IMOO #94, 95

February 2: #94 – Bernard Stepien and John Higney – solos

Bernard Stepien – saxophone
John Higney – guitar, electronics

Here are a few words about Bernard’s set: Canadian Spaces

Bernard Stepien has always been attracted by world music solo players, usually street musicians, wherever he was travelling, from the Chinese Erhu players, the Turkish Aşiks, the Senegalese Kora players, the arabic Ud players, the French accordion players or the Inuit ayaya singers. These musicians play music that is usually based on tonal systems that are radically different from anything we know in the western world’s music. Some use few notes with distant intervals, complex asymmetric rhythms, some are highly cyclical or repetitive, other are based on lengthy unpredictable improvisations.

Over the last few decades, Stepien has been composing short pieces based on these world music sources. For some obscure reasons most of them were composed during the winter with the unmistakable white background. Although they are always white, Canadian winters are never the same from year to year. Some years, frost or snow come early, other have lots of rain and finally the great ones are the ones you can’t even see your neighbours anymore until spring arrives. Others came in the summer, mostly while enjoying great national parks in and around Ottawa. The unmistakable Pink Lake is among them.

Once a composition established, the next thing is to improvise on it. Here, the teachings of Cecil Taylor with whom Stepien has studied in 2001 come to help. Extracting the possible phrases one can do with only 4 or 5 notes and project them in all directions is the secret here.

This solo concert will occur only during the first set of the usual two sets format of IMOO concerts. The second set will also be a solo performance by the great Ottawa guitarist John Higney.

February 16: #95 – Mark Molnar and Bennett Bedoukian

• Mark Molnar – cello, electronics
• Bennett Bedoukian – drums, vocals, electronics