Brandon Manitoba Canada Friday June 14 & Saturday June 15, 2019
Join us in Brandon Manitoba Canada for a two day festival of Modular Synthesis.
There are 4 events planned for this year’s meet-up including a free opening concert on Friday June 14 consisting of a electro-acoustic performance of Modular Synth and Trombone. Saturday’s program includes another free ambient morning concert, a public open house which will have displays, demonstrations and Q&A, and Modular on the Spot, a free out door modular synthesizer “picnic” to wrap up the day (held in conjunction with Brandon Pride). Scroll down for the schedule and map.
Synthesists visiting Brandon for this event include Winnipeg ambient musicians Yoyu (Ali Khan) and Bondegi (Chris Harder) and modular duo Cactus Practice (Grant Partridge and Denys Gareau) also of Winnipeg. Prairie Wires Modular founder and Brandon-based electronic musician Moon Shape Noise (Brendon Ehinger) will also be performing with Dr. Aaron Wilson, professor of low brass at Brandon University.
PWM SCHEDULE
FRIDAY JUNE 14
6:30PM MODULAR IN THE EVENING Moon Shape Noise & Dr. Aaron Wilson Chez Angela, 29C 10th St.
SATURDAY JUNE 15
10 – 11AM MODULAR IN THE MORNING YoYu, Bondegi Fraser Sneath, 1031 Rosser Ave.
12:30 – 3:30PM PATCH & TELL Public open house and presentation featuring modular synth demonstrations, discussion, and Q&A Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, 710 Rosser Ave. Entrance and parking off 8th Street parkade
2:00 – 2:20PM A MODULAR MOMENT Grant P. (of Cactus Practice) Brandon Pride Mainstage Stanley Park, 15th St. at Princess Ave.
4:30 – 6:00PM MODULAR ON THE SPOT: Bondegi, Cactus Practice, Moon Shape Noise and YoYu Stanley Park 15th St. at Princess Ave.
At Midnight CT, Saturday May 30 to Midnight CT, Sunday May 31, Prairie Wires will broadcast a specially curated playlist of over 30 droners, sound artists, musicians and minimalists from across the prairies and beyond.
Each drone piece will have two air times as per the schedule below. At approximately 11:30AM on May 30 Prairie Wires will bridge the loop with a live welcome message.
The final hour of this drone day event will conclude with an extended “megamix” of all the drones stacked on top of eachother (airing 11:10PM CT May 30)
SCHEDULE: 12:00 AM & 11:40 PM Jeffery David Morton (Wawken, SK) Guitar and Trumpet Drone
1:00 AM & 12:40 PM E. Dulanowsky (Regina, SK) Capsule Living
1:26 AM & 1:06 PM Kris Burwash (Edmonton, AB) Leaving Nothing to Chance
1:45 AM & 1:25 PM Yoyu (Winnipeg, MB) Drones for Peace
2:30 AM & 2:10 PM William Morris & Theresa Lee (Vancouver, BC) Mars, Neptune, Uranus / Jupiter-Pluto conjunction
11:17 AM & 10:57 PM KKRAKK (Winnipeg, MB) Untitled Drone
11:35 AM Prairie Wires live Welcome
11:15 PM ALL DRONES MEGAMIX
What is Drone Day? Drone Day is an annual community celebration of drone and experimental sounds.
Drone Music is considered a sub-genre of minimal music and is characterized by the use of sustained tones or notes with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece.
Why Drone? Simply, why not. Life is busy. Life is noisy. Drones are all around us, going unnoticed. When we take the time to notice these spaces of anti-sound in between the cacophony that is life we begin to relax. Drone Day is downtime, a time to sit and listen. To meditate and reflect.
Prairie Wires Modular will host Brandon’s first ever International Drone Day Event at the Global Market on Saturday May 25, 2019 at 1:30PM.
Life if Busy. Life is Noisy. Drone is Downtime.
Visit droneday.org for more info about International Drone Day and Drone Music.
Drone at the Global Market 1.0 Brandon Manitoba | May 25, 2019
Drone at the Global Market 1.0 May 25, 2019
PERFORMERS
Deborah Tacan (Sweet Medicine Singers) The Sweet Medicine Singers are a group of Indigenous women and young girls who come together through the power of drum and song. About 10 years ago, women started gathering at the Aboriginal Healing & Wellness Center in Brandon, Mb. to share and sing traditional drumming songs for healing in the community. The women come from all walks of life across Turtle Island, and in all sizes and ages. The women meet at least once a week on Thursday evenings to share songs, drumming, laughter, and tea at the Mahkaday Ginew Memorial Centre Hall. The Sweet Medicine Singers finally received their name as a singing group about 4 years ago and continue to work as a support for women who are looking for a place to reclaim their voices.
Moon Shape Noise MSN is the solo electronic music project of Brendon Ehinger. Having played in a plethora of Winnipeg bands over the years (Bucko, Mikimoto, The VaGiants), Brendon has gradually moved away from conventional punk and rock music in favour of more experimental and progressive forms of electronic music and sound art that employ elements of improvisation, unconventional instrumentation, and alternative compositional methods.
Kurtis Johnson Local trombonist Kurtis Johnson will play one single sustained note for Drone Day. In his words, “A pitch is not music… but harmony and rhythm is. A busy street corner has rhythm and pitch, but if you add a trombone drone, every pitch now exists in harmony. It is common for the lay person to appreciate the beauty of the landscapes we see in our daily lives, but I think too few regularly appreciate the soundscapes we hear in our daily lives. I believe we all move too quickly from one thing to another to really appreciate what’s around us, and that is why I will only play one note. A tree may fall in the forest, and someone may be there to hear it, but if they are not listening it doesn’t matter. My objective with this performance is that people will walk away and listen to a few more trees fall down.”
Jeff Smith Jeff Smith is a Brandon Manitoba based musician and music therapist with an interest in modal experimentation and free improvisation. Jeff’s primary instrument is guitar and he is as comfortable performing with jazz combos and rock bands alike including the Southern Time rock opera, East Vancouver community band (global music), and conducts music therapy in various locations on unceded Coast Salish territories.
Abby-Jade Kaiti Rieder and Alanna Hunter met five years ago as students at the Brandon University School of Music, and thus began their musical journey… literally. One fateful train trip to Vancouver sealed the deal. The hours they spent together sharing and playing music proved valuable when they reached their destination, an artist retreat at Canadian Author Blaine Klippenstein’s artist sanctuary. After playing for him as a duo, and under his encouragement to keep developing their music – Abby-Jade was born.
Open Drone Jam All of the afternoons performers participated in an open and improvised drone jam.