSYCHIC POLLUTION rounds out Island business with the splendidly titled Death and Regeneration at the Oxford County Sod Farm, a gentle synthetic throb percussively enhanced by the soft chirping of crickets.

Over the Georgia Strait and onto the lower mainland, Vancouver is represented by DOVE MAGIC and MIKE HODSALL. With Intonarumori the former sees Ian Montgomery and Lorri Clark create a diaphanous drone, evocative of a drifting cloud and as fascinating as the experimental Luigi Rossolo instruments for which it was named. Undoubtedly stemming from the most unexpected of sources in punk legends D.O.A.’s bassist Hodsall, Bone Collector is a moody, John Carpenter-esque synthwave creation as diametrically sonically contradictory from his main gig as can be imagined.

Heading east, taken from their classic 2013 album Gold Bristle! (which features members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Arcade Fire), Calgary’s post-rock luminaries JUNG PEOPLE provide Addressing the Cosmic Unfolding’s sole archive track, the calming textural slow-burn that is Born in the Lampblack. Into Saskatchewan, Saskatoon’s contribution comes from Shooting Guns/Golden Smoke/Radiation Flowers member Christopher Laramee’s beautiful WASTED CATHEDRAL in the form of the gently undulating Dusk August 1982.

Toronto provides Addressing the Cosmic Unfolding with, firstly, the heavenly, Klaus Schulze-flavoured Ice Station Libra, from the unfeasibly prolific JAKOB REHLINGER (Babel/Heavy Moon/ArachniDistro), and fresh from releasing his eponymous ‘minimalist instrumental analog modular synth ambient space-rock’ solo debut in his COLA WARS persona, Sloan keyboardist Gregory Macdonald offers up the turbulent, glitchy Active Pass.

Finally, having traversed the breadth of this vast nation, from the city of St. John’s, NL, it is the sumptuous HUSH PUP that concludes this Brobdingnagian presentation of state-of-the-art Canadian electronica. Influenced by acts as diverse as The Blue Nile, Cocteau Twins and Enya, the duo’s Choir Practice perfectly illustrates the mellifluous dream-pop for which they are known, acting as an inspiriting tonic for these uncertain times.